Patience Please

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Don Merritt

 

Whoever is patient has great understanding,
    but one who is quick-tempered displays folly.

Proverbs 14:29

I’m not really sure what I can say to enhance or explain this proverb, for it seems pretty obvious to me what Solomon is getting at, other than to say that it reminds me of the time when one of my kids asked if she could go somewhere, and couldn’t stop talking long enough for me to say it was OK. Apparently, she knew something that I didn’t, and was so anxious to cover it up that she launched into a tirade about how she never gets to do anything, that she hadn’t noticed I said yes. She went on and on, and my “yes” became “no”.

I figured it out later, when I discovered that she hadn’t done something she was supposed to have done, cleaning her room or doing her homework… I can’t recall exactly which it was at this point, but the folly of her impatience lost her the “yes” she would have gotten that day…

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Sunday Sermon Notes: March 11, 2018

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Don Merritt

Title: Basics of New Testament Worship (2)

Text: Romans 12:1-2

Last week we saw that worship can be a very tricky subject because we have little actual guidance from the New Testament Scriptures that directly and clearly reflect a teaching on our corporate worship service, and that most of what we know about the subject comes from tradition and culture and local customs and not from the New Testament itself. Yet in spite of this we saw that there is enough guidance for us to develop and foundation from which to build our worship in the assembly. We saw this by taking the basic matrix of passages in Acts like Acts 2:42, where we saw that the church from its very beginning met on the first day of the week and devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship and the breaking of bread and for prayer. Then taking what Jesus said on the subject in John 4:21-24, that God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship in the Spirit and in Truth, and then looking at Paul’s statements in Romans 12:1-2 that our perfect and true worship is to offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices. Finally, we saw that having this foundation in place, we can move ahead by making a series of choices that meet the needs of our congregations and their abilities to reach the larger community for Christ, and that these choices may differ from congregation to congregation, and from place to place.

This week, we continue our study first looking at the three Greek words that are translated as “worship” in the New Testament to see what we can find that relates to our Sunday worship assemblies, and then looking at some other New Testament texts in an effort to build a more complete picture of New Testament worship.

We begin with our look at those Greek words:

proskyneo to do reverence, or homage by kissing the hand; in NT to do reverence or homage by prostration; to pay divine homage, worship, adore, to bow one’s self in adoration*

From this word we have our English word “prostrate” as in ‘to prostrate oneself before the throne of God’. The word is used a total of 60 times in the New Testament, of which 9 are references to the Old Testament worship, 30 relate to an individual’s personal worship in one form or another, 21 are Apocalyptic references in Revelation to Old Testament worship forms. There are no direct uses relative to the New Testament worship assembly. An example of its use can be found in John 4:24:

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth

sebō to stand in awe; to venerate, reverence, worship, adore; worshiping, devout, pious, a term applied to proselytes to Judaism*

This word is used 10 times in the New Testament, all of which refer to individuals. An example is found in Acts 16:10:

One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

latreia  service, servitude; religious service, worship*

This word is used 5 times in the New Testament, all referring to a religious service performed, 4 times in Old Testament contexts, one time in the New Testament context. As an example, Romans 12:1:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship

(* Definitions from Mounce Interlinear New Testament)

If you look back at our foundation, we can see that our proper adoration, reverence and devotion to God is to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to Him in service. Yet here we are, right where we began: What form should our worship assembly take?

For most of us, we look to culture and tradition, and what we see is ceremonies and rituals of various types. Often, they are associated with rules, regulations and observances of one sort or another, but is that what God really wants from us? The ceremonies were big in the Old Testament worship, but in that case, they foreshadowed the coming of Christ. We no longer look forward to His coming; He has come already, and the ceremonies and rituals have been entirely fulfilled in Him− they are obsolete in our time. We can even go a step further than that: they are merely human traditions. Paul gave us some guidance on human traditions:

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Colossians 2:20-23

Our true and perfect worship both in and out of the assembly, is to offer ourselves as living sacrifices:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2

As Christians it always comes back to this, whether we are looking at individual spiritual practices, corporate worship assemblies, or at how to deal with the challenges of everyday life.

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Wrong on so Many Levels

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Don Merritt

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 5:1-5

You may recall that in the introduction to this letter I mentioned that Paul uses a writing structure that can be a bit tricky to follow− here’s a case in point. He completed his first section about division in the congregation at the end of chapter four, and without transition or warning, he jumps into another subject; this time it’s sexual immorality. More specifically, it’s a case of incest in the church.

Evidently there was a guy in the congregation who was sleeping with his father’s wife. Of course, that begs several questions: Was she his mother, or was she his step-mother? Did his father know about it? Was his father dead? Was his father divorced?

Paul doesn’t say, but then he didn’t need to say, for it would appear from the context that the good people of Corinth knew exactly what was going on, and the news of this affair had made its way to Paul in Ephesus. Whatever the exact particulars were, it appears that Paul was almost as mortified by the man’s acceptance in the church as he was by the man’s behavior.

I should also point out that Paul engages in just a bit of hyperbole in verse 1 when he says that this is a behavior that even the pagans don’t tolerate. We do know that incest went on back then, for we have Cicero’s denunciation of the practice, for example. Why would he denounce a practice that wasn’t going on? Most likely, that day was much like ours when there is a sexual practice that went on but was repugnant to many or most people.

In the second verse, Paul shames the congregation for allowing this man to continue in fellowship with them in a way that hearkens back to their trips to woodshed in the previous section; how can they be so proud of their wisdom and greatness while allowing this in their midst? That is followed by Paul pulling rank for the first time in the letter as he commands them to put this man out of their fellowship. His words are crystal clear in vv. 3-5, at least for the recipients of the letter, but verse 5 can be a bit of a stumbling block for us.

 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

When Paul says that they should hand him over to Satan I highly doubt that they would meet at some border check point under cover of darkness and send the man walking across no man’s land to a waiting Satan, as we might have seen in an old Cold War era movie. Instead, since this phrase is found elsewhere in the New Testament, I think it is used as a sort of idiom to refer to this world around us. This man has apparently accepted Christ, but hasn’t repented of the old ways of living, and his old way of living is so egregious that he cannot remain in the fellowship until he changes his outlook on certain things, and this is to protect the congregation, which as we have already seen, is very immature in the faith. It is quite clear that the man is not beyond redemption because Paul goes on to say that this would be to save his soul in the end.

Even so, there is still a stumbling block for us in the sentence: for the destruction of the flesh.

This is a hard one to translate; even the NIV has not one, but two footnotes. Many have suggested that this means the man would die, but that seems very unlikely, for how can he repent if he is dead?

The Greek word that is used here is sarx which requires some interpretation to translate. It can mean the human body, but it can also mean the material condition of the body, or the flesh as the center of passion or frailty. The way I read this, and you are welcome to disagree, is that Paul intends that this guy needs to be put out of fellowship so that he can learn his lesson in the situation, while protecting the “young” of the congregation itself.

Does anyone think this twisted relationship can end well?

Well, we only just started this section, which continues through chapter 6; I’m sure Paul has a great deal more to say!

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A Warning or a Threat?

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Don Merritt

1 Corinthians 4:14-21

The NIV adds a subheading to this passage that reads, “Paul’s Appeal and Warning”. I think that the editors were very diplomatic, for I would have written it more like this: “Paul’s Threat to Corinth”. When I read these verses, they sound to me like Paul is saying, “Don’t make me come over there and straighten you people out!”

However, we might view it, one thing is clear: Paul means business.

This is a consistent message in the New Testament, as we see many times that divisiveness in the church, from whatever source is not to be permitted. In this case, Paul has given us a model to follow: He receives a message that division and fragmentation are taking place in the church at Corinth. In response, he writes them a letter of instruction and warning so that the people might learn their error and take corrective action. He is sending Timothy along with the letter to help them correct the situation, but if that doesn’t work, more drastic steps will be taken. This is the way of love, teach and correct, follow up and try to help people get their act together, and then take serious steps if necessary.

Some might be inclined to bristle at this and say that “they” are just trying to control me, yep that’s it, they just want to control me! Nobody is going to tell me what to do, I will do what I want, when I want: Nobody is going to control me!

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have heard that sentiment, and how impressed I was each time I heard it, with the vast level of maturity it exemplifies. That is why the first step is instructive. I have also heard it said that “the God I know would never be so intolerant that He would let anyone tell me what to do!” That one also shows an amazing level of maturity and insight. Nevertheless, the Church embodies the Kingdom of God, established by the Lord Jesus Christ in His blood, on this earth until He returns. As such, it is the key element in God’s eternal purpose. God is going to see His purpose completed, and no one is going to frustrate His purpose by division and discord. You see dear reader, as error goes in the New Testament, dividing the church is just about as serious as it gets, and God will not permit it.

How ever you might want to view all of this, Paul has completed his discussion of division, and will begin his next topic in chapter five.

Have you figured out the mystery? If not, here’s a hint: Paul has told us more than once, that the mystery of God has been revealed to us. OK, there you go, good work everyone. Of course, it’s the gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the very thing that seems so foolish by merely human understanding. That’s why it was able to hide in plain sight for so long, even though the entire Old Testament points directly to it.

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Paul’s Example

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Don Merritt

This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Having taken his readers to the woodshed, now Paul, as any good father might do, explains things again so that his errant children might learn the right way to go about things. Paul himself, and Apollos, Peter and any other person in leadership, are servants of Christ, entrusted with certain things. Among those things, although not directly mentioned here, would be the care and edification of those in their care. Of course, what he mentions more or less specifically are “mysteries” that God has revealed.

Again with mystery! The real “mystery” here is whatever it is Paul is referring to!

Then Paul continues, as if we already knew what this big “mystery” is, to tell the arrogant children of Corinth that he really doesn’t care what they think of him. Don’t forget that this letter is written for the entire congregation, and that includes both those who say they follow Paul and those who say they follow someone else, so apparently his detractors will be receiving his words along with his fans− both are being corrected.

As these few verses continue, Paul makes it clear that we are to withhold our judgements about others, and wait until Jesus returns, when all is revealed, and all will receive their praise. Please note that he didn’t say that all will receive their just due, as in some will get praise while others fry in hell.

He is writing to Christians, after all.

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

1 Corinthians 4:6-7

Once again Paul is speaking rather bluntly here: He and Apollos are merely the Lord’s servants, and the Corinthians mustn’t try to gain by choosing one over the other and divide the church, for no one of them has any right or business acting like someone greater than they are. All Christians are followers of the Lord, His humble servants, no more, no less.

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

1 Corinthians 4:8-13

This is kind of a fun little passage, don’t you think? Of course, we could go on a very lengthy analysis of the whole thing, line-by-line. Yet something gets lost when you start to analyze things too much. This isn’t that complicated: Paul begins with sarcasm.

They are so smart, they are so important, they are reigning with Christ. Just ask them, they have the tiger by the tail!

How are their “leaders” doing? Did they somehow miss the boat? Did Jesus return and not tell Paul, the guy entrusted with all those mysteries of God?

Nonsense!

Looks like we’ve gone back to the woodshed to me, how about you?

OK, some might be mortified that I said Paul is being sarcastic in Scripture. We think of sarcasm as being nasty and negative… and it can be. Yet it doesn’t need to be, for it is a communicative tool that can also be extremely valuable in making a tough point to get a person’s attention onto something they might find inconvenient to face. Usually it is used, as in this case, to say: For Heaven’s sake wake up!

By the way, do you know what the mystery is yet?

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Photo of the Week: March 8, 2018

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Don Merritt

Once upon a time in West Virginia

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Don’t You Know?

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Don Merritt

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

Paul enters the final phase of his argument about division and fragmentation in the church with these words, which are actually a transition. Even so, they are compelling not only for the members of the church in Corinth, but for us today, for they ring true through the mist of time as warning for each of us to avoid creating or becoming involved with factions in the church.

Church is not a human institution, and it must not be treated as such. Church is not a cult of personality, and it must not be allowed to become as such. Church is the entire body of believers in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

1 Corinthians 3:18-22

As the chapter comes to its close, Paul again brings back his comparison and contrast of wisdom and foolishness, bringing all of the preceding points together. If we think we are wise by the standards of this world, we need to become “fools” for Christ, for the wisdom of this world counts for nothing where eternity is concerned. Does this line of thinking remind you of Ecclesiastes?

It does for me; I can hear Solomon’s words ringing in my mind as I read this: “Useless, useless!”

Everything we need, we have in Christ. If we have everything we need in Christ, then what is it that we need outside of Christ? The approval and admiration of society? To be associated with a great church leader?

For heaven’s sake! We have association with the King of kings and the Lord of lords− it doesn’t get any better than that!

We who are followers of Jesus – all of us together – we are one in Him, and He is in us. To bring something of this world into the mix is to break the fellowship of the Body, and to wreck our relationship with Him.

Talk about foolish!

It seems to me that Paul has just taken the Corinthians out to the woodshed; what do you think?

Oh wait, I almost forgot! Did Paul ever get around to telling us what that mystery was, the mystery of God?

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Planting, Watering and Growing

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Don Merritt

1 Corinthians 3:1-16

As Chapter 3 begins, we need to pause and check our contexts. Paul is writing to the Corinthians to address several serious problems in the church in Corinth as they existed c. 55 AD. In this, the first section of the letter, Paul is still addressing the issue of division and fragmentation in the congregation. In the previous subsection he has been pointing out that there is a divide along social lines, and we have just been looking at a comparison and contrast between human wisdom and Divine wisdom, and we saw that a person can only understand God’s wisdom through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, for with merely human understanding, God’s wisdom is most likely to appear silly or foolish, while with the guidance of the Spirit, we discover that it is actually human wisdom that is lacking.

In this chapter, Paul moves on to his next point, this time dealing with the notion that various leaders, and he mentions himself and Apollos by name, have become the focal points by which the congregation has split into opposing camps. Both he and Apollos are merely servants of the Lord Jesus Christ; neither is great in his own right.

To make his point, he uses a couple of metaphors, beginning with an agricultural one in which he, Paul, plants seed, and Apollos comes after to water it so that both Paul and Apollos have done their part in the process of growing a crop. God comes along and causes the seeds to germinate and grow. Both Paul and Apollos are God’s co-workers, and for doing their jobs they will receive their rewards, but God is the key. The congregation in Corinth is the field of new growing plants. Yet they are still very young plants.

Paul cites some evidence of their immaturity in the faith: Since they are merely at a point where they will split into two camps and say things like, “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos”, they are, in a sense, declaring their own lack of maturity, because both Paul and Apollos are followers of Jesus Christ, and so should they all be. Doesn’t that remind you of little kids arguing over who has the best Dad or Mom?

If you look back at what Paul wrote in 2:1-5 when he admitted that he hadn’t come to them with any great eloquence of speech or any great sophistication in his content, then you can easily understand what he means here in saying that they are spiritual infants, and that he hasn’t yet brought them anything other than a baby’s milk, for they are not yet ready for “solid food”. My guess is that the Corinthians didn’t find that observation terribly endearing, but clearly it was a message that they needed to hear.

As Paul continues, he will shift to another metaphor to illustrate his point.

Beginning at verse 10, Paul switches to a building metaphor: He laid the foundation for the church at Corinth, and Apollos build upon that foundation− the foundation that Paul laid was Jesus Christ. Apollos, or any other builder who comes along must be wise enough to build with the proper materials, or the building will not stand up to the test of time. Since the church is the Body of Christ, it is not only built upon Him, it is built up by and through Him. A church that is built upon a human personality, will not pass the test of time, and since Paul’s day we have seen that fact borne out too many times to even consider listing.

You might recall that earlier I mentioned that Paul was setting out a persuasive case, and we will shortly see his persuasive conclusion.

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The Wisdom of God Revealed – 2

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Don Merritt

For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:11-16

 

Paul continues his discussion of the wisdom of God with a compelling comparison: No one knows the thoughts of another person, except that person’s own spirit within them, and no one knows God’s thoughts except His own Spirit. In the 21st century we might be inclined to substitute the word “mind” for the word “spirit”, but I would think Paul’s statement is clear enough; so how can we know the Spirit or mind of God?

You might suspect that Paul is building an argument here, and if you were thinking along those lines, you would be quite correct, for that is exactly what he is doing. We’ve seen point one, and now he moves to the second step: We have, in fact, received the Spirit of God within us in the Person of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Consequently, we actually can understand His gift to us, which appears to the world around us to be nothing more than foolishness. When Paul speaks to the mature, to those who can comprehend the mystery of God, he does so not in human reasoning or with merely human understanding, but under the direction of the Spirit.

Even the most brilliant of people cannot understand the mystery of God, for it takes a great deal more than human understanding to see it; it takes the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and we might add, so does saying what we’re saying right now. Yet for someone who has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, these truths are discernable because… (you might want to sit down)… we have the mind of Christ.

During the entire period of my training in Seminary, I was taught that we have the mind of Christ in the Scriptures, for they contain the entire written record of God’s revelation of Himself to humanity. To this day, I believe that what I learned was true. Yet over the decades since then, I have also come to believe that what I was taught, though true, was incomplete – certainly, it is a bit at odds with Paul’s statement in our text. To make this a little more interesting, I was also taught that there are at least 2 types of divine revelation: general revelation (the Scriptures) and special revelation which comes directly from God. Some of the old school professors always added “through the Scriptures” at the end of that statement.

I have enough experience, as do many of you dear readers, to know that God frequently reveals things to us through the Scriptures− no one would argue that point. Yet there are other times when the Scriptures aren’t involved that understanding might come to us, perhaps in times of prayer or meditation for instance; there are many possibilities here. Having said this, I’ve also known people who claimed that God had revealed something to them that sounded an awful lot like the sort of things that came from a source other than God. I recall one young lady who told me that God revealed to her that the perfect expression of His love was found in participating in orgies, and somehow that just didn’t quite ring true to me. One time I spoke to a man who said that God revealed to him that his Spirit was present whenever the man was under the influence of a certain illegal intoxicating substance, and that also didn’t quite ring true.

There is a lesson here: Yes, we have the mind of Christ in the Person of the Holy Spirit, but we must be careful that His leading is not in contradiction to His Word, for should that be the case, it is much more likely that the spirit we are listening to is a great deal less than Holy.

Paul still has more to say on this subject− will he tell us what the mystery is?

We’ll find that out next time…

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The Wisdom of God Revealed

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Don Merritt

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

1 Corinthians 2:6-10

Paul’s discussion continues in a very interesting way here as he moves from the simple message he preached to something much deeper. Recall that he indicated that his message in Corinth had been simplicity itself, but here he says that when speaking to the mature in Christ, but this deeper message has nothing to do with the wisdom of this world, for the wise according to the ways of this world simply cannot comprehend the wisdom that comes from God.

He refers to this “wisdom” as a mystery in verse 7: we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. He goes on to say that: None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (v. 8)

Isn’t that an interesting little tidbit? What’s this “mystery”?

Paul quotes Isaiah 64:4 and tells his readers that the mystery is something that God has revealed by His Spirit, and that no one can conceive of it…

So, what is the mystery?!!

Paul is only just getting warmed and he has a lot more to say, don’t miss the next episode later today!

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