Sunday, January 25, 2009

CHRIST-CENTEREDNESS


Scripture Readings:
· Psalm 16
· I Corinthians 1:10-18
· I Corinthians 3:1-13

I Corinthians 1:10-18 & I Corinthians 3:1-13

Two of the Scripture readings above are from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. I’d like to speak a bit about the context in which we find these passages: Paul had planted a church in the city of Corinth[1]. He wrote two letters to the people of this church – both in the same year – about 55 AD. The first letter was written in the spring while Paul was in Ephesus, and the second letter was written just before winter while Paul was in Macedonia.[2] He wrote this first letter in response to a letter he had received from the Corinthians which was requesting his counsel on a variety of subjects.[3]

At the beginning of chapter three of his first letter, Paul tells the Corinthians that they are unspiritual and immature, incapable of receiving and understanding even the most basic teachings of the Christian faith. The reason he gives for this description is the fact that they are divided into factions concerning various ministers of the gospel - specifically Apollos and himself. Paul then uses an analogy to say that he planted the church, and Apollos came afterward to water it, but that the church was God’s field, and it was, in fact, God Who was in charge; and that God was using His servants as tools in the cultivating of His field.

Paul then changes his analogy from a field to a building and says that Jesus Christ is the Foundation of the Church. He also says that, “according to the grace of God which was given to him”, he was a “wise master builder”. There are those who are builders, those who are master builders, and those who are wise master builders. Paul was a “wise master builder” who laid the Foundation of Jesus Christ which others built upon.

Paul then warns that we should “take heed” how we build upon that Foundation – the Greek word means to intentionally and earnestly contemplate how we are building upon the Foundation of Jesus Christ[4]. Paul says that we need to “heed” this because God will test the quality of each man’s work by fire. And through this testing by fire, it will become clear as to the quality of what was built by the man’s ministry.

Paul said that Jesus Christ is the Foundation of the Church. We may know that as a Biblical statement; but do we really have understanding of its meaning and implications? In my experience of preaching in hundreds of churches to thousands of Christians on four continents, I have found that very few Christians really understand the meaning of this profound truth that Jesus Christ is the Foundation of the Church.

What does it mean that Jesus Christ is the Foundation of the Church? In Matthew’s gospel[5], when Jesus asked His disciples “Who do you say that I am?”, He was asking: “What is your revelation of Me?” “How are you going to relate to Me?” When Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”, Jesus said that revelation can only be received from His Father Who is in heaven, and that JESUS would build HIS Church with those who had that revelation of Him – with those who had that relationship with Him. THAT is the Foundation of the Church. If that Foundation is not laid, the church is built upon shifting sand. If there is a crack in that Foundation, the entire building is endangered. The building is absolutely and utterly dependent upon that Foundation. The building can never exceed the Foundation. The church can never go beyond the measure of its revelation and relationship with Jesus Christ.

In the New Testament, we find the epistles of the apostles. Does everyone understand what an epistle is? An epistle is the wife of an apostle. J Seriously, an epistle is a letter of instruction to the church. When we survey the epistles in the New Testament, I believe we find that the apostles addressed problems in the early churches - and they did have their problems – and that ultimately, the apostolic answer to any problem was always a fresh revelation of Jesus. In Proverbs 29:18 it says: “Where there is no revelation”[6] “the people are unrestrained”[7], or “the people perish”[8]. The Hebrew word means that the people are “out of joint”, “divided”, “dispersed”, “scattered”, “severed”, or cut off.[9] Therefore, we must have a revelation of Jesus. For Paul also said: “Certainly, we live, move, and exist because of Him.”[10]

In the Letter to the Hebrews, which may well have been written by Apollos[11], the writer tells us to “fix our eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith”.[12] What does this mean – “He is the Author of our faith”? Have you ever thought of it this way?: Jesus is the One who invented Christianity. Jesus was the first Christian. A Christian is supposed to look like the Jesus of the Gospels. As you may know, the label “Christian” originally meant a “little Christ”. A disciple of Christ is a “Christ-follower”. Jesus is our model. His life is a pattern for ours, individually and corporately. His ministry as recorded in the Gospels was a blueprint for the mission of the Church.

What does it mean that He is “the Perfecter of our faith”? Jesus is the One Who brings our faith to “maturity”, “completeness”, and “perfection”.[13] And, He will bring the Christian story to its final chapter.

Paul tells us that Jesus Christ is also the Head of the Church[14]. What does this mean? Christ is in charge, His Spirit is the CEO, His Book is the final authority for faith and practice. This is the way Paul explained to the Colossians: “…He is the Head… that in all things He may have the preeminence”[15]

In the opening lines of his Letter to the Romans, Paul speaks of “the gospel of God … concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord…”[16] For Paul, the good news was all about Jesus. At the beginning of his first letter to the Corinthians, which we have been discussing, Paul said: “While I was with you, I decided to deal with only one subject – Jesus Christ, who was crucified.”[17] For Paul, it was all about Jesus. It should be the same in the Church today. It’s all about Jesus. It’s not about US. It’s not about YOU. It’s all about Jesus. Certainly, Jesus is concerned about YOU; and Jesus is concerned about US. However, we, the church, are to concern ourselves with JESUS. In his 2nd Letter to the Corinthians, Paul said: “Our love of Christ controls us … having concluded this, … He died for all so, that they who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him, Who died and rose again on their behalf.”[18] Paul’s love for Christ controlled him. His love for Christ controlled his life and ministry. For Paul, it was all about Jesus. Hopefully, for each of YOU – for US – it will also be all about Jesus.

Psalm 16

My wife, Frances, is a wonderful cook. Usually, when she has finished cooking a meal, rather than serving the meal kind of “family style” - putting pots and bowls of food on the table for everyone to serve themselves - she is actually a bit more elegant. She prepares the individual dinner plates in the kitchen, placing portions of the food on each of our plates. Then she carries the plates from the stove and places them on our table. If I am really hungry, I may actually help her - just in order to get the food there more quickly. When the plates are set in place at the table, we sit down, and thank the Lord. But before we actually begin eating, there is something I am in the habit of doing: I compare the size of the portions on each of our plates. For example, in the case of baked potatoes, I will actually take two potatoes in hand; and I have become quite good at quickly evaluating the weight of each potato. And then I will place the largest potato on my plate. I will also look at the cut of meat on everyone’s plate, evaluating the total density of each. And I will then ask that the largest piece of meat be switched over to my plate. Now, for Frances and family, all this seems to be a bit greedy on my part. But as the head of the household, I feel that I should be entitled to the largest portions.

This story, which I have just told, is unfortunately true. I wish I could say that I am this way because I was raised as a child during the Great Depression, but that actually would not be true. Actually, I have shared this with you just to introduce a key word in Psalm 16 - and that word is “portion”.

Psalm 16 was composed by David; and in this psalm, he is expressing that the Lord is his “portion”. Let’s consider some particular verses in this psalm. In verse 5, I believe David states the theme of the psalm: “O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup….” The Amplified Bible reads: “The Lord is my chosen and assigned portion….” Sometimes we get to choose our inheritance; sometimes our inheritance is assigned to us. In both cases, David’s inheritance was the Lord. In another of his psalms, David addressed the Lord as his “portion in the land of the living”. I believe this refers to what we call our “lot” in life – what has been served up for us in this life as it were – our portion in this life. Sometimes we get to choose, and sometimes we just receive what life serves up to us. But in either case, we can make the Lord our “portion”. If we do, the results will be the blessings, which David speaks of in Psalm 16:

In verse 2, “(David says) to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you’."[19] That is: “Without You, I have no goodness to offer”; and “Without You, I have no goodness in life.” The Lord is David’s one and only good thing in life. Now, David, as king of Israel, had, in fact, an abundance of good things in his life. But, David realized this: Not only was the Lord the Source of all this goodness, but also, he realized that when he received the Lord as his “portion”, his “portion” contained all the goodness of the Lord.

In verse 3, David says: “As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight." Or as a modern translation put it: “Your people are wonderful, and they make me happy.” We can understand David to be saying this: “I think that God’s people are wonderful, not because they are so excellent, but just because they are God’s people. God, Who is my ‘portion’, is wonderful; therefore I delight in His people.”

In verse 5, David tells us that the Lord is his “cup”. In Psalm 23, his best-known psalm, David says that his ”cup runs over”[20] – that is, he is blessed to overflowing. He also says that the Lord “maintains his lot”. In other words, the Lord determined his “lot” in life – what had been served up to him in this life – his portion in this life – and David was happy with his portion. He said in verse 6 that “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good inheritance.” The “lines” are the boundary lines in the land God promised Israel for an inheritance; and the lines have fallen in “pleasant places”. The Lord Himself was David’s inheritance; and this was “pleasant” for David - David was happy with his portion.

Another blessing is mentioned in verse 7: The Lord gave David wise counsel. The manner in which this counsel was given speaks of an intimate relationship with the Lord: “My heart … instructs me in the night seasons.” The old English words are: “my reins instruct me”. The Hebrew word is literally translated “kidneys”, because the Hebrews believed that the control center of the will and the desires were hidden in the kidneys. In other words, in the solitude of the night, God was able to speak to David in his “heart of hearts”, and influence his innermost being.

In verse 9 David states that his “heart is glad”, his “glory” (a Hebrew figure of speech for “soul”) rejoices”, and his “flesh” (or his body) “rests in hope”. In verse 11, he says: “You will show me the path of life.” – that is the “abundant life” Jesus spoke of. And, David says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy.” The word “presence” is a good translation, but the Hebrew word literally means “face”.[21] When our relationship with the Lord has an intimacy of “face to face” communication, we experience a deep joy in our hearts and lives.

There is another thought to consider: It may be at times when, for various reasons, all the trappings and supports in our personal and church lives are stripped away, and we come to the realization that the Lord is, and always has been, our portion in this life. When David wrote Psalm 142 and referred to the Lord as his “portion in the land of the living”[22], he was hiding from Saul in the in the Cave of Adullam – hiding in fear of his life; and in that life situation acknowledged the Lord as his “portion in the land of the living”.[23]

Then, there was another man of God later in Israel’s history – Jeremiah. Jerusalem had been destroyed and the Jews conquered. Listen to Jeremiah’s Lamentation as he sits in captivity for seventy years: “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, therefore I will hope in him."[24]

We have spoken of the Lord being our portion in our personal lives. What are the implications of our saying “the Lord is our portion and our cup”? When we gather together as His Body, what is it that we come to receive? What is it that we come to give to others? What is the portion we come to receive? What is the portion we come to give? What is it that we should focus on making our portion? The Lord is our portion. Is this not what it means to be “Christ-centered”?

Let us pray as David prayed: “Lord, we have no good apart from you."[25] Without You, we have no goodness to offer. We realize that You are the Source of any goodness we may have to offer. But, since we make You our portion, we have an abundance of goodness to offer people, because our portion contains all the goodness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

[1] Acts 18:1-17
[2] I Corinthians 16:5-8 & II Corinthians 2:13, 7:5
[3] I Corinthians 1:11, 7:1, 8:1, 12:1, 16:1
[4] Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words: “heed” (Greek – blepo): page 299.
[5] Matthew 16:13-20
[6] NIV
[7] NASB
[8] KJV
[9] # 6514 from the primary root, parad, # 6504, Strong’s Concordance
[10] Acts 17:28 God’s Word Translation
[11] First suggested by Martin Luther, and favored by many scholars today. Like the author, Apollos was skilled in the O.T. Scriptures. (Acts 18:24).
[12] Hebrews 12:2
[13] (Greek) teleiotes, # 5047 Strong’s Concordance
[14] Ephesians 1:22 & 4:15, Colossians 1:18, and I Corinthians 11:3 & 15:27
[15] Colossians 1:18
[16] Romans 1:1-3
[17] I Corinthians 2:2 God’s Word Translation
[18] II Corinthians 5:14-15
[19] English Standard Version
[20] Psalm 23:5
[21] Hebrew: paneh: face. The plural form paniym is used here. Strong’s Dictionary of the Words of the Hebrew Bible.
[22] Psalm 142:5
[23] NIV / NASB Study Bible
[24] Lamentations 3:21- English Standard Version
[25] Psalm 16:2 English Standard Version

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