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Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We're now in the epiphany season, getting ready for this season where we find out who Jesus is. During this time, we'll look at stories like the one we saw today where John points out Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And it will lead up to the miracles and the amazing things that Jesus does and then finally, culminate at the mountain of the Transfiguration, where we'll hear the voice from heaven say, This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him. Then we get to Ash Wednesday, and begin the march towards the cross. During this season, the lectionary assigns us the epistle readings from First Corinthians we began right at the beginning of the letter, and it's just sort of going to go section by section over the about the next month into the first couple of chapters until we get to Lent. So we're going to do that, walk through First Corinthians up until we get to this new season. So today, we're starting with the opening. It's interesting to get the beginning of a letter as a reading and church isn't it? It's like, dear James, as a reading, right. And that's interesting about what's going on that first line, it says Paul, calls by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother, sauce, the knees. This should remind us that the letters of Paul are Letters, written by Paul, I have to say this, because very often, when we read the Bible, we think that the Bible is written to me, not to me, James unik. But to me, every individual Christian. This line remembers that there was a real man named Paul, who wrote a letter with a guy named SAS Denise. And he did it at a particular time, and place. And then he sent it to a group of people, to the Church of God that is in Corinth, not to the Church of God in alcohol, or Chicago, or New York, or any other place to call it a particular group of people that met in a particular place, probably in a house owned by a guy named Gaius, just in case you were wondering, you won't be able to find him, don't worry, he's long gone. He writes these things to them to help us understand life in the church as well. Now, it's important to know this because you have to understand that there is some background to the church in Corinth, to help us understand what Paul is writing about. They were a Greek church, in a place that spoke Greek and lived in Greek culture. in Corinth, there was a great deal of competition between people, they would compete over things like status, and wealth, and wisdom. schools that were very famous in the Greek world were filled with with teachers who proclaimed great wisdom. There were people who would go around and tell you that they could teach you how to speak and convince anyone of anything. This was a problem in the church in Corinth, because it was then imported into their own church law. Something we'll talk about a little bit later, St. Paul writes to a group of people and talks about some of their moral failings as well. Later on in the book he talks about, about getting rid of believers who refuse to follow the dictates of the faith. There are questions about idols. There are divisions in the congregation. And all of these things are part of why St. Paul is writing a letter to this particular church in this particular place. So he continues, he talks about being part of the Church of God, together with all of those believers in every time and place, which is important for a congregation that sees itself as special, like the Corinthians. We're gonna get a little bit later on that when we get into the further readings. Now one of the things that I think is most important about this particular passage that I'm speaking on today is the competition inside the church. That is one of the reasons St. Paul is writing. Later on, you will see passages about the body of Christ, and how the congregation is one in Christ, there are not greater members and lesser members, there are not greater gifts and lesser gifts. St. Paul also writes this, this wonderful First Corinthians chapter 13, about the love of Christ at work in the body. Love is patient. Love is kind, you know that passage. The introduces the concept here, but there is no distinction or division within the congregation. Very simply, he tells us that Jesus is enough. Jesus gives us everything, the whole package of salvation. I want you to think back, imagine what it might be like in a congregation that worked like the Corinthians did. in Corinth, there were some people there who thought that they were amazing, outstanding Christians way better than the rest of them. And they could prove it, because they could speak in tongues. They had amazing spiritual gifts, they had a gift of prophecy. Some of them were amazing, outstanding speakers, and they held themselves up in front of the congregation as being the best. Can you imagine what it would be like in a church like that? People looking down on you all the time. People saying they had more Jesus points than you do. Right. Then of course, there will be some people who felt like they didn't get any of that. They must not be as powerful or spiritual or as wonderful as the the super prophets who stood up in front. And I want you to think about what this message would be that I'm about to read from St. Paul, if you were in those shoes. St. Paul says, I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift. As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. So this message is a message both to those super men who thought that they were the best Christians ever, spiritually powerful way better than the rest. And also for those who thought that they were a lower level of Christian. Jesus is enough, is what it says. You don't need anything more. You were in every way enriched in him and all speech and knowledge. You are not lacking any spiritual gifts, as you are waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is enough. That's because the salvation that every Christian receives by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the whole package. There are no greater or lesser spiritual gifts. There are no higher and lower status Christians. There is only Jesus and His salvation. St. Paul writes later in First Corinthians chapter two, that and I when I came to you brothers did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. That's because Jesus Christ is all you need. His death and resurrection on the cross. The gift of faith that He gives you is what leads you to the very thing that we're all waiting for. The resurrection on the last day when he returns and reveals himself shows up. And everything that we see now is changed into the perfection that is to come. At that moment, everything else fades away. Powerful wisdom, the smart people of the world, will that be a thing anymore? No one will care. Prophecy? Well, that'd be a big deal. No, because it's all leading up to that day. Ella eloquent speech, the guy who gets to stand up in front of everybody and looks really good when they're talking. Well, that'd be a thing anymore. No. Because we will all see Jesus face to face when he raises us from the dead forever. That's why at the end of First Corinthians 13, Jesus, though St. Paul writes, faith, hope and love, these things remain, but the greatest of them is love. Because faith will disappear. On the last day, you don't need faith, when you can see Jesus hope will be gone on the last day because you hope for something you don't yet have, the only thing that will remain is love. And we who love in all things on that day. So St. Paul is writing to a divided and broken church, a church that is fighting with each other competing over power and status. And he says, You don't need any of those things. All you need is Jesus. And Jesus is enough.
It's a good reminder for us today. We don't need anything. But Jesus, Jesus is enough. Last summer, we worked on a survey to do an assessment of our congregation and talk about our organizational health. We're working on trying to figure out what to do with that coming up with plans for our congregation, working on our programming, and all of those things. And all of these things are good things for us, as a congregation, trying to be figured out how to be more effective in connecting with our community and connecting with each other, and working on all those things to make ministry better. But one of the things that I've noticed in not just our church, but church generally, is that we tend to compare ourselves with other congregations. You've seen that it happens at every pastors conference I've ever been to. They go, where do you serve? And then the next question is always how many people do worship? Which is a great way to phrase that question because I want to say just one, Jesus, but they say how many people do worship because that's actually a really big deal to a lot of us. How many people show up on a Sunday. We sort of worship that. Sometimes, as we think of status in congregations, and we compare ourselves to the people around us, especially congregations in the midst of the land of the mega church, like us. You don't have to look very far to find the really big ones. Skyline foothills, the rock Shadow Mountain, you pretty much can't pick up a stone and throw it without hitting the rock somewhere right? There everywhere around here, especially compared to where I came from in Chicago. And often we compare ourselves to them. Interestingly, a new article came out from LifeWay Research and church answers.com that talks about the demographic statistics for churches around the country. And it divides churches up into four different groups, people who are have under 50 in attendance on Sunday, that's 31% of all the churches in America, you know that? Under 100, between 51 and 99 is 37% of all churches in America, meaning that attendance under 100 is 68% of all congregations. Between 102 149 is 24% of all congregations. Do you know how many churches have over 258% We who look from our place and we look around and we go there Are all these huge churches? What are we doing wrong? Those are the outliers. And yet, we look at ourselves and we say, we must not have the spiritual power. We must not be doing something right. We've got to fix it. But that's really doing the same thing the Corinthians we're doing, comparing ourselves and saying what we really measure our spirituality by is how powerful we look to the rest of the world. And St. Paul would reply, Jesus is enough. In fact, if a new person never walked in our doors, we would still be a successful congregation. If we kept on preaching and teaching and serving the sacraments and doing everything that we do now, and it was just slowly dwindling, until the last person out lock the doors. Jesus would still be here with everything. His law, his gospel, his grace, his sacraments, his words, giving you the full package of salvation. I hope that doesn't happen. Right? The locking the doors, the walking out and the dwindling, and we're going to do our best to not have that. But that's not the point of a congregation is. It's the gospel. It's Jesus, its salvation. It's not just in churches, where we worry if having Jesus is enough. It's in our lives as well. I can see it in the way we talk about work attendance versus church attendance. When I go to someone and say, hey, you know, we'd love to have you in church, and they say, Oh, I work on Sundays. And I think, Wait a second. Is that how it's supposed to be? Now I got people need to work. And sometimes there's a time in life where that happens. But if that is a an excuse in our lives, what we are saying is, money is more important than Jesus. Right? You have to ask the question, Is Jesus enough? Well, on the last day, will that job matter? When Jesus returns up in the clouds with power in Might, and he calls us up from our graves, and he judges the living in the dead, will He say, Well done, you earned a lot of money. He will not. What matters when we stand before our judge on the last day, is whether he saves us whether the gift of God has been delivered to you. And he provides you with this amazing food for that journey and rest until that day, by gathering here and hearing about him. But we accept that excuse. Because we think work is most important in our lives. That Jesus isn't enough that Jesus is a nice extra. The same thing works when we talk about school for our kids, and church. One of the things I often hear is, I want my kids to be happy coming to church. Like they're supposed to enjoy it the whole time. And I asked myself, What happens when they wake up on Monday morning? And they don't want to go to school? Do you say oh, I want my kid to be a lifelong learner and happy about it. So I'm going to let them stay home until they feel like going to school. Right? We don't do that. Nobody would do that. That's ridiculous. Because you need to learn how to read. You need to learn how to do math, right? Like basic stuff. You need to know how to do this. But then, on Sundays, we say You know what, if they're not happy, I want them to enjoy it. But I have to ask you on the last day when Jesus returns, will it matter if you can do math? Well done. You know how to do the square root of 23?
Of course not. It will matter if you can read. What will matter is that whether Christ will raise you on it from the dead to glory, or distraction. That's what we really need. No matter what you do with your life, Jesus is enough. Nothing else matters more than that. Whether it's the people who are fighting in Corinth, or what we do with our daily lives, we need to make sure that that is what we know. The most important thing you can ever do is be connected through Jesus through His Word and Sacraments. To hear from him, and be filled by the Holy Spirit. Nothing else matters next to that, because Jesus is enough. In his name, amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai