Offering Hy.47:4,5 Thanksgiving and intercessory prayer Hy.49 Divine blessing

Transcription

1 Liturgy for Sunday, AM Confession of Dependence and Divine Greeting Ps.108:1,2 Ten words of the covenant Ps.70 Prayer of confession and for illumination Ministry of the Word Reading: Romans 14 Ps.143:4,5,6 Text: 1 Corinthians 8 Paul encourages us to show brotherly love in the way in which we exercise our Christian freedom. We ll see that Paul: 1. warns against the abuse of our Christian freedom. 2. encourages us to show brotherly love. Ps.119:49,50,52 Offering Hy.47:4,5 Thanksgiving and intercessory prayer Hy.49 Divine blessing Songs for worship taken from the 2014 version of the Book of Praise In worship we use the English Standard Version (ESV) Rev. Joe Poppe 1

2 Singing: Ps.108:1,2; Ps.70; Ps.143:4,5,6; Ps.119:49,50,52; Hy.47:4,5; Hy.49 Reading: Romans 14 Text: 1Corinthians 8 Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, In our text for this morning Paul gives instruction to the Corinthian believers concerning food offered to idols. For the Corinthians this was a huge issue. They lived in the midst of a pagan society, in which there were all sorts of different temples at which different gods were worshipped. Part of this worship involved the offering of animal sacrifices to these gods. Private animal sacrifices were divided three ways: part was burnt on the altar as a sacrifice to the god; part was given to the priests of that god; and part was eaten by the worshippers in a feast at the temple. Often the worshipper gave a banquet in the temple of his god, and invited his family and friends to attend with him. If one of the Corinthian believers was invited to a temple feast by a pagan relative or friend, should he attend? What if one of the believers was at a friend s place for dinner, and someone commented that the meat had been offered to idols? Should he then eat it? A further question facing the Corinthians centred on the eating of meat purchased in the marketplace. Since the priests received much more meat than they could eat, they sold it to the butchers. The butchers would then cut it up and sell it to the general public in the marketplace. Was it okay for the Corinthian believers to eat this meat? When we examine these issues, the question that faces us is whether or not this has any real relevance to our lives. We re not surrounded by peer-pressure from unbelieving friends or relatives to attend cultic meals in pagan temples. Nor are we faced with questions about whether or not it is legitimate to eat meat we purchase at the store. Yet our text has much to say to us. For it teaches us some important principles concerning the exercise of our Christian freedom. Our text teaches us about how we are to deal with a fellow brother or sister whose conscience is weak. It makes it clear that it is not always good to insist on our rights. Sometimes it is necessary for us to suspend the practise of our Christian freedom for the sake of a fellow brother or sister. Paul emphasises that we are not to set stumbling blocks before one another. His concern is that the exercise of our Christian liberty should not be at the expense of the salvation of a brother for whom Christ has died. I preach to you the Word of God under the following theme: Paul encourages us to show brotherly love in the way in which we exercise our Christian freedom. We ll see that Paul: 1. warns against the abuse of our Christian freedom. 2. encourages us to show brotherly love. In our text Paul does not deal with the questions of whether or not to eat a meal in a pagan temple, or to eat meat at a friend s place if it has been specifically identified as having been offered to idols. Paul deals with these issues in the latter half of 1 Corinthians 10. In our text the focus is on the more general point of whether or not it was right for the Corinthian believers to eat food offered to idols. Could they buy the meat offered in the marketplace, knowing that most likely it was leftovers from sacrifices offered in pagan temples? The Jewish Christians in Corinth would have argued strongly against this practise. They said that this meat was tainted by idolatry. They pointed out that part of the animal had not been tithed to God as was required in Jewish law (Deu.12:7). They figured that the animal had not been killed in the right way, and that it was not kosher. These Christians could appeal to the decision made by the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. Part of the decision made by this council is recorded in Acts 15:29. It specified that the Gentile Christians were to abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols. In contrast some of the Gentile Christians would have argued strongly in favour of eating food offered to idols. They figured that the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ had freed them from the ritual laws of the old covenant. They opposed what they saw as a legalistic tendency among some of their brothers and sisters. The idols were not gods anyway, so why worry about the fact that Rev. Joe Poppe 2

3 food may have been offered to them? These Christians could have appealed to the teaching of the Lord Jesus in Mark 7. In Mark 7:15 Jesus taught, There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. The result was that the church in Corinth was divided. Some saw absolutely nothing wrong in eating food offered to idols, others considered this to be a grievous sin. They had communicated the difficulty to the apostle Paul. They sought advice for how they were to go forward. For them the issue was whether or not it was okay to eat food offered to idols. The apostle Paul responds to the Corinthians on this issue. In verse 1 of our text he indicates that he is going to speak concerning food offered to idols. Paul does so. But that is not all he does. Paul doesn t just deal with this surface issue, but also with some of the underlying issues facing the Corinthians. He shows how knowledge can lead to pride, but how love builds up. He deals with the conscience of the weak, and how the strong are not to be a stumbling block to them. Paul shows us how to exercise Christian liberty while seeking the salvation of our brother in Christ. Paul begins his exhortation by admonishing the strong. They thought that they had knowledge; that they knew how to deal with this issue of food offered to idols. Their viewpoint was: we know better! We know our freedom in Christ, and so eating such food really doesn t matter. Paul says to them: all of us possess knowledge. (1Cor.8:1). These stronger members of the congregation did not have some kind of special insight given them by the Spirit. The whole congregation was founded on Paul s preaching of the grace there is in Christ Jesus. The whole congregation was founded on the basis of Christ and him crucified. Paul makes it clear that the stronger member s appeal to knowledge was not completely valid. Paul says, Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. (1Cor.8:1). With these words Paul sounds a caution. The actions of the strong should not be guided solely by knowledge. The issue isn t what you know. For that just puffs you up. It makes you proud, for you feel yourself superior to the less confident brother in the church. Paul s point is that love must direct our actions. For love edifies, it builds up my brother in the faith. Paul drives the point home by describing how it is not knowledge that binds us to Christ, but love. He says, But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. Obviously, we need to know about God and about the redemption he provided in Jesus Christ in order to believe the gospel. Yet there are many who know the facts about salvation. Many know of the Bible s claims that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, and rose again to grant us new life in him. But unless you believe, unless you respond to God with thankfulness and love for his mighty works, knowing about the way of salvation will not benefit you. Knowledge is useless, without love! Having sounded this warning Paul gets to the central issue. In the verses 4-6 Paul explains why it is not wrong to eat food offered to idols. The basic reason that Paul gives is that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but one. (1Cor.8:4). Paul explains that although there are many so-called gods, yet there is only one God, the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ. Paul s point is that food offered to an idol (a non-existent god) can be eaten by Christians. For in essence it is no different from food that has not been offered to these non-existent gods. When Paul says that there is only one God, the Father, he says that all things came from him. When Paul refers to the one Lord Jesus Christ, he points out that all things came through him (1Cor.8:6). Paul s point is that God is the Creator of all things, and that there is nothing in creation that was made outside of the power of Jesus Christ our Lord (see Col.1:16). Paul s central point is stated beautifully in 1 Timothy 4:4-5. He writes, For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. Paul also answers the basic question of whether or not it is right to eat food offered to idols in a very direct way in 1 Corinthians 10: He says, Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For "the earth is the Lord's, and the Rev. Joe Poppe 3

4 fullness thereof." Thus Paul makes it clear that on the basic issue of food offered to idols, the strong were right. It was permissible to eat such food. Thus we see that Paul maintains the Christian liberty of those who were strong in the Corinthian congregation. Yet Paul warns the strong in the congregation not to abuse their Christian freedom. He points out that not everyone in the congregation had the knowledge that idols were nothing. Paul says, But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. (1Cor.8:7). We should not forget that prior to their conversion, many in the congregation at Corinth had been involved in idol worship all their lives. Now they worshipped Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and wanted nothing to do with idols. They had given that all away. Because market-place meat was associated with idolatry, they felt it was sinful to buy and eat it. Perhaps to make the point a bit more relevant for our situation today, it is helpful to refer to the lifestyle of a recovered alcoholic. Such has been under the power of alcohol. By means of alcohol, Satan had him in his grip. Satan has used alcohol as a powerful tool to have mastery over him. The abuse of alcohol has negatively affected his family relationships and has caused him financial problems. Yet by the power of Christ and of his Spirit, this man has been freed from Satan s grip over him. As a result he has sworn off all alcohol. Sometimes he is still tempted by it, but he refuses to use any alcohol. In fact, he thinks that the use of alcohol is sinful. As a strong Christian, you may disagree with this man s perspective. You agree with the words of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 9:7, where he says, Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart. You think of what Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:23, use a little wine for the sake of you stomach s and your frequent ailments. You feel that it is your right to use alcohol whenever and wherever you please. You say, that s my Christian freedom; you cannot impose your narrow-minded views on me. It is against such a mentality that Paul warns us in our text. Paul says in verse 9, But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. A stumbling block is a stone that someone else trips over. Paul s concern is that one of the weaker members of the congregation loses his or her salvation because a stronger member insists on exercising his Christian freedom. Paul points out how, by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. (1Cor.8:11). Paul warns that when you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. (1Cor.8:12). Consider the cost, beloved, that your Saviour Jesus Christ paid to redeem your brother or sister. Think about the mortal agony he suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he struggled to do his Father s will. Luke 22:44 says that he was in agony, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Consider, beloved, Jesus suffering on the cross. The three hours of darkness when all the forces of darkness in the heavenly places unleashed their hatred on Christ. Consider his utter forsakenness, being separated from the Father in heaven, and bearing his wrath against all our sins. Christ paid dearly to redeem us from our sins, and the mastery of Satan. Are you going to imperil someone s eternal wellbeing, because of your right to eat or drink? In Matthew 18:6 the Lord Jesus warned us not to be the cause of another s sin. He said, But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Jesus went on to speak about how temptations will come, but warned: woe to the man through whom they come! The point of our text should be clear: woe to you if you imperil the salvation of a child of God, because you insist on your right to exercise your Christian freedom. In our first point we ve seen how Paul warns against the abuse of Christian freedom. In our second point we ll see how Paul encourages us to show brotherly love. The fact that we are not to abuse our Christian freedom raises all sorts of questions. Does this mean that we have to forgo our Christian liberty in all sorts of matters? Do we always have to bend to accommodate the viewpoint of Rev. Joe Poppe 4

5 the weak, even though we may consider it to be pure legalism? Do the weak have the right to bind our conscience in all sorts of matters (1Cor.10:29)? These questions become real if you consider what they all entail. Within the church we have different views on what kinds of movies are acceptable, or whether or not our kids should be playing certain kinds of video games. We think differently about how we are to observe the Lord s day whether or not it is okay to use part of this day for physical recreation, the pursuit of hobbies, or doing school homework. We can enter into heated debates about what fashions are appropriate (especially for church). Some in our midst would never go to the movie theatre, or stop by the pub for a drink, and are aghast that you might do so. There are different opinions about various forms of entertainment, business associations, and social practises. In all these different matters, conflict occurs when our convictions differ over what is permissible. When such conflict arises, the first thing that is necessary is to discern whether or not God s Word speaks about this matter. At times Christian young people will say that there is nothing wrong with sleeping together prior to their marriage. In such a case, one can quickly settle the matter by referring to the Bible. Song of Songs 2:7 urges us not to stir up nor awaken love till it pleases. 1 Thesallonians 4:3 says, For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. 1 Corinthians 7 makes it clear that God has reserved sexual intercourse for the marriage relationship. This is not a matter of exercising Christian freedom. Christ has not redeemed us from our sins, so that we may fulfil the sinful desires of the flesh. Yet not all matters can be clearly explained from the Bible. We can agree on the principle that God has given us Sunday as a day or rest and of worship. Yet our practical application of that principle may be quite different. Must I refrain from going for a swim on a hot Sunday because it offends my brother? Is it wrong for me to meet a business partner for lunch at the pub, and to enjoy a beer with our meal? Does my weaker brother have the right to bind my conscience in all these sorts of matters? To answer these questions we need to understand what Paul is referring to when he speaks about a weak brother. There is a difference between causing offence to a weak brother, and having a brother take offence at your actions because he disagrees with them. The weak brother Paul speaks about in our text is one who may imitate your action, and so wound his own conscience, and even perish eternally. Paul explains this in verse 10. He speaks about how the strong believer s action of eating in an idol s temple, may embolden the weaker brother to eat things offered to idols. Think back to our modern example of a reformed alcoholic, who because of your use of alcohol, again begins to partake of it. In Corinth, the weak who ate food offered to idols could easily fall back into idolatry. Today, the former alcoholic might fall back into his slavery to the bottle. If such an issue is at stake, we are not to be a stumbling block for our fellow brother or sister. As Paul says in verse 13, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. Yet this doesn t mean that we must always conform our actions to suit the desires of a fellow brother or sister in the church. The Scriptures make this point plain. The Lord Jesus Christ was confronted by the Pharisees in Mark 7, because his disciples did not wash their hands before eating. The Pharisees charged them with not abiding by the traditions of the elders. Jesus did not command his disciples to meekly conform to the Pharisees demand. He made it clear that it was not what went into a man that defiled him, but what came out of him. Jesus refused to give in to the legalistic tendencies of the Pharisees; instead he confronted them with the wickedness of their sinful hearts. The actions of the apostle Paul with respect to circumcision form one of the most interesting cases of how to exercise our Christian freedom in an edifying way. In Acts 16:3 we read of how Paul circumcised Timothy before taking him along on his missionary journey. He did so because of the Rev. Joe Poppe 5

6 Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that Timothy s father was Greek. Yet in Galatians 2:3 we see that the same Paul refused to circumcise Titus. Why the difference? In Galatia, the Judaisers insisted that the Gentile Christians had to be circumcised in order to be saved. In such a situation, Paul refused to circumcise Titus. For the gospel of grace in Christ Jesus our Lord was at stake. Yet the situation with Timothy was different. There Paul applied the principle he teaches in 1 Corinthians 9:22. He was willing to become all things to all people, that by all means he might save some. Thus the exercise of our Christian liberty very much depends on the situation confronting us. The general principle that our text teaches us is that we are to show brotherly love in the way in which we exercise our Christian freedom. As Paul said in the first verse of our text, Love builds up. Love must direct our actions, for it builds up our brother or sister in the faith. Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 10:23 that though all things may be lawful, not all things are helpful. Love is needed to point our Christian freedom in the proper direction. In Romans 14:1 Paul commands us to accept him whose weak is faith, without quarrelling about disputable matters. In Romans 14:13 he says, Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. In verse 19 Paul says, So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. In verse 21 he says, It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. In Romans 15:1&2 Paul says, We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. Beloved, the thing we need to remember is that our conduct can have a profound effect upon others. The modern emphasis on the rights of the individual tends to obscure the way our example could be morally injuring towards another. We need to focus on is the fact that our fellow congregation member is a child of God, for whom Christ s blood was shed. Together we serve the same God; together we belong to the same Saviour; it is the same Spirit that is at work in our hearts. Because we are part of the communion of saints, we are called to serve each other in love. In our modern society lawmakers are confronted by the needs of the disabled. City sidewalks, public buildings, certain vehicles, and many other things are being built so that those who are disabled have access to them. Within the church of Christ we need to show care and consideration for those who face weakness in a certain area of their lives. It is as Paul says in Galatians 5:13-14, For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." I d like to conclude this sermon with three principles by which we will be enabled to exercise our Christian freedom in brotherly love. (1) Let truth give you freedom search the Scriptures to know how to walk with God. (2) Let love direct your freedom be concerned about the effects your conduct could have on a weaker brother or sister in Christ. And (3) Let humility make you ready to surrender your freedom for the sake of others. This is the way to build one another up, so that together we may walk in the freedom Jesus Christ has earned for us. Amen. Rev. Joe Poppe 6