Transcript
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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, and also with you. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, We come before you this morning with repentant hearts. Sorry for having done things which have separated us from you. We are only too aware of the gap between our sinfulness and your holiness. The promise of your wondrous grace sustains us and gives us hope. We thank you for showering us with your love, even though
we do not deserve it. Lord, we ask that you cleanse us from our sins, from those times of selfishness and laziness, from attitudes of pride and greed. Help us to keep our focus on you, that we might draw closer to you and your love. As believers in Jesus, we need to be willing to take up our crosses and follow you, even if that means encountering situations which we would like to avoid. Teach us that you are
strong in our weakness, that it is you who is going to win the victory, not us. Lord, fill us with your Spirit today as your grace releases us from our sins. Thank you for your love and goodness to us. Amen. Hear these words of assurance. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen. To glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen, amen, amen. Well, this now is the sixth sermon in a series of expositional messages that we've been preaching on Paul's letter to the Corinthians, the first letter of Corinthians. And we have been, for the last couple of weeks, in that long section from chapter 4 through 11, where Paul gives advice. We haven't been able to read every single one
of those instances of advice. I take you on a journey through them in the study guide I produced, but you can do that on your own. But I've tried instead to show you the principles that Paul follows in giving advice, because that's going to be very helpful. Today we'll do a sounding like we did last week and watch him in action. But we noticed last week the three principles that Paul follows in his advice giving. And
he follows these principles in other books as well as Corinthians, too. The first principle he introduced to us at the very beginning of the advice section, chapter 4, where he says, those of us who are stewards of the mysteries of God must be faithful stewards. As found of a steward, they must be faithful. And I point out to you that the word translated steward in the New Testament, English text, is the Greek word oikonomos, and I
wanted you to know that word, because oik means house, nomos means law, the law of the house. And that's the word translated steward. It means that you have a large overview, and that overview is what governs how you handle the individual parts. That's stewardship. That's when you have a stewardship view of the forest, and you don't cut all the trees down because you want to make sure there are going to be trees there for next generation
as well. You have a whole view in looking at every separate part. And I would interpret this principle as Paul's principle of the larger whole for the smaller part. And last week we spent a lot of time looking at how that works. Paul tries to interpret and understand every separate issue within its larger framework, and that's the way he thinks. He's always asking the question, what is the largest truth? And how do these particular questions relate
to that larger truth? And that's the way he thinks. Now the second principle that Paul follows is the principle of the church. Paul relates everything to the people. He refuses to become theoretical. And this is very important in understanding the way Paul handles his advice giving. It's one of the reasons that the book opened with Paul being so concerned that the Corinthians were dividing up and tearing apart from each other because he wants them to stay
together. Next week our sermon is going to be on chapter 12, which is a very famous chapter in Corinthians where Paul creates his parable of the body. It's where he says that when one suffers, we all suffer together. When one is honored, we all rejoice together. We are one another, members of each other in the body of Christ. And that's where he's going to go into great detail on this second principle. But in the second principle
that Paul follows, he insists that all theological theory, all ideology, must be related to people and where people are. And in this, Paul combines ideology with ethics. He simply refuses to allow anyone to talk about what they theoretically know and, oh, I have these theories that I'm able to follow. He wants to know how do they affect people around you and what is your connection to people with regard to your theory. And this is his principle
of the fellowship we have with one another. It becomes a source of check and balance for Paul so the church becomes the way of check and balance upon our lives and also it becomes a source of joy and encouragement to us. That's his second principle. He doesn't want a bunch of lone rangers out there living the Christian life all by themselves. It's just fundamental the way he thinks. The third principle is, again, one of the oik
words. It's oikodemio. It appears in chapter 10. And demio means to build, oik means house, to build the house. And it's the word translated in the New Testament by the English word edify. It's his edification principle. Paul tests everything by this principle. Does it build up the house or does it tear it down? Here's how he would test the discipline that parents give their children. Does discipline help a young boy or girl catch their own stride?
Then it's discipline. If it just tears them down and makes them feel inadequate and maybe disciplines them and makes them very compliant but doesn't help them catch their stride, doesn't build them up, then it's not discipline. It may be punishment but it's not discipline. This is the way Paul would test everything in the church. Does your action build someone up or does it tear them down? Does it build yourself up or does it tear you down?
Does it build up the body of Christ? Does it help the gospel? And that's how he tests things. It's the principle of edification. All right, now I've got a text for you. Let's jump to chapter 10. Open to verse 23 of chapter 10 and we'll watch Paul work with these three principles. We did last week in a passage. Now we look at another passage and watch him work with the three principles in one passage. Evidently, one
of the issues the Corinthians wrote to him about had to do with food and what they could eat because it turned out to be an issue in Corinth, evidently. And you have to know a little bit about the technical background of this question. In the Greek Roman mystery cult religions, they used animals for sacrifices and then after the sacrifices were over in these temples, and you've got to realize these cities had many, many temples, then the
meat or the carcasses would be taken down to the public markets and sold as meat. So that means that when you went to a public market, you'd see some meat would come in from farmers and some meat would come down from the temple. And evidently an issue arose among the early Christians. Should we buy meat in those markets? Maybe we might get some meat that came down from the temples. And then it's been used as a
sacrifice. Would that be contaminated meat? Do we dare eat it? And so Paul has to grapple with this issue because they asked him a question about it. And you'll see the second question he's going to deal with in this paragraph is when you go eat in somebody else's house and they serve you food. Now watch him handle both of those questions and look at him follow his three principles and handling the question. It'll help you a
lot. I think it's helped me a lot just to study this in terms of my own life. Now watch the passage unfold in your ear in terms of your life. Paul says all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. There you see him use those marvelous words together. The word lawful here, exosia, it means I have authority to do anything I want to do. In
Christ, I'm able to do anything I want to do. Christ sets me free. But not all things are helpful. The word helpful means not all things carry weight. And then all things are lawful, but not all things, and here's that word oikodemio, not all things build up the house. Not all things build up. The edification principle. Now watch him now, after having said that, watch him work with this. Let no one seek his own good, but
the good of his neighbor. See, he ties you, that's the second principle, he ties you to the neighbor. He does not want you to think of this issue, and he's going to talk about food now in a minute. He doesn't want you to think of it just in terms of yourself. But you see everything in terms of the person alongside of you as well. I mean, you know, this is a basic principle. You can't drive a
car on the highway and take your half out of the middle. You just can't do it. When you drive, in fact, the first principle you learn to drive is to drive defensively. When you drive, you have to drive aware of other people driving. And if you do not have a concern for their good as well as your good, you're a very dangerous person on that highway. And if you crowd a person and throw them into jeopardy
so that they then have to crash, you're going to be jeopardized too. It's just the basic principle. Paul simply will not talk about driving apart from driving with other people. He won't talk about the Christian life apart from talking about other people and their good. See, it's the way he thinks. That's his second principle. All right, now watch it. He says, let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is
sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. And now he decides to give advice. Remember, I told you this is an advice section. And he gives a lot of advice in these chapters, 4 through 11. And here's a piece of advice. He says, when you go to the marketplace, as far as I'm concerned, I think you should buy whatever is in that marketplace. And you should not raise without raising any
question on the ground of conscience. Okay, I'm going to do one word study for you. This is a very important word study, the word conscience. He'll use that word about seven times this one paragraph. And I want to give you a little help with that word. The word is sum idon. Idon is the word for to see in Greek, sum to see with. And it's a word that in classical Greek means consciousness and conscience. Now, in
English, we have two different words. We see a distinction between your conscience, which would be your scruples, your values, and your consciousness, which means what you're aware of. But in classical Greek, they're both put together. And that's the way they're used by Paul here. Your conscience and your consciousness, he sees together. It's your way of looking at things, but with the edge toward the value system side. It's the way you look at things. Now, let me
translate that passage in for you. He says, eat whatever is sold in the marketplace without raising any question on the ground of the way we look at things, because we don't believe in idols. We don't believe in all those idols are in the various temples, the temple of Isis, the temple of Aphrodite, the temple of Diana or Artemis, the temple of Athena. They all have worships, and they all have various kinds of animal sacrifices. And then
the animals are brought down to the marketplace, and then they're sold. We don't believe in those idols anyway, and those temples, and those various in the pantheon of the Greek gods. We're not into that. So as far as our way of looking at things, since we don't believe there's any substance to idols, then we're not about to see any importance in that. So when the meat comes down to the public marketplace, whether it comes from there
or it comes from a farmer, what does that difference make to us? See, that's his advice, see? Because on the basis of the way we look at things, our conscience, that is no big deal. It just simply isn't a matter that matters to us. All right, and now having given the advice, now watch him go to the large principle, the orkonomos. He puts it in the large perspective now. He now quotes the Old Testament, and you'll
see in this verse, he quotes Psalm 24. For the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, that's the large principle. You see, he says, we see the whole earth as under the Lord. That's the large principle, and everything in it belongs to him. And so these animals, we're going to eat them if they've been provided for us. That's the principle we're following. See, the larger principle for the separate part, and that's how he thinks. Well,
that's the end of that advice. So he solved that problem. He sure helped you when you went to the marketplace. Now, then he goes on. Now, if one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. There's that word again, sum idon, on the ground of the way we look at things. And again, Paul gives wonderful advice. I
made a little joke about this last week. Mothers and fathers have been using this advice with their children for years. Eat what's set before you. And so he got this advice from the apostle Paul. And Paul says, eat what's set before you. If you go to someone's house and you're disposed to go and they invite you and they serve something to you, you eat it, Paul says. Let's have none of this nonsense where we don't eat
something and then we offend those people. If you go to their house and they serve you something, you eat it. On the ground of conscience. See, because of the way we look at things. Because we see everything is under the Lord. Notice how Paul is freeing up the Corinthians. We'll comment on this in just a minute, but he's freeing them up. But now he says, but there is one proviso. And he does give a proviso. Or
a qualification, you might say. But if someone says to you, now maybe you go to someone's house and they say, this has been offered in sacrifice. Now, in other words, then they'll, evidently what he means here is you go to someone's house and say, and now I want you to eat with us. And this is a religious ceremony now in which this food you're eating now is, it has special powers from our idol, from our God.
The special God we're worshipping. Now there Paul says to draw a line. And watch him, see how he handles the drawing of the line. But if someone says to you, now this is offered to an idol, then out of consideration for the man who informed you, and for conscience sake, there's that word again, the way of looking at things sake, I mean his conscience, his way of looking at things, not yours. Do not eat it. This
is an amazing passage. It shows Paul's respect toward people of other religions. He doesn't want us to run roughshod over anyone and to be cavalier in the way we relate to people and to make fun of maybe some religious act which they are doing. He said, if they've made it a religious act, since we don't believe in their idols, say it's the idol Athena or Isis, we don't believe in that idol. We're not going to mock
them and mock their way of looking at things by now proposing to join in with it when we don't join in with it. So there he draws a line. But again, notice the principle is for their sake. See, he's concerned about the people. And so he does draw that one line. Then following that, he goes into another interesting sort of P.S. argument. He says, for why should my liberty, now watch this argument closely, my freedom, he
says, is not determined by another man's scruples. By the way, the word scruples here is once again, I don't know why they are if you change the word, it's the same word conscience again. Sum Aida. Another man's or woman's way of looking at things does not determine my freedom. My freedom is not determined by the way you look at things. Paul says, I want to make that very clear. I'm not saying now the way they look
at things, then they control what I get to eat or don't get to eat. It's not being controlled by that. If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that which I give thanks? I can give thanks to God and eat anything. It's not because I'm being dominated by them, but notice he goes on. So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. That's what determines what
I do. I do everything to the glory of God and then he goes on to say, and I give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God. I don't want to offend these people, but I'm the one who's making the decision on the basis of trying to glorify God. Just as I try to please all men and women in everything that I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many
that they may be saved. He's concerned again for edification. See, the edification principle comes up last. And now finally, the last line that we'll look at today, be imitators of me as I am an imitator of Christ. He urges the Corinthians to look at him and see how he's doing things, but he says only if I follow Christ, follow me. Sort of like a skier, you learn how to ski by watching a skier, but you better
watch a good skier who's skiing properly. He says, if I'm skiing properly, then follow me. And if I'm following Christ, then follow me. And that's his advice. Okay, there are the three principles at work in a particular passage. Now, I want to talk about those three principles and the healthy effect they have in your life. If you and I were to follow those principles, what effect would those principles have in your life or my life today?
And I want to suggest there are three, or maybe many more, I'm sure. But for today, I'd like to reflect on three wonderful, good effects that those principles have in your life. The first is that these three principles, the way Paul is working with them in this passage, will protect us from what I'm calling picky narrowness. Because the principles train us to see the larger whole, and that's what we need to keep us from being picky
and trivial people. Paul's concern is that we see the larger whole and not the little, tiny, narrow, picky points. There are some people who simply major in the minors all the time, and they're a pain in the neck to be around. And Paul wants people who major in the majors and not in the minors. Have you ever been in a home where parents are continually picking at their children over little, tiny things, so that it's pick,
pick, pick, pick, pick all the time? You see it in spouses. You see it with children doing it to their parents, because there comes a certain point in your life where you have to pick at your parents all the time, and they don't do this right and they don't do that right. Or you see it even with sometimes friends. You see it with employees and employers, where there is this fascination with small details that in no
way help you get a picture of the whole. They always take away your energy and sap your energy and create anxiety and create anger, and they don't really do any good. And Paul simply wants nothing to do with that. He doesn't want the Corinthians fascinated with legal technicalities. Do you realize, this is amazing that Paul would say this when you think of his background, because Paul's a Pharisee in background, and this is the mark of the
Pharisees. They were the masters of the small points. They had developed elaborate schemes of how to obey the fourth commandment. Thou shalt work six days and rest one day, and especially the rest commandment, thou shalt keep the Sabbath. They had made all kinds of little picky points, and they were proud of those points. And they judged Jesus on the basis of the fact that he took grain in his hand and went like this with the hands.
Oh, you're reaping grain. You're working on the Sabbath. They washed their hands on the Sabbath. They were criticized for that. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, and they criticized him for healing people on the Sabbath. You're working on the Sabbath. You're not supposed to do that. And our Lord loved to offend the Pharisees precisely at that point, because he wanted to assert the fact that the Son of Man was Lord of the Sabbath. But did you know
that in the Targum, one of the rules that the Pharisee movement had developed was that you should not eat an egg that had been laid on the Sabbath because the hen worked on the Sabbath? Now, you talk about a picky point. How are you going to find for me a rabbi or a lawyer or a good scribe that's able to spot Sabbath-laid eggs? That is a very technical job, to spot an egg that wasn't laid
on Thursday or Wednesday. That's an approved day, but it was laid on Saturday. That takes real skill. And then you have all these legal professions that were developed in the time of the Pharisee movement with people that could just help you know whether a law had been broken or not. And what good did it do? It didn't make people more focused on God. It made people focused on themselves and on one another in self-righteous fascination
with small points. And Paul does not want that to happen to the Corinthians. He wants them set free from that, what I would call that picky narrowness of the small points. He wants them to see the small point in the larger whole. The second thing is that these principles will keep us from the kind of inflexible rigidity that makes us unable to make the critical moves we've got to make. We get stuck so that we're unable
to make creative moves in a live situation. Because again, we're caught up in small points. I have to tell you a story about yesterday. I don't know if you all were at Memorial Stadium yesterday, but we had a marvelous football game there yesterday. And I have to tell you something. The people that were sitting next to me will agree. This is the truth. I'm telling you the truth. When I walked into the stands and sat with
my little crowd that we all sit with every week, I said, I have a feeling that... And I said, because I talked with Jerry Patmont, the team physician of the California Golden Bears on Thursday night, and Jerry Patmont told me that he had never seen a week of practice like this week of practice of our Golden Bears. Thanks to Coach Snyder and the other coaches, they got together with these guys and the fellows themselves, they decided
that we're going to go into that stadium and be a scrappy team against Arizona, this powerhouse of the Pac-10. And they went in and they worked. And you saw a bunch of guys on that field. Now, I want to tell you, right at the beginning, they were totally scrappy. They were totally adventurous. They were down with one yard to go near the goal line and fourth down. And instead of doing a field goal, they went
for it. They didn't make it, but they went for it. And they went for it in a big way. A Joe Montana type pass into the end zone, and they didn't catch it. But I said to myself, that's a scrappy team. And then, of course, the Arizona team got 21 points. It was very bad. And it looked very bad. And they had this option play for the quarterback that was just baffling us. And then our defensive
squad got together and shut down that Arizona pass option of the quarterback. And the second, you know, there were people that left the stands where I was in the first quarter. Around us, some people said, well, when it was 21 to seven, they said, well, I got to go home. And they left. Aren't they sorry? Because in the second half, it was an amazing game. And we won that game, as you know. And you know something?
You saw a bunch of guys down there that were able to make creative moves. They weren't looking over their shoulder, wondering what some sports writer was going to say. You know what I think happened when we lost the air to Oregon State? All of our guys said, you know, no sport writers are going to cover us anyway now. They've written us off. And you know, some ways, that's good. Because then you can go out and do
your best and not worry about what anybody's going to write about you. And just play your game. And suddenly, you get into a larger context. And you get a larger hole. And they gelled as a team. I've never seen, I've gone to every single game. And I've never seen the Golden Bears a better team than they were yesterday. It was really something. I was so proud. And we needed that victory, too. But I want to tell
you something. This is the principle Paul's working with here in this passage. People who cannot make moves are people that are all tied up in small points. And they cannot make large moves. And he wants the Corinthians able to make some large moves, some big plays. And they cannot be looking over their shoulder every minute wondering if they're making little tiny mistakes. Like they're going out to dinner with these non-Christian friends. And Paul wants them
to go out to dinner with the non-Christian friends and not worry about what they're eating. And they serve you shrimp, you eat shrimp. And not sit around and just worry about it. Now, of course, if you're allergic to shrimp, I suppose it's a different story. But you, that's a medical question. And he's not going to cover that. But if you go and you're there, how are you going to win these non-Christians to Christ if
you don't go have dinner with them? And you can get so caught up in little technicals. Now, where do they buy this meat? They buy it from the town. He says, don't worry, you just eat it. Because you want to do things for the glory of God. And if you make a little mistake, the Lord will forgive you. You know, I'm going to give you a Luther quote that has been often misquoted and mishandled by people
who want to use it. But I'll give it to you in its totality. And you'll appreciate this quotation. Luther grappled with this, too. What do you do when you sometimes in following the Lord, you make mistakes? And Luther said this, if you sin, sin boldly. And a lot of people love that quotation. I've heard it quoted that way many times. But that's only half the quotation. The second half of the quotation goes like this. And when
you take it in its totality, it is a wonderful quotation. Luther said, if you sin, sin boldly. But trust God, more boldly still. And that's good advice. And that's what Paul wants for the Corinthians. He wants Corinthians who are able to be flexible and to make moves and to be effective in working with their non-Christian friends. And not all tied up in knots about where the pork chops came from. Which is what the Corinthians were
doing. And they were pick, pick, pick, picking each. Oh, you ate a pork chop that came from the temple. Darn it, no. And you can't tell. They should put marks on these. And they didn't. And Paul says, what difference does it make? Everything belongs to the Lord. And we want to glorify God. Now, we don't want to hurt anyone's conscience. And the way they look at things. So if they say we're eating a ceremonial meal, then
we won't do it. But Paul wants the Christians set free. Are you set free? Or are you tied up in knots with legalism? Then this is a passage for you. But there's a third thing to notice. The third thing that's so healthy is that all these principles have a way of keeping us focused on the greatest truth of all. And that is, they inevitably bring us to the character of Jesus Christ himself. That's what's so beautiful.
These all bring us to Christ. Because he's the one who sets us free from legalism. He's the one who sets us free from ourselves. He's the one that sets us free to do things to his glory. And little wonder that just two weeks from now, next week we're going to look at 1 Corinthians 12. And two weeks from now, we're going to look at the greatest chapter in all of Paul's literature, 1 Corinthians 13. And now
you'll see how he writes that chapter. It's a chapter that's inevitable. He has set the stage for that chapter here in this passage. It has to come. Because we have to meet up. Though I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, and have not God's love, I have nothing. They're going to lead us to that great centrality. Well, that's the healthy effect. I've got to stop. You know, I want to tell you that the
musical Les Miserables is now arrived in San Francisco. I have been telling you about it for two years. Two years ago, my son and I were in London. We went to that Berkeley archaeological dig in Israel. On our way back, we stopped in London and saw that musical. And I didn't know what to expect. In fact, up to that point in my life, I'd never even read Victor Hugo's book Les Miserables. I read it since then,
believe me. But we sat there in that musical, and we were blown away. We sat at the end of the first act, and we couldn't even leave. You know, most people go out for an intermission. We just sat there. We were so stunned. And then when the musical was over, and we went out afterward, we talked for three hours after that musical. I heard a story that when the musical was being rehearsed in New York City,
the cast had practiced all the great production numbers, but they had never heard the one song, Bring Them Home, the prayer song of Jean Valjean. And they were standing around, and the soloist, Jean Valjean, sang that song. John told me this. He read this in an article about the musical, and it was done in New York. And all these stagehands and other members of the cast weren't even aware the song was in the musical. And they
heard him singing it, and they stopped. And the people, stagehands, and all began to cry. That's how powerful this musical is. Well, what is it about? Victor Hugo spent 17 years writing this book. It's an epic book. It's absolutely, you should read the book. Read the book and then go see the musical. I understand the reviews are that it's marvelously done here in San Francisco, all with local actors, too. It's a great musical. I think I
would say it's the greatest musical theater experience of my life. And I've seen a lot of musicals, because we're a big musical family. In fact, three weeks ago, I saw Phantom of the Opera in New York, and this is better than that. It's so great, though that's a great one. But this is so profound. What is it about? Let me tell you what it's about. In a profound way, it's about people who became narrow. It's a
story of narrowed people. The very thing Paul's concerned about in 1 Corinthians. Javert is the first classic narrowed person you meet in that great musical. Javert, the detective, who has this narrow, confined view of the law. He's such a great man, but he's become so small. He's a man of great substance. He's not just a typical villain. Believe me, he's not. There's something so profound in Javert. He has so much integrity, but it's so narrowly focused
that he cannot see the whole at all. And when he sees the goodness of what God has done in John Valjean's life, he cannot see that goodness. He doesn't understand it. And that's why he has to commit suicide at the end. It's a tragedy. He's a tragic figure. He's a narrowed man, and he cannot break out of that narrowness. And then you meet Loyolas, who you might say is the opposite side. And Loyolas is the great
revolutionary, the young firebrand, who leads these youth into a revolution and leads them to the barricades of Paris. And they all die, including little children. It's a foolish, foolhardy thing he does. And Loyolas, who has these incredible songs he sings about the blood and the black of despair and the blood of revolution, as he leads these young men into revolution. But Victor Hugo, in his novel, says of Loyolas that he was a revolutionary who understood revolution,
but he did not understand history. He had no sense of history. He had no sense of the larger whole. And he was self-righteous and bitter. Totally narrow, and he dies. And then there's Theodere. Theodere, who is the master of the cafe and the little restaurant that Cosette is sent to. And they totally exploit. It's a terrible story of child abuse. They exploit this little girl that's sent, and her mother sends all this money to them.
And they are totally narrowed with one other. Just the opposite of Loyolas with his idealism. They're totally narrowed by greed. Human greed. The avarice of pure greed that dominates their whole life throughout. And they're the ones at the end after the revolution scene that are going and taking the rings and the jewels off all the dead young men. All they want is gold. Their greed. And it totally narrows them. And then there's Marius, the young lover,
who's narrowed by his own pride. The pride of the fact that his father had been humiliated. And he wanted to honor his father's memory. He himself had humiliated his father because he didn't even know his father. He didn't know how much his father had loved him. Tragic story. Narrowed by pride. Narrowed by that so that he couldn't even receive money from the people who loved him. And then there's Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean, who is narrowed by
his outrage and his fear. The outrage of having been in prison for just stealing bread. And then when he got out of prison, the outrage he felt toward all of life. And then the fear he felt. And then something happened. And of course, this is what makes the musical so great. By surprise, Jean Valjean experiences sheer, unmitigated grace. It comes through Father Ben Denieu. And if you read Victor Hugo's novel, he spends a great deal of
time making Father Ben Denieu a character. Whereas in the musical, the musical, by the way, is very faithful to the novel. But it only gives you just a glimpse of Father Ben Denieu. But Father Ben Denieu gives sheer grace to Jean Valjean. And he had never before experienced it in his life. And it totally opened him up. Began the opening process. It takes his whole life. But it opens him up. He experienced love. And that is
what this musical is all about. It's what the novel is all about. He's also opened up by Cosette, the little girl he decides to raise, as she offers love to him. The love of the little daughter he never had. And then, of course, there's this strange character, Foch Levent, the man who had fallen under a wagon. A wagon fell on his leg, and he was crushed. And Jean Valjean, the powerful man that he was, as the
mayor, he lifted the wheel. And this man came out from under the wheel. And he never forgot Jean Valjean. And one day, when Jean Valjean is running from Javert, and goes into the convent, Foch Levent saves his life. So he also helps to widen and open up Jean Valjean. And really, it becomes, therefore, the story of salvation. Now, this opening up of life to grace is what Paul's concerned about for the Corinthians. The Corinthians, and we'll
see this next week, the Corinthians have become terribly fetish-oriented, terribly fascinated with little things like power, and spiritual gifts of their own, and spiritual power that they had, and sort of an arrogance, as Paul said, you're puffed up with an arrogance that's made you narrow and confined, and unable to be flexible toward other people, and unable to see other people in the light of God's grace. And so Paul wants to break these boundaries and give
them that experience of the wholeness of the gospel. That's what the book is about. That's what Corinthians is about. And these three principles that Paul follows is what the Corinthians need. And it's what we need today, too. If you're going to be the kind of person, disciple of Christ in the world, that changes the world, this is what the world needs. That's enough for today. Heavenly Father, thank you for this text. Thank you for the way
Paul gets inside of our lives with these issues that seem so small to us about whether to eat meat from a meat market or to eat something that's set before us in someone's house. And yet these large principles are certainly there that give us a whole new view of life. And through it all, we discover the one who's at the heart of it all, who gives meaning to life. Lord, help us to become that kind of
person. In the family where we live, where we work, with the people we're with. Help us to be expansive. Protect us from narrowness and from rigidity. And turn our eyes upon the living Lord who comes alongside of us. We ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen. The Old Testament lesson is Psalm 112 found on page 529 of your peer Bible. Praise the Lord. Blessed is a man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his
commandments. His descendants will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures forever. Light rises in the darkness for the upright. The Lord is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his fairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of evil tidings.
His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he sees his desires on his adversaries. He is distributed freely. He is given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked man comes to naught. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us join together as these are being seated in our preparation to pray together, asking the Lord's blessing in our lives and to claim his promises. Let us bow together. O God, our Father, we remember with thanks and admiration the men and women of faith in the hallmark of the word of God. They're an inspiration, Abraham and Moses, and Joshua and Ruth and David, the prophets and the apostles and the church fathers. We remember the faith
that they had in you. And as we look at ourselves in comparison, we have to acknowledge that we're not people of great faith. Sometimes your promises seem so unlikely as to be laughable. Even Abraham and Sarah laughed at your promise of a son because it seemed impossible. And at all, though their faith wavered, you kept your promise. And your promises are no less staggering. You promise us life of a new and lasting quality. You promise us
deeper relationships with others. You promise that we can be completely healed as people. And you promise that you would always be with us. It's almost more than we can believe, Father, and we pray that you will help our doubts at those points when we doubt. And you increase our faith even as we hear it read and see it read in the word. Open our eyes to see what you can do with us when we put ourselves
at your disposal. And help us to hold up your promises firmly, to laugh at impossibilities as we see them becoming possible. And Lord, as we gather, we pray the promises of your word and the truth of the love that you have for us will be expressly given to those of our own church family. Locally, Jenky Smalley, as she works as an elder, preparing meals on Saturdays, being a part of the life of our church in strength.
Bless her as a single parent and one who works to support her family. Be also with Carol Jamieson in her work with Wycliffe in Arizona, knowing her own loss in the last year. Be to her the promise of her presence and strength. And renew in her your spirit of love and power. Thank you.