Christ’s resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith!
1 Corinthians 15 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost said this: Acts 2:31-36; 31 Seeing what was ahead, (David) spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
And on trial before the Sanhedrin for healing the lame man at the Gate Beautiful at the Temple, Peter said this.
Acts 4:10-12 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 He is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
The resurrection of Jesus is the heart of the Christian faith, and the proof of the truth of the gospel.
Christ’s resurrection was all the proof Thomas needed of who Jesus really is!
John 20 27 (Jesus) said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Christ’s resurrection is all the proof we need that Jesus really is the Son of god –
Romans 1:4 tells us that the gospel concerns God’s Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
Christ’s resurrection proves that ALL of Jesus’s teaching is true. The Message translates 1 Corinthians 15 like this. Verses 13-20 “If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection. ….. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries. MESSAGE
Jesus is alive. Jesus is Lord! And that is all the proof we need that His death on the cross was an acceptable sacrifice for all our sin. The ransom has been given, the price has been paid. Christ has dealt with our past. Our sins have been forgiven!
The historical event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the heart of the Christian faith. But what does the resurrection mean for us? How does it change our lives?
First, Jesus is alive today because God raised Him from the dead. So Jesus walks with us day by day. Indeed Jesus is alive inside us through the work of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus can hear and answer our prayers – because He is not a dead martyr but our Risen Saviour. Jesus makes a difference to our lives here and now in the present. He is our great High Priest.
Hebrews 7 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Jesus promises us in Matthew 28:20 Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
We are never alone. Jesus is with us all the time and has promised never to leave us!
Second, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is proof for us that we will see Christ in glory and be with Him for eternity. The resurrection is our guarantee of heaven!
On the night before He was crucified, Jesus made this promise to his disciples.
John 14 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
Because Jesus lives, we will live also! Christ’s resurrection is our guarantee of life beyond death and the happy certainty of Heaven.
1 Peter 1 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,
So we don’t need to be afraid of death any more! Jesus is alive and because He lives, we will live also! Jesus gives us a future and a hope more wonderful than any of us can possibly imagine.
Third, the resurrection is Jesus’s victory not only over sin and death but also over the devil and all the powers of evil. And Jesus shares His resurrection life with us. Christ’s resurrection is the key to living the Christian life. The resurrection is the power we need to live the Christian life!
Romans 8 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
The Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us! Jesus shares His victory with us and so we can be victorious over sin and victorious over death and victorious over the devil and all his evil schemes!
So the historical event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ makes a difference to our past – all our sins have been forgiven. The resurrection makes a difference to our lives in the present – Jesus is with us and gives us the victory! And the resurrection makes a difference to our future – we have a living hope of a glorious inheritance. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!

So – just a month to wait now! The whole world are on the edge of our seats. History is about to be made. We saw him ever so briefly on Christmas Day and have been waiting almost 9 months for the answer.What will Peter Capaldi turn out like as the Twelfth Doctor!

One of the things which can turn a good film or television series into a great series is a good cliffhanger ending!
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation. A cliffhanger is hoped to ensure the audience will return to see how the characters resolve the dilemma.
The term ‘cliffhanger’ is considered to have originated with Thomas Hardy’s serial novel A Pair of Blue Eyes in 1873. At the time newspapers published novels in a serial format with one chapter appearing every month. In order to ensure continued interest in the story many authors employed different techniques; Hardy chose to leave one of his protagonists, Knight, literally hanging off a cliff. This became the archetypal cliff-hanger of Victorian prose.
Cliffhangers became popular from the end-of-episode situations in adventure silent films of the early 1900s, with the protagonist literally left hanging from the edge of a cliff. Some serials end with the enticing strapline … “To be continued”. The best known of those cliff-hangers was the series The Perils of Pauline (1914), shown in weekly instalments and featuring Pearl White as the title character, a perpetual damsel in distress who was menaced by assorted villains, with each installment ending with her placed in a situation that looked sure to result in her imminent death – to escape at the beginning of the next instalment only to get into fresh danger at its end. One episode ended with her literally left hanging over a cliff and seeming about to fall.
The Italian Job (1969) Possibly the most famous film cliffhanger for being a literal example of the term, as it ends with the main character’s escape vehicle hanging halfway off a cliff in the Swiss Alps.
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Luke Skywalker narrowly escapes death and discovers who his father is but Han Solo is frozen in carbonite and is shipped to the gangster Jabba the Hutt. Can anybody rescue him?
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) Captain Jack Sparrow is eaten by the Kraken. How can he possibly survive to make a third film? But of course he does.
TELEVISION
Dallas – who shot JR?
Eastenders – who shot Phil Mitchell?
The West Wing
Season 1 ends with the President and his staff being shot. Season 4 ends when the President’s daughter Zoe has been kidnapped. Season 5 ends with an attack on the Presidential envoys sent to promote peace in the Middle East.

Doctor Who
In its original run (1963-1989), most stories comprised four to six episodes. All but the last episode of a story would end on a cliffhanger. One episode ended with the Doctor literally hanging from a cliff by his umbrella. The new series (2005-current) has also used cliffhangers, especially in two-part stories. There have also been cliffhangers at the end of all the current series. Now we are all eagerly awaiting the outcome of the latest cliffhanger – Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor.

The History of Salvation had its cliff-hanger moments! The people of Israel on the run from slavery – trapped between the Red Sea and the pursuing Egyptian armies. How would they get out of that one?
Or the Israelites a year later, standing on the edge of the promised land but turning away to wander in the wilderness. Would they ever take possession of the Land? Wait 40 years for the happy ending to that cliffhanger. And then the Israelites taken into exile by the Babylonians – 70 years before they would find out what happens next!

The Christmas story was a bit of a cliffhanger – miracle baby born, angels, shepherds, wise men and then nothing for 30 years!
And what about the Easter story. Jesus crucified dead and buried on Good Friday. But we only needed to wait three days for the happy ending on Easter Sunday!

And now we find ourselves in the middle of a cliffhanger even today!

Acts 1:9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Jesus has ascended into heaven. When will he come back? Will He ever come back??

Things aren’t looking good!

Worldwide financial crisis – having an impact on very many people, whether in terms of house prices and availability of mortgages, or erosion of the value of pensions or investments or savings, and even many people’s jobs on the line. Just last week the experts announced that we are out of the woods and that by the measure of Gross Domestic Product five years of depression are finally over. But most ordinary people feel much poorer than they were five years ago.

Suffering today ->
Starvation and droughts and floods and wars. Plagues like malaria and cholera and HIV AIDS and children dying in their thousands every day because of a lack of safe drinking water. Lightning striking homes in Chelmsford, floods in Canvey Island and Stock and Wickford.

Persecution of the church
Christians being martyred in Iraq and Nigeria and Palestine

Evil today ->
A civilian airliner shot down by terrorists over the Ukraine. The conflict in Gaza. A dictator still oppressing his own people, destroying his own nation by his greed for power. Terrorists singling out US and UK citizens to be slaughtered

We are in the middle of a cliffhanger! But Jesus told us to expect that! And Jesus warned us that things are going to get worse before they get better.

Matt 24:6 You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth-pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

We are in the middle of a cliffhanger. But we are not in despair . We do not give up hope. Because we are confident that the Author is not going to leave creation hanging over a cliff forever. He has promised that there will be a happy ending. All the twists in the plot will be straightened out. All the wrongs will be put right. Everything will work out for the best in the Grande Finale.

This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. ,,,, 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all

There is a grand finale on the way! There will be a happy ending!

We all love happy endings! All the loose ends tidied up. Everybody lives happily ever after. A poll of BBC viewers identified some of the most popular series finales.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Cold Feet , Dallas, Mash, Cheers, Ally McBeal

God has promised the whole of creation a happy ending, a grand finale, more spectacular and wonderful than anything we can imagine.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10a …“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”— [10a] but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

We see Suffering today but it will not always be that way!
In the grand finale, all the suffering will be ended, all the pain and tears will cease.

Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

We see Persecution of the church and Evil at work today. We see death and destruction. But it will not always be like that. In the Grand Finale, truth and justice will triumph and all evil will be destroyed.
Revelation 20: 7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.

Living in the middle of a cliffhanger makes us uncomfortable. But things will not be this way into eternity. There is a happy ending on the way. We are still waiting for the Grand Finale.
As they say in America, “It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings”. There’s another interesting phrase.

It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings is a proverb, essentially meaning that one shouldn’t make assumptions about the outcome of some activity until it has actually finished.
This phrase in turn refers to Wagner’s opera, the Ring cycle. It is a rather lengthy opera, or a set of four separate operas lasting around 15 hours in total. It ends in an aria sung by a larger lady dressed like a valkyrie with a horned helmet, a spear and a a shield. You know the opera is over when the fat lady sings.
Phrase often used by sports commentators especially in USA – it doesn’t matter how the match or the season is going right now – what matters is the score at the final whistle or the end of the season.
Well there ain’t going to be a fat lady singing when God brings this universe to a close. But there is going to be an angel and there is going to be a trumpet!

1 Corinthians 15:50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

1 thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever.

No fat lady singing – but we can say this. It ain’t over til the angel blows the trumpet! But then the cliffhanger will be over. Then there will be the happy ending, the grand finale – more wonderful than anything we can possibly imagine.

(Film and Television facts gleaned from Wikipedia)

There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game – It’s easy.
There’s nothing you can make that can’t be made.
No one you can save that can’t be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time – It’s easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be. – It’s easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Of course John Lennon and Paul McCartney were not the first people to recognize just how important love is. They could easily have taken their inspiration from what the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
LOVE IS WHAT MATTERS
This is true in the whole of life, and especially true in our own individual Christian lives and in the life of the church. Love is what matters.
Arguments about spiritual gifts don’t really matter. 1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
None of the other things the Corinthians were arguing about really mattered either. Forms of worship don’t really matter. Which group you belong to and which church leader you are following don’t really matter. Love is what matters! Even the ultimate sacrifice of martyrdom would be completely worthless if it was not an expression of love.3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Christians and churches today really need to listen to what the Bible is saying here. There are so many things which Christians think are important. Our Sunday Services: our hymns and our prayers and even our sermons. Without love they are nothing. All our activities: our Toddlers and our Drop In and our Café. Without love they are nothing. The task of evangelizing the world and the battles for social justice in so many areas. Without love they are nothing. Even the big issues that Churches have been arguing about in recent months: women bishops and same sex marriages. Whether we reach the right answers or the wrong answers – without love we are wasting our time. But let’s be clear about what kind of love we are talking about here.
GOD’s KIND OF LOVE
When they wrote, “All you need is love,” Lennon and McCartney were primarily thinking about romantic love. That is what most of their fans were thinking about. But the apostle Paul has a very different kind of love in mind – a much more wonderful form of love, God’s kind of love.
So often when people say they love something, they simply mean they like it very much. Often people use the word love to talk about their passive response to something or to some person. When starry-eyed lovers say they love each other, they simply mean that they like each other very much. “I love you,” sometimes means no more than, “You please me, you excite me, you make me happy.”
But God’s kind of love is not some passive response but always something very active. Love isn’t something we feel but something we do!
The Christians in Corinth were treating each other appallingly, arguing and splitting into factions yet at the same time tolerating all kinds of outrageous sins. They were using spiritual gifts with pride to score points over each other. So Paul spells out to them what God’s kind of love is like.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Sometimes love is expressed in actions which bring blessing to the other person. Patience and kindness. Rejoicing with the truth. Protecting. Trusting, Remaining hopeful and never giving up.
And at the same time love is sometimes expressed by NOT doing something or saying something which would be unloving. God’s kind of love is about NOT being jealous, not boasting or being proud. Not being rude or self seeking. Not getting angry. Deliberately forgetting the wrongs other people have done to us and not being happy when bad things happen to others. This is what God’s kind of love is like. These are the ways God loves us. And these are the ways God calls Christians to love other people as well.
There’s a paradox when we talk about God’s kind of love. Because on the one hand we are commanded to show God’s kind of love to other Christians and also show God’s kind of love to our neighbours. But on the other hand God’s kind of love is impossible for fallen human beings. Because of all our sin we are too selfish and greedy and self-centred and proud to love with the kind of love God has for us. So the command to love is a command we find impossible to obey in our own strength.
The good news is that God gives us the strength to love other people with His kind of love. Romans 5:5 tells us, God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. God gives us strength to love through His Holy Spirit living inside us. The fruit the Holy Spirit produces in our lives is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. (Galatians 5:22). So a vital part of the Holy Spirit’s work is to produce God’s kind of love in our lives. 1 John 4:19 tells us, “We love because God first loved us.”
There will be times when our love runs out. When people or situations stretch our patience and our kindness to breaking point. When we feel we have absolutely no love left to give. When that happens, it is good to remember that as well as commanding us to keep on loving, God will also give us the strength we need to keep on loving with His kind of love. 2 Timothy 1:7 reminds us, 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
So when our love runs out, we should always turn to God and ask Him to give us the strength to love some more.
We have often used 1 Corinthians 13 as a basis for meditation and reflection on our own experiences of loving others. We won’t do that this evening although you may well wish to do so in your own times of devotion tonight or some time this week. But to remind us of what God’s kind of love is like let me just read how Eugene Peterson translates this passage in THE MESSAGE.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Love Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Love Doesn’t force itself on others,
Love Isn’t always “me first,”
Love Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Love Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Love Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Love Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Love Puts up with anything,
Love Trusts God always,
Love Always looks for the best,
Love Never looks back,
Love keeps going to the end.
Love never dies!

This is God’s kind of love. And the reason that love matters more than anything else is simply because
LOVE NEVER DIES
God’s kind of love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God’s kind of love never fails. God’s kind of love never runs out!
The Corinthians were arguing about spiritual gifts. But spiritual gifts only have a place in this world, in this life. We won’t need spiritual gifts in heaven!
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
We only need spiritual gifts now because we aren’t in God’s presence yet. But one day we will be with God in glory. We will see him face to face. Things which are of value to us now won’t be needed any more.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
So many of the things people chase after in this life will cease to exist into eternity. So many of the things which seem to be so important now will be of no significance in heaven. Money, possessions, success, status, position, popularity, prestige. These things will all be irrelevant in heaven. Even the little scraps of knowledge and experience we have accumulated in this life will be unnecessary when we see face to face and know fully even as we are fully known. As the Message puts it, “We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us,”
As Christians we put so much time and effort into so many things. Our services. Our activities. Our outreach. Our buildings. So many pieces of paper! None of these things will be in heaven with us. The only things from this life which will continue into eternity will be relationships. Our relationships with other people and supremely our relationship with God.
On my Sabbatical in Uganda I was led to a marvellous book by Tim Stafford called “The Friendship Gap”. He points out that in our busy Western lives we put work before relationships. In contrast, the African way is to put relationships before work. In Africa family and friendships matter more than “getting the job done”. Over the following six weeks I saw so many examples of that. I began to learn that in Africa, or in England, or anywhere where God is at work, the people matter more than the particular pieces of service. None of our buildings or sermons or projects or leaflets or reports or emails will last into eternity. Only our relationships with people will! That’s why love is the most important thing,
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Only our faith, our hope and our love will go with us into glory. And the greatest of these is love! Love never dies. Love lasts forever.

1 Cor 10:16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

One bread – one body! The bread and wine unite each one of us to Christ – and they also unite us to each other!

Solemn warning in 1 Corinthians 11 for everybody who ever takes communion, the Lord’s Supper.
1 Cor 11:26 Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognising the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.

What does eating or drinking “in an unworthy manner (NIV)” “in a way that dishonours him (GNB)” mean?
Some people are afraid to take the bread and wine because they are very conscious of their own sinfulness. This is NOT the sin Paul is warning us all about. People who are conscious of their need of forgiveness are the very people who SHOULD take the bread and wine. People are most aware of their need are those who will gain the greatest benefit from communion. We come NOT because we are righteous but precisely because we acknowledge that we are sinners standing in need of God’s mercy.

The sin some Corinthians were committing here is something very different. As earlier on in 1 Cor 12 vv 17-22 their sin was irreverence, failing to see the spiritual importance of what they were doing at the Lord’s Table. This sin of eating and drinking “without recognising the body of the Lord”, can take two forms.

(1) Failing to discern the spiritual significance of the elements. Failing to recognise the body of Christ in the bread. Failing to see that the bread and wine represent the body and blood of Christ. Taking the bread and wine without realising their significance – without reverence and awe and wonder. We usually avoid this sin.

(2) The sin we can more easily fall into – failing to recognise the body of Christ in the church. Failing to recognise the gathered church as the body of Christ. Failing to recognise and affirm other people around us as Christians. Failing to see that because we share in the one bread and drink the common cup we are one body. Becoming so absorbed in our own individual receiving of the blessings which Christ died to give us that we ignore or shut out the other Christians for whom Christ also died.

17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
One bread – one body. 1 Corinthians 11 warns us that failing to acknowledge this corporate dimension of our salvation is indeed a sin!

We are saved by God’s grace and we receive that salvation through the channel of faith which much be individual and personal. That individual and personal faith unites us to Christ in his saving death and resurrection life. In John 15:5 Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit;”
A Christian is a person who is joined to Jesus. But we must never forget that being united to Christ also unites us to other Christians. We are all branches of the SAME vine. Because each of us is joined to Jesus, we are all joined to each other in Christ’s body, the Church.

1 Corinthians 12 ¶ The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
22 Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honour to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.

This is the consequence of being united to Christ – one bread, one body. So we should be concerned for other Christians. We should have concern for the other Christians in our own church, for their needs and problems. We should have concern for Christians in other churches in our town, and seek worship and witness and to work together with them when we can. We should have concern for other churches in our land. And we should have concern for our brothers and sisters around the world in every place – because they are joined to Jesus exactly as we are. They are as precious to God as we are. They are as much a part of the body of Christ as we are!

But that’s just impossible, you will tell me! We are delighted to welcome more and more new folk to North Springfield Baptist Church. How can we know all of them? There are around 45 churches in Chelmsford. We can’t know them all. Just the Baptist family in England is made up of more than two thousand churches. There are tens of thousands of churches in Britain! And around the world there are more than a BILLION Christians! How can I have concern for them all?

This is true. The challenge of showing true Christian love to SO MANY brothers and sisters is daunting. The problem is that, because the challenge to show concern seems so overwhelming, some Christians don’t bother to try! They settle for a very personal faith, letting our light shine “you in your small corner and I in mine. “Small corner syndrome.” Other Christians honestly do try their best to care for every need that comes to their attention, but many give up exhausted with so many appeals for secular good causes on TV as well as all the Christian agencies competing for our support. It’s called “compassion fatigue”.

Don’t worry. God doesn’t demand that we achieve the impossible. He knows the limits of our humanity. There is an old Russian proverb.
“If you live next to the cemetery you can’t weep for everybody!”

God understands the limits we have. He doesn’t ask each of us to shoulder the burdens of the whole church. Jesus Christ has already done that. But he DOES expect each of us to have concern for brothers and sisters. One bread – one body! And in practice for most of us here I do think there is a minimum that God would like us to be doing, unless there are special circumstances to prevent it.

Each Christian should have a real and meaningful concern for a dozen or so other people in our own church, caring for them and supporting them in prayer and in practical ways. In the midst of the demands of his busy public ministry Jesus could care for a dozen disciples. We should be able to follow His example. This is where Home Groups are so valuable. Small Groups where we can know each other and grow in our faith. Where we can care for one another and share together and bear one another’s burdens. Home Groups where the church is most a family. One bread – one body!

Then each of us should have a concern for at least one other church in our town. To know about them and be praying for them. Maybe even worshipping with them occasionally. All Saints Church on Springfield Green, or Church of our Saviour in Chelmer Village maybe. But any church in Chelmsford would welcome our prayers and our fellowship. We all share the same one bread and the same cup! They are part of the Body of Christ in Chelmsford just as much as we are!!

Then I believe it is good for every one of us to have concern for at least one other church elsewhere in Britain. From Christmas until Easter I served as Moderator of Braintree Baptist Church and helped them call their new minister Barry Cheeseman. We have a link with the Baptist church at Sible Hedingham led by Paul Corson because I have visited them three times in connection with Baptist Home Mission. In February I have accepted an invitation to preach at Mayland Baptist Church, a little group of six or seven people who are the only gospel witness in their village. As part of the Council of the Eastern Baptist Association I am in contact with a number of churches around the area and will try to keep you informed of things going on. There may well be other churches in other parts of the country you personally take a prayerful interest in, or support, perhaps because you used to belong there. The church where you grew up, or found faith, perhaps. Different kinds of churches in all kinds of denominations. All drinking the same cup and breaking the same bread – one bread, one body.

Finally I believe that every Christian ought to have a real concern for at least one church or one missionary situation somewhere else in the world. To be supporting that church or those missionaries in prayer. Supporting them with letters or phone calls or emails. Maybe supporting by making a visit. The world is not that big and travel is cheaper and easier than ever before! Jerry and Ruth Clewett are home for six weeks from Nepal. Naomi’s sister Esther is still serving the Lord in Zambia. Heather and Naomi have their links with Bulgaria through Marbles. Lynn Middleton is making the final preparations for her visit to Peru. You have met our friend Lyn Cooke working in Arua in Uganda with Africa Inland Mission. And I still have contacts in Bulgaria. But it is would be wonderful if every Christian could have a meaningful link with a church or a missionary somewhere else around the world. One cup, one bread, one body.

We serve the God who is the Holy Trinity, Father Son and Holy Spirit. Our God is three in one and one in three. Unity in diversity. Unity in community. And that Unity in community is God’s pattern for His church. Not countless identical congregations which are all identical clones, but a glorious variety of traditions and perspectives which together make up the Body of Christ.

25 .. there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.

As we take the bread and the wine today, let us not fall into that sin the apostle Paul warns us about. Let us make sure that we recognise the Body of Christ. As we remember Christ dying on the cross for us, let us be sure to remember that his death and resurrection unite us all into His Body here on earth. One bread – one body.

A dozen folk in our own church. One other church in our town. Another church in Britain. At least one church or city or missionary in another part of the world. Not that impossible a task really. No need to fall into small corner syndrome. No need for compassion fatigue. But this concern for our brothers and sisters is not an optional extra in our Christian lives.

17 Because there is one bread, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

“His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness, but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, with his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.” … “Its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, to whom I had given life.”

You may recognise those words of Mary Shelley in the greatest horror story of all time, “Frankenstein”, the story of a medical student who took spare limbs from dead bodies to make an artificial man which he brought to life with the energy of lightning. This “man-made monster” has been the classic theme of horror and science fiction ever since, from Boris Karloff to Christopher Lee to Herman Munster, from the repellant Cardassians in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, to genetically engineered mutants beloved of X Files or Outer Limits. It haunts our dreams, “the Post-Modern Prometheus” (Mulder), our “Frankenstein complex”. The whole picture is terrifying in its ugliness. A body made up of stray limbs, angular, disjointed, sluggish – a revolting body made by a man rather than a body beautiful as God creates and intends bodies to be.

The apostle Paul describes the church as the Body of Christ. When we say “Church”, we may have in mind our own individual Congregation. We may have in mind the church in Chelmsford as she is made up of all the Christians from all our diverse traditions. Whenever we think about the church as the Body of Christ the spectre of Frankenstein’s monster looms large. As we look at our individual congregations and at the church together we are faced with a disturbing question. Are we really living and working together as the beautiful Body of Christ as God intends? Or does the Christian church of Brentwood and our own separate congregations sometimes seem more like Frankenstein’s monster. Especially to those “outside” church life, do we appear to be any more than just a jumble of limbs, not fitting together, not working properly, too much a man-made organisation and not enough a God-fashioned organism, less like a body and more like a business? But what can we do to become more the body of Christ, less of a man-made monster???

The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:15-16 We must grow up in every way to Christ who is the head. Under His control all the different parts of the body fit together, and the whole body is held together by every joint and sinew with which it is provided. So when each separate part works as it should, the whole body grows and builds itself up through love.

If the parts of the body are to fit together and be held together, building each other up in love, each separate part needs to be working as it should. Each and every Christian needs to see himself or herself as part of that body, and play the part God has given. And all ours distinct congregations must play their part in the one body too.
1. NO OPTING OUT!

1 Cor 12:12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 20 .. there are many parts, but one body. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Each Christian belongs to the Body of Christ. The Christian life is a team game – not an individual event! Claiming to be a Christian without being properly committed to a church is like claiming to play football but never joining a team or playing in a real match.
In the comedy horror film/series “Addams Family”, a strange creature “Hand” pops out of box to answer telephone. NO SUCH thing in the church – no Christian who is an unattached hand, an “independent ear” or a “freelance nose” !!! We ALL have a part to play, spiritual gifts to use in Body of Christ. NONE of US is useless. There’s the difference between Body of Christ and human body – body of Christ doesnt have an appendix – NO part of Body of Christ is redundant, NO part of Body of Christ is useless!

I’ve told you before the story of the talking dog which walked into Job Centre one day and asked for a job. The employment officer was amazed, but quickly said, “There’s a circus in town this week – go and see if they have any vacancies for a dog.”
Next day the dog was back in Job Centre again. “What happened with the circus?” the officer asked.
“Oh that was no use,” the dog replied. “They wanted a performing dog – I’m a bricklayer!”

We can’t opt out just because we aren’t invited to do the job WE would like to do. Our responsibility is to take the part GOD has given for us – using the gifts HE has given to do the job HE wants us to do! Belonging to a church is like belonging to an orchestra – turning up for the rehearsals as well as playing in the concerts. It’s like belonging to a football team, playing your hardest so the team wins rather than you getting all the glory for an occasional spectacular solo effort. It is when each separate part works as it should that the whole body grows. No opting out! And …
2. NO INFERIORITY

1 Cor 12:15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

Christians aren’t all meant to be the same!!! We aren’t meant to be all clones, all identical. What a strange body that would make. Back at college whenever we had chicken for dinner – EVERYBODY got legs, every time, never any wings, never any white meat, always legs. We came up with the theory that we were being fed on a new experimental genetically engineered creature, the “Centi-chicken” – 100 legs, no wings, no white meat! The body of Christ is not meant to be some kind of “centi-chicken”, every part identical. God does not want all Christians to be priests or vicars or ministers or elders or deacons or musicians! Parts of the body have different functions, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t parts of the body! They all still belong!

1 Cor 12:18 God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be?

No opting out. No inferiority, and …

3. NO SUPERIORITY – no PRIDE, or exclusiveness or arrogance.

1 Cor 12:21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour.

Christians can so easily look down on each other. We dont like his theology, we don’t like her lifestyle, we dont like his earrings, we dont like the way her kids behave in church. But remember, WE don’t choose who belongs to His Church, Christ does! If that person is a believer, they are part of Christ’s body in this congregation and in this town whether we would choose to let them in or not! We HAVE to make space to let others play their part!!

1 Cor 12: 25 there should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.

So, NO DIVISION in the body. SO MANY DIFFERENCES can come between Christians in our church life – issues of theology, styles of worship. Matters of Emphasis, of Taste, or of Conscience. There can be Power struggles and Party interests and Personality Clashes. It is strange that we find these kinds of arguments and divisions in the Body of Christ when we never find them within a human body. We NEVER find hands and feet arguing and falling out. When toenails need cutting our hands never say “yuk what a nasty job Im not going near those feet”. When our eyes want to move nearer to look at something interesting our legs never say “YOU may like looking in computer shops but I dont, so you can go off by youself if you like, head. We are staying here!” Each part of the body plays its part, all working together!

There should be NO division in the body. We shouldn’t ignore one another, but enjoy one another, benefiting from the different gifts and contributions each can make within the one body. “Equal concern for each other” means for ALL the parts of the body, even the parts we don’t know or don’t get on with. Concern for ALL, from youngest to oldest, whatever race, background, education, employment! “Anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4.)
And SUFFERING and REJOICING together means the parts of the Body take care of each other! When I had terrible EARACHE: my feet took me to doctors, my mouth explained problem, my hands put the ear drops in my ear, and the tablets into mouth which swallowed them. ALL parts working together!

People opting out, folk being made to feel inferior, people acting superior and ignoring the needs of others and squeezing them out: so many divisions which leave the church looking like a Frankenstein’s monster! This is true in any individual congregation, and it is should be equally true in the relationships between congregations. There should be no divisions between Anglicans and Baptists, Roman Catholics and Pentecostals – differences, yes, divisions NO! Divisions can come from churches opting out, from churches being made to feel inferior and other churches acting as if they were superior. The apostle makes it abundantly plain, “There should be NO divisions in the Body of Christ!”

We need unity in the Body of Christ for our own sake – for the blessings we will receive. We also need unity for God’s sake. A church which is only a man-made monster grieves the Holy Spirit of God, it grieves Christ the Head of the Body, it grieves the Father heart of God. And most of all we need unity for the sake of the world, that the world might believe. The church is supposed to be God’s visual aid to the watching world of the difference that His love and forgiveness makes. But so often the church gives a very poor example of God’s love. God commands us to show His kind of sacrificial love to this sin-spoilt world. And He gives us other Christians to practice on. If we can’t even be bothered to love each other, how can we begin to seek and save the lost? We need to put divisions behind us because the world NEEDS TO SEE the beautiful Body of Christ – not a Frankenstein’s monster!

Isn’t the body
an amazing creation. Just think of some of the things a human body can accomplish when all the parts work together in harmony. Think of an Olympic athlete, say Daley Thompson throwing the discus or Jonathan Edwards doing the triple jump – body supple and flowing, perfect balance and positioning. Think of the coordination of legs and hips and arm and eye, for the hand to release the disc at the exact split-second, or hopping, stepping and jumping in sequence. Somehow it’s hard to imagine Frankenstein’s monster throwing a discus, or doing the pole vault or the triple jump!
Or think of a violinist, Yehudi Menuin or Nigel Kennedy, or Vanessa Mae, the right hand guiding the bow across the strings to within a millimetre and a split-second, with just enough pressure and attack. At the same time the left hand has to be even more precise as it fingers the notes, kept in tune by the ear, with one eye on the music and the other on the conductor! It’s hard to imagine Frankenstein’s monster playing a violin concerto!
No opting out. No inferiority. No superiority. No divisions. Are we the Bride of Christ or the Bride of Frankenstein; are we the Body of Christ or just some Man-Made Monster? Which will we choose to become ?????

Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) In many places the Old Testament gives us pictures of what worship was like for the Israelites. Patterns for worship are laid out, we read descriptions of worship events, and we have the Psalms which formed the heart of the Jewish hymn book and prayer book. It seems likely that the worship of those first Christians was based on worship in the synagogues but otherwise the New Testament tells us very little about the worship of the Early Church and most of what we can learn is found here in 1 Corinthians. In two weeks we will see what Paul teaches us about the Lord’s Supper, or communion. For tonight we will look at the two other passages which give us a glimpse of what worship was like in the church in Corinth. Like most of this letter, we presume that Paul wrote both of these passages in response to questions the Corinthians had asked him. So it is good to remember that what Paul tells us here is as much about what the Corinthians were doing wrong as about what they were doing right in their worship. It is not a complete treatise on Christian Worship in the First Century – just a few answers to a few questions. And the first question is about
WOMEN COVERING THEIR HEADS IN WORSHIP
1 Corinthians 11:3 Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. 5 And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is just as though her head were shaved.
This whole section about women covering their heads in worship is very hard for us to understand and apply today. It is locked in customs and understandings of first century Judaism about the place of men and women in creation and ancient near eastern taboos about women showing their hair to men. In those days women would grow their hair long, and men their hair short. That is just the way things were done. And women would keep their hair covered except when they were with their husbands as a mark of respect for their husbands. So Paul says,
. 6 If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head.
In other words, it would be as socially unacceptable for a woman to cut her hair off or even shave her head as it would be for her to go around without covering up her hair. The issue was what was considered respectable at the time and what was considered indecent.
7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9 neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head.
Indeed, says Paul, even the angels would be offended at a woman not having her head covered in public! 13 Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.
This was an issue for that place and that time. It is not an issue for us today because society has no expectations about how either men or women should fashion their hair. There are few hairstyles which would cause anybody any offence any more, in times of worship or any other times. All kinds of weird and wonderful theologies have been built around these verses on women covering up their hair, and the words “headship” and “covering.” This passage has been misused to argue that God has placed women in a position of subservience to men, and wives to their husbands. But that is not what Paul is saying at all!
Note – women were praying in public and prophesying with their head’s uncovered. The problem Paul cares about is the question of whether their heads should be covered or not. This whole passage assumes that women leading the church in prayer or bringing prophecies to the church are both perfectly acceptable and appropriate.
5 And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is just as though her head were shaved.
Hold that thought and we’ll be coming back to it in a few minutes. Because there is another question Paul has to answer about worship in 1 Corinthians 14 and that concerns,

ORDER OR CHAOS IN WORSHIP
Paul begins by considering participation in worship – and considers that all to be good! What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. The idea of open worship, different people bringing different elements to the worship, what we call “bring and share” all good! This was describing what happened in Corinth. Paul is not saying this is the pattern all church worship should follow. But Paul does not criticize that pattern. “Open worship” is clearly permissible, even if it is not the only form worship can take. There is a good case for suggesting that worship should never be a “one-man band” all led from the front and should usually involve the participation of a number of believers. Their contributions may be prepared in advance: words of instruction, sermons and teaching, testimonies and for some people even their prayers usually benefit from some preparation. On the other hand some contributions to worship may be spontaneous, inspired on the spot: speaking in tongues and their explanations and some prophecies. The New Testament certainly encourages the whole congregation to be led by the Spirit as they share in worship together.
In Colossians 3 Paul says this. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
This suggests that in Colossae many people were leading each other in worship and even teach one another. But Paul also insists that this should always proceed in an orderly fashion. Worship should never descend into chaos.
1 Corinthians 14:40 Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.
When it comes to speaking in tongues
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God.
There are some churches I have been to where everybody is encouraged to all pray out loud at the same time. In some of those churches people are encouraged to pray in tongues all at the same time. Let me be honest – I have great problems with those forms of worship. Paul says only a few should speak and they should do so one at a time! Everybody praying at once seems to me to be exactly what Paul is saying we should NOT do! And then Paul expects that in times of worship prayers in tongues should be followed by explanations of those prayers in the common language. Churches which do not stop and wait for those interpretations or explanations seem to me to be completely rejecting 1 Corinthians 14:27-28. And that leaves me very uneasy about those times of worship.
When it comes to bringing words of prophecy.
29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 30 And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 31 For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. 32 The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. 33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.
Again, I am all for prophecy as a part of worship. But I am also concerned about the quality, or should I say the lack of quality, of prophecy in many churches which encourage this. Paul insists that prophecies should always be weighed and evaluated by other prophets. Churches which allow people to bring “messages from God,” dreams and visions and other prophetic experiences, are obliged by 1 Corinthians 14 to make sure that the wheat is always sifted from the chaff.
Worship in the church in Corinth had lost the spirit of peace. Many of them were using spiritual gifts of speaking in tongues and even of prophesying as a way of showing off in front of each other. Everybody was praying and prophesying and probably singing all at the same time so their times of worship had descended into chaos. Paul insists this is wrong. God is not a God of disorder but of peace.
40 Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

And that is the context where we read one of the most misunderstood parts of Scripture.
1 Corinthians 14:33 As in all the congregations of the saints, 34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
I talked about this passage before as part of our series on Understanding the New Testament. I reminded us then that a vital step in understanding any verse is to read it in context. The context here is that Paul is saying that everybody talking at the same time contributes to disorder in worship. And then he answers what we presume to be a question the Corinthians had posed in a letter they had written to Paul. Should women talk in church?
That word “speak” could mean different things. It could mean speaking in tongues. It could refer to women turning to their neighbour and asking them what on earth the preacher is going on about. Speaking could just mean chattering. The Greek word for say or speak “laleo” has that breadth of meanings. It is unlikely that Paul is talking about women preaching or teaching, because then he would probably have used one of the more precise words which mean to preach or to teach. And there are two other aspects of speaking which we can be pretty sure Paul was not referring to, because we have already seen from 1 Corinthians 11 that Paul has no problems at all with women praying or prophesying in church, just as long as in that culture they keep their heads covered up.
Paul says 34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home
In the context of insisting that worship should be an expression of order and peace, not disorder or chaos, I believe Paul is talking about women adding to the confusion by talking to their neighbour about what is being said. What he says here doesn’t tell us anything about women preaching or teaching, or about women being in leadership of churches, or about women becoming Ministers.
These two passages about worship in Corinth do tell us two things which are important for worship in churches today. The first is that here at North Springfield Baptist Church we ought to be making more space for more people to participate in worship. By bringing the Bible reading and leading us in prayer. By sharing testimonies and children’s talks. By bringing words of prophecy and knowledge and wisdom. By leading our worship and even by preaching and teaching. For a variety of reasons I have kept most of these things to myself but that must change. Because God can speak through you as well as through me. Because many of you have spiritual gifts which I haven’t given you the space to exercise and develop. This must change and this will change!
But at the same time, whoever is leading or preaching or praying, we should never forget the most important point Paul is making about order in worship. I fear that some churches today have forgotten these vital principles, and others simply choose to ignore them. Nobody can worship in spirit and in truth in the midst of chaos.
“God is not a God of disorder but of peace. Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”

“Fight the good fight of the faith,” Paul says 1 Timothy 6 :12. We Christians don’t like fighting. Somehow we think we ought not to fight. And we aren’t any good at fighting. But there’s one fight we can’t escape from. There’s one battle God really wants us to fight and indeed to win, and that’s the fight against temptation. God calls Christians to follow Jesus and to become more like Him – to become holy as our heavenly Father is holy. And we can only do that by winning in the battle against temptation. A holy life is a succession of holy moments. We need to learn to say yes to God and no to sin, more and more every time. And that’s a fight, a struggle, a battle!
Oscar Wilde spoke for us all when he said, “I can resist everything except temptation.” Sometimes we are still surprised when we fail God, when temptation overwhelms us and we give in so easily. But we shouldn’t be surprised. The Bible is very clear:
THERE’S A WAR ON
As Christians we are caught up in the cosmic battle between good and evil, between God and the devil and his minions. The whole world is a battleground, and especially if we are Christians our lives and our bodies and our minds and our hearts are the battlegrounds. We saw this in our sermons on Romans.
Romans 7 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. …. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Last week Europe was looking back seventy years to the events of D-Day. That war was fought on three fronts, land, sea and air. In our battles we are also attacked from three directions.
The world around us – putting us under pressure to fit in.
The flesh – our fallen sinful human nature which can be especially challenging for a person who has only become a Christian later in life.
The devil – deceiving and lying and leading people away from God.
We are in the middle of this battle against the world, the flesh and the devil, and the apostle Paul took that battle very seriously indeed.
1 Corinthians 9 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Paul is saying we need to be like athletes in training. Following Jesus can’t just be one hobby amongst many. Some people view being a Christian a bit like life insurance, or should I say “after-life insurance.” They think that as long as they turn up to church occasionally and pay their subscriptions into the offering box now and then everything will be OK.
But the Bible says we need to be like athletes training for a competition. The Corinthians would know all about that. In the ancient world every three years the Isthmian Games took place in Corinth, and they were second in importance only to the Olympic Games. Like those athletes, Christians need to be in strict training to win the prize of the crown of life which will last forever. Just like athletes, Christians need to make sacrifices and exercise self-control in all things, They should give up not only unhealthy pleasures but even legitimate passtimes if they interfere with training and make the body or the mind flabby. And we know that spiritual battles are so much more important than winning a race.
So Paul says, 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I’m not just a jogger! I do not fight like a man beating the air. I’m no shadow boxer! Paul took the battle against temptation seriously and so should we.
I’ve waffled on before about what was required to represent my university at the crazy sport I used to play. Not only the matches on Saturdays, which meant travelling all round the South of England. There was the team practice on Wednesday afternoons, skills training on Monday lunchtimes and circuit training in the gym on Thursday lunchtimes. We need to do our spiritual press-ups and star jumps if we want to be fit for the spiritual battles we face.
Let me offer two specific examples of spiritual exercises which help Christians be ready to say yes to God and no to sin.
One general principle – a simple lifestyle. Seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousness in all things. Delighting ourselves in God and not in our possessions.
1 John 2 15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
We each need to take our stand against the pull of that creeping enemy materialism. Only buying things for their usefulness and never for their status. Developing the habit of giving things away. Refusing to be conned by the hidden persuaders of advertising. Living more simply so that we learn to depend on God and not on that false god Money.
One specific practice – fasting. Like Jesus did in the wilderness. Like Moses and David and Elijah and Esther and Daniel and Paul. Like the early church did, and Luther and Calvin. Committed Jews in Jesus’s time fasted two days a week and John Wesley urged the first Methodists to do the same, and refused to ordain anyone as a minister who didn’t practise fasting.
Fasting is a powerful aid to prayer, but fasting is also a valuable training ground for the battle against our selfish human nature. By fasting we learn to surrender to God instead of to the demands of our bodies, preparing ourselves for the battles against temptation. The world thinks that happiness consists of having all our desires met immediately. Fasting replaces selfishness with self-denial. We need an antidote to self-indulgence and fasting helps us develop self-control. Try fasting from food. Or from TV. Or from texting or from the internet. Like athletes in strict training, Paul says
26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave
Paul subdued his body and its desires – developing a simple lifestyle and the spiritual practice of fasting can help us to do the same! All to make sure we are in tip-top spiritual shape and that when the time of temptation comes we can
STAND FIRM
When temptation strikes we shouldn’t panic and we shouldn’t give in. Because help is always at hand.
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
It’s true. Our temptations are only the same as those which others have faced. The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus himself was tempted in every way as we are, yet He did not sin. But instead of pointing to the life of Jesus, Paul points to the examples of the Israelites in the Old Testament and gives them a number of warnings of sins to avoid.
10 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
This is a stern warning! The Israelites were God’s chosen people, rescued from slavery in Egypt and on their way to the Promised Land. They were miraculously sustained and protected by God, yet many of them fell into sin.
6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.”
Remember the Israelites who made a Golden Calf to worship even while Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the ten Commandments! Beware of the sin of idolatry, the modern idols of money and shopping and entertainment.
8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.
The temptations to immorality are as powerful today as they have ever been.
9 We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.
Putting God to the test, moaning about God’s provision and doubting His promises.
10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
Grumbling may not seem to us to be a very big sin – but complaining and rebelling against God are still easy traps to fall in to. Some people are never satisfied. The more God blesses some people, instead of becoming more grateful the more they take him for granted.
There are so many other examples of sins to avoid which Paul could have chosen from the Old Testament. Pride, greed, lust, murder, jealousy, hatred, divisiveness. Sin is all around us and the devil attacks us all from every side. But whatever the temptation may be, we have God’s promise of help, a way of escape.
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
But we often misunderstand that verse. We can so easily take it out of context. We read it as a promise, but the context shows us that the emphasis is very different.
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
What Paul is saying that all these Old Testament warnings of sins to avoid challenge us.
But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
The way out of temptation God offers is not a promise we can choose to claim if we feel like it. It is a way out we are obliged to claim whether we feel like it or not! This is not just an encouragement to weak Christians who are battling against temptation and losing. This is a challenge to strong Christians, who think they are standing firm. God’s way of escape is there. Make sure you take it and don’t fall into sin like the Israelites did! You ought to take God’s way out of temptation. You don’t have to sin – make sure you don’t!
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
So this verse is both a promise and a challenge to us all. Fight the good fight of the faith. There is a spiritual war on. Get stuck in to the battle against sin and temptation. Don’t just give up the struggle. Get fit like athletes in training. God loves you. Christ has died for you. You have been forgiven. And God isn’t in heaven keeping score every time we fail Him. Jesus has died for all our sins – the sins we committed before we are Christians and the sins we still fall into today. But your heavenly Father does rejoice every time we take the way of escape He has provided in Jesus. So stand firm. Don’t just be a shadow-boxer! Fight the good fight!

I want to use this passage from 1 Corinthians tonight to answer a specific question. “Do churches really need full-time ministers?” I have to begin by admitting that that is not really the question which Paul is answering here. The proper way to approach the Bible is to see what the original author was talking about and focus on that. We should let the Bible frame the questions we ask, rather than use the Bible to ask our own questions.

But if you will forgive the way in which I am using the text to address my own specific question, I think it is legitmate in this case. In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul is defending his own calling as an apostle and the way that he exercises that ministry. As such it gives us a glimpse of what being an apostle was about and from that churches through the century have derived patterns for what being priests and ministers should be. And I ask the question tonight not only because I am a full time minister in the Baptist Tradition but also because it seems increasingly likely that ministers like me are becoming an endangered species and quite possibly in my lifetime may become almost extinct. So – “Do churches really need full-time ministers?”

The pattern for full-time Christian ministry comes as much from the Old Testament as from the New. So let’s begin by seeing what God commanded Israel regarding their priests. The priests in the Old Testament had very special duties and very special privileges. They were the cornerstone of the faith and religion of Israel. The word priest or priesthood occurs a staggering 937 times in the Bible. And the Levites are mentioned another 312 times. That’s an average of more than once every page across the Old Testament! We read about them in many different places in Deuteronomy, and just that one book it speaks about the different responsibilities of the priests.
10:8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today.
The priests were guardians of God’s truth, the commandments and the book of the Law of Moses. They taught the faith of Israel to the people. It was the priests’ privilege to offer sacrifices to the Lord, to attend his tabernacle and stand and minister in the Lord’s name. The priests, and only the priests, had access into the very presence of God. They represented the people before God and they also represented God to the people. And to enable them to do this, the people supported the priests in all their daily needs.
18:3 This is the share due to the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowls and the inner parts. 4 You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep, 5 for the LORD your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the LORD’s name always.
All these privileges of the Old Testament priests came at a specific and great cost to the whole tribe of Levi. They were set apart from the ordinary people of Israel. They had no land and no inheritance of their own. They lived hand to mouth dependent entirely on the generosity of God’s people.
18 The priests, who are Levites—indeed the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the offerings made to the LORD by fire, for that is their inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.
Day by day the Levites were dependent on God’s provision and the offerings his people brought.
Deuteronomy 14:27 And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
This pattern of priests and people was in place for at least 1500 years before Christ. And after a short period of transition in the first century, this has been the pattern for Christianity ever since. Christians have found that pattern in the New Testament as well in particular in the letters of Paul.
What is an apostle? Somebody called by God.

1 Cor 1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
A servant of Christ
1 Cor 4:1 So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.
A fool for Christ who suffers for Christ.
1 Cor 4 9 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. … 11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.
Someone appointed by God to serve the body of Christ.
1 Cor 12 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, …

So apostles were seen as the pattern for priests and ministers in the developing church. And more than anywhere in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 9 talks about the rights of an apostle.

9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

So the church in Corinth, and all the other churches Paul had planted, were the proof of Paul’s calling and the effectiveness of his ministry as an apostle. But that fact has implications, Paul says. In fact, the Corinthians owe him a duty of support for his ministry.

3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 4 Don’t we have the right to food and drink? 5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? 6 Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?

The apostles who were the leaders of the church in Jerusalem were supported by the gifts of the church there. In Acts 6 we read that they had been set apart so they could “devote their attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” This should be the pattern for all apostles, and has been taken as the pattern for priests and ministers.

7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? 8 Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10 Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. 11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?

So apostles have a right to be supported by the church. And through the centuries this has been the pattern for Christian ministers.

13 Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

There are other places too where Paul argues that those who serve the church have a right to be supported by Christians.
Galatians 6:6 Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.
1 Timothy 5 17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

This has been the pattern in the church for 2000 years. Priests and ministers and pastors safeguard the faith of the church. They are set apart to serve God by ordination and supported by the gifts the ordinary Christians make to the church. This pattern is most obvious in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, but with the exception of the Brethren churches it has been the pattern in most Free Churches as well. I was set apart, trained, ordained and nationally recognised in the Baptist tradition to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament – to teach and preach the Word of God and to minister the sacraments especially of believer’s baptism and of the Lord’s Supper, communion.
But I ask again the question: “Do churches really need full-time ministers?”
The Old Testament pattern of the priesthood continues even in the church today. But not, I suspect, for much longer. Because I see a number of factors diminishing the place of ordained ministers in the life of the church. Recruitment to the clergy has been decreasing over the last half century. As the churches numbers and strength have been waning resources to pay for clergy have been severely stretched.
There are all sorts of reasons why Christians might think they don’t need clergy any more, especially not full-time clergy. Time was when the priest would be the only educated person in the community, the only one able to read and write. That is no longer the case. Baptist Churches especially have also rightly insisted on the priesthood of all believers. We do not believe that there exists a separate class of “ordained ministers” distinct from every other Christians. More than that, our Post-Modern world is increasingly suspicious of any forms of hierarchy or authority structures, of institutions and of “experts”. So new Christians do not inherit the implicit trust of clergy which previous generations used to have.
But across all the denominations there has been as shift away from full-time paid ministers for one simple reason. Money. More and more clergy are described as “non-stipendiary” or “self-supporting ministers.” In Baptist circles we seem to like the word, “bi-vocational” which means a minister who does two or more jobs. This may be a full time or part time secular “day job” which is not only a sphere of ministry but also a source of income allowing the minister to serve a church in a part-time or unpaid capacity.
I believe there is still a place for paid full time Ministers of Word and Sacrament, set apart to devote their lives to teaching and prayer, and supported by the church to do so. I believe there is still a vital place for priests and ministers in the church. 18:2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them. That’s the way it always has been and that’s the way I believe it always should be. But I do fear for the future of the ministry. I do wonder whether in even a hundred years time, churches will have Ministers of Word and Sacrament any more.
But what do you think ????

Does it matter to a Christian where our food comes from? We’re not going to think tonight about questions of sustainability or caring for creation. We’re not going to talk about fishing for tuna with dolphin-friendly nets, or the ethics of vegetarianism where eating meat uses up proportionally vastly more of the possible food supply than eating only vegetables would. We aren’t going to consider the morality of eating veal or the importance of consuming locally produced food-stuffs rather than things that have travelled half way round the world. Those are all important issues. But for tonight we are going to come to a significant issue which has been in the news recently. And we are going to get there starting from what the apostle Paul had to say to the Corinthian church.
Does it matter to a Christian where our food comes from? To some of the Christians in the pagan city of Corinth in ancient Greece it mattered a great deal. Because when they went down to the local market everybody knew that most if not all of the meat on sale had come straight from one of the local temples from an animal which had just been offered in a sacrifice to one of the dozens of pagan gods worshipped in that city. And that gave some of those Christians problems. They thought that meat from an animal which had been killed as a sacrifice in pagan worship would be defiled or impure. The second of the Ten Commandments forbids worshipping idols and so some of the Corinthians thought that if they ate that meat as Christians they themselves would be defiled or corrupted as if they themselves had participated in that worship of false gods. Other Christians didn’t think that eating such meat was a problem for them and so the Corinthians had written to Paul asking him to sort out their confusion. Was eating meat which had been offered to idols right or wrong for Christians?
This may not seem an important question for us today, but it was sufficiently important for Paul to give it a chapter in 1 Corinthians and another chapter to the Christians in Rome where the same question was equally divisive.
So Paul begins with making clear the significance of idols and their place in the cosmic scheme of things. He says in a nutshell, that idols have no significance and they have no place in the universe at all!
1 Corinthians 8:4
4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
The Jews had stood out for 2000 years and more as the only people who believed that there is only one God, and the church continued in this conviction. There is only one God, the God and Father and only one Lord, Jesus Christ. This one God is the source and purpose of all life. And this is the undeniable truth whether anybody else chooses to accept it or not, whatever anybody else may choose to believe. There is only one God! All other so-called gods are nothing at all. Idols are nothing at all!
To be more precise, as we will see in a few minutes the Bible does teach us in other places that when people are worshipping idols and false gods they are sometimes worshipping evil spirits. The devil and his demons are behind some false gods, and that was particularly easy to see in some of the Eastern mystery religions which the people of Ancient Corinth worshipped, as it is in some of the tribal religions in Africa and India today. But Paul’s point is still entirely true. These false gods are not gods at all. Some may have evil spirits behind them, others are just empty. Nothing at all.
Some Christians miss this point. There are some Christians who credit the devil and his minions with much more power than they actually have. It is good that Christians recognize the existence and the activities of the devil. We should all be aware that we are in the middle of a spiritual war with cosmic dimensions. But we should never forget that the devil is not a god. The devil is only a created spiritual being, a fallen angel like his demons. And in comparison to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, even the devil is as nothing at all!
Some of the Corinthians had not grasped this truth. They had been saved from lives of idol worship and some of them still believed that idols could hold some kind of power over them. So Paul corrects them. There is only one God, he says,
7 But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
Idols are nothing, says Paul, and they have NO power over Christians. False gods are nothing, and eating meat from animals which have been sacrificed to false gods will never have any effects on Christians one way or the other. It makes no difference whether Christians eat such meat, or deliberately abstain from eating such meat. Neither action is more or less spiritual.
The problem, Paul explains, is that not all Christians realize this. And if somebody who thinks it would be wrong to eat meat which had been offered to idols sees another Christian doing so, they wouldn’t understand and their faith would be damaged.
9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
So what Paul is saying is that there is nothing wrong with a Christian eating meat which has been offered to idols in pagan worship. That meat can’t hurt them in any way, physically or spiritually. But if eating that meat causes a problem for another Christian who has not fully discovered the glorious freedom we have in Christ, it would be better not to eat than to cause a brother to stumble.
Paul describes any Christian who would have a problem eating meat offered to idols as a “weak brother” who has a “weak conscience”. He uses the same language of the “stronger brother” and the “weaker brother” about the same topic in Romans 14.
Romans 14:1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2 One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4 …. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God …. 14 As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. ….
All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall …. 23 But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

Paul’s message for the Romans and the Corinthians is the same. When it comes to actually eating food offered to idols, there is no problem. What matters is that nobody does anything which creates a stumbling block for other Christians. There is no problem with eating meat offered to idols, because no food is unclean in itself. All food is clean, because idols are nothing. Nothing at all!
All of which sounds vaguely interesting but completely irrelevant to us in Chelmsford in the 21st Century. None of our meat comes from animals which have been sacrificed in temples where people are worshipping false gods. But then we think back to some front page headlines just a few weeks ago.
Newspapers broke the news that many supermarkets and high street restaurants and takeaways were selling meat which had been killed in ways prescribed by Islamic law without telling their customers that the meat was “halal”.
Colin Hart, Director of The Christian Institute, told The Sun: “It’s a major public scandal that people are being duped into buying halal food. Supermarkets and restaurants should declare what they’re selling.”
He told the Mail: “If Muslims want to eat halal, that’s absolutely fine. But it should be clearly labelled. … The problem is that, as with so many other things, the sensitivity only runs one way.”
He also said: “There are welfare concerns as animals are not always stunned before halal slaughter.
“And there are concerns of people who don’t want to buy into Sharia Law on their dinner plate.”
It is undisputed that a great deal of the meat people are eating has been killed according to Islamic Law. Halal means ‘permitted’, or ‘lawful’, and that involves Islamic prayers being spoken over the animal as it is killed. And for a few days there was an outcry that we were all being sold halal meat in supermarkets and restaurants without having the slightest idea that was happening.
There are several issues here. There is the question of labelling and whether everybody should have the right to know if the meat they are eating is halal or not. Then there is the separate question of the morality of the way in which animals are slaughtered as halal meat is prepared. Many would argue that it involves unnecessary suffering to the animals.
But perhaps the greatest issues is this. Some Christians are concerned that halal meat is actually “meat offered to idols.” If so, should it bother us if we are eating halal meat, and should it bother us whether we know the source of meat we eat or not?
One Christian website explains it this way. For meat to be ‘Halal’, the animal must be alive, intact and its heart beating, the slaughtering must be done in the presence of a Muslim, and a declaration, a ‘Shahada’, must be said over the meat at the point of slaughter. Shahada is an Arabic word meaning ‘a declaration’. The most commonly encountered shahada is the one said to become a Muslim: ‘There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet’, Christians profoundly disagree with that! The shahada said at the point of slaughter is: ‘In the name of Allah, who is the greatest’. But Allah is not the greatest! It is Jesus Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
The Barnabas Trust works to help Christians who are persecuted all around the world. Their website points to the decision of the Council of the Early Church written to the Gentile churches as we read it in Acts.
Acts 21:25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded … that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.
This command has to forbid the eating of halal meat because it would be included in the definition of that which is offered to an idol. Idolatry was rife in the societies out of which the early Christians were called, and they found themselves surrounded by idolatry and having to decide whether to eat meat dedicated to false gods.
Two of the letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation chapter 2 condemn Christians for eating such meat.
To Pergammon Rev. 2:14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
To Thyatira Rev. 2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
The important question is whether these verses about eating meat offered to idols are to do with where meat comes from or whether they are actually talking about participating in acts of idol worship in pagan temples.
Paul specifically warns the Corinthians against participating in pagan idol worship in 1 Corinthians 10.
18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
But when it comes to eating meat bought in the market Paul goes on to say this.
25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”
27 If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if anyone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience’ sake— 29 the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

So Christians should of course not participate in pagan worship of idols. That can even be worshipping demons! But we shouldn’t worry about where our meat comes from. From a spiritual point of view, we shouldn’t be worried if the meat we buy or are served in restaurants is halal or not.
But Paul does then raise one specific situation. What about when you go as a guest and your host who may be a Muslim specifically tells you that the meat is halal. Paul says, then it’s back to questions of conscience and it may be better to graciously decline to eat that meat as a witness to your hosts.
Let me sum up reading the words of Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, who was a Muslim, is now a Christian and is the founder of the Barnabas Fund.
“Paul affirms that idols are nothing, and that food that has been offered to them has no special significance as a result. The earth and its fullness are the Lord’s, which means that all food originates with Him; nothing is unclean in itself. But Paul also says that there are certain contexts where food that has been offered to idols should not be eaten. Joining in a feast in an idol’s temple is unacceptable, because the offerings made to the idols at such meals are in effect made to demons, which lie behind the idols; to eat the food in that setting is to become partners with the demons.”
And then as we said if you are guest and your host wants to make a point that the meat you are offered is halal, you may wish to decline to make a point of witnessing that you are a Christian. But otherwise, don’t worry if meat is halal. Because it can’t hurt you. Idols are nothing – God is everything!

There is a legend you may have heard which says that when we get to heaven people will be rewarded according to how they have lived in this life with differing forms of transport. When a certain vicar arrived at the pearly gates he was given a bicycle identical to the bicycle he had ridden around his parish all his life. But as soon as he got inside the he saw a man driving around heaven in the poshest Rolls Royce you can imagine. The vicar cycled over to the nearest angel and complained.
“How is it that I am still riding this bicycle when that man is driving a Rolls Royce?
“That’s easy,” the angel explained. “When you were doing your job and preaching your sermons, people fell asleep. That man was a taxi driver. When he was doing his job, people didn’t just stay awake. They prayed!”

Will there really be rewards in heaven? Remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.
MATTHEW 6:19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven? But just what does that mean? Part of the answer is found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians chapter 3.
8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour.

There are rewards God will give in heaven to those who have served Him on earth. We do not know what form those rewards will take – but they are waiting for those who have served God faithfully in the strength he supplies. The rewards are for every believer who has helped build up the body of Christ, the spiritual Temple where the Holy Spirit dwells.
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.

Many of the things we do only last a few seconds or a few minutes. Much of what we do will only last this lifetime. But Paul is saying here that there are things we can do in this life which will endure into eternity. Words and actions which will have eternal value and significance. Building with silver and gold – let me suggest six kinds of things we need to be doing if we are serious about storing up treasures in heaven! Nothing new here – just six reminders.

EVANGELISM – planting the seed like Paul did

Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

1 Corinthians 9:16 Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. 18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it.

In the ministry of Jesus the gospel is simply an announcement. “The kingdom of God is near you.” The kingdom of God – the Kingly Rule of God – the things that God has promised to do to save his people – the kingdom of God is near! Not an invitation – do you want God to be your king? But a declaration – God IS King and God is ready to act as king in YOUR life! The gospel of the Kingdom is simply the announcement of the Year of the Lord’s Favour. Not an offer. Not an invitation. Not a debate. The true gospel is simply an announcement that Christ has come, that Christ is risen from the dead and that Christ is Lord of all. And that announcement is so earth-shattering that it demands a response from every one of us who hears it. Repent and believe!

This was the apostle Paul’s announcement in Athens:
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31)

The credit crunch and the crisis in the world economy has caused very many people to rethink their lives and their priorities. The false gods of Money and Entertainment and Shopping are being exposed as empty. People are realising that their treasures on earth are being eaten away by the moths and the rust and the thieves are breaking in and stealing the wealth and possessions so many have relied on and even worshipped. I believe that many people are more ready to hear about spiritual things – true treasures in heaven. We must be busy proclaiming the gospel with boldness!

BUILDING UP DISCIPLES – watering the seed like Apollos did

Colossians 1:28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. 29 To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

1 Thess 2:6 As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, 7 but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. 8 We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. 9 Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.
10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

When we build up other Christians we are laying up treasures in heaven. Especially when we care for new Christians and young Christians and build them up in the faith.
BROTHERLY LOVE

Christ commands us to love one another as He has loved us. Paul spells out what God’s kind of love means in practice!

1 Cor 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

As we thought this morning, that in the Early Church that loves was shared with ALL believers. None were excluded. None were left out of the common life those first Christians shared. But as well as showing God’s kind of love to other believers, we need to be showing that love to our neighbours and even strangers as well.
GOOD SAMARITAN LOVE

In the Early Church they announced the good news: Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, Jesus Christ is Lord. And alongside the preaching, healing the sick and driving out demons those first Christians were also meeting people’s needs, helping them, loving their neighbours! The early church brought people to Christ by announcing the good news and by being Good Samaritans – by showing God’s kind of sacrificial love to complete strangers.

If each of us went out of our way to give real practical help to just one stranger or one acquaintance each year, and if even just one in ten of those people was drawn by those expressions of love into the church, that would bring to Christ more people than everything else we do all put together. Preach the gospel. Love your neighbour. By THIS will all men know you are my disciples – by the love you show! The same kind of sacrificial love as Jesus expressed for us dying for us on the cross. Loving each other like that. Loving strangers. Being good Samaritans! Loving your neighbour as you love yourself.

And let’s remember. God doesn’t call us to like our neighbours but to LOVE our neighbours AS WE LOVE OURSELVES. Love isn’t a feeling – it’s a command to practical action! To put his/her needs at the same level as your needs – to give their needs the same weight as your needs. If their family are hungry and your family are hungry you share the food you have – you do not eat and leave them hungry. That is Good Samaritan love. If they or their family are sick and your family are sick you share the medicine you have. If they have nowhere to sleep and you do – you find them somewhere to sleep or you share your home with them. That is Good Samaritan love. If they need to travel and you are able to help them travel, you help them travel. That is Good Samaritan love. If your have a loved one who is dying and they are dying – you are at their bedside as well as at your own loved one’s bedside. That is Good Samaritan love. If their child is lost and your child is lost – you search for both children and not just your own. That is Good Samaritan love. If they are in debt and you have money you help them with money. If they face a problem you help them sort out their problem – however long that takes, however much it may cost you in time and energy and heartache and money. Because that is Good Samaritan love. That is loving your neighbour as you love yourself!

And the people you help are not just your family, not just your close friends, not just your Christian friends, but rather the strangers you meet on the roadside. They are your neighbours simply because they are in need and you are in a position to show mercy to them and help them. Not just your friends but even your enemies as Jesus teaches us to love our enemies just as much as we love our own families.

The parable of the good Samaritan is so memorable it has given us not one but two phrases which have entered into our language. The first is the example to follow, the “Good Samaritan”, the person who goes out of his way to help out. But the second phrase is the opposite, an example to avoid, “Passing by on the other side”. The priest and the Levite who both go out of their way to AVOID helping out.

Are we the kind of people who help out? Good Samaritans? Or are we the kind of people who close our eyes to the needs of others and pass by on the other side? Jesus commands us, Love your neighbour as you love yourself! Go and do likewise!

If we want to be building with gold and silver, we must be
RELYING ON GOD’s STRENGTH

9 For we are God’s fellow-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

So what does it mean to be God’s fellow workers?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ONLY GOD GIVES THE GROWTH

Zechariah 4:6 `Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.

NOT BY MIGHT collective strength, to armies or forces or warriors or fighting men. In anything God calls us to do for him if we put our trust in MIGHT, we will be wasting our time.Not by might of NUMBERS Not by might of MONEY. Not by might of GOOD PREMISES. Not by might of NEW TECHNOLOGY. Not by might of LOTS of ACTIVITIES. NOT BY MIGHT – says the Lord Almighty. He is the ALL MIGHTY God. In comparison to His great might, all our human resources count for nothing at all!

NOT BY POWER the strength of individual men and women. We must not put our trust in our own power or our own efforts. All our skills and abilities count for absolutely nothing! NOT by power of training or experience or human wisdom or hard work.
Not by might nor by power,
BUT BY MY SPIRIT says the Lord Almighty

If people are going to be saved, God is going to do it. Not us, in our strength, by our efforts, but God. By the power of His Holy Spirit. Our part is to make sure we are available to God and ready to obey Him when He wants to use us, and that we don’t get in God’s way by trying to do His work for Him! God gives us Power from on High. Power to be witnesses for Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit. The dynamo and the dynamite of God the Holy Spirit at work in OUR lives, which can accomplish so much more than we can ever ask for or even imagine. Serving in God’s strength for God’s glory – so God gets the credit – not us!

Building with gold and silver. No surprises in those five ways and none in the sixth,
PRAYER

Paul’s own example of prayer for the churches he has planted and the people he cared about so much! We get to know God through prayer. Prayer isn’t just a useful tool to help us in our Christian service. In Richard Foster’s words, “Prayer is nothing more than an ongoing and growing love relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Prayer is the heart of our relationship with God.

But then our evangelism and our disciple-building and our loving should also be the topics of our urgent praying.

Eph 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

We must pray to draw near to God, to listen to God and to ask God to move mountains.
“We must write prayer again into the lifestyle of our churches; meaningful prayer, urgent prayer, repentant prayer, constant prayer, Spirit-led prayer, even sacrificial prayer!” Eric Westwood Baptist Union President

I make no apologies for repeating that quote to you. I will keep on repeating it – until we do it! Write prayer again into the lifestyle of our churches!

EVANGELISM
BUILDING UP DISCIPLES
BROTHERLY LOVE
GOOD SAMARITAN LOVE
RELYING ON GOD’S STRENGTH
PRAYER

12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.