Sermon Tone Analysis

MOTHER’S DAY TALK

[HAND OUT FLOWERS]

Today is Mother’s Day which you know.

This is a day we set aside to recognize mothers.

In Proverbs it says,

We are thankful for our mothers who have taught us with kindness, who have taken good care of our households, who have worked tirelessly.

Today we call our mothers blessed.

So, Mom’s we thank you for all that you have done and all that you do.

And I recognize that some of you haven’t had that experience with your Mothers.

I want you to remember a story in the Gospels.

Jesus’s family came looking for him because they thought he was crazy.

He was teaching huge crowds of people and not getting a lot of sleep and they wanted to stop him.

The disciples came to Jesus and told him, ‘Your mother and you brothers are looking for you.’

And he looked around at the group of people assembled around him and said, ‘These are my brothers and sisters and mother.’

So, I just want to remind you that in the church family you have many spiritual mothers.

And we are thankful for all of you who have made yourselves available as spiritual mothers as well.

[DISMISS KIDS]

[NEXT STEP INTRO]

INTRO

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We’re going to tackle the second verse of 1 Corinthians today, and I want you to know why I’m going into so much detail.

It’s because a message given to the wrong audience won’t be good for anything.

As a young adult, I developed a breathing problem, and I would go to the doctors, and they would prescribe me antibiotics.

And I’d take them, and nothing would happen so I would go back and they would offer me more.

And I’d take them.

And the same thing would happen.

This went on for years until one day a doctor ran some more tests and found that I had a very treatable condition and he prescribed me the correct medication.

And I’ve never had a problem since then.

You see, when you have a problem, you must get the right medicine or nothing ever changes.

In the same way, it’s important, when you write a letter, to know who you’re writing to; because you want to give the right medicine.

So, the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians and clarified his audience right up front.

He wrote,

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

(, ESV)

It’s easy to see that the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to a particular church in the city of Corinth.

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And that’s important because some of you have been to other churches—different denominations, different cultural or ethnic settings, different age demographics—and you’ve observed that not all churches are the same.

But, Paul makes clear in our verse today, three criteria for ‘ā church’ to be ‘the church.’

What makes a church, ‘the church?’

Paul makes that clear upfront because he doesn’t want to prescribe the wrong medicine.

The first criteria for ‘the church’ is that…

The Church Belongs to God

In his address, Paul writes,

To the church of God that is in Corinth… (, ESV)

In Paul’s day, the word church was commonly used to refer to an assembly that gathered for political purposes.

But it was also used more broadly, referring to any official gathering of people.

Jesus’s usage of the word church is helpful.

Jesus said to Peter,

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church… (, ESV)

That might not seem terribly odd unless you realize that Jesus had not died on the cross yet.

He hadn’t risen from the dead yet.

He didn’t ascend to the right hand of the Father yet.

He didn’t send the Holy Spirit yet.

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And the church wasn’t an official assembly yet.

It was just a handful of people who were disciples of Jesus at this time.

But, Jesus said—notice the word choice—‘I will build my church.’

He said he would create a ‘Jesus assembly.’

Playing off of this idea, many biblical scholars have chosen to refer to the early church as, ‘The Jesus gathering,’ because they recognize that the first movements of Christianity weren’t yet official assemblies like churches are today.

Jesus said he would build his church.

And in our text, Paul says it is God’s church.

That’s bothersome to some people, but as the Son, Jesus is God in human flesh.

Jesus said,

…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father… (, ESV)

So, Paul is right here to say it is God’s church if Jesus is God.

Jesus is not just the man who started the movement we call Christianity.

Jesus started the movement for sure, but as God, he started the movement for himself.

He was building his own assembly.

God’s church is an assembly of Jesus followers.

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I believe Paul used that language in this text on purpose.

In all the letters he wrote, Paul only used the language, ‘to the church of God’ in one other letter.

And that letter is the second letter to the Corinthians.

Romans, 1:7, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints…

, To the churches of Galatia.

, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons.

, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:

, To the church of the Thessalonians.

, To the church of the Thessalonians.

1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians both are addressed, To the church of God.

You can see that there is a clear emphasis on the church being God’s church.

Why emphasize that the church is God’s church?

I think two reasons flow naturally out of these letters.

First,

THE CHURCH IN CORINTH WAS GOD’S CHURCH, NOT THE CHURCH OF ANY OTHER GOD

In the ancient world, we see what is called cosmic geography.

The idea of cosmic geography is this.

Every geographic area is said to have its own cosmic powers.

In other words, every city or every kingdom had its own god.

We see this clearly with the nation of Israel.

When they entered the Promised Land, God commanded them to get rid of all the idolatrous people.

All the people there worshiped other gods.

So, God told them to do away of those nations, because He was going to be the God over all that land.

The one true God was not about to share his property with any other gods.

When you get to the early church times, the city of Jerusalem had become the center of Israelite worship.

It was the only place that the Jews could go to worship God because his presence resided in the temple there.

Worship of God was tied to geographic location.

And the Greek cities, by and large, operated this way.

There was one temple to this or that god in each city.