Sermon Tone Analysis

[TITLE SLIDE] Today, I'm afraid I don't have a light-hearted introduction to lead in with.

And it really wouldn't be appropriate anyway for a topic so serious, which affects us all on a daily basis.

Individually, and as a church, I think it's time that we put an end to this question from our epistle lesson, and once and for all finally figure out what the heck we're supposed to do with all this [MEAT] meat that's been sacrificed to idols!

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I mean it's getting out of control!

You can't go to the grocery store, or even order in a pizza without having to make sure that all the ingredients are idol worship free.

Right?

No? Nobody?

Is our epistle lesson for today that far removed from modern society that the best we can do is see it as a historical account of problems that we no longer have?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

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Sure, the question of what a good Christians is supposed to do concerning food that has been sacrificed to idols, has for the most part, timed out at this point.

Two thousand years later, five thousand miles across the ocean, that's a particular issue that no longer applies to us, true.

However, at the same time, it feels like this idea, the [LIBERTY] Christian principals in play here, are more important than ever.

Which means that this is one of those sermons, that I get to really go full force on, not having to hold back out of fear of offending anyone who might be caught up in this sin of eating idol meat.

And it's fun for you too because, we all get to nod our heads vigorously and say "Amen!

Preach it!"

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Because it's easy to hop on board and condemn a sin which you've never even had the opportunity to commit!

However there will come a point as this M. Night Shamalan-esk sermon comes to the twist, and you realize that not only am I not talking about idol meat anymore, maybe I never really was.

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But before we get there, we need a bit of history to understand the basic question in the context of the life of a Christian living in first century [CORINTH] Corinth.

See for these new Christians, and new not only because they have newly converted to Christianity, but because Christianity itself was new.

I mean this letter is written only about 20 years after Christ's death and resurrection, so they really are still figuring out the Christian life.

It was hard to be a Christian in Corinth at this time.

Polytheism, the worship of many gods, is all around them.

It's not just in religion, the Greek gods were an integral part of the culture.

You really couldn't escape it.

This leads to the issue of temple meat.

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In the temples, animals were sacrificed.

People would bring animals to be sacrificed and then some of the meat would be eaten by people who came to worship.

If there was extra left over, the temple would take the meat to the market and sell it at a cheap price.

I mean, it didn't cost them anything, so it was all profit on their end.

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And people would buy this discounted meat, because, well everybody loves a bargain.

Though this wasn't just a problem in the marketplace.

If you wanted to do a little networking, schmoozing with the elite or the politicians, all that stuff often happened at these temples, with temple meat.

Or if you went over to a non-Christian neighbor's house, there was a chance they had offered the food to their house idol.

So what's a good Christian to do about all this meat sacrificed and offered to a god which you don't believe in?

By eating that food, are you somehow saying you believe in that god?

Is that worship of that god?

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At some point, the church in Corinth writes to Paul and asks this question.

It's a letter we don't have a copy of, but we see it in Paul's response.

Apparently, they make the argument, that because these greek gods don't exist, the sacrifices to them don't really count.

They are arguing that this meat sacrificed to idols is really no different than normal meat.

And if it's really no different, then what's wrong with eating it?

If it's good meat, at a good price, or even free at a festival, or shared in generosity while dining at a neighbor's table, why wouldn't they eat it?

Paul writes back and answers their questions telling them that they are absolutely correct, but they are absolutely wrong at the same time.

He acknowledges and reiterates that they are right, [IDOLS] the idols do not represent real gods.

There is no God but one.

So it's true that meat sacrificed to an idol is nothing more than regular old meat.

You can eat it and it does you no harm, you can choose not to eat it and it does you no better.

It's just meat.

Unfortunately though, the issue is bigger than the meat.

It's bigger than being right.

What Paul is telling them is that they can be right, and still be wrong, because this is a seeing the forest for the trees issue.

Something we need to step back and see the whole picture on.

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There were Corinthian Christians who had grown up believing in idol worship.

And sure they had learned of the Gospel of Jesus and had converted, but when you have such a deeply rooted history in a belief, it's hard to completely let go of that.

These former idol worshiping Christians wanted to leave their old ways behind.

They wanted to put all that in the past and focus on the one true God.

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But when these Christians, who are struggling but overcoming, these incredibly determined yet still fragile Christians, who Paul perhaps unfortunately calls weak; when these Christians with all that history and baggage see their brothers and sisters eating this meat sacrificed to idols, it shakes them.

They see respected Christians eating the temple food, doing this practice, which has all the connections for them with worshiping idols.

They don't see it as simply discounted meat, they see it as Christians talking part in worship of other gods.

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And the knowledgeable, wise Christians writing to Paul probably want to defend themselves saying, "Well, that's not my fault.

I'm not doing anything wrong.

It's not my problem that those weak Christians can't get past their old hang-ups.

Why should I have to change my "not doing anything wrong" behavior, just because they have a problem?"

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This is where Paul holds up [K & L] knowledge and love, and shows them which is more important.

Sure, there's nothing actually wrong with eating the meat.

But if a weak brother sees you do it, and is encouraged to do it himself, and then because of his history his conscience is vexed and he falls back into old habits and falls away from Christ, then you have become a stumbling block.

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And this is where Paul gets upset.

However he is writing to an audience that is struggling with this issue so he has to approach it in a pastoral way.

But nobody here is struggling with this right, so allow me to be The Apostle Paul's anger translator [PAINTING] for you and tell you what I think he really wants to write.

Dear Saints in Corinth.

GET OVER THE LAMB CHOPS.

In your freedom, because you think you know the truth, because you are so puffed up in your superior comprehension, your "knowledge" of spiritual matters, you have broken your weaker brothers in Christ.

You think you're right about this?

You think you are justified in your actions, just because you are correct?

That's not knowledge, that's arrogance.

That is the pride that is poison to one's soul.

How dare you willingly, knowingly, put yourself as a stumbling block in the way of a brother in Christ who you know is weak, and needs you to help bolster their faith, not be a burden on their conscience.

I hope your "knowledge" makes you happy, because you have destroyed your brother.

But Paul doesn't stop there, no he goes in for the kill.

You have destroyed this person, this person who seems to you less important than meat, yet to Christ was important enough to die for.

And just in case Paul has not yet plunged the knife deep enough, he twists it again saying, [TEXT] "Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ."

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Paul's raw emotion here comes from a place of experience.

Paul knows what it's like to destroy a believer in Christ.

Paul knows that in doing so, we are not just sinning against the person, we are sinning against Christ himself.

Perhaps no one knows this lesson better than Paul, who persecuted and caused the death of many Christians before his own conversion.

Remember Paul's encounter with Christ after the resurrection, where as he was traveling on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Paul and said not, "why do you persecute my followers" no, Christ said to him, "Why do you persecute me?"