Modeling the Sacrifice of Christ
Notes
Transcript
Handout
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
23 And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
Purge Sin from the Church
Purge Sin from the Church
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
We need to understand something—a little leaven (sin) leavens the whole lump. The leaven or sin of the Corinthian church was its “glorying.” The church thought of itself as a strong and spiritual church, a church greatly blessed and gifted by God. Every conceivable gift of the Spirit had been given the church, and the members reveled and gloried in their gifts and blessings
The depth of sinful pride, however, is when a church begins to pride itself in the fact that certain community leaders belong to its fellowship. This was apparently one of the terrible sins of the Corinthian church.
The church was “glorying” because of the man who was guilty of the shameful sin (v. 6). The church, of course, would not have been glorying in the sin of the man.
Their glorying was in the man himself: his stature, his prestige, who he was, the money he could give, the contribution he could make, his leadership, and perhaps his wealth. The word for glorying (kauchema) indicates this rather strongly. It means that they were glorying, boasting, and taking pride in the man despite the known fact of his sin. Perhaps he was a man of outstanding leadership in the community or the city of Corinth. Perhaps he had become a leader of one of the factions in the church. Whatever the case, the church overlooked his sin and took great pride in the fact that a man of his stature would join and become a part of their fellowship.
The church must wake up and learn something.
Sin Acts Like Leaven
Sin Acts Like Leaven
A little leaven (sin) leavens the whole lump.
Leaven is a type of sin in the Bible. Therefore, if the man and his shameful sin are allowed to remain in the church, the sin of the man will spread. If the church accepts the man who is living in clear sin, others will begin to feel that they, too, can be acceptable even if they sin. If there is no restraint upon sin, then sin will grow. If sin is accepted, then sin, not righteousness, rules. If righteousness is not the basis of acceptance, then righteousness does not reign, but sin reigns. If the church accepts the person who lives in clear sin, then the church is letting sin rule, and sin will spread. The man who lives for sin influences others to live for sin.
Note what Scripture says: it takes only a little leaven, not much, for sin to grow. Accepting just one man who lives for the world and for sin will cause others to begin living worldly and sinful lives.
Saints Are New Lumps
Saints Are New Lumps
Now, the church here is seen as a lump, a lump of dough. In those days, they made dough to make bread, just like today; but they would put leaven into it to be a starter for the loaf.
What is leaven from a Biblical perspective?
In those days, when a lady would bake dough, she would get the dough all ready, and she would put it together and put in whatever receptacle it was to be baked in; and she would always take a chunk of it off, so that if she had a whole pile of dough, one little piece was held back. That one little piece was rolled into a ball, and it was put in water. That was leaven. The reason is that, over a period of time, that would sour in the water, and then it would be taken out when she started to make new bread, and it would be put into the new bread as a starter. That sour dough would be used to permeate that new bread to get it started. This was leaven. So leaven has the idea of permeation. Leaven also has the idea of fermentation, because it fermented; and sin corrupts and ferments; but leaven mainly has the idea of something from something in the past brought into something in the present. Just keep that in your mind, and we’ll come back to it.
Now, he says, “Look, in your old life, you did a lotta things, and that’s like the little chunk that’s left over from the old life. Don’t bring it into your new life.” Leaven means the sins of your former life. Now that you’re a new Christian, you’re supposed to be an unleavened Christian. That is, you don’t have any little leftover from the old life as a starter in your new life. Your new life is unleavened.
Look at verse 7, “Purge out therefore the old leaven.” You don’t want any stuff from the former life. “That you would be a new lump, and that you would be unleavened.” There is no place in the church for any of the old patterns. Immorality, whatever they are. He’ll list some more things as we’ll see in a minute. But the idea of leaven is the idea of the permeation of evil. Evil in the past held over and integrated into the present. Evil from my former life put into the church context or put into my new life, if you make it an individual way.
The church is to break with the old life. “Purge out therefore the old leaven.” Don’t have anything in your new life that you had in your old life. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are … what?… passed away. All things are to become … what?… new.” There’s nothing to be taken from the old life and put into the new life. That’s the meaning of this idea of leaven; because, when you put that old lump in the new loaf, it permeated and influenced the whole thing. Break with the old life. So he’s saying to the Corinthians, “I know what your life was before. I know all the stuff you did. I know how you lived in the pagan immorality. In your new life, there’s no place for dragging over a little ball of that old life and letting it permeate the church.” …
Now, this takes us back to the Old Testament, because he says in verse 7, look, this is a very important point, “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.” Now, when you first read that, you say, “Well, I don’t understand the connection. What? He’s talking about leaven here, and he’s talked about a purged life. Why does he throw in this thing about ‘Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us’?”
Our State Needs to Limn our Standing
Our State Needs to Limn our Standing
If you remember back in Exodus 12:39 when God told Israel it was time to leave Egypt, right? He gave them a feast, a feast of unleavened bread, right? For seven days. Now listen to this. They were a part of Egypt. Now, I’m gonna construct the whole thing so you’ll understand it.
The Israelites were integrated into the life of Egypt, but God said it’s time for separation. The final act of separation came on the Passover. They put blood on the doorposts and the lentil. The angel of death passed by, and the angel of death slaughtered the firstborn throughout Egypt; and God had made a separation; and Pharaoh said, “That’s it. Get out.”
The sacrifice of the lamb symbolized the separation of Israel from Egypt. The sacrifice of Christ is the separation of the believer from the world. You see?
Just as the Passover lamb was the symbol of separation, Israel was leaving the old life. That Passover night was the night in which Israel’s freedom was secured, and they left. That’s the way Christ, our Passover, died on the cross, severed our connection with the world, and freed us to the Promised Land.
Now, when those Israelites were to leave, it says they were to take only unleavened bread. Not only that, they were to look throughout their entire house, and they were to find every little bit of leaven left and get rid of it. They were not permitted to carry one little ball of leftover dough outside of that land of Egypt. You know why? God didn’t want any remnant of Egyptian life carried into the new liberty that the children of Israel were gonna have, and the lump represented the old life. The bread that you made in Egypt, don’t bring it and put it into the new bread of the new life. Understand?
That’s the meaning. In fact, He went even further. You kill the lamb, you eat the meat; and if there’s any meat left over, what were they to do with it? Burn it. Don’t take anything out of this country. Don’t carry anything with you that has anything to do with this place. Do you see the symbolism of that? The leaven, then, represents something of the old life taken and put into the new. No unleavened bread. When you leave Egypt, you leave with no leaven. Search your house, make sure you don’t carry any out inadvertently in some bag somewhere. Find every bit of it and get rid of it. It’s a symbol of the old patterns.
Total separation. You see, the Passover lamb signaled the separation, and the unleavened bread celebrated the separation.
The death of Jesus Christ, who is our Passover Lamb, signaled the separation; and an unleavened church continues that separation. We don’t want any of the old leaven from the world dragged into the church. Christ made a separation.
You have to drag that leaven right by the cross and close your eyes in order to do it. He died to separate us from sin. He died to separate us from the system. He died to free us from the bondage of sin, to release us to the life of holiness. Why would we take some leaven from the old life and integrate it into the new?
Participate in the Crucifixion
Participate in the Crucifixion
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
“So let’s keep living lives that are good (Sincerity and Truth), not evil (Malice and Wickedness).
How is all of this fulfilled in a Christian’s life? Christ, our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed for us many years ago. He personally and experientially becomes our Passover Lamb and we observe our Passover Feast when we believe on Him (eat Him, appropriate Him). We then are to spend the following seven days (the remainder of our lives) in observing our Feast of Unleavened Bread (in living a life free from sin). We are after our conversion not to live a life of “malice” (“kakia,” badness) and “wickedness” (“ponaria,” delightful and willful persistence in evil) but a life filled with “sincerity” (purity) and “truth” (inward conformity to the law of God).
Part from Sin
Part from Sin
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
What he’s saying here is, “Look, I wrote to you in an earlier epistle, not on any condition at all, any time, to have anything to do with immoral people. No, do not mix yourselves up with them.” That’s the literal meaning of the verb. Don’t get mixed up with them in any way. No familiar, intimate fellowship. They were to refuse fellowship with immoral members. They were to be put out of the church when they continued immorality.
Misunderstanding
The church and its believers cannot go out of the world; therefore, some contact with the unbelievers of the world is necessary. This is understandable to any thinking and honest person. However, it is also understandable that the church must not become mixed up with the shameful sinners of the world. The church and its believers must be separate in their behavior and fellowship. The church and the believers are to be holy and pure and righteous before God and to hold up the banner of holiness and purity and righteousness before the people of the world. Believers are in the world, but they must not be of the world.
Part from Sinners Claiming to Be Believers
Part from Sinners Claiming to Be Believers
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
The sin of fornication is the sin against the body.
Covetousness and extortion is the sin against others where you regard people as objects to be exploited; and
the sin of idolatry is a sin against God where you allow something to substitute for God. So here you have all of the sins possible: against self, against others, against God. All of the kinds of philosophies, whether they be hedonism, the libertarian philosophy of the expression of the body, or covetousness, materialism, idolatry, religionism, it’s all there.
Perform Sifting on Those Within, Not Without
Perform Sifting on Those Within, Not Without
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
“Well,” you say, “what is the Christian’s relationship to the world?” I’ll tell you what it is. It is not no contact. It is no conformity. The Christian’s relation to the world is not no contact. It’s no conformity. You know, Jesus spent a lotta time with drunkards and prostitutes and tax collectors and lots of people that were really looked down on in the society and culture. Why? Because they were the people that needed Him, and when they criticized Him and said, “What are you doing with those people?” He said, “They that are sick need a physician, not they that are well.” That was a sarcastic answer, really. “You think you’re well. They know they’re sick, and they’re open to My healing.”
No, we’re not to avoid the world. We’re to be in the middle of the world. We’re to love the world. We’re to take the people who are adulterers and … and fornicators and covetous and idolaters and everything else in the world, and we’re to love them, the love that Jesus has. We’re to be with ‘em all that we can in order to win them to Christ. We’re not to do what they do, but we’re to contact them for Christ’s sake.
13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
“You are the salt of the earth. If the salt loses its savor, then there’s nothing to be salted. It’s no good except to be stepped on … he said … You’re the salt of the earth. You’re supposed to be in the world doing something to give an influence.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
You’ve gotta get in the world, let your light shine in the world. You’re to be in the middle of the system. You’re to be contacting it, up against it, hearing what it’s thinking, seeing what it’s doing, and winning the people that are in it and loving them in the love of Jesus Christ without conforming to them.”
Let God judge those without, but let us judge what we can control?
Ourselves and our membership
Have you accepted Jesus Christ?
Have you separated for Jesus Christ?