INTRODUCTION: Do you wrestle with spiritual pride? Do you find
that you are sometimes selfish? This week we turn our attention
primarily to what Paul has to say about how being self-centered and
having spiritual pride in the middle of physical blessings can
cause us to lose our faith. Let's see what we can learn!
I. HISTORY IS NOT DESTINY
A. Assume that you have decided to tell me
what God has done
for you; reveal the times when He has really
come through for
you. A little spiritual bragging, if
you will. Think about
what are the spiritual "highlights" of your
life. Got them in
mind? Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 10:1-4.
Read.
1. How do these highlights compare with yours?
2. If you were
one of these "forefathers," tell me what
you see as the
significance of these events. What is the
reason to brag
about the following events:
a. I was under the cloud (v.1)? (This is a reference
to the Exodus: God was leading the way!)
(1) Did the cloud do more than lead? (Yes. It
protected them. Exodus 14:19-20)
b. I passed through the sea (v.1)? (God intervened,
changed the course of nature, and saved my life
from the Egyptian army.)
c. I was baptized into Moses (v.2)? (If I said I was
baptized in Christ you would know what I mean. This
means they "joined" with Moses to enjoy God's
saving leadership.)
d. I ate spiritual food (v.3)? (The food I ate came
directly from God! He directly fed me for years
with manna!)
e. I drank spiritual water -- from a spiritual rock
(v.4)? (The verse explains that this "rock" is
Jesus. So this means that Christ led and provided
for this person daily. See Numbers 20:11.)
3. Anyone have
a more impressive list of "spiritual
highlights?"
If not, the "forefather" bragging in 1
Corinthians
10 has it all over you when it comes to
spirituality,
when it comes to God leading in his life,
right?
B. Read 1 Corinthians 10:5. What does it mean
when it says
"their bodies were scattered over the desert?"
1. All of this
bragging from the "forefather" that we
just discussed
had a common theme. What is it? (It all
went towards
saving or preserving life.)
2. What is the
irony and the lesson of their bodies being
scattered in
the desert? (After all of this care for the
"forefather's"
life, he died. They died -- and not in an
organized, cared
for way. The special relationship with
God came to
a screeching halt for most of them.)
3. What does
that tell you? What lesson should we begin
to draw from
this little bit of history? (Beware of
spiritual pride
in what happened in the past as opposed
to what is happening
now in your relationship with God!)
C. Let's read on. 1 Corinthians 10:6-10. Verse
6 warns us
against "setting our hearts" on evil things.
The Greek word
translated "setting" is "epithumetes" and
it means "craving,
loving, eager for, lusting" evil things. What
evil things is
Paul talking about? List them on the blackboard.
(v.7,
idolatry; v.8, sexual immorality; v.9 testing
God; v.10
grumbling.)
1. Let's look
at these in more detail. What idolatry is
Paul speaking
about? (He is generally quoting Exodus
32:6, part of
the story of the golden calf.)
a. Why did the forefathers make a golden calf?
(Exodus 32:1: they did not trust God. They were
going to make "gods who will go before us.")
(1) Do you trust God? Or is your primary trust
in money or some other thing you have made?
2. What sexual
immorality is Paul speaking about?
(Numbers 25:1-9
records that the forefathers were having
sex with Moabite
women which ultimately led them into
sacrificing
to Baal of Peor. The plague that killed
24,000 Israelites
ended when Phinehas drove a spear
through an Israelite
man and a Moabite woman while they
were in a position
that would allow for this!)
a. How does God view sexual sins? (Remember our
discussion of 1 Corinthians 6:18?)
3. What "testing"
of God is Paul speaking about? (The
testing that
involved snakes is Numbers 21.)
a. Will someone read Numbers 21:5-6? Paul calls this
"testing." What would you call it? (They are
complaining about their blessings. The very
spiritual "highlights" that we discussed before are
the subject of their complaints!)
(1) My study of the Bible has led me to believe
that what God detests most, is ignoring Him. I
have always gotten the feeling that He did not
mind complaining, because complaining (at
least) acknowledged that He was the solution.
Complaining may be overrated in my mind!
4. Paul separately
speaks of grumbling. What grumbling is
he speaking
about (above what we have just mentioned)?
(He is probably
speaking of Numbers 16:11-14. This was a
rebellion of
the leadership which ended in death. Numbers
16:28-38.)
II. WHAT WE CAN LEARN
A. Read 1 Corinthians 10:11-13. What is (v.11)
the
"fulfillment of the ages?" (Thayer says "Fulfillment"
(Greek:
"telee") means "the end" or "the end to which
all things
relate...." This means those who are looking
for the Second
Coming.)
B. We are told that what we just studied is
an "example" and
"warning" for us! So, what do you think
is the lesson to be
learned from the "forefathers?" (In the midst
of God's closest
care and most dramatic blessing, the people
turned away from
Him. The result was disaster.)
1. What do these
sins that we have listed boil down to,
as a practical
matter? (Not trusting God, complaining
about God's
leadership and disobedience.)
2. How does your life stack up in comparison?
C. Do you think that these blessings to the
"forefathers" made
them think that they were "OK" with God? (Paul
suggests that
very thing in v.12)
1. When Paul
says "be careful you do not fall," is he
speaking of
the loss of our salvation? Or simply falling
into a temporary
sin? (While we should be confident of
our salvation,
we should also be confident that we can
lose it by disobedience.
Consider the last verse of the
last chapter
(1 Corinthians 10:27) that started this
discussion.
This "launching verse" says that Paul is
concerned that
he might "be disqualified from the prize."
The "be careful
you do not fall" comment specifically
relates back
to the history of the "forefathers" -- it
seems impossible
to understand this any other way. Does
anyone think
that those killed over sexual immorality,
rebellion, grumbling
or idol worship went to heaven? When
the ground split
open and swallowed Korah and his fellow
rebels (Numbers
16:32) do you think his next stop was
heaven?)
D. This is pretty sobering stuff. Why does
Paul share with us
v.13 (1 Corinthians 1O:13) right after he
warns us about
overconfidence? (Right after warning us that
our disobedience
can get us killed (permanently), he says,
"but remember, that
you do not have to engage in these sins. Your
temptations are
not unique, and God will limit the severity
of the temptation
and give you a way out.)
1. Be honest.
Do you look for a "way out" of temptation?
Or do you generally
look for a "way into" temptation?
E. Paul follows with what we studied last week:
a discussion
about food offered to idols. The next few
verses (1
Corinthians 10:16-21) make the argument that
when you eat food
offered to idols as part of a ceremony, you
participate with
demons. What is the logical link between
that and what we
have studied so far today? (The common thread
in the
"forefathers" sin was that they did not trust
God. They were
always disobeying and rebelling. I think Paul
is telling us to
make a clean break from trusting in things,
and participating
in ceremonies that cannot save us.)
1. This sounds
pretty general. Do you have any specific
activities or
ceremonies in your life which cause you to
trust less in
God?
a. Does television allow you to "participate" in
things, much as if you were actually there? Could
this counsel about not participating with demons be
applied to what you watch?
b. Does "what you watch," cause you to trust God
more or trust Him less?
III. THE LORD'S SUPPER
A. We decided last week that 1 Corinthians
10:16 referred to
"Communion." Paul says that Communion is a
participation in
the blood and body of Christ. Since we just
discussed how we
do not want to participate in things that
will jeopardize our
salvation, let's move next to Paul's specific
discussion of
Communion in 1 Corinthians 11:17-22. Read.
1. Does Paul
have any compliment for them on their
communion service?
(No! "I have no praise for you..."
(v.17))
2. What is the
problem? (Paul lists them in vv.19-21. He
starts out saying
that there are divisions among them.)
a. As you consider these verses, what kind of
divisions do you find?
b. What about v.19: what kind of division is that?
(Remember in 1 Corinthians 1 we saw that the
Corinthians bragged about following one Christian
leader over another? (See, especially, 1
Corinthians 1:12.) One problem is that they are
showing spiritual arrogance. One group says we are
better than you are because we more correctly
understand God.)
c. What about v.21: what kind of division is that?
(Social and financial status. The people range from
those who do not have enough to eat to those who
are overindulging so much they get drunk!)
(1) Under what circumstances could two people
be eating in church and one go hungry while
another pigs down plenty? (Certainly there was
no compassion in this. It must have been that
there was so much stratification in that
society that the rich thought it was "OK" to
be eating in front of the poor who were
hungry.)
3. If, as we
studied last week, taking communion is
participating
in the body and blood of Jesus, what were
these people
participating in? (They were participating
in arrogance,
selfishness and division. This is just the
opposite of
what the church is supposed to be. In Romans
12:4-5 Paul
teaches that the body of Christ, ie. the
church, is to
have unity and an attitude of working
together as
one.)
B. Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. When Jesus
said (v.24) "This
is My body which is for you;" what did He
mean? (He meant that
He was giving up His life for us.)
1. How does that
compare with the attitude of the
Corinthians?
(It is the complete and absolute opposite.
They are "giving
up" others for themselves!)
C. The teacher's comment part of our lesson
(p.97) notes that
in many congregations there is a noticeable
decline in
attendance on Communion. Do you think
that is due to the
communion ceremony? Or is it due to
the foot-washing service
that precedes communion? (I have no doubt
that it is the foot-
washing service.)
1. Should the
church jettison the foot-washing ceremony
in order to
uphold Christ's command to participate in
communion to
"remember" and "proclaim the Lord's death
until He comes?"
(vv.25-26) (I have never enjoyed the
foot-washing
service. Why? Because it is hard for my
proud heart
to get enthused about it. While this practice
of having a
foot-washing service before communion is
exceedingly
rare in the Christian community as a whole,
consider how
it is a powerful inoculation against the
very sin that
suffused the Corinthians. What better
antidote to
spiritual and social arrogance and pride than
washing the
feet of a fellow member?)
D. Jesus says, whenever you eat and drink remember
what I did
for you. Do you think Jesus meant for us to
remember Him at
every meal and not just communion? (There
is no doubt that
Paul viewed this as a special ceremony and
not an ordinary
meal. (See, vv. 28-34) I am not so sure that
Jesus only meant
it so narrowly. I saw a fairly old movie
once, in which a
couple in love were parting forever. The English
woman told
the American man, "When you drink tea, think
of me." Romantic
words. Think of how Christ's sacrifice which
gives us eternal
life would remain at the fore of our conscience
if we
considered His sacrifice each time that we
ate!)
IV. NEXT WEEK: "ONE BODY, MANY PARTS -- ONE CHURCH, MANY MEMBERS."
Our topic is 1 Corinthians 12. Study!