Sunday Praise & Worship 10:00
Christian Education - 10:00 - Casual Dress - Loving Childcare
|
|
|
|
1 Corinthians 3:5-9 (September 26, 2004) Scripture quotation taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright© 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Core Value: P-Partners in ministry. We celebrate the Holy Spirit in our midst by recognizing, developing, and employing spiritual gifts, which all work together to build up the community. (1 Corinthians 12:1-11) We accept and respect one another, being open to the differences among us, and resolving conflict face-to-face with honesty, forgiveness and grace. (Matthew 18:15-20) In Chapter 3, Paul gets down to business in addressing the concerns about the community in Corinth brought to him by Chloe's people and others mentioned in chapter 1, verse 12. Factions have emerged in the growing community around the different teachers who have trained them. Scholars suggest that of the four factions Paul mentions in 1:12 (Paul, Apollos, Peter, and Jesus) there were probably only the first three, named for the three human teachers - and that Paul threw in the "Jesus" faction to demonstrate the irony of dividing the household of God into factions in the first place. Aren't we all of the "Jesus" faction, regardless of who brought us to or taught us about life in Christ? For some interesting background on this issue, turn to Acts 18 and the first seven verses of chapter 19. Luke records Paul's second missionary journey through Corinth and Ephesus, and how his travels overlapped those of other Christian leaders, notably Apollos and Priscilla and Aquila. Priscilla and Aquila were forced out of Rome by Emperor Claudius and met Paul while he preached in Corinth for a year and a half. They followed him to Ephesus, where they heard Apollos preaching with passion and skill in the synagogue there. According to Acts 18:24, Apollos was a Jewish convert to Christianity from Alexandria, Egypt, a center of scholarship. Priscilla and Aquila noticed that while Apollos argued convincingly that Jesus was the Messiah, he was ignorant of the baptism in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. They explained this deficiency to him and he decided to journey on to Corinth and preach the Gospel there. Acts 19 describes Paul's return to Ephesus, where he meets several new Christians who have been baptized with John's baptism. Paul baptizes them in Jesus' name and they immediately receive the power of the Holy Spirit, expressed in the gift of tongues and prophecy. Perhaps Luke tells this story as an example of the difference between Apollos original and the corrected message. Paul has already admitted that he dos not preach with "clever speeches and high sounding ideas" in 1 Corinthians 1:17. Perhaps the cosmopolitan crowd at Corinth preferred Apollos' eloquence to Paul's more straightforward style. Whatever the reason for this argument among the Corinthian church, Paul and Apollos view each other as co-workers with each other and with God. Apollos is with Paul as he writes the first letter to the Church at Corinth, and Paul encourages Apollos to join a missionary delegation to the city (though Apollos declines - see 1 Corinthians 15:12). As Paul puts it: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gives the growth (verse 3:6). Both planter and waterer are necessary in the process, and both work as a team with the same purpose (verse 3:8). Just as Apollos was open to Priscilla's and Aquila's correction at Ephesus, Paul encourages the members of the church at Corinth to remember their purpose: to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose (verse 1:10). Questions for Reflection
For Further Reading: See Acts 18:1-19:7
For next week:
Read
1 Corinthians 14:22-26 and think about what you bring to worship at Skyline. |
|
