What God Has Against the Church #1 - Perfect and Flawed
Message Description
Dr. Kurt Bjorklund begins a new series titled What God Has Against the Church going through 1 Corinthians. In this message, Kurt looks at 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 talking about how we can strike a balance between being idealistic and pessimistic about the Church.
Message Transcript
About 18 months ago, I had a conversation with somebody who is not really connected to Orchard Hill, and as I had a conversation with them, they said that the pandemic had made them realize that they really didn't need church, that they didn't really miss church when they didn't have it. It made me a little sad when I heard that, because obviously when you are part of a church, you hope that people find church somewhat significant in their lives. And although I could say something like maybe it had more to do with their engagement level or something like that, I realized that this person's views are not the only person who has this kind of a view, that by and large, a lot of people in the culture, in our world, have a "we could take it or leave it" mindset when it comes to church.
Like it's good, but you know what? I can do the spiritual thing apart from the church. I can worship God on my own. I don't need the organization of the church because there's a lot of problems with the church. And that's certainly true. If you have read any statistics about the church over the last several years, there's a rise in the nuns, it's called, the nuns are people with no religious affiliation. And some people have said this speaks to the doom of the future of the church. And I certainly understand that, although I think it's exaggerated, to be honest. And the reason I think it's somewhat exaggerated, not that it isn't real, but I think what's happening is 20, 30 years ago, when people were asked if they had a religious affiliation, if their parents or grandparents had been Presbyterian or Methodist or Catholic, they would just say I'm catholic, or I'm Presbyterian, or I'm Methodist. And today, a lot of people are saying, you know what? I'm not sure I am that. So, I'm nothing.
And in fact, 25 years ago, I remember when I was in my early twenties, a statistic came out that talked about high school kids who grew up in the church-going off to college, and it said that kids who grew up in the church, about 80% of them would leave the church and never come back. And my point in saying that is, that was the doom statement of 25 years ago. Now there are the doom statements of today. And the church seems to still find ways to thrive. But here's what I want to just talk with you about today. And that is this idea of the church being significant in our lives. There's a move among some people today to deconstruct their faith. And what they're talking about is saying I'm going back and looking at all the things I was taught and deciding if they're important if they should be part of my life or not.
I read one article where the person said, maybe deconstructing isn't the best way to think about it. It's more like unbundling. Do you know what unbundling is? When you have cable, you used to have cable and you had it. And now you say, I want to do things a la Carte. I want to pick and choose what services I want, and that's what more people are doing when it comes to church these days are saying I'm going to pick and choose the parts that I want. I don't need a “one shop fits everything” space. And again, I somewhat understand the mindset that's around that, but here's what we're going to do, over the next several weeks we're going to start a series today that we're calling, What God Has Against the Church. And I recognize that's a negative title, but the reason I chose this title, we chose this title, is because we're going to start studying the book of first Corinthians together.
And this will be four series that will go on for some time, there'll be breaks in between so it doesn't become overly laborious. But this first section is where God gives words of corrective to the church at Corinth, and what I think you'll find is that it's remarkably up to date, although this was written some 2000 years ago, nearly 2000 years ago to an ancient city, to an ancient church, the problems, the things that God objected to and made words of corrective to are things that you may look at today and say, I'm not sure I like that about the current church. And so, we're going to do that. There is a suggested study guide. If you're in a small group, there's a second book that takes it even a little further if you want to be in groups that discuss, there's information at each campus today where you can get involved online, you can email, or call the church office and people can help you get involved in that.
And so, here's what Corinth was. I have a map here that just shows the ancient city. And a little hard to see in the black and white, but Corinth, if you can find it, is on this little peninsula of land between two gulfs in terms of the bodies of water. And it would take several weeks to go out and around this landmass and this city Corinth sat on this little isthmus of land and the ships would come in, and here's another picture. This is the modern-day canal right here. And what they used to do, this is current day, but they used to put ships up on rollers and roll them across the land to not have to go all the way out and around this journey. Now you may say, okay, what does this have to do with anything?
Well, there's a reason that sailors got a reputation and for coming into land and having a few days to blow off whatever steam they wanted to, Corinth became the center of commerce and culture that in many ways would reflect in our day a combination of New York, Las Vegas, and Hollywood, all in one little city, in one little landmass. In fact, it became known to Corinthianize was to engage in just a free expression of somebody's sexuality. And so, the city had a name named after it, or an act named after it because that's what this place was like. And it's to this place that the church at Corinth gets a letter from the apostle Paul. And I would say the first corrective that God gives in these first nine verses is the corrective to say to you, if you are going to understand my purposes, you need to understand and embrace that the church is both perfect and flawed simultaneously, that it's both of these.
It's easy sometimes to have a high ideal of what the church should be, and then step back from it because you say the church isn't what it should be. And therefore, I'm critical of it. And I'm divorcing my own spiritual life from any engagement in church, or to be so pessimistic about it, that you just say, ah, it's just a bunch of people with brokenness coming together. And what we see in first Corinthians is that there are both things held in tension. And here's why I say this. The book is clearly a corrective from God. And he starts in chapter one, verse 10, talking about divisions. Then he goes on and talks about just some sexual practices that were out of bounds. He talks about the lawsuits that people had against each other. He goes through all of these problems, but he starts by talking about the ideal of the church. And that's why I say it's both perfect in the sense of what God intended and yet flawed. And we have to embrace both, or we'll end up in a place where we'll become disheartened with the idea of the church.
So let me just read, starting in verse two, it says, "To the church of God in Corinth," now that little phrase of God in the original language can connote possession, ownership, origin. And so, he's saying the church is God's church. Sometimes when I'm out and around, people come up to me and just say, hey, I know you from church, and Orchard Hill's a big enough church that I don't know everybody who comes here. I know many of you, but a lot of you I don't get a chance to meet on a week-to-week basis. But one of the things that always strikes me, and it doesn't happen all the time, come up to me if you see me out in public, I'm happy to meet people, but can I just encourage you not to say this one thing, I go to your church, okay. You don't go to my church. This is not my church. It's nobody's church. It's God's church.
So, come up to me, introduce yourself, but just simply say, hey, I'm so and so, nice to meet you. I go to Orchard Hill, and I'll just say, cool. I go to Orchard Hill too, because words matter. And what we're communicating at that point is this is something that is of God. And notice though why this is important because here's what Paul does, he's saying, this is the church that has the origin and possession of God, even though I'm going to tell you all of the broken things that exist inside this church. And so, he says, this is true. And then he says this. He says, "To those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people." A couple of words here, sanctified, and holy. And he's saying, these are the people that are set apart to be my representatives in this world.
And again when you read through what comes next, you say, are these people really that? And yet hear Paul says, these are the people that God is calling. And then he says, "Together with all those everywhere, who call on the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours." It's not something that one person gets to have a corner on. And he says, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus." So now he's talking about this idea of grace, and what he's doing is he's saying, this is the church of God. The people here are God's holy set-apart people, they're people who've received grace. And then this, verse five, "For in him you have been enriched in every way." So, you've been given everything you need to achieve what God asked you to do in the city of Corinth and by extension in all cities everywhere, where the church exists.
He says, here's what I've done. I've set you apart and I've given you everything that you need with all kinds of speech and knowledge. God is confirming our testimony about Christ among you; therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord and his appearance. And so, my question is this, and that is if this is what the church is, why is it such a mess, in Corinth and today? And you don't have to look that hard to see the mess of the church. You just need to do a Google search or pay attention, and you can find any church, any denomination has some scandal, something that you go, I don't like that.
And again, the temptation is to say, I'll be spiritual without being religious. I'll be somebody who seeks God without the context of the church. I want to read to you something John Stott wrote about this, this is lengthy, but I think he captures what's going on in these first nine verses of first Corinthians well, he says, "For there's a paradox at the heart of the church. It is the painful tension between what the church claims to be and what it seems to be; between the divine ideal and the human reality; between the romantic talk about 'the bride of Christ' and the very unromantic, ugly unholy, quarrelsome Christian community we know ourselves to be. It is the tension between our final glorious destiny in heaven and our present very inglorious performance on earth. On the one hand, biblical Christians are not perfectionists who dream of developing the perfect church on earth. On the other hand, biblical Christians are not defeatists who tolerate all manner of sin and error in the church.
To the perfectionist, we say, 'You are right to seek the purity of the church. The doctrinal and ethical purity of the church is a proper goal of Christian endeavor. But you are wrong to imagine that you will attain it. Not till Christ comes will he present his bride to himself as the radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish.' And to the defeatists, we say you are right to acknowledge the reality of sin and error in the church, but not to close your eyes to it. You're wrong to tolerate it."
And so, what you have here is you have him saying there are two realities. And if I were to say, what does God have against the church? It's that sometimes people take one reality or the other, instead of saying these two need to be held together. If you lean toward idealism, what I simply want to say to you today is you need to learn to give grace to people who are flawed and make mistakes, or institutions that make mistakes, rather than simply saying, I'm above this, I don't need this. You need to allow for flaws. And you realize that a lot of times what happens in our lives is when we conflict with somebody, a friend, a parent, a spouse, somebody like that, what we tend to do is we tend to want them to give credit for our intentions, but we want to evaluate somebody else on the actions that they do.
In other words, what we want is we want to be able to say, I want you to judge my intentions. And if my actions don't match, give me some grace for my intentions, but what we want is then to be able to turn around and say, I don't care what your intentions are. Here's what you did. And what grace is, allowing for grace and saying, I lean toward idealism is saying, I can give people some room for their intentions, even if their actions are poor. I remember being at a conference years ago and they had Bono, the aging singer from YouTube come to speak because he was famous, and they wanted him to be part of it. And he has a profession of faith. And Bono made this statement. I might have this a little wrong, but he basically said, if your church is not engaged deeply in helping to ease the pain and suffering of AIDS in this world, your church is not biblical is basically what he said.
Now, I understand what Bono was doing, he's saying something outlandish to try to move people in a space and everything. But the reason that this struck me is this, and that is, what's idealism? I have a priority that everyone should care about, and everyone should do. And if you're not doing it, then you're not a good church, you're not a biblical church, you're not the kind of church you should be. And I remember the backlash, just of some of the people who were around saying, yeah, we got to go do this. And here's my thought. And that is, there's a difference between belief and priority, and it's okay to say the global church can address something that doesn't mean the local church has to, and the local church isn't necessarily bad because it doesn't share the priority of some other global churches. You get this in your own life. If somebody were to say to me, do you care about it, or do you believe it's important that people in some country in Africa have clean water? Do you know what I'd say? I'd say, yes. I absolutely believe that's important.
But you know what's true about me? I don't believe it's important enough that I'm currently giving money to help drill wells in that country in Africa. Now that doesn't make me somehow less than because there are other priorities and you and I cannot have everything in our life be a priority. And therefore, what we need to do is be able to say, unlike Bono, if you don't do this, you're bad. We need to be able to say the global church is incredible at meeting needs. And we need to celebrate that and say, I can give grace where people maybe don't do things exactly the way that I think they should do it. And the issue sometimes is we say, here's the ideal. And if this doesn't happen, if people don't meet it, then I have a perception of it that it's just simply negative, rather than saying grace, and this will happen all the time.
Sometimes in the context of a church, there will be things that are done that you'll just say that does not make sense to me. I don't like that but being able to say the church is perfect and flawed allows you to say, I can give grace because the church will always have some flaws. And do you know why that'll be true? Because the church is full of people, and people will always bring their dysfunction, their sinfulness into whatever gathering they're part of. And so there will be things that will be displeasing to any of us who lean toward idealism.
So, if you lean toward idealism, give grace, and if you lean toward pessimism, then there's a need to still push for the ideal, not to simply say, oh, well, we'll never be what it seems like God calls the church to be. And so, we'll push for the ideal, but without crushing, without damaging people along the way. One of the things that I do when I talk to our staff here, is we talk about some of our staff values. And one of our values is to make it better. We just simply say, one of our goals is to make it better. And when I talk about this with our staff, I'll often talk about what I call fatal pronoun disease. And what fatal pronoun disease is, is it's when you say they, them, you have done X, and that's why this is a problem, rather than saying something like we.
And fatal pronoun disease shows up in a church staff when people say, well, the leadership, or that team, that department does it, but it also shows up in the life of the church when people say, well, they did it. Well, I want to tell you something. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, whether you identify with this particular church or not, you are the church. So, if the church is flawed and broken, you're looking in the mirror, it isn't, they, the leadership that did wrong, I'm not saying leadership can't do wrong, but what I'm saying is that there's a collectiveness to the church that says when the church is what it is, it is because we're part of it. And what some of us will do is we'll use the flawed nature, or the pessimism of the church as an excuse, toward the church, as an excuse to say, I can't be involved in a church because of all that's wrong with it. And it will be our reason to say, I don't want to be engaged.
I think it was Billy Graham who once said, you should look for the perfect church. And by all means, you should join it. But as soon as you join it, recognize that it will cease to be the perfect church because we all bring our stuff. And by the way, you know how to hold these things in tension, what it can be and what it is. You do this if you're a parent with kids. If you have young children or older children, you have moments where you see what your child can be, what they should be, and then you have moments where you're like, that's what they are. And what you don't do is you don't say, oh, because you're that I'm done, I'm out on this. Well, what do you do? You say, no, I embrace both. I embrace you where you are, and I embrace where you can be. You understand what this is.
If you've ever dated, if you say, hey, I've never had a child, so that doesn't speak to me. If you've ever dated, you understand this. Because when you date, what happens? You start to date somebody. And when you first date, there's a marketing component to it. Do you know what I'm talking about? The marketing like, hey, I get dressed up. I look nice. I am nice. I do everything I should do the best possible way. And then what happens? Sooner or later, it's like, well, here's the real me. And one of the sweet moments in a dating relationship, and often the moment that helps you propel toward maybe something more than casual dating, is when you see each other at your worst, and you're still loved and embraced.
It doesn't mean that you don't want the ideal. It doesn't mean that you are saying none of that matters. What you're doing is you're saying, I take you as you are, which sometimes is a person who is not the ideal. And yet, somehow when we come to the church, what we want to do is say, if it's not perfect, I can't be a part of it. If it isn't exactly what God wants it to be, or says it can be, then I don't want to be a part of it. Now I recognize that it would be easier in some ways to say, look, I just do my own spiritual thing and there are no scandals, there are no problems, there are no expectations. But these words that are used in first Corinthians one, speak to what we need. We need the gifts of one another to impact the world the way that God has called us to, we need the enriching of one another to have the sense of bringing what good the church can bring. But we also need the grace and the community that comes in the church.
There's something that was written by a woman named Heather Coop a few years back. And when she wrote this, she was talking about how in the recovery community, where people who are coming from different addictions, different things come together, how they often find deeper community than they ever find in a local church. And she said she was trying to understand it. And after some shared conversations and things, here's what she came to believe. She said, "When folks gather around a system of shared belief, the price of acceptance in a group is usually agreement, which means the greatest value, whether it's stated or not, is being right. Unfortunately, this often creates an atmosphere of fear and performance, which in turn invites conformity. But when people gather around a shared need for healing, the price of acceptance in a group is usually vulnerability, which means the greatest value stated or not is being real. This tends to foster an atmosphere of safety and participation, which in turn invites community."
And then she goes on, she says, "Of course, we all face the same challenge on how to foster an authentic connection. As much as our souls crave it, our ego fears it. For most of us, it's fairly easy to share intellectual headspace with someone. We know this, we think that but there isn't much risk here, but inviting a person into our heart space where we feel broken in places takes courage and sometimes even desperation." And here's what Heather Coop is driving at. And I think it's actually the message that we call the gospel, the message of grace. And that is what makes the church beautiful is the reality that everyone here is not perfect, because if we insist on perfection, what happens is we become self-righteous where we start to say, everyone must believe and behave exactly like I believe and behave, or they can't be a part of it.
But what the gospel is, is it's for those who can't always keep their stuff together. And it says God through Jesus Christ has accepted us when we don't do the right things. And the community of the church to be what it's called to actually needs some brokenness to not become a community of self-righteousness. So, we need to embrace both the ideal and the reality and say, these two things coincide if we're going to be a genuine community of the gospel. Now this passage ends with this. And that is the statement that Paul makes, verse eight, he says, "He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." And then he says this, "God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." God will bring this about in you.
So, if it's the church of God and God is faithful, then what that means is that God is doing his work all over the world. Sometimes in little communities, meeting in huts in a third world country, sometimes in beautiful auditoriums, sometimes in ornate churches, sometimes in shopping centers, or strip malls, but God is at work, and he will bring to an end what he is doing. And so, what that means, at least in part, is that anything other than an unreserved commitment to what God is doing is to miss how God wants to work. And here's what I want to say, especially if you're young. There will be a temptation. When you go about your life to just say, you know what? I'm going to be spiritual. I don't need the church, the church is full of problems, but in the Bible, there is no category for people who say, I love Jesus and I'm disinterested in the church, because what is the church? It's the, what? Bride of Christ.
And here's what you can't do. I don't know if you've ever been on a couple date. Do you know what a couple date is? It's where your spouse has become friends with somebody. And they're like, let's go out all together and see if we hit it off. Have you ever been on one of these couple dates, kind of a thing? You guys are all looking at me like, no, I don't know what... You know what I'm talking about. You have been on a couple date at some point in your life. And what happens, and you know this, is if you've ever gone on one of these and you decide, or let's say they decide that you know what? We really like hanging out with you, but we don't like your spouse.
So, we want to go to dinner with you again, the three of us, but we don't want you to bring your spouse. Do you know what? That would not work. Why doesn't that work? Because if you're married, what happens? Your spouse comes with you. They're part of the package. You don't get to say, I love hanging out with you, but your spouse annoys me. What do you do? You say, no, I take them. And so, what an unreserved commitment is, is saying I'm committed to Jesus, therefore I'm committed to his bride. And even when there's brokenness in the church, David Pryor, who wrote the second book that we've recommended, if you're going to do the more intense group study during this time, said it this way. He said, "The church is a fellowship of sinners before it's a fellowship of saints, that it is incoming and recognizing that, that we become what God has intended us to be."
And so, what an unreserved commitment looks like is just simply saying, I am going to be a part of what God is doing in the local church, wherever that is, wherever God takes me. And in that, I will experience gospel community and a sense of mission that I don't get to experience if I detach from it. And if you stick around, what will happen is sooner or later, someone will disappoint you with their thoughtlessness and their insensitivity. But if you stick around, someone will surprise you with their compassion and their kindness. If you stick around something will annoy you, the church, they will decide some things that you would've decided differently, they'll do things that you'll say I don't like that. But if you stick around something will also thrill you because you'll get to see God work in ways collectively that you won't see individually. You'll see marriages that are sometimes brought back from the brink. You'll see addictions turned around. You'll see clarity and friendships healed. But if you simply say I'm done, you'll miss some of those things.
If you hang around the church, if you stick around, you'll watch some people flame out over time, but you'll also see some people restored in some beautiful ways. And if you are part of the church, you stick around, someone will hurt you, because the church is full of people, but if you stick around, you will also experience the beauty of love and acceptance in a way that because it's rooted in God's love, can't be replicated anywhere else. And so, the message of these first few verses of first Corinthians one is to say, embrace the bride of Christ, the church of God, wherever you are, because it is his way of working in a culture that seems to have lost its way. And even though at times the church doesn't feel very noble, it is God's plan. And it's the way that you and I don't just encounter God, but express God in the culture in which we live.
And so, I hope that as we dive into first Corinthians together, that you'll be able to be honest and say, here's some things that are broken in the church, this church, but also be able to say, but I'm committed to being part of what God is doing in the world through his local church. And some of us may say, as you're here, you may say, I'm not really that concerned today about the church, I'm just trying to figure out how to navigate my life, how to move forward with some of the challenges I have. I have a relational breakdown. I have certain stresses right now. I just need God to help me here and now, but what will happen is as you commit yourself to be part of his bride, his church, then God will meet you in some ways that will go beyond anything you could think or understand. And that's the hope that we have.
God, I thank you that today as we gather that we get a chance in Butler, in the Strip District, in the chapel and the auditorium, online, to hear what your word says. And God, I pray today that you would help me and help each person to be able to be critical thinkers without a critical spirit, to be able to see what could be better, but to embrace what you're doing in and through a group of people, imperfect people and say, there's a beauty in it. And God, I pray for each of us that we would know to the core of our being that our standing with you isn't driven by how well we do, but by what Jesus has done, and that would give us the grace to celebrate even the brokenness among us. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thanks for being here. Have a great day.
