What God Has Against the Church #8 - Firm and Deferential
Message Description
Senior Pastor, Dr. Kurt Bjorklund, continues the message series "What God Has Against The Church" teaching from 1 Corinthians. Engagement in lawsuits is clarified in scripture both for the people of Corinth and for the people of today.
Message Transcript
Good morning. As I often do, I want to make a few comments just before we jump into the teaching of First Corinthians six. So let me ask you a question. Have you ever had one of these maybe not healthy choices? You had a TV dinner? Exactly. But have you ever had a dinner that comes in a box that you pop in a microwave and then you eat it? Now, if you have had one of these, here's what I would say is probably true. You didn't choose it because of the quality. You chose it because it was quick, it was easy, it was relatively cheap and it was somewhat healthy.
In fact, in this particular box, I don't have any food actually in here, but this particular box says only 200 calories. And right on the front, it says no preservatives. So, you could say if you chose to eat this, that this is something that's quick, it's easy, it's relatively healthy. And this is actually a good service for some of us at different times. You have a relatively busy week. You get to say, you know what, I'm just going to have a quick, easy no-frill dinner. You're by yourself. You don't want to go through the hassle of cooking. It's a little easier than the alternatives. Maybe you don't want to go out and get fast food. And so, you say this is relatively healthy compared to the other options that are there.
So, I had an experience a while back. I was alone for several days, and I wanted to work on a project that was going to be fairly intense. And so, I went to the store, and I bought breakfast, lunch, and dinner of these kinds of meals, and I put them in the freezer because I didn't want to have to deal with the time to prepare to clean up. I knew I was going to be by myself, and so I had these meals for four straight days. Now, let me tell you, I didn't care how quick, easy, and relatively healthy it was. By the end, it was gross. After a few days of this, I did not want to see one of these again.
Again, okay. In a pinch for something quick, something easy, and just for clarity, it says no preservatives right here on the front. Listen to this list of ingredients on the back. Cooked rice, water, white rice, cooked chicken, chicken, breast water. Olive oil contains 2% or less of isolated soy protein, product, whatever that is. Isolated soy protein, modified potato starch. I'm not sure what modified potato starch is doing in here, but I'm not even sure what that is. Corn starch carrageenan, soy lectin dextrose, potassium chloride, salt, sodium phosphates. Flavoring, green bell peppers, red bell peppers, yellow bell peppers. Red onions, contains 2% or less chicken flavor. Okay, I'll stop. But it says no preservatives.
Now, you may be saying, okay, where is this going? What does this have to do with comments? Here's what I just want to say to you, especially if you are not somebody who has comorbidities, are concerned about other people in your life who might catch COVID, and you're no longer working from home exclusively. You're going out in public, you're eating out, you're traveling. If you are still saying but I decided I really like virtual church. Can I just tell you; the virtual church is kind of like this. Okay. It's quick. It's easy. It's relatively healthy. It's a nice replacement. There's a time for it. Like, I'm not saying that you should never do virtual church. There’s homes. I like virtual church. I was tempted to do this by video on Thursday and send it.
But here's my point. It's not relational. What happens when you cook a meal, you get around with family and friends, you think about it, you cook together, you're serving, you eat. There's a process of enjoyment. There is health that's engaged with it, and you savor the experience. Now, sometimes maybe you say that's not true but think about some of your best meals. They usually involve some work, some teamwork. Think about your best conversations. They are in the kitchen often.
And my point is just this. It's a little bit more work to get to church to be a part of the community. But when you are part of a community, what happens is you have relationships, not just the experience. And when you watch on a screen, it's really easy to be a spectator and a critic on your sofa. You don't go through the same declaration. When you learn a new song, there isn't that moment of saying, wow, I'm going to try to sing this and make this part of my declaration. And you become in some ways somebody who just says, this is quick, easy, and relatively healthy. And so, I just want to say again, if you've gotten to the point where it's no longer about the pandemic, but it's just quick, easy, and relatively healthy, to say maybe it's time to remind yourself that it's a little bit like a TV dinner and time to say, I want to reengage in the life of the church.
And here's my guess of what's happening for some of us. Some of us who used to make it to church three times a month, now it's twice a month, used to be twice a month. It's once a month. Used to be weekly. It's three times a month because the TV dinner is easier. And again, I'm not trying to guilt anybody. I'm just saying ultimately, it's not as good, and it's not as good for you if that becomes your habit. Okay. It's a good thing if you travel. You've had a week. You are away for a season and you need to say, I want to stay connected. Great. But I just want to encourage you, to remind yourself what it is.
The second thing I just want to say, and this is all before the teaching and that is I'm sure you've seen images from Ukraine and there are some striking images. One that has really struck me is the lines of families trying to leave. And you see the moms, and the children with the dads, and husbands who are told they can't leave the country. They need to go back and fight. I mean, that's hard to even wrap my head around. I'm sure it is for some of you, like how upended our world would be if that were to happen.
And I'm going to talk in a couple of weeks on March 19-20, about what does the Bible say about some of the geopolitical things that were already on the schedule? And so that's coming in a few weeks. But what I want to do today is simply to pray for the people of Ukraine and for the peace of the nations. And I want to use a prayer that Christians have prayed over a long period of time. This is from the Book of Common Prayer. And so, we're praying when we pray this with Christians who've prayed for peace generation after generation and so first, I'll just pray for the people of Ukraine specifically, and then this prayer from the Book of Common Prayer. So, would you pray with me?
God, we do pray for those families that are fleeing God. We pray that they would be united, that the separation and the fear and the uncertainty would be something that you would work in, and God that even as we see that and watch it unfold from across an ocean, that we would be able to to remind ourselves that you're on the throne. God I pray for just the people that are experiencing the effects of that war right now very directly. That you would be nearer to them and work in it.
And then, Lord, we pray with people all through the ages who prayed for peace. We pray Almighty God, kindle in every heart a true love of peace, and guide with your wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the Earth, that in tranquility your dominion may increase until the Earth is filled with the knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, amen.
So, a friend of mine sent me an article a while back, and it was about an article that somebody else had written in California about saying that Californians should surrender their children to the state to raise. This is written by a man named Joe Matthews, and the article was called “California Should Abolish Parenthood, In the Name of Equity.” Now, the article was written somewhat tongue in cheek. He was writing in response to some of the political events that were going on. But what he was in essence saying was, if you want to talk about equity, parents who have resources, pass on the opportunities and the resources to the next generation and to the generation after that. And as a result, if you really want equity, if you really want justice, what he was saying was, you should live in a place where everybody surrenders their kids to the state to raise them so that there's true equity across every socioeconomic stratum of society.
Now, I read that and it seemed preposterous to me. But what I want to do with that today is just ask you a question. You heard First Corinthians six read and when you hear that passage, it says that the Christians aren't to have lawsuits between each other. Let me ask you this. If you lived in a situation, and it's becoming increasingly easy to see situations in our world degenerating to where what seemed impossible, just even a couple of years ago seems more possible if you lived in a situation where people wanted to take your children and you felt like your only recourse was the law; I assume most of you would say, well, I would fight that in court. I certainly would be among those.
But what if the person who's propagating that belief is a person who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and you are a follower of Jesus Christ. And you read First Corinthians six which seems to say you shouldn't have lawsuits between Christians. Would you feel compelled to say, I need to let this go? Let me ask you another scenario. Let's say that you attend church with somebody, so it's not just out there, but it's closer in and you end up going into a business agreement with somebody. They're going to provide some services for you and you're going to receive the service and pay them for their work and in the course of time, you agree to a price, they exceed the price and they don't deliver the work. What do you do now? In some ways that's easy. If it's a couple of hundred dollars, it's a little harder. If it's a couple of thousand dollars, what if it's hundreds of thousands of dollars? What if you're in a place where the money that has been negotiated isn't just a convenience number but it's a true survival number.
And then you read First Corinthians six. What do you do? Well, Paul addresses the issue of lawsuits, especially among the people at the Corinthian Church. And what we'll do today is we're going to talk a little bit about what this teaches about lawsuits and if it says that Christians should never bring a lawsuit against another Christian or if they should never go to court against another Christian. And what I'd like to do, just to talk about this, is talk about two approaches when you feel as if you're in conflict with somebody else, particularly those who are in the church.
And what we've called this, series is What God Has Against the Church. And what it seems that God is driving at through Paul in this letter to the Corinthian Church is that the Christians were letting their petty differences become known in the culture all around them. And people were looking at the church, the Christians, and saying, you as Christians are not living in a way that is distinct from the world. And so, what I'd like to do is just talk about what I'm going to call the low road and the high road to counseling. And this is a challenging issue, because even if you don't attend the same church, even if if you're shade of understanding, Christianity is different, there are chances that you've been in conflict with people, and sometimes it's gotten to the point of legality. So how do you handle it?
Well, first I'm going to say the low road approach. Now, first, here's what we need to see. Verse one of chapter six says, if any of you has a dispute with another, do you take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord's people? And this word dispute in the NIV is used again in English in verse five. It says, “I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?”
In the original language, it's two different words. The ESV has grievance in verse one, dispute in verse five. The NIV says dispute, dispute. And the words, the reason they matter is they point to something. So, the first-word dispute in verse one or grievance is the Greek word pragma. And it means a matter that is not settled easily, basically. And then dispute is the word diakrino. It means to judge between.
And the reason that I point this out is that in First Corinthians chapter one verse 11, we have another word that's used for argument, and it's not easy to see this for sure in English. But let me just show this to you. Chapter one verse 11 says this, “My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.” Now, I don't know how you think about quarrels, grievances, and disputes. And again, in English, it's like, okay, they all sound like synonyms. But here's what I want to point out. The word quarrel, I believe, is actually a stronger word because it means a heated dispute. It means a heated argument. A heated exchange. Pragma, this idea of a grievance means, hey, you know, we don't really have to see eye to eye on this, and to diakrino was to say we are trying to decide between options. The same word for hot argument is used in chapter three, verse three, he says this, “You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?” He says it's not spiritual when you end up in these heated arguments.
Now, the reason that I show this to you is that the low road is to take your trivial
differences and say, I'm going to try to exact a price. In fact, Paul, in chapter six, verse two uses the word trivial, even uses that phrase. And so, what I believe is happening in First Corinthians six is this is not an absolute standard of saying there should never, ever be a time when you need to go to court. But what he's driving at is this idea of saying what you're doing is you're prioritizing your rights and being right over the way in which God is seen.
Now, certainly, the background of that culture seemed to be very litigious, that what people would do is as soon as they had some kind of dispute, they would go to court and they would air it. And it almost became entertainment in that culture because what people would do is they would go into the public square. There is no Netflix, no TV at night, and they would sit there and go, oh, this is interesting. This person disagrees with this person. Let's see how this plays out. I mean, that was a little bit of how that worked. And so, what the Christians were doing is they were taking their petty disputes to the court and they were having their differences decided between these unbelievers in the culture. And the reason, again, that that was problematic is what they were doing according to the text is they were not being concerned for the testimony of the church. And in one spot, he says, you're already defeated, you're already defeated.
Now, here's my guess. Even though there are probably many who have had lawsuits between people who claim to be believers in different ways, a lot of us probably haven't. And so, the idea of a lawsuit, you say, well, I'm good on this if I don't have a lawsuit that's active with somebody, I don't go to court. In Second Corinthians 12:20, this is Paul writing to the Corinthians again, he says, “For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander,
gossip, arrogance and disorder.” What Paul is concerned about is the way that people treat each other, and the way that it reflects on the character of God to people in the broader society.
And so, I think it would be fair to say that today this isn't just about the idea of literally going to a court, but this could also refer to the way that you interact in the court of public opinion. In other words, if you say, I have to be right, I need to assert my rights, and I'm going to do it in a way that is public, then what you're doing is you are taking what is the low road, you're taking your grievances, you're taking your dispute out. And you're saying, I want other people to know because I want them to know how wrong you are or that you've wronged me. And the way that this happens in our culture is not going down to an actual lawyer at night for entertainment, but by saying, I want to post something on social media and put something out there so that everyone can see what's wrong with this. And sometimes we do it with people we don't even know. We just want to stake ground. And I understand that there's probably a time where you're saying, I want people to see the truth. I want them to see something different.
But what's happening is people are saying, I want to show people that I'm not just like them. And I admit that there's a piece of me that likes this. And what I mean is I like to read it in other people. I don't like to engage in it. But I have a couple of websites that I go to that are like church gossip and I'm not, you know, saying this to pat myself on the back, but it's kind of interesting to me. It's like, wow, look at that train wreck. And then there's a little piece of me that's kind of like, oh, and, you know, our church is pretty healthy compared to that. And my point is, that when you and I do that, when we engage in it and post or even read to a certain extent, what we're doing is, we're saying, here's all our stuff. We want you to see it. And this, I believe, is what Paul is talking about when he says, you're taking your grievances, you're taking your disputes, and you're airing them in court, or I'm going to say in the court of public opinion. So that's the low road.
Here's the high road. The high road I'm going to say, is this and that is when we don't simply let it go, but we say, I want to bring this before a wise person, a person inside the church community that we can agree on that can help us settle our dispute. And this is why I've called this firm and deferential, because the idea is not simply to say I'm going to let this go, but it means I'm going to say, let's settle this in a way that doesn't tie up our court system, that doesn't bring disrepute on the name of the Church of Jesus Christ. And so, what that means when you read through this, isn't there somebody wise enough? It says, isn't there somebody that you can bring this to inside the church? That what is ideal is not that you simply say this is not a thing, but that you would say this is a thing, but we're going to find somebody that we can agree with, agree to as a person or a group of people who can mediate the situation.
But even more than that, once that's done and maybe it goes against you instead of simply saying, I'm leaving the situation that you are willing to be wronged and cheated, instead of saying, I have to get my way, here's where you see this, verses six and seven says, “But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers! The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already.” And he says this, “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?” Says, you know, what would be better for you to be wronged or cheated? Then to assert your rights or to be right and to somehow be in a place where you are saying, and I need to be.
Now, again, understand, I'm not saying that there's never a time. There are some things when you're fighting, especially for somebody else, where you may need to say, I need to involve courts because this person won't submit to any kind of process that we can agree to. Or there may be a time when there's a lot at stake. And I'm not suggesting that you have to submit to some kind of a bogus process, but what I'm saying is, is what I believe Paul is saying, is when you elevate being right and getting your rights, man, that you've been defeated already, rather than saying I'll be wronged, I'll be cheated rather than assert my own way.
I saw a thing about this last football season where Antonio Brown, you may remember him, played for the Steelers. Those of you who are football fans will know about this account. And if not, let me just give you a little background. Antonio Brown played for the Steelers for years, was super talented, had a hard time getting along with everybody. Went to Oakland before he moved to Las Vegas or right when it was moving, had a hard time getting along with everybody, went to New England, lived in Tom Brady's house. Tom Brady, lobbied for him, lived in his house, played for New England, couldn't get along with everybody there. Kicked off the team. Tom Brady moves to Tampa Bay. Tom Brady lobbies for him. He lives in his house again now. He played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year. And at one point during the year, he takes his jersey off mid-game walks off the field. The reason that everybody thinks he did this, and he's confirmed, was he had incentives in his contract. And if he didn't get the ball enough, he wouldn't make as much money. So, he takes off his jersey, skips off the field.
Now, the reason I tell you this story, after this happens, he turns around and says several things about Tom Brady that weren't flattering. Now, I'm not a Tom Brady fan. In fact, I'm an anti-fan. Being a Steelers fan, you can't like Tom Brady. He beat the Steelers too many times. But here's what's true about Tom Brady. All his years in the league, there are very few people who have negative things to say about him. That's hard to do. If you work somewhere, you know how hard that is to do, like to not have a few people who say, oh, I don't like you. If you live in a neighborhood, it's hard not to have some neighbors, sometimes they say, oh, you got some... Tom Brady, all these years, very few people say anything negative about him. Out comes Antonio Brown with his negative statements. Listen to what Tom Brady said. I have no idea where Tom Brady is in his faith journey or what's going on, but this is a very good response.
He says, “I think everyone should hopefully do what they can to help him, speaking of Antonio Brown, in ways that he really needs. We all love him. We all care about him deeply. We want to see him at his best.” Do you know what Tom Brady was doing right there? He was taking the high road. He was saying, I'm not going to out somebody, and the ugliness of what has been in front of everybody. I'm going to say something that says this is the high road.
I think sometimes Christians could learn a lesson from Tom Brady, at least in this instance. Because I don't know about you, but if I invited somebody to live in my house twice, helped them recover their career twice, and the person didn't like that I wasn't throwing in the football enough and then turned around and said a bunch of nasty things about me, I would at least want to throw a zinger in there somewhere. And this is probably part of why Tom Brady has been somebody that gets along with people over time.
Now, I know some of you right now are probably saying, okay, listen, this is part of why I don't want to be part of the church. Why, if I do church, I just want to kind of stay apart from anything. I'll do my own spiritual journey. I don't want to get encumbered in stuff and be required. And some of you are saying this might even be part of why I don't want faith. I don't want to be a part of the faith community. But one of the things I've been trying to say that First Corinthians teaches is that it's not possible in terms of being a biblical Christian to be a biblical Christian without church community. It doesn't exist in the Bible. This whole idea of I just do my thing, and I have an individual relationship with God, and I just live out my life doesn't exist. Faith is a communal event.
And so, you come to what I'm going to say is a fork in the road. And again, I'm not arguing that there aren't some things that are above this idea of disputes and grievances. But what I'm saying is sometimes you'll come to a fork in the road where you have a choice to say, I will either choose to put myself in a place where I can be wronged and cheated, or I'm going to assert my rights, and here's how Jesus dealt with this. This is in First Peter chapter two, verses 20 and following, and the fork in the road actually goes through Jesus because it's in seeing what Jesus has done for you, done for me, that you and I actually have. The sense of saying what Jesus has done for me shows me how I can extend grace and truth to other people.
This is what it says for First Peter verses 20 and following, “But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” So, Christ is the example he says here, and you should do as Jesus does. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
The word here for judges is the word krino. Remember when I was talking about disputes, diakrino? It's a compound word to judge between here. He's what entrusting himself to the God who judges. Why can Jesus endure mistreatment and not retaliate? Because He says there's a day when God will right the wrong. There's a day if you're being mistreated, if you're being cheated by somebody who claims to be of faith, or doesn't claim to be of faith, that you can say, I can allow some of this to go because there is a God who will bring judgment to this someday.
Verse 24, “’He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and lived to righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” God is the one who judges. He's the shepherd of our souls. He's the overseer. In other words, Jesus isn't just a model to follow. He's the one that you can entrust yourself to because He cares for you. And so, to say I'm going to take the high road means in many ways that what you're doing is you're saying, I'm entrusting myself to God, even if I've been cheated or mistreated in some ways.
Now, certainly, this isn't a reason to stay in an abusive situation. I'm not talking about that. I'm not saying again, there's never a time for public scrutiny. But what I'm saying is, what I believe Paul is saying here, and that is that what God has against the church is that you're taking your petty differences public and it reflects poorly on the character of Jesus Christ.
Reminds me of a story. There is a mom who was making pancakes for her sons. And you know how when you make pancakes, it takes a while, and they come off slowly. And so, you want to eat them right as they're coming off the griddle unless you have this kind of pancake breakfast. But that's not good. And so, you're serving pancakes. She's serving pancakes. And as they're coming off, the boys start fighting over who gets the first pancake and as they're fighting about it, the mom's trying to think about how to resolve this. And she says, well, listen, I want to just ask you, boys, this question. What would Jesus do? And the boys kind of had their moment of sitting there saying, oh, you know, he'd probably let the other one have the first pancake. And the boys are like, yeah. And so, one boy sits there and he thinks for a second. He says I'll tell you what, Ryan, to his brother today, I'm going to let you be Jesus. Here's the thing. We like the idea of Jesus being our model until it costs us something. And then all of a sudden, we want somebody else to be Jesus.
Paul here is saying, are you so taken with what Jesus Christ has done for you that you're willing to at times be cheated, mistreated, wronged, even in order to entrust yourself to me, the shepherd, and the overseer of your souls? He says, if you don't, then you've been defeated already. What you're doing is you're living no differently than how the world has lived. And again, if you're here and you're saying, I'm not sure I want to be a part of the church or a community, part of the draw of community is saying I live for something bigger than just my own rights. I'm part of a team. I'm part of a group that says we have something that's so big in this world, that's so great, that we're willing to let petty differences go. And that is what I believe Paul was driving at in this passage.
Father, today I ask that you would help me, help each person, who's gathered at Orchard Hill online, in person, whatever campus, to be in a place where we're so taken with what you've done, how you were wronged for us that we can be wronged and cheated and entrust ourselves to you, the shepherd and overseer of our souls. God, for those who maybe today have just said, you know, I came needing to hear about hope in the midst of this life. And this just feels like an exhortation. I pray that even now there would be a recognition that sometimes in our desire to be right, our desire to get our rights met, that we actually prove our very need for a Savior and God, that you would point us to your son who has died and given us a way to be right with you, even when we do wrong. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thanks for being here. Have a great weekend!
