1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother  2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Alright, so we are in 1 Corinthians. This is just an amazing book. We love to go through the books in the Bible verse by verse in our church and preach through them. We’ve done some amazing studies through First and Second Peter, previously. What an amazing study that was! 

I’m really excited about what God is going to teach us through the book of 1 Corinthians. So this Sunday is just going to be a small introduction about what the Corinthian church was and why Paul was writing to them. Now this is a letter that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. What was Corinth? Corinth was a place located on the coast of Greece. It will always help to understand the background a little bit so that we know what was happening in that place and why Paul is writing this letter to the church in Corinth. 

So I made a small presentation of a few pictures. You can keep looking at them, as I speak. Corinth was a significant city in the Greek Empire and also during the Roman Empire. It became the provincial capital of a place called Achaia. And as you can see it is a place that connects two landmasses from both the north and also the south side. It’s joining northern Greece, which is Macedonia, with southern Greece, which is Achaia and it has a canal running across it. As you can see, right in the middle, there is a canal. It’s still operational, you can go there, you will see big ships going through this canal. 

So it was a very important seaport. It was a commercial place, a lot of trade used to happen. The city was luxurious because of its location and all the wealth that these sea merchants would bring. And because of this, they could tax people coming in from either of the directions, both from the north and the south. Sometimes you’d even get double taxed on the sea and land routes that they would use to carry the goods that came through, they would tax them. So Corinth was a very cosmopolitan, important city of trade and a lot of people used to live there. 

Now, a majority of the people in Corinth were actually slaves. There were more slaves in Corinth than regular people. Now that is because in the past, Corinth was plundered by a couple of invaders. They came in and they destroyed everything. In fact, one of the Roman Emperors, I believe, or was it a Greek Emperor? I’m not sure, we’ll probably look into the details later. He came and he basically killed all the men and the boys in Corinth. Only the women and a few girls were left behind so they actually all became slaves. 

So there were a lot of slaves in the city. They were estimated to be around 300,000 free people that lived there but about 460,000 slaves were there in that city. Basically more slaves; and we see that this social imbalance was there in the church as well. Because Paul writes to the church, and he says, “There are differences among you.” There are people who were rich, who had all the things that they needed and there were very poor people who had nothing. They were hungry people as well. And that had come into the church. 

Twice a year they used to hold games called Isthmanian games. ‘Isthman’ basically means where the canal is; where the landmass is connecting, is basically what it meant. So they used to have games twice a year. They used to have chariot races, running, boxing, wrestling, and there used to be freestyle fighting. Pretty much similar to the Olympic Games that they used to conduct in the ancient times but on a smaller scale. The only difference was that there were also singing and poetry competitions during those games. 

So all the great champions would come and fight there. There was a lot of fighting, boxing, running and all those things. Again Paul uses in the book of First Corinthians when he’s talking, he takes all those ideas that happened in the community, and then he would bring them into the letters to the church. Now, as far as the religious status of this city goes, it was very known for a temple called the temple of Aphrodite or also known later on as Venus. Now Aphrodite, if you go back all the way in history, you will see she was called by many names. She was basically a fertility goddess. Her son was named Eros and then she had another son called Pan. Eros is basically what the Greeks considered as Cupid, right?

Some of you might know that. So it was a goddess for a lot of immorality. There used to be about a 1000 temple prostitutes. In Corinth prostitution was legal. So all these seamen, men who were at sea for many, many months would all come to Corinth and indulge in prostitution, in drinking, in partying and just having a merry time in Corinth. Now that is very much similar to the situation that we have here in Goa. Corinth was a tourist place, it was a place of attraction, sea trade, all the games that were happening, and the temple was an attraction for all the tourists to come there, drink and to just let go of themselves in that place. They used to participate in all kinds of immoral activities. In fact, Plato uses the word ‘Corinthian girl’, which basically means a prostitute. 

To be called a Corinthian girl meant being called a prostitute. So prostitution was very much legal and some of these things had come into the church as well. Now, there used to be sacrifices that were made in the temple. People would eat and drink from there and they would just enjoy themselves.  So it wasn’t a great place to start a church because it was full of immorality.  Before we get into what Corinth was and how the church in Corinth started as we read from Acts chapter 18, if you see in Acts chapter 17 onwards, Paul’s missionary journey, Paul comes to Berea first and then from Berea he goes to a place called Athens. 

Now in Athens were all kinds of great philosophers. The people in Athens were wise. They were amazingly well read, literate people. There were scholars, philosophers, and all kinds of upper class people in Athens. So, Paul goes there and he finds that  it was filled with temples and with idols. Paul even sees an altar that was made to an unknown God. The people in Athens probably thought “Hey, we are worshiping so many gods, let’s make an altar for the unknown god as well. There probably is some unknown god.” So they were worshiping all kinds of gods. Paul stands there up on a hill called Mars and he preaches to them about resurrection. When he starts preaching about resurrection, the people start laughing at him.

‘Oh, what are you talking about? The dead people come back, how’s that gonna work? This is flesh and blood and after we die, we get buried in the Earth or burned or thrown at sea.’ Back in those times I mean, nobody cared. The Greeks had all kinds of philosophies about what happens after death. What happens after death has been an issue right from the beginning. The ancient Egyptians built pyramids because they believed in life after death and some kind of a philosophy of an underworld that you go to. So did the Greeks and the Romans, they all had all kinds of philosophies about the afterlife and what would happen. 

But when Paul started preaching and saying that after death there is a resurrection, you will be standing before God and you will give an account to him – people started making fun of him and they ridiculed him. Now, Athens would have been a perfect city, strategically, for Paul to start a church. But guess what happens? Paul just could not start a church. So there was no church established in Athens. Paul goes to the place called Corinth after that. Right from Athens, he comes to Corinth. He sees Corinth and finds it to be the most immoral city you could find in the ancient Roman Empire. They were known for immoral behavior. And that is where he has one of the greatest successes in establishing the church. 

Now the church, as we read from Acts 18, Paul meets Aquila and Priscilla. These two people were an amazing couple from the early New Testament Church whom Paul met in Corinth. The reason why they came to Corinth was because there was an edict made by Caesar Claudius, saying that all the Jews must leave Rome. This was because the Jews and the Christians were fighting. There were always arguments and people going mad thinking, “Who are these people? What are they saying about Jesus Christ?”

As you will see in the book of Acts, the Jews were stirring things up. Now Claudius got fed up of all of this. He called both the Christians and the Jews, as Jews. He didn’t understand the difference between them. He told all the Jews to get out of Rome, he made a decree. So all the Jews and the Christians left Rome.  Aquila and Priscilla come to Corinth where Paul meets them. I’m not sure how he met them exactly but we see that they were in the similar trade as Paul. Paul was a tentmaker. Paul comes from a place called Cecilia which is a place known for goat hair. They used to process that there. That is what they used in the tents. Paul probably met them through some connections. 

This amazing couple takes Paul in and they give him a job in Corinth. In Corinth, Paul was the kind of person that was rejected in Athens, and he probably carried that here into Corinth, feeling defeated. Paul was there all alone, because he left his companions, Timothy and Silas, back in Thessalonica. He doesn’t have them with him. So he’s all alone. He had no money, he was completely broke. He just got rejected big time in Athens where he taught all these big philosophers. He thought they would accept the gospel, take him in and take care of him, but nothing happened. So there Paul was in Corinth all by himself and he was really, really down to the point that God gave him a message. And that’s what we see in Acts 18. 

So in those circumstances was how the church in Corinth was established. If you can just turn your Bibles to Acts 18. Quickly, we’ll just go through a few things so that we are clear about what is happening there. We see that Paul has met Aquila and Priscilla who were an amazing couple in the New Testament whom you will find were so different from the rest of all the people that are mentioned. They were pioneers in establishing the church in Corinth, and also the church in Ephesus later on.
So in Acts 18, we will just read through a few verses. 1 After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. 3 So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.

So we see that Paul was working throughout the week. On the weekends, he was going on the Sabbath and he was persuading the Jews and the Greeks and all the people that would gather there. He was sharing the gospel with them. So Silas and Timothy, they come from Macedonia. When they come, they bring a gift for Paul  from the churches there. They brought some financial contribution. So after they come, Paul, we see that he made sure that he was not working anymore. He completely devoted himself to preaching the gospel. 

Verse 6 But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7 And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

So we see again, Paul doesn’t have great success. Initially, people were rejecting him, especially the Jews. Every city where Paul went, the Jews were rejecting what he was preaching in the synagogues. They mocked him, they opposed him and blasphemed him to the point where Paul had to shake his clothes and then say, You know what, I’m not going to preach to you guys anymore. If you don’t want to hear, you know, probably Paul thought of what Jesus Christ said, ‘Don’t throw the pearls before the swine lest they trample you.’ So probably Paul thought and said, “You know what, you don’t want to listen to the gospel. Fine, I’m gonna turn away from you. I’m gonna share it with the Gentiles.”

So we see there was a person called Justus and he was right next to the synagogue. In fact, his house is joined to the synagogue, the same construction, and he was preaching in his house instead of in the synagogue.  Verse 8 “And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed.”

What an amazing thing that is right? In the midst of all the opposition that Paul was having, God had opened the heart of Justus and also of Crispus. They accepted and they believed and they were baptized. So these were the first believers in the church of Corinth. After that we see that Paul stayed there for 18 months and he was preaching the gospel there. 

Now right here we have a great example of how a church must be started. This is how a New Testament Church is usually started. And it’s just a wonderful example of that. The key people here are Aquila and Priscilla. They took Paul in. You know when you have a couple like that it’s just a blessing in the church. A couple that would minister to the people, share the gospel, that would call the people in and say, ” Hey! You know what, come to our house!” In fact, this is what Aquila and Priscilla do. They go to Ephesus after this and then they help start the church there. They find Apollos and they take him in when Paul departs. Apollos comes in and they teach him the word as well. Apollos goes back to Corinth to preach as well. So what a great example of that that we see in the Bible. Again, so many principles to take from here.

• NUMBER ONE: Paul works with his own hands, he was a tentmaker for almost, you know, a couple of months. He was working by himself. 
• NUMBER TWO: God provides a job that Paul needs for himself so that he can continue preaching. 
• NUMBER THREE: Silas and Timothy when they come from Macedonia, they bring an offering. This is supporting a pastor or the one who’s preaching the gospel. 

We see so many principles here in First Corinthians in the church in Corinth, in Acts chapter 18. So moving forward, we’re just establishing how the church was started there.  So then after these first converts there, we see in verse 9, “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy  peace: 10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. 

What an amazing promise that is right?

I wish I could hear these words like that. I was thinking I should maybe put these words on my wall, in front of my desk. You know sometimes in ministry you become afraid. It’s not easy to share the gospel. It’s not easy to proclaim the truth. There’s so much opposition. There’s so much pain that you have to go through and what a journey it is for Paul, right? He didn’t have to live a life like this. He had all the things that he wanted. He was being trained under Gamaliel – one of the best teachers that you could find at that time. Who is the best of the teachers that we know of today? Anybody? We probably have many. The best professor that you could find in the whole of Israel was training Paul. He was his best student as well. Paul was a Pharisee. He had some social status.

He has all those things. He could have just gone and enjoyed his life but as Paul says to the church in Corinth, Paul says, “I am the apostle, not by man’s doing, but by the calling that God has given to me.” So we see Paul’s life completely and radically changed when he meets Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. Paul – the man that was trying to kill the people who called themselves Christians – was converted and his life was changed completely to the point that he was the one going through persecution. Now, wherever Paul went, people were rising up against him and they were saying all kinds of things and persecuting him. 

We see that persecution is actually a sign of success. Now, usually people think these days that when you start a church, the success is defined by how many people you have, what kind of equipment and facilities you own right? I tell the story about how this one pastor was showing off the church’s amazing infrastructure. The church was so huge, they had their own traffic system inside. They had lights and stuff that they built which he was showing to me. For them that is success! A lot of people think this is success. Look through the book of Acts. The success in the church is not these things. Success is when you know God is with you. And then when you have that success, what comes along with it? Persecution and investigation comes. Because the world hates Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ made it super, super clear. ‘The world will hate you because the world hates me.’ So how much more is the world going to hit you?

What an encouraging word the Lord brings to Paul here. He tells him, ‘You know what Paul? Do not be worried, do not be afraid, I’m going to be with you. Don’t be quiet either Paul. Don’t look at all the opposition and people who are rejecting you and think, ‘Let me not say anything then. Let me not argue with them. Let me not persuade them about the gospel. Let me not share the truth with them.’ ‘ He says, ‘Paul, you speak up. Don’t hold your peace. Don’t keep your mouth closed. For I’m with you.’ The Lord gives him a promise, saying, ‘My presence is going to be with you Paul. I’m going to set you so that nobody will hurt you. I’m going to protect you. And I’m going to have a great number of people from this city.’

We have a few pastors here and some people that are involved in the church. It’s not just by coincidence that you’re here. I just want to say God wants you to hear this. Do not be afraid to speak because He has a great number of people in the city where God has called you to preach. He has many people there and God is giving this promise to you as well, so do not be fearful. Do not be afraid of these people because God is the one who will protect you. He’s the one who is going to use you to bring many people to Him. 

In verse 11, Paul continues there for about a year and six months, that is about 18 months, and he was teaching them the word of God. So Gallio was the deputy of Achaia. He was like the governor of Achaia, the province of Achaia of where Corinth was. And all these Jews made an insurrection. As usual, they all brought Paul before him and said, ‘We want to make an accusation against this guy. Paul is coming and he’s preaching about Jesus. He’s preaching some strange things. He’s talking about resurrection. He’s saying that Jesus is the fulfillment of all things and that He is the Son of God, and that He’s going to come back. Take him and punish him!’

Gallio, as we see, was not even bothered. Seeing that it was something to do with the Jews, he told them to deal with it. He didn’t want to be part of that. Now, there’s an interesting word used here. The word ‘judgment seat’ is mentioned here. That’s the word ‘bema’, which is also what Paul also will use when he writes to the church in Rome. He writes that letter from Corinth, interestingly. So the ‘Bema Seat’ or the judgment seat was where Galio was sitting. Basically the judgment seat is like a pedestal on which they would sit up on. We even follow that sometimes in our judicial system. You always see the judge sit up on a high pedestal. They would sit up on his seat like that, and then they would judge. 

So Gallio doesn’t bother. Then they bring Sosthenes, who is the chief ruler from the synagogue and they beat him instead of Paul. They then ask who let Paul come into the synagogues.  Everybody probably said Sosthenes was the one so let’s beat him up. They beat Sosthenes up. All of this was the beginning of the church in Corinth. What a story that is. We think it’s a very unlikely beginning for a church, right? You think, ‘Oh, God is with me. The Holy Spirit is with me, I’m empowered. I’m gonna heal people. I’m gonna lay hands upon people and I’m gonna resurrect people from death. The whole city is gonna come and hear the Gospel!’

Nah, that’s not how a church is started. We see that it was through much persecution, much pain that the church in Corinth could be established. So after Paul establishes the church, he leaves from there and he goes to Ephesus. Along with him, Aquila and Priscilla also leave and they go to Ephesus. Paul also probably gave this charge to Sosthenes, Crispus and Justus to take care of the church as well. There were also other people in prominent families in the church of Corinth that God had raised up to continue the church there. We now come to the point of why Paul is writing this letter to the church in Corinth. Paul actually wrote another letter prior to this letter, so the first Corinthians that we are reading is actually the second letter. Paul writes about four letters to the church in Corinth, and two of them are lost. They are not part of the scriptures. We do not know what happened to them. The other two of these letters are preserved and they are part of the scriptures that we have today. 

So this is actually the second letter that he’s writing. But in our scriptures this is the first letter. So the reason why Paul is writing to the church in Corinth is because while he was in Ephesus, Paul started hearing about a lot of wrong things taking place, especially about immorality. As I mentioned before, Corinth was known to be a very immoral place. There was prostitution, uncontrolled drinking and a lot of things that were happening. So Paul writes his first letter to the church in Corinth. 

Now what happens after the first letter is that it had very little impact on the people in the church there. So Paul writes this other letter; the second letter that we are reading as First Corinthians because he heard some more bad news coming from this church. Now what a pain that would be for Paul to see that even though he established this church through much tears and persecution, people were coming, and listening to the Word but were bringing their own culture, their own backgrounds, their own bad, sinful behavior into the church. Paul writes then to correct them. I think this is one of the most important books that we can ask for as a church and that we can meditate upon as well. Because the church must be pure, it must be holy and set apart for God. So we have to be careful that sin does not enter into the church. 

Chloe and his household wrote to Paul about the party spirit in the church and the quarrels that were happening. Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus all brought reports to Paul. They had questions about marriage, about divorce, about food offered to the idols, about immoral behavior that was there in the church, how to collect the offering and how to spend it. They had all these questions which was the reason Paul was writing this letter. So it was like a question and answer session. Back in those times, there was no WhatsApp or mobile phones that you could use to call each other. They had to write letters and people would carry them across. 

We did find that Paul sent Timothy to Corinth to deal with some of the problems and then Paul writes this letter as well. So that is the occasion for writing this letter.  Paul questions the kind of life the church in Corinth was living. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” And he goes on to say, “And such were some of you.”

Now you see the kinds of people that were there in the church. They were drunkards, they were idolaters, fornicators, adulterers, sodomites, homosexuals, thieves, covetous people, people that were given into extortion. All kinds of people were there and Paul says, “Such were some of you.” That was the background of the people that were in the church in Corinth. We think people who go to church are what? The most holy people, right? People who are so well to do or people with great wisdom, with good understanding and good education are the ones to go to church. Here’s the thing about church. You do not go to church because you have everything right; because you’re all set and you’re perfectly fine. That’s not why people should go to church. Jesus Christ said this, that He came to seek and save the lost. Jesus Christ also said that He’s come to heal because it is the sick that need healing and not the ones that are already well. If you’re well, you do not go to the hospital. 

So the church is like a hospital for people. I don’t know why you’re here this morning. But if you’re looking around thinking, ‘Who are all these people that have come to church? They’re probably all doing wonderful.’ But if you look around, you’ll actually see that all of us here are like the people as Paul described. We were all good for nothing people. So welcome to the boat! You’re not alone. We are all sinners. If you look into our lives, we are all broken people, we all have issues, we all went through stuff.  All of us are in the same place. Paul goes on to say, “And such were some of you, but you are washed, you are sanctified, and you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of God.”

Amazing right? Amen for that! That we were people like that but now we are sanctified, we are washed, God has cleansed us, made us holy and He has justified us by the Spirit of our God and through Jesus Christ. That is why we are here to celebrate this morning. Why do we gather as a church? Why do we come together and why is it such a joy when we come together? It’s because we can talk about how good God’s grace is. That the forgiveness, redemption, peace and justification that we can find in Him is what makes us great. 

I remember once one lady looked at Lynnisha and myself and she said, “Wow, you guys are so great. You’re such a perfect, happy couple. You all probably had some good karma. That’s why you both are very happy.” I looked at her and I said,  “You know ma’am, you don’t know what is happening. We are happy today not because of good things that we’ve done or because of  good karma. We are happy because we know our sins are forgiven. We are joyful as a couple not because we have all the understanding about what a marriage should be. We are joyful because we know God forgives our sins when we fail and fall. God is able to restore us back. That is the reason why we are a happy couple.”

That’s what we find in the church. We are all broken people. Everybody who is here in the church this morning and those who are hearing us online are all broken people. We are all people that have gone through things but we are here and are celebrating what God has done in our lives. 

So 1 Corinthians 1:1, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother.” So Paul goes on to say very clearly that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Humanly speaking, this is not what he wanted to do. That was not Paul’s goal – to be persecuted, to be broken, to be in fear, to be abused – that was not his goal. But by the will of God Paul was made an apostle. He’s establishing that his authority is not from people but from God himself. 

1 Corinthians 1:2, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are [a]sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:”

Paul doesn’t call them a bunch of robbers and losers. That’s not what Paul says. He looks at them with the identity as God sees them. ‘You’re saints.’ Now, saints are not dead people by the way. Usually the Catholic Church teaches us that you become a saint after you die and when some miracle happens in your name, you’re then declared as a saint. Somebody gives you that title of being a saint. No, saints are living people. We are saints here this morning. The word for saint is basically the word used to describe people that are sanctified and set apart. That’s what the word means. The holy people that are washed, as Paul describes. The ones that are washed, cleansed and justified. These are saints! So we who are forgiven of our sins and call upon the name of Jesus Christ, are the ones that are called as saints.

And Paul gives them the greatest greeting that you would find in the scriptures which is, 1 Corinthians 1:3,“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He’s not simply saying, ‘Hello, hi, how are you? Good morning.’ These are words of apostolic blessing. He’s saying grace to you. The word ‘grace’ basically means God’s favor. May God’s favor be upon you.  And the word for peace is the Hebrew equivalent of the word ‘shalom’. Now, the word ‘shalom’ is not something that you would just say to anybody. It meant that the God of peace – the One that created this whole universe, the One who gave promises to Abraham – may His peace rest upon you. So these words had a lot of weight to them. 

He’s greeting them with grace and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. What an amazing church the church in Corinth was. The people that were there were all kinds of immorality. They had all kinds of problems and situations. But God redeemed them and established this church in Corinth. And here we are almost 2000 years laters reading about them, studying about them, and the things that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. 

The next week onwards, we will get into the details about his letter to the church in Corinth. We will learn from God’s word how we ought to be as a church and what kind of a behavior we have to have as Christians in this world, especially here in the context of Goa as we live here. These last days, my friends, I want to encourage you. Time is very short, we see things unfolding just as Jesus Christ said many, many years ago. It’s happening right here in front of our eyes. When I was younger, I thought these things would never happen in my lifetime but many generations later. But we see these things happening right in front of  our eyes. Time is short for this world to end. Jesus Christ is going to return back very, very soon and we will see  the resurrection of the saints, and all these amazing things that are written in the book of First Corinthians.

This was the introduction just to get you started with this. I hope this has been helpful. I hope you’ve learned some new things and I hope God has spoken to you about some of the issues that you’re going through in your life. And he has encouraged you through this word today.