What does tough love mean, in the context of the church? How do you know when to draw the line, or extend boundless grace to those we love and care for? Join us as we discover the joy of worship, of being together, and what it means to be the people of God.
What does tough love mean, in the context of the church? How do you know when to draw the line, or extend boundless grace to those we love and care for? Join us as we discover the joy of worship, of being together, and what it means to be the people of God.
What does tough love mean in the context of the church? How do you know when to draw the line, to extend boundless grace to those we love and care for? Join us Sunday at Westtown as we discover the joy of worship, of being together and what it means to be the people of God. That's the perfect introduction. Now, holy Spirit, and use this text as difficult text and just bless us as your people here at Westtown, in Christ's name, think about the people of God and the temple in the old, you know, way back in ancient times. Imagine, on a morning like this, although hopefully it wasn't raining because we'd all be out on the road together and we're all coming up to the temple. We're climbing up the mountain to Jerusalem and to the temple. We're loving the fellowship, we're even worshiping on the way up, but we want to get up to the temple. I was they call these the songs of ascent that were read, sung as we went up. I was glad when they said to me let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates, o Jerusalem, and there was no time when we would be more excited to be going up to the temple than this time of year In fact, passover falls in just in a couple of months time and we would love to go up, all of us together, at Passover time and we would be singing and reading songs like this, as we celebrated that God had taken us out of slavery in Egypt and that he had done great things for us. We would say. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream, that our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue was shouts of joy, and they said, among the nations the Lord has done great things for them, the Lord has done great things for us and we are glad. And so at Passover, you remember, they were celebrating their escape from Egypt by the Lord, and when they had sprinkled the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the house and the avenging angel passed over them and then they had taken off and the Lord had let them out of slavery in Egypt. But they left in such a hurry that one thing that the text in the Old Testament records for us is that, although they grabbed dough to make bread on the way, the dough was not leavened, and so at first they had to eat unleavened bread, and they celebrated this at Passover. Now what they did was they said you know, remember, we got out of there and in the same way, in each week you would take a bit of the leavened dough and bring it over to the next week to start baking again. They said no, here at Passover we're going to go for a time and eat unleavened bread because you see that contaminated dough of Egypt is gone and finished. We're starting all over Brand new now. The past is gone and we're on a new road together.
Speaker 1:But now imagine that we're in Jesus's time and we're going up to the temple. And as we're going up to the temple, yes, we're excited with all the fellowship and the singing and the joy of it. But you know, it's not Solomon's temple. It's okay, but it doesn't have the glory of his temple, where, where the you remember, the glory of God had come down and filled the house. And this temple was refurbished. It was a second temple, but it had been refurbished by Herod. Herod was half Jewish and half Roman we're not so sure how we feel about him and in this temple, a Greek conqueror by the name of Antiochus had come in and desecrated it and sacrificed a pig on the altar. But still it's what we have, and we're going up now to the temple to celebrate.
Speaker 1:And so we say open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter in and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and you have become my salvation. And then comes a line that represents our hope. Then comes a line that Jesus is going to quote. Then comes a line that Paul is going to quote. There comes a line that Teter is going to quote, and this is it the stone that the builders rejected. Jesus has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Speaker 1:Now we go to the next step, and I want to talk about Jesus on the temple, because you remember, luke tells us that every year the family Joseph and Mary and the family would go up to the temple and pass over. They never missed it. And this time, as they go, they've had a wonderful time. And they head back home now and they suddenly realize that Jesus is not there in the crowd with them. Good thing, they didn't have a division of family services back then, they'd been in big trouble. So they go back and they find Jesus in the temple and they're saying son, why didn't you, why are you left behind like this?
Speaker 1:And he gives us a line that's kind of cute, but it's actually extremely profound. He said why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house, my father's house? Why? We know him, that he's the only begotten Son. Now we know that he is the firstborn and therefore the house is what he is going to inherit. The house is his, it's his father's house. And to make the point plainly, in the beginning of his ministry and at the end but in the beginning of his ministry, John who said we have beheld his glory, the glory of the one and the only, records Jesus going up to the temple.
Speaker 1:And when he goes into the temple we read the Passover of the Jews was at hand. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem and in the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and money changers sitting there and making a whip. Of course, he drove them out of the temple. Take these things away. Do not make my father's house, a house of trade. This is my house, mine to inherit. You can't do that there.
Speaker 1:And then, what's most remarkable, and it had everybody turned upside down. Then we read this Jesus next stands up and he says destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again. The Jews then said it's taken 46 years to build the temple and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking about the temple of his body. And when, therefore, he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered, realized that he had said this, began working it out and figuring it out, and they believe the scriptures and the word that God had spoken.
Speaker 1:Jesus is saying there you remember John, as we said, had said we have beheld his glory, the glory of the one and only the glory that had filled the house in Solomon's first temple. And Jesus is saying I am the temple, I am the place where the glory of God now dwells, and when you have seen my glory, you have seen the glory of the Father. And Jesus is not saying that. You know, I'm a picture of the temple. Jesus is saying I am the fulfillment of the temple. And so he becomes the one who goes up to the temple. But he's also the one who's saying my body is the temple.
Speaker 1:And then he tells them, before this generation dies, it happened in the year AD 70, the temple is going to be destroyed. Now we got to go to the early church on the temple. The temple's not quite destroyed yet, but they know it's going down and that it's just on sticks and stones, as it were. And they know also that on the day of Pentecost, you remember, the Holy Spirit had filled the whole room and it was just like when the Spirit of God and the glory of God had filled Solomon's original temple in its place. And they are remembering also that Jesus is saying sticks and stones are not going to be around for much longer.
Speaker 1:And Stephen the first martyr gets up and he says look, it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the most high does not dwell in houses made by hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of a house could you build for me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all things? See? They're saying you can't get so attached to these sticks and stones. They can't contain God and His presence and His purposes.
Speaker 1:And then Peter will come along and quote this same Psalm that is now applied to Jesus. And then he is saying now look, it's not about sticks and stones, that was just a picture. Now the real one has come. He is the temple where the glory of God dwells in all the majesty of the Holy Spirit. And now he says it's Paul who will tell us you're the body of Christ. But Peter, building on that kind of imagery, says to us now, since Jesus is the temple and you are now the body of Christ in the world, that makes you the temple. And he has this wonderful imagery. It goes on for much longer than this, but we don't have time this morning to pursue it all. He says you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up to a spiritual house, a temple, to be a holy priest to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Stephen and Peter are moving us along and saying Jesus is the temple, you are the body of Christ and therefore, guess what? You are the temple, you are the place where the glory of God resides, you are the people among whom the spirit is now to be found.
Speaker 1:And then we get to Paul and if you're being sharp at all, you're going. I was wondering when you're going to get to first Corinthians and I did click on Luke's link and read the chapter and it's one tough chapter. So I think you're trying not to get there too quickly. Well, no, not exactly. We've got to go where Paul is going. And back in chapter three, if you remember, he had turned and he said to the Corinthians do you not know that you, the you there is in the plural. It's so important that in many of our Bibles you'll see a footnote one and he'll say down there, the you is plural. Yeah, you single, are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:That's not the point here right now. Do you not know that you, west Ham, that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you all? He's not saying you're kind of like the temple. He's saying you are the temple. And it gets really serious here because the next thing he says is if anyone destroys God's temple, god will destroy him, for God's temple is holy and you all, you are the temple. Excuse my language. Paul is saying don't mess with the church, don't mess with West Ham. If you destroy the church, if you destroy the temple, you're going to bring God's judgment down on you, because you should see this people are the temple and if you dare to go in it and desecrate it, like Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the original model of the old sticks and stone temple, you are going to be held accountable. And he uses the image back there in chapter 3. And he said now take me, for example. He says I laid the foundation. Like a master builder, I laid out the foundation, and the foundation that I laid out is Jesus Christ and no one and nothing else. And therefore he says now that I've moved on and I laid the foundation, you and Karns have got to be careful how you build on that foundation. He says let each one of you be careful how you will build upon it.
Speaker 1:Now we get to our text, we're ready to hear it and to understand it, and we discover that Paul is upset and that's putting it mildly, he is just about as angry as Jesus when Jesus cleansed the temple out. And Paul says some of you are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord's will, and I will find out not the talk of those arrogant people, but their power For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod or with a love, in the spirit of gentleness? You know, we have to have people in our lives a husband or wife, parents, kids who hold us accountable. Same thing is true of the church. Paul is saying I'm gonna have to have to all you guys accountable, and I'd like to do it in a spirit of love and gentleness is to put my arms around you and help you understand what's going on here in Carthage, that we can't allow to keep going on, but it's necessary. I'll really have to stand up.
Speaker 1:And so now he tells us why he's so upset. It is actually reported, that is, that there's sexual immorality among you, not just sexual immorality Of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans in car. That's saying something, believe me. And and he Says for a man has his father's wife and you are arrogant, what do you not rather to mourn? You see what's happening. There's a man in the congregation that's involved in incest. Commentator think he was trying to hang on to his father's money, who he had died, and he doesn't want it to leave the family or whatever it is. He's involved in incest and that's bad enough, but he's bragging about it. The car is that. You know what I'm up to, and and you would think that the church in Carnes would be mourning and say, oh, I can't believe this is happening in my church. But they're not. They, they, they, they don't seem to care. And so Paul now Remember, going back to all the temple imagery we've been working with, paul now goes back to Passover, and he goes back to the feast of unleavened bread, where you took the old leaven and you threw it out and you started with a new batch of dough.
Speaker 1:You threw out the old and you brought in the new, and and this is how he he puts it, let this man be removed from among you. Your boasting is not good, don't you know that the little eleven leavens, the whole lump, climbs out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really Are Unleveled for Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival now with the 11, the 11 of malice and evil, but with the Unleveled bread of sincerity and truth. If anyone is in Christ, we're a new creation. The Passover lamb has been sacrificed for us. Everything now is new in this temple, which is the body of Christ, which is, which is you all, and and so, because everything is new, you can't have always Happening publicly Among you that even pagans would be gossiping about you. You can't have that Happening in the temple, in the body of Christ. And he says I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you're to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Wow, we have to be careful here. Okay, we're not saying that we're no longer sinners. In fact, we spent the better part of this morning just Perfectly rejoicing in the lamb and in our forgiveness.
Speaker 1:I remember one occasion at church. I finished speaking and I came down off the platform and it wasn't West down, so don't start guessing and an elder came up to me. He was utterly disheveled, utterly disheveled, and the closer I got to him his breath stank, excuse me. And he came up to me and he's pastor, I need to talk to you. And I was thinking mentally I say that again and he pours out his heart to me. He says, my old drinking body from the days before I became a Christian, he, he's. He came into town and I promise you, there's one thing I wanted to do. I wanted to tell him about how I'd come to Christ and what Christ had done for me. And he said, hey, let's go have a drink. And I agreed. I said, pastor, I don't know how to tell you this. I'll walk up on the floor this morning in the bar what kind of a bar is that? And he said I just need you to pray with me. I'm so ashamed and I asked the Lord for forgiveness, but I need you to pray with me. And so we prayed together and disheveled and all et cetera. You know, I put my arms around him and hugged him and loved him.
Speaker 1:And the following week, of course, I checked with him and said, hey, how's it going? Joe that's not his real name How's it going? And I checked with his wife too and he said, oh, it's going well, the Lord's helping me. If he had said to me I hit the bar last night again and there, well, I got home at 1 o'clock, not at 6.30 AM, I would have said, look, we've got to take this to the next level. We're going to have to get you together with other guys in the church who have struggled with alcohol or with various forms of addiction, who hold one another accountable, and we have to take this to the next step because sin can get inside of your flesh, in habits and addictions and chemicals et cetera, and we're going to have to take this to the next level. But it wasn't necessary, thank God. But I didn't get up the next Sunday morning and say you will believe what happened to Joe last week. We got rid of him, don't worry Now. Instead, we love him and we care for him.
Speaker 1:On one occasion, a totally different occasion, a group of churches, of which I was a part, we were putting up a new building in a new subdivision to start a church and someone was helping us finance it. And there was an executive committee with the treasurer and I knew the treasurer. He was a wonderful man and every week he was handling thousands and thousands of dollars in cash because we were paying the workers in cash. And it suddenly began to occur to the executive committee that the amount that was coming in and the amount that was going out was different. And we had to confront this brother brother who we loved and knew and said you know, it's not adding up. And then, with tears in his eyes, he broke down and he said and you see, it was partly our fault he was handling all this cash alone. He said I've never seen so much cash in my life and I persuaded myself that I could borrow some of it and invest it and pay it back. And of course, it wasn't working out too well, was it? And again, he was deeply repentant. But he got on a schedule to do his best to pay it back. And we did, however, say to him we don't think it's a good idea for you to continue as treasurer.
Speaker 1:However, you remember how Paul put it when he was talking to the Galatians? He says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you are spiritual, not. The same thing, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you are spiritual, not you, hotshots in the Karyash. You, who have the Spirit of God in you, you are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, however, lest you be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the love of Christ. That's it, isn't it? Bear one another's burdens, not for yourself, because you know the old nature is still in there and it can trip you up and you can find yourself on the floor. But we're going to care for you, we're going to love you, and that's what the church is about. It's an old phrase and I don't like it so much sometimes, but it's true. The church is a hospital for sinners. It's not a hotel for saints, especially the self-righteous ones. We got to care for one another and we got to love one another.
Speaker 1:But you also, don't you that there's a thing called tough love. It can intrude even into your family, between a husband or a wife, kids, parents, the workplace, wherever it is, where you say look, this is not one occasion where you fell apart. I'm here to love you and bring you back. This has become your lifestyle and not just your lifestyle. It's a public lifestyle. And it's not just a public lifestyle. You don't really care and you're defiant and you're saying, hey, that's the way it is, I'm okay.
Speaker 1:And so Paul says I wrote to you in a previous letter not to associate with sexually immoral people not meaning, of course, sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy, the swindlers, the idolaters. So you would need to get out of the world altogether, right? But now I'm writing you to not associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or an idol for a reviler, drunker or swindler not even to eat with such a one. This is about habit. You know, if one of you in the congregation in Corinth, you worship with us and you take the Lord's supper with us and then you go down to the temple of the sex goddess to have lunch down there with all those immoral reveralists, that's not a Christian lifestyle and it's calling into question whether you really know and love the Lord. Because those who know and love the Lord repent of their sins. And Paul is just saying Corinth, you're the temple of the Holy Spirit, you guys are the place where the glory of God dwells. We just can't live this way. It spoils everything and it causes those who are outside in the public to say see those Christians. I told you they're a bunch of hypocrites. And so there comes a time when our fellowship, our worship, our life together, our testifying to being forgiven of our sins by the blood of the Lamb, there comes a time where this is so precious to us that Paul is saying you can't allow it to happen in the temple, there's a little bit of good news you'll be glad to know.
Speaker 1:In 2 Corinthians, there's a passage that typically has been said refers back to this guy that we're talking about. Modern commentators, for a number of reasons, are not sure. If it's the same guy, we don't have to go into it. But if it's not the same guy, excuse me, it's a similar situation. Paul says the punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now, instead, you want to forgive and comfort him so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. Isn't that awesome. That's how we operate in the church of Jesus Christ, because we focus on the Lamb and the Holy Spirit and what he has done for us and what he is doing for us.
Speaker 1:West town, you're the temple of the Holy Spirit. West town, you've been botched with the precious blood of the Lamb. West town, your life together, your fellowship with one another, your excitement in worship and coming to worship, your fellowship, your teaching, your loving one another, west town, it's too precious to allow anything to spoil it. If you're on the music team, do as they do. Sing your heart out and play your instruments to the Lord. Go and take our kids and love them and care for them when we find ourselves addicted and overcome. Join together in bonds of fellowship that will help one another.
Speaker 1:But West town, this sing that God has given us to be His people, the people where His Spirit dwells, the people who celebrate forgiveness, the people who rejoice in worship and in praise. It is too precious. Don't spoil it, please. Whatever you do. I lead the foundation, says Paul. It's all about Christ and what he's done for us. Now let us build on it carefully and in keeping with Him and His gospel, so that the joy of being the people of God among whom the Spirit dwells, so that nothing will spoil it, because what we have here at West town is far, far, far too precious to spoil it, please. You agree? I think so, just from coming here.