The Main Thing
This is the first in a new series we’re starting called Messy Church, studying the book of First Corinthians. This series can encourage us that current trials, conflicts, and hypocrisy of the church are not new; past believers had to walk through these things too, and learning from their experience can help us become the church that God has called us to be.
No, church is free from messes. The problem with churches is that they are made up of people, and people are certainly messy. Perhaps the most messy church in the history of churches was this, the church at Corinth.
Corinth was an interesting place. It was where the East and the West mixed together. It contained the vices of both as well as many temples to Roman and Greek gods and goddesses.
The church here was founded by Paul, and after he went on his missionary journeys, Apollo and the apostle Peter also made journeys there.
This church is messed up, though. Our factions and divisions, the church is full of immorality, and lawsuits. They’re struggling to agree about whether or not meat that has been sacrificed to idols can be eaten. This church is abusing the Lord, suffering, exulting false prophets, struggling in their marriages, and can barely have a gathering without people making it about themselves.
I think it’s important to know here that God has not given up on this church. Even though it is messy and has its problems, God still is using the apostle Paul to reach out to them in order to correct them.
The biggest problem in the Corinthian Church is that their focus was off. They had lost sight of the main thing as they divided over little things and started living for their selfish desires; they had forgotten the point of all of this.
The church gets messy when we forget the main thing. And the main thing for us is the death, the burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
If you’re wondering why the cross of Jesus is such an important thing for the church, it’s because it is first the place where we find power.
There’s power in the cross over the sin in our lives. When Jesus died, he took the power of sin and gave us victory over it.
The Cross is the main thing. The gospel is the main thing we cannot get over this because it is the victory that we have in the power that we have.
The Cross also gives us power into godliness. What Jesus did for us doesn’t just get us into heaven. It allows us to bring heaven down to earth. In Jesus’s death on the cross and Resurrection from the dead, we now have the Holy Spirit of God living inside us.
We are being made holy. We have gifts and a calling and a part to play in the mission of God.
The Cross is also the origin of our unity. Part of the problem in the church at Corinth was that there were Jewish believers who wanted the law to give them religious superiority and gentile believers who wanted philosophy to give them intellectual superiority. The Cross stands in opposition to both of these because it united us all in our need for Jesus.
Paul is telling the church at Corinth to go back to the Cross. It’s the Cross of Jesus that brings us together. The Cross is what we can agree on no matter what.
There’s no other message we have to preach. Eloquence won’t change you. Good leadership won’t get you to a place of peculiar unity. There’s only one way that we are the church. God has called us to be and it’s that we keep our eyes on the Cross always.
It’s the Cross of Jesus, that reminds us of our condition and our salvation. The Cross doesn’t care about how much money you make or how old you are. It doesn’t care about what you bring to the table or what’s on your résumé. The Cross is the greatest unifying force in the history of mankind.
So how do we stay focused on the Cross?
C.R.O.S.S.
C - crucify yourself daily. We keep our focus on the Cross by living lives that have been changed by the Cross. We put to death our old way of living and follow Jesus daily.
R - remember what God has done. We take time to remember that God has changed us. Remember who we were before we met Jesus and recognize what he has done in our lives. This will keep us from never forgetting what God has done through the power that is given to us in the cross.
O - offer grace and forgiveness. Understanding the power of the cross means we should be people who show grace and forgiveness to others. If Jesus has forgiven us and was willing to take on the brutality that was the cross, how could we be a people that are not graceful and forgiving to others? How does the realization of the power of the cross change the way that we treat others? From our family to those who serve us at restaurants, strangers on the street, and everyone will come into contact with the cross; should affect the way that we care for them.
S - share Jesus regularly. We really believe in the power of the cross; we will not be able to help but to share it with others. We really believe that Jesus is the only hope for heaven, and our neighbors, loved ones, friends, and teammates are on their way to hell without him. We should be sharing the good news constantly.
S - sit at his table. Jesus gave his closest followers a simple reminder of his power and his sacrifice; some people call it communion or the Lord’s supper, but we take it together as a remembrance of his sacrifice and his love for us.
Every church has its problems. More broadly speaking, churches in communities, countries, regions, and even time frames have different struggles and issues that they have to face. But the way that we become a church that God has called us to be in one of those instances is that we start by focusing always on everything we do on the cross of Jesus Christ.
