Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church (1 Corinthians 5)
“For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
— David, Psalm 32
The Problem with Pride (1 Corinthians 4:6-21)
“Grace leads to gratitude; ‘wisdom’ and self-sufficiency lead to boasting and judgement. Grace has a leveling effect; self esteem has a self-exalting effect. Grace means humility; boasting means that one has arrived.”
— Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians
Where Does Your Status Come From? (1 Corinthians 3:18-4:5)
God forbid that I should glory
Save in the Redeemer's cross.
Counting shame for him but honor,
Counting earthly gain but loss.
All the love of God is here,
Oh, Love that casteth out all fear.
—Horatius Bonar
Confusion in the Corinthian Church (1 Cor. 3:1-17)
“The gospel is not just the ABCs of the Christian life but the A to Z of the Christian life.”
—Tim Keller
A Secret and Hidden Wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:6-16)
“God reveals Himself. He reveals Himself through Himself. He reveals Himself. … One may sum up the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity briefly and simply by saying that God is the One who reveals Himself.”
—Karl Barth Church Dogmatics I/1
Who is Your Faith Founded on? (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
“A sermon that just informs the mind can give people things to do after they go home, but a sermon that moves the heart from loving career or acclaim or one’s own independence to loving God and his Son changes listeners on the spot.”
— Tim Keller
God Chooses the People and the Messenger (1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5)
“It is not that God cannot, or will not, save the affluent. But for Paul, the glory of the gospel does not lie there; rather, it lies in God’s mercy toward the very people whom most of the affluent tend to write off - the foolish, the weak, the despised. Such people do not fit well into the “suburban captivity of the church.”
— Gordon Fee, Commentary, First Epistle to the Corinthians
Jesus Catches His Fish and Feeds His Sheep (John 21:1-14)
“The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.”
—Isaiah 33:5-6
Peace Be With You (John 20:19-31)
“‘We do not know… how can we know the way?’
Courageous master of the awkward question,
You spoke the words the others dared not say
And cut through their evasion and abstraction.
Oh doubting Thomas, father of my faith,
You put your finger on the nub of things
We cannot love some disembodied wraith,
But flesh and blood must be our king of kings.
Your teaching is to touch, embrace, anoint,
Feel after Him and find Him in the flesh.
Because He loved your awkward counter-point
The Word has heard and granted you your wish.
Oh place my hands with yours, help me divine
The wounded God whose wounds are healing mine.”
—Malcolm Guite