The Minister’s Workshop: Living for Christ in a Worldly City

While preaching doctrine from the Gospel of John, make ready to deal with Bible ethics, based on doctrine. The Bible contains almost as much ethics as doctrine. After Easter, believers new and old need doctrine and ethics. The latter more difficult! Commentaries: G. C. Findlay (Exp. Grk. Test.); H. L. Goudge (Eng.). The lists here suggest too many sermons before midsummer. Save time for the later parts.

Introductory: “The Welfare of the Local Church” (12:27, RSV). I. Present Perils. II. Moral Problems. III. Christian Ideals. Like the Apostle, answer local questions, and lead up to vital doctrines. Unless local conditions call for the first topic, pass it by. In such a course, begin and end strongly.

“The Folly of Church Cliques” (1:10). “The Supremacy of the Cross” (2:2). In Columbia, South Carolina, during World War I, the government closed the red-light district. Later the city fathers planned to let it open. After an evening sermon, “The Folly of Segregating Sin” (Rom. 14:13, Augustine’s text), I received an anonymous card: “1 Cor. 2:2 is better than segregation. Preach the Gospel!” Paul did so by looking at city sin in the light from the Cross. Only a pulpit coward would ignore such a local issue. Incidentally, the red-light district did not reopen.

“The Christian a Farmer for God” (3:6, in a rural church). “The Believer a Builder for God” (3:10b). When the Apostle employs the singular, as here, do likewise. Who can “improve” a Bible text about one person? “The Holiness of the Believer’s Body” (6:10). Church-coiners often think that goodness has to do only with a soul, an idea foreign to the Gospel. “The Declaration of Christian Dependence” (8:12. RSV). In dealing with a matter neither right nor wrong, a believer should refrain for the sake of a weak brother. This principle has to do with current games, such as pool, in itself harmless. In Louisville the church people keep away from Churchill Downs and its horse races.

“The Christian a Spiritual Athlete” (9:25). In writing to a sports-minded city Paul used athletic terms. “The Way to Deal with Temptation” (10:13). “The Christian in Ordinary Affairs” (10:31). “The Sermon in the Lord’s Supper” (11:26). In the New Testament the word here rendered “show” usually (fifteen cases out of seventeen) means to preach. The Supper the most wondrous sermon since the Ascension of Christ! In a church where university students filled a long balcony, we had on Communion Day no sermon or meditation. But more students then applied for membership than on any other day. A sermon!

“The Church the Body of Christ” (12:27, NEB). A lofty ideal for the local kirk! “The Greatness of Christian Love” (13:13). Sometime deal with the chapter: I. Great by Contrast with Things Good. II. Greater Still in Itself. III. Greatest of All in Permanence. Love lasts: from infancy to manhood, youth to old age, time to eternity. Find this love supremely in Christ and his Cross.

“The Wonders of the Heavenly Harvest” (15:20). In the Mediterranean world harvest comes early, and brings joy. If feasible, deal with the two parts in separate sermons: I. The Resurrection of Christ Marks the Beginning of the Heavenly Harvest. II. The Resurrection of Believers Will Mark the Completion. As for the resurrection and judgment of unbelievers, that calls for another sermon.

“The Resurrection of the Believer’s Body” (15:44). The hardest part of the Apostles’ Creed for many an adult to say. The message calls for no proof, argument, or attack, but for clear, kind, radiant teaching of what the Bible reveals, and what difference the truth makes now, as well as hereafter. “The Resurrection in Everyday Living” (15:5–8). “The Christian as God’s Trustee” (16:2), as a consequence of believing in the Resurrection. The term “steward” has lost its pristine luster, but a trustee of church or college is somebody. What an honor to serve as one of God’s trustees, according to his Book!

Why does Christian ethics not now bulk so large in evangelical pulpits as in the New Testament and in other golden ages of preaching? Partly for three reasons: (1) Such pulpit work is difficult, too much so for a beginner. (2) Appeals to conscience may not prove popular; they hurt. (3) Some orthodox persons think it unwise to preach anything but Good News. Such an idea would have astounded Paul and his Lord. On the other hand, many “moral sermons” are not based on doctrine, and are not blessed of God.

If you wish to meet the needs of laymen, learn to do the most difficult sort of preaching from the Bible. (Abridged from an article in Southwestern Journal of Theology, October, 1960. Used by permission.)

I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2).

What is this Cross of Christ? The master thought of eternal God, the symbol of devotion, the measure of duty, the impulse to righteous living. There is no sin to which we must surrender, no habit that cannot be shattered, no victory that cannot be won through Christ and his Cross.

I. Witnesses to the Supremacy. A. The supreme emphasis of Paul, the master preacher in the Christian Church, and of thoughtful, devout men and women across the centuries. The greatest preachers of the Church have found this passage of Scripture stored with teaching. Devout men and women have rekindled their ardor at the flame of this declaration. Uncounted millions have recited it in their last prayers.

B. The Compelling Power of Great Convictions. “I determined”—the language of the man who has thought his way through to great convictions, and is now ready to suffer the consequence of loyalty to those convictions. “Determined.” however, is not the chief word in the text. The key word is “I know.” C. The Voice of Christian Experience. It is much easier to know things said about Christ than to know his Cross, than to know him about whom they are said, and to bring total life under the mastery of the Christ of the Cross.

II. The Consequences of This Experience. Three major results follow. A. To know Christ and him crucified is to know God. Jesus came into the world to show us God, to bridge the gap that separated us from God, to bring man the sinner back into the family of God. Men knew that God was great; they did not know that he was good. Jesus came to say that God is Father, a new name for the One who sent him on his earthly mission. On the Cross Jesus unveiled the face of God the Father.

B. The Cross Gives a New Philosophy of Life. If you come under its spell you say that it is better to be the servant of a hundred people than to have a hundred servants. You find life by giving it away for the glory of God and the good of others, not by hoarding it for yourself. This Cross is the revelation of redemption to us all through the revelation of God.

C. The Cross Holds the Secret of Triumphant Living. Once you know the Cross you have learned how to live, how to put first things first. When we have found the Cross, life is a new experience. We know God. We have the correct philosophy of life. We have the secret of creativity and effective living. But if we miss the Cross, ours is the deepening darkness of men gone blind. As for me, I am determined to know Christ, and him crucified.—From The Mighty Saviour, by permission of Abingdon Press.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?… So glorify God in your body (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).

Every member of the church in Corinth needed to know the Christian teaching about the body. So does every person in this congregation and this community. We live in a time when everyone tends to think much about the body. Would that all of this thinking were according to Christ!

I. The Christian Doctrine about the Body. In a city where men loved architecture, especially in temples, Paul wrote about the body as a temple of God. A. The most wonderful thing God ever has made. The body not so amazing as the soul, but both made of God for each other. Nothing visible seems to be so dear to the heart of God.

B. The Ravages of Sin. Especially in a city like Corinth, a body may become a stench in the nostrils of men, worse than a sty for hogs. How much drunkenness and adultery offend the holy God! Also, overeating and other forms of bodily excess. How many of a man’s sins have to do with his body? Does he repent, confess, quit?

C. The Re-creation. When Christ redeems a man, that includes his body, with pardon, cleansing, and peace. Then the Holy Spirit continues to transform this place where he dwells. All the while he wishes you to serve as the God-appointed custodian of this temple that he has made. What a privilege, an honor, and a responsibility!

II. The Christian Use of Your Body. Deal with it as you wish the custodian to care for the home church edifice. A. Dedicate your body to God. Have you ever done so, as a definite act of worship? How often do you renew such giving of the body to the One from whom it came? As really as the minister, the right sort of custodian looks on his calling as holy unto the Lord.

B. Use the body in ways pleasing to God. During the Revolutionary War British troops used the Old South Meeting House as a stable for horses. Later men restored it for the worship of God and the service of men. By His grace let your body be useful every day. As a start, have a bodily check-up tomorrow.

C. Look forward to the Resurrection. In some mysterious way that body will share in the resurrection and the life everlasting. Meanwhile regard it as precious to the Redeemer, who in his own body died to redeem you, both sold and body, and by his Spirit waits to guide in using this body for the glory of the One from whom it came.

After a few words of prayer, we are all going to sing the noblest of our evangelistic hymns, “Just as I Am.” In the spirit of that hymn, and of our text, now dedicate your body to Christ, and seek his blessing that you may use it here in such a manner that it will become worthy to share in the Resurrection.

Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept (1 Cor. 15:20).

The introduction obviously would have to do with the harvest as the culmination of life on the farm, and the happiest season of the year. With a different topic the approach could be through the idea of “first-fruits.” An introduction ought always to depend on the thought-forms of the hearers now. Here the brief approach leads up to the Resurrection of Christ, a mystery of light, about which we as yet know only in part.

I. The Resurrection of His Body. When young I thought I believed only in the resurrection of His soul. Then I discovered his soul did not die (Luke 23:43b). If I did not believe in the resurrection of his body, I did not believe in his Resurrection, but only in his Immortality, a truth different. Now I believe in the Resurrection of his entire Person, as the Bible clearly shows.

II. In a Sense the Same Body. The same in the sense of continuity. The Bible stress does not fall on the empty tomb, save as it shows the continuity between the body on the Cross and that of the Risen Lord. By the resurrection of that dear body our God shows how much he cares for the body of every person whom he has created.

III. And Yet Not the Same. In the earthly life of our Lord, the body did not remain the same. It grew and developed perfectly, according to the Father’s will. And neither did the body of the Risen Lord seem to his dearest friends the same as the one they had laid in the tomb. Here again we enter into mystery, which we cannot hope to fathom until we again see Him face to face, and begin to know as we are known. Meantime we ought gladly to accept the facts that God has revealed (Deut. 29:29), and leave with him these that he yet waits to reveal.

IV. The Fact of His Continued Life. In all the biblical accounts of His post-resurrection appearances the stress falls on his living then, as it ought today to fall on his living now. About the Resurrection, as often on other Bible truth, too much of our preaching and thinking has been in past tenses. According to James Denney, “The Church lives, not only by what Christ was, but by what He is; not only by what He did, but supremely by what He does.… Faith always has its object here and now, and without faith there is no Christianity” (Studies in Theology, pp. 20, 154).

In the New Testament records of our Lord’s mission on earth the center of gravity lies beyond the grave. In the fact of his Resurrection and his living Presence the early believers found their joy, their power, and their radiance. If as believers today we have lost the radiance, the power, and the joy of the early Church, we can find all of this where those early believers found it, in the living Presence of the Risen Lord. Let us seek this blessing now in prayer.

Spirit of the laving God, shine upon the open page and bring the truth to light in the face of Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord.

Every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming (1 Cor. 15:23).

The introduction has to do with the Resurrection in terms of harvest joy. All of this should be interesting to those who attended church a week ago, and clear to anyone who did not. Every sermon ought to be a complete unit, with no overlapping.

Today we consider the difficult words in the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in the resurrection of the body.” What then should you believe? Only what the New Testament teaches, and ideally all that it teaches. Here we shall deal only with the truth as that truth is related to believers, one by one.

I. A Heavenly Mystery. The truth here comes by revelation of God, and largely through the Resurrection of Christ. This truth we accept, not because we can understand it all, but because we believe in it and in His Holy Book. After all, how much do we mortals really comprehend about life, either here or hereafter? But all of this God knows.

II. More than Immortality. We likewise believe what the Bible reveals, but does not strongly stress, that Christ came to bring life and immortality to light. The noblest of the Greeks believed what George Eliot later sang about “the choir invisible of those immortal dead who live again in lives made better by their presence.” But Paul led believers in Corinth to accept what we today rejoice to hold true: that “the souls of believers do at their death immediately pass into glory, and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves until the Resurrection,” “the one far-off divine event to which the whole creation moves.”

III. The Sleep of the Body. As a rule the New Testament refers to the end of a believer’s earthly life as a sleep, and beyond that sleep, the awakening in the Father’s home. Here we must think of heaven in terms of earth, and not push any such figure too far. In so far as we can tell, the soul does not ever sleep, but is changed, in the twinkling of an eye, into “such full-grown energies as suit the purposes of heaven,” and for a while awaits the reunion with the body, which God will glorify. “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8).

IV. The Resurrection Body. As for the “spiritual body” after the resurrection of believers, we shall have to leave the understanding to our God. After all, what does it often mean for a child of God to have faith in him? Surely to trust him and his goodness when one cannot begin to comprehend what he will do for the body of one redeemed at the Cross, and afterward transformed into perfect completeness for the life everlasting in the unseen City of God. What a source of comfort, peace, and joy to you as a believer in Christ, as you “nightly pitch (your) moving tent a day’s march nearer home.

Does some one whisper fervently: “I wish I could be sure of all that”? My friend, you can! You will, if you come close to Christ in the Book, and live close to him in prayer. Little by little, it may well be, but surely he will lead you to testify with “the holy Church throughout all the world: I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

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