Christ Methodist Church Memphis
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Christ Methodist Church Memphis
Faithfulness in Opportunity and Opposition | Josh Landen
As the Apostle Paul closes his letter to the Corinthians, he reminds the church that faith was never meant to be lived alone. This message explores why Christian life requires shared time, shared work, and shared love—and why spiritual growth stalls without community. In a season of endings and fresh starts, it asks a simple but challenging question: Who are you walking with as you follow Christ?
[0:18] Amen and amen. You may be seated. I don't know about you, but there's not much of a better picture of the gospel than a child running to his parent out of love and affection.
[0:29] Welcome to church. Church, welcome to worship. I'm so glad that you are here. I joined Grant in greeting you and welcoming those of you who are normally down in the sanctuary. This is Seabrook Hall. At the same time that y'all have an 11 o'clock service, there's another one going on in here, but we have guitars and drums and lights. No smoke machines, not yet anyway, but we are so glad to be together as one church. I am Josh Landon. I get to serve as the executive pastor here, and that is certainly a blessing and a treat for me. This is my second year in Memphis, and it is the second year without a white Christmas. I was told moving 800 miles north and west it would be a likelihood, but hasn't yet happened. I'm going to speak to the management about that.
[1:13] This is the fourth day of Christmas. Christmas is a Christmas day, but Christmas is also a season, and so we're in the fourth day right now. If you get a letter from your HOA telling you it's time to take down your lights and decorations, you tell them your pastor said Christmas isn't over yet, that we are not finished, and that that day will come soon enough. We are not finished yet, but in some ways, we're getting close to the finish. We've made it to the end of some things. We've made it through the holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas and New Year's is just a few days away. We've made it to the end of the year. And if you have certain apps, they may be showing you retrospectives and how much time you spent here and who you listened to there. Maybe you had 1700 hours of Taylor Swift this year. I don't know. But if that's you...
[2:02] Well, I don't have anything else to say that. That might be you, but that seems like an awful lot.
[2:07] And we are at the end of our sermon series as well. Today we are in chapter 16 of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. And this is the church he had founded just a little while before and he had moved on. And today we're going to pick up at verse 5. Now the first four verses, I'm sure that you remember, we covered as part of our stewardship series, 16 verses 1 through 4 earlier this fall. This is where Paul directs the church to be generous in their giving. He's going to take a collection and take it on to Jerusalem from there. And as we get into this text today, remember the context. These letters were written for us, but they weren't written to us. And so remember what's going on at the church in Corinth. There are problems there. They've got to figure out who they're going to follow, whom they will follow, how much influence, if any, the former lives will have in their new resurrected life, And what is most important? What things are they going to prioritize?
[3:06] But also remember when and where Paul is writing. This is a much more dangerous day than we live in. Now, none of us are guaranteed anything. We could all pass away from whatever reason today, now, this afternoon, whatever. But Paul is writing to them, and he's concluding this letter, and these are going to be his final words. And it's always possible, as it is with us, but for them a greater degree, that these are the last words he'll ever write to them. And so in chapter 15, he has laid out what the gospel means. And here he's turning it into what it means for them. And so he's making sure to say what he needed to say, what he wanted to do to be at peace. And so he writes to them to get them back on track.
[3:52] So hear now the word of the Lord from 1 Corinthians 16, 5 through 24. Paul says, I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I'll stay with you, or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I'll hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I'll stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
[4:24] When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, For he is doing the work of the Lord as I am. So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers. Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers. But it was not his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in vain. End loss.
[4:59] Now I urge you, brothers, you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. Be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people. The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. O Lord, come. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. This is the word of God for the people of God, and we say, thanks be to God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what we do not know, teach us. And what we do not have, give us. And Lord, what we are not, make us. For your Son's sake. Amen.
[6:14] So here we have some final words. Paul is going away for a while. Now, as a pastor, I have had the opportunity to walk with people from time to time as they begin to formulate their own words. When it becomes apparent that barring some miraculous intervention, that their time on earth is short and they will pass through death, and they begin to get some perspective. They begin to become reflective, introspective. And Paul sort of seems to be the same here. He's bringing this letter to its conclusion. Now, the crescendo was in that previous chapter, chapter 15, where he talked about what was of first importance, the gospel, the resurrection of Christ, victory over the grave. And at the beginning of this chapter, which we skipped over now, but we did a couple of months ago, he was teaching about stewardship, generosity of spirit and of resources about sharing goods. He's going to close the chapter talking about sharing life. His final arguments, his final advice is about the life of the church together. Sometimes it's explicit. You see that in the middle, and sometimes it's more implicit, and you've got to put together the pieces of the story. But in so many words, he tells them that They should develop spiritual friendships.
[7:39] When you read between the lines here, you see that it's there. See how he talks about this relationship with this far-off church. Verse 5, it says, I'll visit you after passing through Macedonia, for that's the way that I'm going, and perhaps I'll stay with you or even spend the winter so you can help me on my journey, wherever I go, wherever it goes next. I don't want to just see you now in passing, but I hope to spend some time with you. This is what the ancient world looked like. Well, I mean, it looks like that now, but this is a map of the ancient world. And you see the Corinth there is on the peninsula of Greece, and about due east is Ephesus. You can see it there across the Aegean Sea. It's in the province of Asia. When they're talking about Asia, they're not speaking of the entire continent. They're talking about western Turkey. Instead of sailing across the Aegean, Paul is going to take the longer land route up through western Turkey and across the Dardanelles there at Gallipoli, and north and west through Thrace and then come back down across Macedonia, south to Greece, and then Corinth, as you see there in the box. But he's coming for a long visit. He's not coming just to pop in very, very quick. He wants to spend time with them. He wants to continue to teach and to guide them. He wants to continue to grow this relationship with them. He wants to be about God's work with them, to be faithful to Christ's great commission alongside them.
[9:06] And he wants to spend some time doing it. Historically, we have some analogs about people just kind of popping in. Politicians will pop in on the campaign trail. They blaze across swing states on the back of a train sometimes. This is the whistle stop tour. They don't use trains as much now. They use buses now. You might remember John McCain in his Straight Talk Express 15 years ago or so. But they stay on the train, and they line up these events along the line from town to town so they can be more efficient. And it's really a self-serving setup. They want to be more efficient so they can see the most people and they can gain the most press. It's what's of greatest benefit to them. They get the most exposure, the greatest opportunity for fundraising, to garner votes. But that's not what Paul's doing here. He's not going to be a fly-by-night visitor. He's going to stay there as long as the Lord permits for months or maybe a year or even longer. Now, that will happen when it's supposed to happen, when the Lord tells him to go. He's still got work to do in Ephesus, he says.
[10:10] But he's paying attention to the spiritual friendship because these people in this church are more than just spiritual children to him. They are friends. They are brothers and sisters in Christ with whom he had and has a genuine relationship and whom he has a vested interest. But those relationships and that vested interest is more than just within that local church.
[10:34] Through the rest of the chapter, you see that he says that God's work is done together. That beyond that local church, there is work to do with brothers and sisters in Christ. And so he begins to list all the co-workers in his ministry, those that are laboring alongside him to spread the gospel. And we get little mini vignettes of what each of them has done, what their contributions are. We see Timothy. Now, he tells this church, receive him well. We don't know what was going on. We know a couple of things about Timothy or about the situation from other places. Number one, Timothy was young and maybe timid, and Paul had to talk him up and confirm him, edify him in the gospel. But this was also a church that liked to fight, it seemed. And this is a church that liked to chew people up maybe and spit them out. And he's saying, don't do that. Welcome him as you would welcome me. And then there's Apollos, and we know that Apollos was there. He encouraged Apollos to go.
[11:35] In the Corinthian church, there was some division. You remember this from earlier on in the book, that some followed Paul and some followed Apollos and some followed Peter. But Paul doesn't buy into that. Paul is not striving for his own personal influence. Paul's encouraging Apollos to go. Apollos isn't ready to do it, though. He says, you know, for whatever reason, he might not want to have participated in the infighting or in the divisive nature of that church. He wasn't there yet, but Paul encouraged him to go. Then we see Stephanatis. Stephanatis was the one who brought the letter from the Corinthians to Paul, and he was the first convert at that city. He was the one that helped found that church. He was the first one, he and his household, to respond. And he gave himself to the service of others. He didn't just say, this is a decision for me, and I'm going to go have my private faith. He devoted himself to others' service. Seems that he was wealthy. It seems that he used it for the church's mission. And then you have Fortunatus and Achaicus. Now, these are possibly some former slaves. It's not clear. Fortunatus, you might recognize, means lucky man. Achaicus just means man from Achaia.
[12:49] But together, alongside Stephanatis and Aquila and Priscilla, it shows the wide spectrum of believers in this church, that there are people from the very wealthiest strata of society all the way down to former slaves, all co-equal believers, all equally capable and responsible, for spreading the gospel. And then we have Aquila and Prisca or Priscilla, depending on your translation. They show up throughout the New Testament. They're in Acts. They go from Rome to Corinth, to Ephesus here, they seem to also have been wealthy to had a very profitable business that they used to support the church. Taken together, and especially with the first three verses that we just saw, 5, 6, and 7, we begin to get a bigger picture about what is happening here, about what the faithful life looks like. And as Paul winds down this letter, he's reminding this church they are not alone, not alone within their own congregation, and certainly not within the wider scope of faith. Ours is a connectional faith. We confess this in the creed. We didn't do this today, but what do we confess? I believe in the holy Catholic church, the communion of saints. Paul's telling them, you guys are meant to be part of a team.
[14:11] Friends, we are meant to be part of a team. And you become a team when you share time, you share experiences. Our time is the act of not forsaking giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, as it says in Hebrews, and all the more as you see the day approaching. And our trust is established through our common work, through this great commission and our mission here to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples. John Wesley says that there is no holiness. We cannot grow in sanctification without social holiness. Now, some of you may come from a background like I do, and you look at that word holiness, and you don't quite know what it means. There are some who will say that this is a checklist of behaviors. Here's a list of things you do, and here's a list of things that you don't do. And we're keeping an eye on you to see if you ever cross that line. But what John Wesley meant is that we are meant to seek God together, to pursue our sanctification together, that we share our hearts and we share our lives, we share our hopes, we share our dreams, we share our struggles, we share our sins.
[15:28] We share how it is with our soul. We share how the Spirit is moving in our lives. We do that with brothers and sisters who do the same. And the church, which is us, is edified, and Christ is glorified by it and through it. Remember, His prayer was for us to be as one, and that should be our prayer too. Because it transforms us from the inside out. When we do so, when we submit and yield to his work in us. It transforms our hearts. It transforms our homes. It transforms this church, and it transforms this city, and it transforms the world.
[16:14] But then Paul gets very explicit with the Corinthians. He tells them, remain grounded in Christ. Right there in the middle, verses 13 and 14, just a couple of verses, he's responding to the state of this church, and he's reminding them of what's expected. Remember the analogy from the very beginning of 1 Corinthians that this church is an ark, but it was not watertight. The water from the world was coming into and infecting and beginning to sink this church. He's telling them how to stop that. Verse 13, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men and be strong, and let all you do be done in love. Very quick, very direct, right to the point. Five very fast in succession commands. You can imagine it's kind of like the opening scene, the gladiator. A general pumping up his men before battle. And that's actually the language that Paul uses here. These are militaristic verbs. To be watchful and alert, to look for Christ's return, to know his gospel and his commandments, to stand firm, to be firmly committed in conviction and belief. He had already commended them and exhorted them to persevere back in chapter 15. And this faith that he talks about is the gospel message from that same chapter.
[17:34] He says, act like men. Now, it may be different depending on which version you have. This isn't really gender language, and it's not even mature language. It's about courageousness. It's about courage. It's about boldness. To know what matters and to prioritize it. To be ready to act when the time comes. It says be strong or be made strong by putting on Christ and the full armor of God.
[18:02] But at the end, there in verse 14, there's a different ending that sets apart Christianity from the rest of the world. And even today, as society still pushes the same narratives that the Corinthians dealt with, things that they wrestled with, to find your strength and identity in something or someone other than Christ. That you can reject the way of the cross, that you can avoid pain and you can seek pleasure at all costs. That you can pick and choose which parts of the faith you want to embrace and which parts of the world and your secular identity that you want to hang on to. This idea that you put yourself first. As society continues to push those, Paul pushes back and says, no, embrace Christ and embrace his command, which is love. Let all that you do be done in love. Love God with all that you are and love your neighbor as yourself. And when you do that, you will be faithful to the life that Christ has called you to, and not just called you to, but empowered you for.
[19:09] And so now we get to the very end of the letter. In the last three verses, he brings to a conclusion this epistle with a warning and a prayer and a blessing.
[19:18] And so he says, if anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. O Lord, come, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. He has some concerns. Legitimate, I think, that there are people within the fellowship, people who will hear this letter or have it read to them or will read it themselves, who don't love the Lord.
[19:45] How do you know if you love the Lord? Well, Christ himself tells us in John 15, if you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I've kept my father's commands and remain in his love. My command is this, love each other as I've loved you. You are my friends if you do what I command. And this is my command, love each other. And so Paul says, those who don't have Christ's love in them, those who are not obedient to his words, Let them be accursed for bringing in the division and the turmoil and strife into the body of Christ. And then he looks forward to Christ's return, and he gives them a benediction of grace. That prayer for grace is how he opens and closes the letter. If you go back to chapter 1, verse 3, he says, Grace to you, as you hear what I'm about to say. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And he closes it with this, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. Grace to you as you receive these words, as you receive this correction.
[20:56] And grace with you as we depart and this conversation pauses and you go on to live a faithful life. He loves these people. I'm sure it tears him up as it would any pastor's heart when his people are going astray and when his people are hurting and hurting each other. He prays for God's best for them. He wants God's grace to permeate, to saturate their lives. And he's warning them at the same time. There is danger ahead if you keep going down the path rejecting Christ. So listen to me. Friends, church people are hard to love. Pause for the amens. Church people are hard to love because we know the way. We know the way, but we struggle to walk in it. And when we know the way and when we know that others know that we know the way, it's hard to admit that we're not in it. So we have to put up this mask, we have to put up this face, we have to put up this veneer that isn't true and isn't authentic.
[22:06] And when that's happening, it's hard to both give and to receive strong words, to repent and believe the gospel, to come back to obedience, to love Christ. But when you know somebody loves you, when you know somebody has your best interests at heart, someone who's seen and heard you at your worst and who promises to love you anyway, then that's a person that you'll listen to. That's a person that you will make space for to speak into your life. Because hard truths, delivered in love, will bring healing. Paul had that with this church. He had founded it, and he had departed to go on to his next mission. And they fought to keep the world's influence at bay after he left. But they were slipping, so they wrote to ask him for help. And he responds and gives them a word of correction. Christ didn't leave us orphaned either. We're not children without parents. He gave us this Holy Spirit, and Paul didn't leave this church alone and say, Nope, figure it out. I've moved on. He wrote these healing words to a broken and hurting church, which is to the entire group and to individuals themselves, about what it means to live faithful lives.
[23:34] And we can have that too.
[23:38] Friends, the gospel this morning is that our Christian life is not one of solitude. We were baptized as believers into the faith, but also into the church, his holy church, Christ's body here on earth. This church needs you. And you need this church, this body as a whole, and all of us individually are better and stronger together. This is why we adopted new core values this year, to name those things, those hallmarks that reflect who we are and what it is that we will covenant to do with and for each other. You heard Pastor Grant mention these a minute ago. To act in love and to move in faith, to submit to the truth of Scripture, to commit to prayer and worship. And the final one is to live and serve in community. The community is those that are gathered around something shared in common. It might be as simple as a fantasy football team. It might be as simple as your favorite travel destination. It might be as simple as whatever other avocations and hobbies that you might have.
[24:56] But friends, the thing that we have in common here is the most important thing in life. A confession that Christ is Lord, that He is God's anointed Son, a belief in His atoning death and resurrection, a hope for His return to establish His unending kingdom here on earth. And the people gathered in this room right here and now, as a part of the body of Christ, have the opportunity to be your closest relationships on earth. For some of you, even closer than your own family. Because we are a family or we have the ability to be one. But it can only happen if we let it happen. It can only happen if we seek for it to happen. If you go to our website, ChristChurchMemphis.org slash 2026, it'll look like this. You'll see a menu of options of how you can plug in. Pastor Grant mentioned some of these as well.
[25:56] How you can become part of a group, how you can plug into this community, how you can find your people, and how you can find yourself in your identity in Christ. It might be a Sunday school class. It might be a Wednesday night small group. It might be through other opportunities for discipleship or mission and ministry in this city and around the world and in this church, about using the means of grace to have a more robust and fulfilling Christian life, how to read scripture, how to pray, how to memorize scripture, what fasting and baptism and communion mean. The all-church reading plan that he mentioned. This pamphlet is one that's available next week. Grab this. Dive deep into scripture. See what God's promise is to you. See how from the very beginning of human history, he has been working to solve our biggest issue, and he has accomplished it through his son, Jesus Christ. These pamphlets will be available next week, God willing. Just like the Corinthians, you are being pulled by the world and by Satan away from Jesus Christ. But you have a team who is contending on your behalf, led by the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters here who can enrich your life in ways that you cannot do it on your own.
[27:15] Friends, to help you be watchful and courageous and strong. Friends, to help you stand firm, to hold you accountable to Christ's rule of love.
[27:27] This gospel this morning is that Christ gives us, this spiritual family, to come to faith and to grow in faith, to serve in faith, to live in faith, to die in faith. But it's not automatic and it's not forced. You have to say yes, to trust God enough to let go of the reins of your own life, to hand them over to him and say, Lord, lead me.
[27:53] We've come through a long season, and I don't just mean the holiday season or this calendar year or this sermon series. Over the last few years, we've discerned as a church where we believe that God is heading us, how we can re-engage our identity as Wesleyan Methodist Christians.
[28:11] We've adopted these new core values and mission statements and vision statements, and we're creating these pathways for discipleship and ministry opportunities. This is all for you, for God's glory. We are in this season of beginnings and endings. And in one sense, it is just turning a page from one calendar month to another. But in another sense, it's an opportunity to start fresh. So how will you start strong? Maybe you've never said yes to Jesus Christ. You've never made a profession of faith. Maybe you have made a profession of faith, but you've kept him at arm's length. And say, Jesus, yes, please save me, but don't take away X, Y, and Z for me. Don't ask me to give up A, B, and C.
[28:59] Maybe you have submitted to Christ, but you're looking for real and true, authentic community. People to speak words of hope and promise and faith into your life. Friends, it is here, Christ is near. Draw close to him and he will draw close to you. And your life will be enriched and fuller and more meaningful and more peaceful and more joyous than you've ever known before. Let's pray.
[29:34] Heavenly Father, we do give you thanks for these words from this chapter and from this book that Paul has written to the church and written for us. Lord, give us ears to hear. Lord, thank you. Thank you for the community that you have established through your church. Thank you, Lord, for the body of Christ that is gathered here at this place and at this time as one of those faithful expressions. Lord, thank you for the body of Christ gathered around the world where Jesus is proclaimed as Lord of all life.
[30:09] As we move into the new year, Lord, help us to find ways to be faithful to you. Show us those parts of our lives that we have attempted to hold back. Show us, Lord, those parts of our lives that we want to keep for ourselves that we haven't fully submitted to you. Show us, Lord, how we can be a faithful people, Growing in our faith Sharing the gospel with others And taking your promise of new life In Jesus Christ To a world that so desperately needs it.
[30:41] God, thank you for these opportunities To engage in discipleship and mission, Lord, thank you for the growth And the fruit that will come through them Thank you, Lord, for faithful leaders Who are leading these groups Leading these missions, Thank you, Lord, for your great love for us In Jesus' name we share We pray, amen.