I hope you are not completely exhausted this evening. We have a lot planned. If you ever feel like you're going to sleep, just raise your hand, and we're going to take a little break and do some exercises together. Stand on your heads on the tables or something, and that'll get you going real fast. So I'm happy to see all of you, and let's begin together with prayers this evening. Our Heavenly Father is good, to know that you are present this evening, to know that you have been walking before us this day, and when we have deviated from your ways, you have been grieved, and yet your faithfulness is much greater than anything we can imagine. And so we praise you in this evening that we do have free access to your throne of grace, that there is refreshing love in your presence, and that wherever we are at this moment, we can come to you, we can find reconciliation with you on the basis of the finished work of your Son and our Lord. And so we pray, Lord, that you would bless us this evening, that we would listen attentively to your Word, that we would get what we need to hear, and that you would shape our lives, our minds, our purposes, our will in such a way, that we would conform to you. For that is our glory, that is our design, that we would not pursue our own glory, our own design, that that we would live and think and act to your glory. Father, we praise you. Thank you for your presence. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. I don't know if you still remember the little illustration or the image that I have been using for moving out of the Book of Acts into the Pauline epistles. The illustration that I used is that of a plough man who goes with the gospel into different fields. And as he preaches the gospel as he ploughs through that ground, he turns up all kinds of things, mostly rocks, small ones, big ones, sharp ones, round ones, elusive ones, pretty blocky ones, et cetera. And he has to work his plough through that ground to make it fallow and useful for the gospel, not so much that the seed would be planted, but that the seed would grow. The epistles are catechism, the epistles of Paul are instruction, they are aids for growth. As much as the speeches in the Book of Acts are presentations of the truth of the gospels, so the epistles are instruction for growth. And so I think it's quite correct to think of the epistles in this way as we read them, as we study them in this overview, in this course, but also in our individual study, that here we have instruction for growth, instruction to move from point A to point B, always towards the goal of becoming mature in Christ. For us, and for those who are interested into our care, who we counsel, who we disciple, who we are involved with, before whom we preach, to whom we lead a Bible study, or just have a simple conversation about the Christian faith, always that is the point. And so when we go to the different epistles, we go to different fields, and we pick up different stones. Now I come from South Germany, as you have already noticed, a few times, and I haven't said a lot of good things about the German mentality. Well, here's another bad illustration, not about the German mentality, but about a certain soil. In South Germany, there's an area and mountainous area that spans West East, that is called the Alp, ALB. And there are actually pre-Alpine mountains, you go up a certain elevation, maybe, oh, 2400 feet at the most, or thereabouts, and then it goes down again into valleys, and then you go up into these Swiss Alps, if you go further south. Well, if you come to this area called Alp, ALB in southwestern Germany, and you look through the fields, they are literally littered with rocks. And the reason why you see it so much is because most of the rocks are white, and the soil is fairly dark, and so you see it immediately. Here's a field, and you think it's a hopeless task. I cannot believe that farmers actually work those grounds because basically what they turn up every year is more rock. And it seems like it's incessant, the supply, of little stones and things from beneath the ground, and they dig it up, and the big boulders, the big stones get thrown to the sides, and so you see certain stone guards around the fields, and they actually plant their crop in those fields, picking up those stones. Well, if you come to a particularly bad one, that has a lot of those rocks, you really wonder, is there going to be any growth on this field? Well, as we move to Corinth, think of such a field. Paul should have never gone to Corinth. It's bad enough to go to Athens. It's difficult enough to work with the Thessalonians. It is challenging to work with the Ephesians and to move into the hinterland and Asia Minor with the Artemis cultus and various pagan religions. But the go to Corinth is really the worst imaginable place, the worst imaginable field, and that's why when Paul plows through the Corinthian church and works with them in his first pastoral letter, first Corinthians, there is one rock after the next. But he has to turn up and say, now look at this. Now see this. How does that still have room in your life with Christ? And so just imagine the Corinthian letter, particularly the first one, but also the second, and Paul's pastoral relationship to the Corinthian church as one that is filled with stones. And Paul actually uses this image in second Corinthians that he wishes not to put any stones, any obstacles in their midst, but that he wishes to conduct his ministry to them in such a way that they grow. But there is a wonderful comfort, and I want to start with the comfort first before we get into the thicket of what besets the Corinthian church. I would claim to say if the gospel is applicable to the Corinthian church, there's hope for us. If Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles, as the messenger of God to the Gentiles, would not turn his back and say, the gospel reaches everywhere, but there's a little enclave where it cannot reach, and that's Corinth. It's just too bad. It's just too tough. Those people are just completely twisted in their mind and their conduct. There, the gospel cannot apply. We may have some reason to doubt the general applicability of the gospel, but you see that Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles does not skirt the issue, does not avoid relating to these difficult people and these difficult circumstances, and he actually has a genuine gospel hope for the Corinthians. If he does, you cannot exclude yourself, you cannot exclude your church. Yes, you may have been involved in church slits. You may have been involved in painful loyalty questions in the church. You may have been exposed to situations in your church where there was clearly a power struggle and strive. You may have been in a church where immorality was rather rampant, although kind of under the cover, not clearly dealt with. You may be participating in a church where there is a strong marked division between rich and poor, and nobody is doing anything about it. It's just there. You may be in a church where the fellowship of the believers is marked by status, and then add ten more things and then you are close to Corinth. And yet, Paul deals with them as children of God, as those who God called, as those with whom God has started and has certainly not finished, you've got better believe it, as those who need great help and great challenge and great work, and that's what he's doing. So he rises to the occasion and I like to speak about the Corinthian epistles bless you. The Corinthian epistles, particularly second Corinthians, but first Corinthians to a certain degree as well, as the turbo of Paul's involvement with the church. He really goes up into six gear if you have that in your race car. He really gives it all, the entire engine of his involvement is completely there, and you just see that the great challenge of the church is met with a great devotion and great dedication on the side of Paul. You could nearly get a feeling of burnout, where it not that Corinthians, particularly second Corinthians, speaks about the great resources that Paul knows he has in working in that church, and that's very important to discover that. So by way of introduction, highly stony field, enormous what is being dug up, every chapter of first Corinthians dicks up another, major boulder, and you don't know what to do, you feel discouraged with the first one, and there are seven or eight more to come. Paul deals with them, says, look about it, see about it, think about it, what, how does that relate to Christ? Where are we? Where do we need to go? Let's move. Now, just so that you are not becoming euphoric and idealistic, there is a very sober note about the Corinthian church. One of the things that I will be drawing your attention to is, we get a little more into the details of the Corinthian church, particularly as Paul deals with them in first Corinthians, is the matter of disunity. Disunity, strive, power struggle, and I'm glad that none of you are in any churches where there's any power struggle, there's always honey pie and sweetness in terms of that. No politics involved. Well, the Corinthians had enormous amount of politics. Paul deals with that in first Corinthians. Also, in second Corinthians, with the theme of reconciliation, really, you can have these two words to kind of summarize, characterize, what's going on in first Corinthians, and in second Corinthians, would be reconciliation, and I will certainly give you a more detailed understanding of that, but Paul sees a church that is torn in all kinds of ways, and that this unity is just visible, virtually visible. Paul writes to them, and I believe certainly, some individuals, certainly parts of the church, are responsive to his call, they mature, they grow, they soften, and become strong to the gospel, soften to the call to turn, and becoming strong in terms of being consistent, and drawing out those lines that the gospel encourages us to move forward in. But unfortunately, as far as I can read it, from the other historical references we have to the Corinthian church, there's not really a lasting health that characterizes the Corinthian church, and the reason why I can say that is because in 96 AD, a bishop from Rome has written a letter to the Corinthian church. His name is Clement of Rome, and he writes what is called first Clement or first Corinthians, depending on how you want it, first Clement or first Corinthians, but I think normally it would be first Clement, the first letter of Clement bishop in Rome to the Corinthian church. 96 AD, if you date the Corinthian epistles around 50, you've got about 45 years plus minus to elapse from the time when Paul deals with the Corinthian church to the time when Clement of Rome deals with the Corinthian church. What had happened in 96 AD? You may be surprised to hear. Young people in the church had just thrown out the entire group of elders. Out you go. We don't want you. Your old fashioned, your traditionalist, your this, your that, your that, out you go. We're going to take over this shop, we're going to run it. And Clement of Rome writes a pastoral letter and mind you not a papal letter from Rome. At the end of the first century, appealing to these young, surely promising, surely enthusiastic leaders to turn away from their rebellious disunity ways to bring the godly eldership back into the church and to resolve their challenges, their difficulties together. And obviously that's easier said than done. I know, for instance, that in many churches in Germany, of Russian origin, Russian Germans that have come to Germany in the last 10, 20 years, there's an enormous challenge between the two generations of highly traditional and rather modernistic, progressive type younger people. There's enormous tension there. So it's nothing new, obviously, and it has happened in the church's sense. So Clement of Rome appeals to these leaders and the total church in Corinth, 80, 96, to turn away from their divisive ways and to seek. What is biblical from the Old Testament and what is biblical from the New Testament? So it's a little bit of a note of discouragement, isn't it? Before we go into seeing what Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles, what the messenger of God is doing, what the word of God speaks into the Corinth in situation that there is perhaps partial fruit but not complete and lasting fruit. Now, obviously this generation here is not the generation that Paul is speaking to. These are the children of these people who Paul addressed to, perhaps, grandchildren depends how fast the generations turn over. Normally the turnover is a little slower, was a little slower than it is now. And so we can see that maybe Paul's generation turned, and yet there was so much ferment in the Corinthian church of disunity and seeking your own that it certainly kicked back in in the next generation to necessitate such a letter. Now, in a little sight phrase I said, this is a pastoral letter of a bishop in Rome. It is interesting for those of you who are interested in the beginnings of Roman Catholicism and the papal authority in Rome that this successor of Peter, perhaps they were one or two other bishops between Peter and Clement in Rome, does not arise in this letter as a pope. As the primers in the palace, the primary among many, as the one who sits in the central authoritative place in Rome and writes to the Corinthians, it is more a one bishop writing to another church. Now, obviously you can say, but he was in Rome, yes, conceited. But still, the tone is that of appeal to scripture, appeal to the gospel. It's a pastoral worded letter, it is not heavy handed. It's a wonderful piece of early Christian writing, which would be a part of what we call the apostolic fathers, the writings of the apostolic fathers written in Greek, patristic Greek. And so this letter is really an appeal. It's very interesting to see that at the end of the first century, how that is to be characterized. Also, what we can learn from Clement of Rome is how far scripture had already become authoritative. It's quite instructive how many references Clemens of Rome makes to the New Testament. For those of you who are interested in how the New Testament became to be accepted as canon, it is instructive to see that it was not this lengthy process of acceptance, but rather this early stage, Clement of Rome makes reference to scripture. And among others, two first Corinthians, and I'm going to read that to you from his letter. First, Clement, around 96 AD, this is what he says. Now, see, he's writing to the Corinthians, he's writing to the next generation. This is what he says, quote, take up the epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul. What did he write to you, first of all, in the beginning of the gospel? Of a truth he charged you spiritually, concerning himself and Cephas and a Paulus, because even then you had formed parties. So, you see, I look forward. Now, he looks backward and says, even then, even at the time of Paul, you already had your parties and your divisiveness, you still have it now. But listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to you, to your fathers, to your older generation in your church, see the root of the problem. Amazing, though, is that here's already a bishop who alludes and refers to first Corinthians with the names of Paul, Cephas and a Paulus, as a letter generally known and accepted as an apostolic letter, and he makes reference to that, reminding them of what Paul wrote to them. I find that instructive in many different ways, but just so that you have a historical context in which to read the plowing of Paul and the turning up of so many stones in Corinth, it is highly sober and sobering, it is very realistic, it is partially disheartening, and yet underneath it all there is a wonderful encouragement, namely, God is working with the Corinthians in church, and God is working with you. Even though, after we're done tonight, you may think your life is more connected with the problems going on in Corinth, then perhaps the wonderful heights of soaring among Philippians, who seem to have kicked into a high level of maturity right after conversion, which is probably not so true. But if you need some realistic common ground to your problems, first Corinthians will provide it to you and will encourage you that the challenges that you may find or that you have in association with your churches are not beyond the bounds and limits of God's reach of grace. However, the work is cut out for you, the work is cut out for Paul, and you see that he doesn't just sit back and say praise God for his grace, may the Corinthian church sometimes, someday, somehow become mature, you see how the suffering, how the compassion, how the work, the rolling up your sleeves and getting involved with the Corinthian church is certainly one means, one instrumentality of how God uses Paul to help these Christians, these very young Christians, these very confused Christians in Corinth to slowly learn what is the alphabet of the gospel. How do we spell words? How do we spell life according to Christ? Because at every turn, their twisted mind has another twist to it, has another spin to it, and so he teaches them a, and they say oh yeah, I know, be an off they go. In their morality, in their thinking, in their interrelationships, you look at it where you want and you will find there is work cut out for Paul. So by way of an introduction, then this is what you have before you, a sober assessment and yet great hope. However, perhaps a little warning, right from the outset, respond soften to the call of the gospel. Don't harden yourself to that call, to turn, to conform to that which God is calling you to, to that which God is pulling inside of you towards. The more you can identify with the Corinthians, the more you need to hear that call, that you need to grow towards the gospel. So that is an important point, not to sit back because we do see that at least a certain group among the Corinthians and also the next generation fell exactly back into that trap which Paul so eagerly sought them to bring out them out of. Yes. Why did the Corinthians seem to have so many problems more than the other church? Perhaps I can try and answer that by taking you on a little tour to Corinth. It's only going to cost $1,500 special deal for you. How is that? And we'll start right now. No jet lag, no waiting time. We do need to go a little bit to Corinth and see a little bit what is going on there. Obviously, before I take you on that trip, I can say that Corinth is not the only place. But perhaps you've got the syrup. In other places, there's the bad juice, but here you have a syrup. You have a concentration, an extract of what is not quite good about the Hellenistic world, and that's probably what makes it so formidable. So you've got partial elements in Ephesus. You've got partial elements in Alexandria. You certainly have elements in Rome. Corinth seems to be particularly concentrated. You do have that in the Western world as well. I think it is no secret that Amsterdam in the Netherlands is a particularly fallen place in terms of immorality, in terms of drugs, in terms of just the decadence of Western society. There's a certain concentration there. Obviously, you would find it in Frankfurt. You would find it in New York and Los Angeles, but there's a certain concentration there. And that's really how you should see Corinth. This is particularly bad, particularly fallen. Let's look at Corinth a little bit. You know that Corinth is situated on the mainland of Greece. The southeast connects the mainland of Greece with the Paloponnese, as it is called, and Corinth is a known city throughout the ancient times. Homer, as far back as that, speaks of wealthy Corinth in his major Epoch, the Iliad. So far back, in Greek history, Corinth appears to be a flourishing, significant city, and particularly through the fact that it is at a southern point of a land tongue, and it has a very nice port connection with the entire Mediterranean world. And if you want to understand commerce and the cultural life of the ancient world, you see it on bordering cities around the Mediterranean Sea. A lot of sea commerce occurred there, and so it is quite natural that Corinth as a city would grow. Now, when Rome appears on the map in 146 BC, you see that there is basically an incision in the history of Corinth, and that's very fatal to cities. And that incision is so stark that really the history of Corinth has to begin again. Citizens were killed in this destruction of Corinth in 146 BC, and many people that were not killed were sold into slavery, basically that which had grown culturally was eradicated at 146 BC. The territory became public land of the Roman Empire, and only through Julius Caesar, the first emperor of the Roman Empire in 46 BC was Corinth rebuilt. So you have basically 100 years of no man's land, and certainly little settlements that destruction, no history, low economic life, and so out of that destruction grows in 46 BC. You see, a new city established by Julius Caesar as a Roman colony, and that is the Corinth that Paul is relating to, obviously 100 years later. But it's only 100 year old. It's a young city. St. Louis has more tradition and more history than Corinth, and that says something if you look at some cities that have 2000 year history. So that's important to see that here we have an uprooted, newly immigrated, newly established society that doesn't have roots, that basically is searching for identity, and the identity goes like pine trees horizontally rather than vertically down. There's no sense of this is what we are about. You're seeking in your horizontal commerce, in your relationships with people, some kind of an identity, and that is the kind of superficial life that then grows and successfully grows because it still holds charm, it still holds attraction from its basic locality. And so Greeks return to Rome, but not only Greeks, but also Jews, as we know from various sources, that one of them being an inscription that speaks about the synagogue of the Hebrews. And so we know for sure that Jews established there a house of prayer, a house of reading, a house of learning, a house of worship, the diaspora Jewish institution calls synagogue that we can't go into details here, but it is basically the outpost and the identity center of Jewish people outside of Palestine. And then certainly there are others who move there as well, some other indigenous people, and then certainly Romans into this Roman colony. And so what you have is a cosmopolitan interracial and interethnic town that has been cut off from its historical roots, and that is kind of swimming like all on water with its new economic and its new cultural exchange. And so Corinth then becomes synonymous with immorality, synonymous with a decadence, synonymous with decay of human society. So please understand me right. Corinth is not exclusively to be exposed as a wicked city as over against others, but I would say there's certainly a degree of concentration there. Paul is aware of that. First Corinthians 2, 3 does seem to allude to that, his first impression, and that he says he has nothing there to preach, but Christ crucified. But we see that Paul moves into this church, and perhaps now you can take the chronological outline that I have given you just to see a little bit of where we are in terms of Paul's journeys, Paul's ministry, and his sojourn in and out of Corinth. We are in the second missionary journey at the point of Paul's first ministry in Corinth. You have it on page 16 in your handout. Corinth with an hystericus underlined that is the first stay for about a year and a half, 18 months. In Corinth at which time the gospel is being preached both among Jews and Gentiles, and a church is established in this difficult territory. I will go on in describing that, but let's just look at what Paul finds. He finds people who are from the start, and this gets a little bit at your question that you asked, from the start to be people who are fighting against each other. So it seems to be a sense of, hey, you don't tell me anything. You don't tell me your business. I'm fighting for myself. It's kind of a rough fight for yourself, society. Look out for number one, the me, myself, and I, a line that is being pursued there, and so you have this inability to collaborate, cooperate, to work together, to seek each other's good. I think those were fairly foreign words among the Corinthians as they become Christians. They are reconciled with the living God, they believe in the gospel of grace, and then in some ways I'm exaggerating a little bit. They continue to please themselves in the patterns of the past, and that's the point at which Paul engages them as he writes to them. Because what do they have? They fight for themselves in terms of position, in terms of authority and influence. They certainly have earned their own riches, and so they will not share with those who do not have. So it is, I am a self-made man, why should I give to this person who hasn't worked or who is not a self-made man? There's a sense of pride and superiority, and that goes into this very immature, young Christian church. If there are strife, certainly you go to a lawyer. I mean, that's something very unfashionably in the United States at this point, but in that time you just ran to a lawyer. You got your attorney right from the start, and so rather than to sit down and say, who are we recipients of mercy off? What is our identity in Christ? That was a truth that was claimed, a reality that was claimed for the personal life, but then the way they acted among each other was certainly different. I've got to fend for myself, and I'm going to get a lawyer, and I'm going to get out of you what is mine. So you would have the notorious immorality rampant, and really the reason why immorality continues in Corinth is I believe a neo-plotonic way of thinking. I've gone into that a little bit, but I want to just say two or three sentences about that because it's so important in our day and age to detect neo-plotonic thought. And so I don't think it was just the sense of the Corinthian saying, I want pleasure, and if Paul robs me of pleasure, I don't want him. I think it was a little different, and there was this. The philosophical atmosphere among the Corinthians, particularly in Greece, but also among the Corinthians, and seems to be particularly rampant there, was this. There's a difference between mind and body. What the body does, what we do with our body, has nothing to do with our mind. They are separate compartments. They don't affect each other. My conduct, my sexual conduct, does not affect my mind and my mental life. And the Christian faith is mental. It is spirit life, has nothing to do with a body. There I'm forgiven. Before the unseen living God, I'm forgiven. I live a reconciled life in my mind. But I still continue to hold this division between mind and body, so what I do with my body doesn't matter. Just matters that I think right, that I confess right, that I believe right, that I talk right, all of that must be orthodox. But what I do with my body, who cares, that's separate anyway. Plato taught this division between that which is ideal, that which is mental, and that which is physical, and actually a common denominator of various philosophies at the time was this, that the body really needs to be overcome. Remember what I told you about the Stoic philosophy, an Epicurean philosophy, there is neoplatonic thought in Stoic philosophy. And so what you find when the gospel is preached, you find a diametrically opposed philosophy of life and creation to this neoplatonic division between mind and body, namely use your body and use your mind to the glory of God. What you have done thus far is use your body and your mind to your own purposes, your own lust, your own design. Now the whole thing, the whole man, body, mind, and soul is dedicated to God. But that's a major change. And I believe the Corinthian church, Benny in the Corinthian church, have a great hard time to accept this part of the gospel, that God is the creator of the whole human being, and the savior of the whole human being, and therefore the body needs to be saved as well. What I do with my body, what the physical life involves because God is the creator of both. And he does not look down on that which is physical. It has equal value to that which is mental. So there is an unChrist. God made this world good. He loves that which is physical, part of what he created. And he is Lord of that which he created. He's claiming that back so that both the physical and the mental, the intellectual, the unseen part of God's creation and man, would give him glory. And so Paul, the gospel that Paul preaches, will not allow a dichotomizing, a separating of these worlds, and boy is that a tough one to get through. The same goes for what Paul teaches about marriage as you look at chapter 7. And also as I have already mentioned with this theme of disunity, great problem with any form of authority. I believe the Corinthian church had this sense. If there was any authority, there was immediately resistance because you need to resist the beginnings of authority. You need to fight for yourself. You need to defend yourself because authority means that your own life is somehow being narrowed and you don't want that. And so you look out for number one and you defend yourself, so any sense of authority is rejected. But see Paul has this to say, the reason you don't like human authority, even if it is good, wholesome, and not abusive authority, is because you really still have an independence from God in your mind too. So if you were just rejecting human authority, that would be okay, maybe. But there's something deeper in you, and that is I want to be my own master. And so Paul exercises a kind, a well-measured, a careful, a non-abusive form of authority to help the Corinthians submit to the authority of God. Sometimes he tells them, you must do this, just to prove them to mature them to submit to the authority of God. Now obviously all of what I've said thus far has no relevancy for modern life, because we have none of these problems. There is no more problem that resists against any form of authority, but unfortunately those really unenlightened Corinthians still had those rather based problems. You see, there is a correct resistance to abusive authority. I'm not one with the history of German abuse of authority to advocate that authority is always good. But I must also say that if you are allergic to any form of authority, you probably have a spiritual problem. You probably resist that God may have a will for and in your life that you will have no part of. God can be God, you can worship Him, you can confess Him, but He better not meddle in your business. Now if somebody comes in, some gentle leader that says, have you ever looked at this area and you reject that person and you act like an inkfish, you know, put all that ink out and then disappear somewhere. Then you know you've got a problem. Have you ever had a person that reacted like that to you? You don't know, where is the person that you are talking with and have gone? Then you need to think a little more deeply and see Paul has that pastoral hand as he deals with the Corinthians in first and second Corinthians. And that's why he speaks about the problem they have in accepting his apostolic authority. I can assure you, he is not a pathological person who pouts in Ephesus. About the horrible thing that the Corinthians don't accept his apostolic authority and he's got to show them that he is right and he has the rightful claims and they better accept him. He looks at them and he sees as they reject his apostolic authority, his ministry, they're really rejecting something much more deeply and it is to their good that he needs to exercise some form of benevolent, useful, growing, maturing authority, putting some weight on them, leaning into them, leaning against them. Just for their sake, now that can be abused, I am quite aware and you've got to be a very healthy person if you exercise authority over another person. You must know in your heart that you are not trying to project yourself to justify yourself to set the record straight and making it clear who is the boss or any of those kind of things. If you have those motives, you're in for a big, big challenge. However, if you know in your heart that you don't really need to deal with the Corinthians at all, if you know in your heart that you could just walk away and be okay in your heart, but for the sake of care for them, you're going to stick it out. You're going to expose yourself and you're going to work with them and if you measure what you do carefully, so as not to overreact and overburden, then you can learn a lot in the school of Paul, how he deals with a rebellious and anti-authority, disunity type of a church. It's just allergic and highly sensitive to anything that says we may have to be under the authority of Christ. So there's a lot to be learned but a lot to be careful about because I have seen and you have seen people who really have a lot of psychological problems and they project those psychological problems and they say, look Paul did it, I've got to do it too. And they don't see that Paul took himself out of this whole thing. He was very careful so that they couldn't say, look at Paul, look at what he does, I mean he doesn't have his act together, why should we? And the whole thing falls apart in anarchy, no? Paul was careful so that they could not point to him and say, look at him, he lives off of us, he doesn't work, he gets our money. He just wants to be a respected leader all over the world, you know why should we? He was very careful that they would know that he has no reputation, that he is willing to suffer, that he is willing to have sleepless nights, that he is willing to be beaten, that he is working very hard with his own hands so as not to be a burden to them. He was very careful not to receive money from them but only to help them to be gracious and give something to Jerusalem so that they would have no out. So that his authority was a godly authority that simply said look at yourself, look at your situation, come this way. So the measure of guidance and leadership that Paul provides for the Corinthians is a wonderful model and if you read first and second Corinthians with those glasses of how does he lead? It's wonderful, highly instructive but you've got to be careful that as you minister, that you don't project your own unresolved feelings and things into the equation, sometimes that really makes a situation very messy. When you can't take yourself out, when you can step a step back and say wait a minute, they don't respect me, they reject my authority, am I going to pout, am I going to retaliate, what am I going to do? I think Paul spend many nights sleepless as he says in second Corinthians reflecting on how am I going to respond, what, who am I in Christ? The wounds that I have received, the hurt that I've received from the Corinthians Church, I must resolve in my own prayer chamber, maybe with some other believers and come to a point of clarity that I can look the Corinthians in the eye and say I forgive you. I don't hold any grudges against you but you know what, you've got to move, you've got to develop, you've got to go into a certain direction, wonderful leadership. So this is all still very much introductory, I haven't gotten into first Corinthians yet but I think that's the important general understanding of what is going on here and what Paul is pursuing with them. I think that should be good enough in regard to the first question of occasion. Let me say a few words about the purpose then, particularly of first Corinthians, what is the purpose that he is pursuing? You can already deduce it from what I have said, in first Corinthians I believe the purpose is that he desires to bring the Corinthian church to a place of unity, to a place of morality, and to a place of reconciliation. To a place of unity, a place of morality, a place of reconciliation although the reconciliation theme is much more prominent in second Corinthians. But we can still say that basically about the Corinthians. Let's look a little bit at the situation still before we break. If you take out your outlines again, let me briefly describe that so that we can see what is going on here in first Corinthians. If you turn to first Corinthians and maybe we can do that, now we will have occasion to look at that at various points tonight. You see that Paul has obviously left Corinth. He is on his third missionary journey from 52 to 57, and he has made Ephesus his main base. Second missionary journey, Syrian Antioch, now third missionary journey Ephesus is his main base. He stays there for quite a while, 52 to 55 AD. And during that time of staying in Ephesus, he writes probably around 54 AD, page 17 of your handout, first Corinthians. So what we can surmise here is that after Paul left Corinth in 52, he gets various reports. He has correspondence and interaction with the Corinthian church, and then about two years later, maybe three to a half, three years, he writes back to the Corinthian church. He sees the things that are challenging to them, and that is the purpose for his writing to bring them to a certain point. After the break, I will give you an outline of Corinthians and we'll go into some details, but this gives you basically a feeling for both first and second Corinthians, and the challenge Paul has. We cannot exhaust tonight, obviously, and maybe I can exhaust you, but we cannot exhaust the ramifications and the applications that come out of Paul's ministry to the Corinthians. As painful as it was, that's how fruitful it is for us, because there are so many themes and areas addressed.