So, hear the Word of God. Paul says, and I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as to men of flesh as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you are not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly, for since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, I am of Paul and another, I am of Apollo, are you not mere men? Let me pray. Holy Spirit, we pray now that you would simply come and you would open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf so that they might see your gospel, and we pray that you would apply your word to our hearts and your name, amen. Well, last week, some people were shocked that I could find a way to somehow connect the Blair Witch Project with Paradise Lost. This week, it was very interesting, because if you notice, if you go to the grocery store at all, that all of the magazines have the Blair Witch Project on their cover, and what's very interesting is they have those three students who supposedly died in the woods, are also on the cover, right, because they are alive. You see, the story is unfolded, that the Blair Witch Project, and if you don't know this yet, you have been living under a rock, so I hope I don't spoil it for you, that the Blair Witch Project was sort of marketed as a real documentary, but in fact, it's a fake. You see, this week, in a Newsweek magazine, the cover story in Newsweek was called the Blair Witch Cult, and it was a very interesting article because of this. First of all, it was interesting because they talked about how they made the Blair Witch Project. Unlike any film before, I mean, the actors, they would just give them a film canister while they're sleeping in the woods, and they'd open it in the morning, and all the, you know, Mike's one of the characters that would say, is you hate Heather today, she's too controlling. Right, that was it, and you would have to act it out. All of that was very interesting, but what was even more interesting, it was intriguing, but it also, in fact, laughable, was how they marketed the film. You see, the Blair Witch Project, in some sense, was a stroke of marketing genius, like there has never been before, and it was marketing genius for this. You see, the guy sat down, and there was nothing noble about it, there was no sort of noble authentic art. They sat down and said, how in the world can we market this? And I'm using their words, how can we market this movie to a bunch of cynical, whiny, gen exers, and gen wires who think they're above slick marketing? Right, they somehow think that they can't be duped. They look at spit and polish, and they think, that doesn't fool us. We're all for authenticity, and we're all for reality, and we're all for hip-ness, and so what did they do? They created a web page called the Blair Witch Project, and they began putting all this lower on the Blair Witch Project, never telling anyone it was fake, and everyone began to buy the lower, and then they began to have interviews. They had an interview with Heather's mom, remember Heather was the main character, Heather's mom was interviewed on the web page. They had fake newspaper articles, they had all of this stuff, and then they leaked to MTV that they had found this documentary, and how does MTV post it? As news, right? And so when the movie finally comes out, the movie finally comes out, everyone is rushing with religious fervor to get there. Why? Because this real authentic thing that is the voice of our generation finally film that we can understand and film that is in our language, and it is an our vernacular. But you know what the irony of the whole thing is, that the whiny, cynical, exers who could not be duped by slick marketing have created a phenomena in which the Blair Witch Project is now the most successful movie, financially, of all time. The very ones who said they couldn't be duped. The very ones who said we are for reality and hip-ness were duped into making this movie, the greatest movie, and the history of film. We realized that percentage-wise, the Blair Witch Project has made more than the Titanic. It's unbelievable. And you see, this is the kind of irony that Paul is going to get at today in this text. In this text today, Paul's addressing the Corinthians, and the Corinthians thought they were slick. The Corinthians thought they had it all together, and they thought in some sense they were above the average Joe. And if you remember as I've been preaching through this book, that the Corinthians not only thought they were above the average Joe, but they thought they were above Paul. You see, because they were very sophisticated Greeks, they were very into philosophy and rhetoric. And here comes this haste, Paul, from Jerusalem. And he has hung up, if you will, pardin the pun on this thing called the cross. He won't stop talking about it, and they say to Paul, Paul, we believe all of that stuff about Jesus, to give us the bigger and better things. We are spiritual men. We are ready for the good stuff. We are ready for the deep stuff. Give it to us. And what Paul does in this text today to the Corinthians is the same thing that that article in Newsweek should have done to you if you in fact were one of the smug people who have been pushing the gen X, having the Blair Witch Project as if it were real. He sort of puts you in your right place is what he does today. He sort of says, maybe you're not so smart after all. So all of that said, we're going to talk about two things today. The fact of their immaturity, the Corinthian immaturity and the evidence of their immaturity. Look at verse 1, here's, we look at the fact of their immaturity. Paul says, an eye brethren could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as to men as flesh as to infants in Christ. Now, there are a couple things here. I usually don't talk about Greek in my sermons a lot, but there's a few things you have to understand here before we get into the meat of this. And first of all, the Corinthians referred to themselves with this very smug sort of arrogant term. And the term was this. It was pneumaticoy. They would call themselves, they would say, we are pneumaticoy, right? And pneumaticoy, pneumosis, spirit, that we are spiritual men, okay? And they would say that Paul, or someone if you don't get it, if you're not as slick as them, you're not spiritual. And Paul says to them, I can't speak to you as pneumaticoy. Why? He says, I had to speak to you because you are sarcanois. Sarcans and Greek means fleshly. It means base in some ways. The difference between pneumaticoy and sarcanois would be the difference between George and Lenny and the mice of men. Right? Remember Lenny was the big buffoon. And Paul says, you guys think you're slick. You think you're in charge. You're in charge of that. You're Lenny. You don't know anything. He says, you're sarcanois and then he takes it a step further. He says, I can't speak to you as spiritual men because you are fleshly. But in many, just as this line, he says, as to instance and Christ. Now depending on how you read that, you have to have some sense of the Greek here. You could see that as very pastoral or very biting. Why? there are several words in the Greek language to refer to child or infant. The one that's most commonly used is Pidea. Children, that's what Jesus says, let the little children come to me. It's very pastoral. It's very, you know, it's very lovely. What Paul says here is he said, you are Nepeois. Nepeois means children, but it doesn't mean lovely little children. Nepeois means brats. It means brats. It's a derogatory term. It means babies. As in, you are acting like babies. And so Paul says, you want to be treated like spiritual men, but you're fleshly. In fact, you guys are a bunch of babies. Now you have to imagine he got their attention there because how do you feel when someone says that to you? You're in the midst of an argument, you think you're winning and they say, you know, you're just a baby. That's what Paul said to them. That's how he opens up. Now the question is how does he know their babies? How does he know their infants is opposed to mature? How does he know that they are fleshly as opposed to spiritual? And he's going to tell them here. He's going to say, here's how I know why you are babies. And here's the evidence of the fact that you are babies. So all of that said, if you look at verse two, he says this, he says, I know here's how I know you're a baby. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, but you are not able to receive it. Indeed, you are not yet able for you are still fleshly. You see, what does Paul say to them? He says, you're a bunch of babies. And here's how I know you're a bunch of babies because I tried to give you milk and you couldn't take it. He says, and even now you can't take milk. Not solid food. You see, they're screaming for solid food. Give us solid food, solid food, solid food, something meaty. And Paul says, you want something meaty, but in fact you can't even take the milk. Now the big question here is, what is milk? What is the milk that Paul has been giving them? And the answer is going to surprise you from guessing. Because the milk that Paul gives them, and he has given them, and the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians are what most Christians would say is very deep theology for mature people, that you study the things that Paul's teaching there when you are mature. And what is Paul teach them in the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians? He teaches them primarily about the cross. Remember, he says that Jesus came and he lived the life. He should have lived and he died the death. You should have died. And if you would, but trust him, he will forgive all of your sins. But he says more than that. He lays out all this ground and all this theology around the cross. What kind of theology does he lay around the cross? Remember, first he says that the natural man that you, in and of yourself, not only do not want to obey God, not only do not want to become a Christian, but you can't, in and of yourself, that you have no hope in and of yourself, that your sin keeps you from that. And that's what theologians would call total inability. You see? And remember last week's text, what did he say? That you are here. If you are a Christian, you have believed the gospel according to what he says, according to the predetermined plan of God before the ages. That in fact, if you have chosen Jesus, what that means is that he chose you first. Theologians called that unconditional election. You see, and he makes the case in these first two chapters that if you are in Jesus, that if you are the called, remember he uses that term, that Jesus has become for you, the wisdom and the power for God. But when Jesus went to the cross, he didn't just make it possible for you to be saved, he didn't just make it possible for you to have a relationship with God, but he in fact secured that. So theologians called death and its atonement. And remember last week what he said, he said, why do we get it? Why does anyone get it? He says because the Holy Spirit comes and he reveals it to you. That the reason you get it, if you get it, is because the Holy Spirit opens your eyes and it ables and persuades you to embrace Jesus. That's what theologians call irresistible grace. And what else does he say finally? He says that if you trust Jesus, that those who have trusted Jesus have been so embraced by God so that he will never, ever let them go. You know, if theologians call that, perseverance of the saints. And if you take all of those things together, this is the Presbyterian church, and I don't know if I've mentioned this before, all of those things together, the Paul has mentioned. And in first Corinthians, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to tell someone who's a new Christian, that's the five points of Calvinism. See, many of you truck along and say, I believe that, I believe that, I believe that. And yet, and although the whole time Paul is teaching you, I'm not saying he's teaching Calvinism, but what I'm saying is Calvinism is nothing more than an articulation of biblical doctrine. And the reason that this is important, the reason that these things, that these doctrines, that most people say, you study that when you're mature, it's important to realize that Paul calls these things milk. It's because of this, because your theology defines your life, your theology defines practicality. And what I mean is this, you know, we've had Bible studies here and at other churches I've been at, about doctrine, about what people consider deep doctrines, these things. And undoubtedly, people walk out of there saying, why do we have to study theology here? Why can't we just study things that are practical? And oftentimes they're doing it in the best interest of those who they think are immature. And they say, you know, we've got all these new Christians here. Let's not study deep doctrine. Let's give them something practical, something that they can latch on to. And what Paul says, is it doesn't work that way. What you need to give them first is new Christians need milk. And what milk is, is doctrine. And the reason that new milk, that milk is doctrine is because doctrine defines the way you live your life. But the theological defines the practical. And what I mean by that is what you understand and know about yourself. And what you understand and know about God defines the way you live your life. Do you realize that? Whether you're a Christian or not. Whether you're a Christian or not. What you think about yourself and what you think about God defines the way you live your life. And so what Paul says, you guys are a bunch of babies because you don't get it. I can tell there's the evidence that's the next point. I'm sort of getting ahead of myself. The evidence that you guys don't get the gospels that your life bears it out. And so if Paul came to them and he said, let me give you some practical instructions. That would not help them get the gospel. Best they could do was gut it out. Best they could do would be to gut out good relationships or have integrity at work or not lie or not steal or not committed adultery. And the best they could do is gut it out. And Paul says, I don't want you to gut it out. I want you to get it. And not unless you understand doctrine, not unless you understand all of these things. Who you are. Can you even seek to live the gospel? You know, Charles Spurgeon has probably the greatest preacher of all times. And in his autobiography, he has this great section in which he was trying to get converted. Okay. Charles Spurgeon was raised in the church. And at some point he thought, I have not really become a Christian in my life. I need someone to tell me how to get my sins forgiven. And so what he did is he began going from church to church to church to church. And you know what? Every the only thing he got in any church was practical sermons. And he said of one pastor who prided himself on how practical his sermons were and how practical his theology was. If he came out of there and he said, you know, I sat there. This is Spurgeon in 1859 saying, I sat there. And it was like a commanding officer trying to teach maneuvers of war to a bunch of soldiers who didn't have any feet. And what Spurgeon means by that is that unless you understand the gospel, you have no hope at all of living it. Okay. Unless you understand the gospel, unless you get it, unless you understand who you are, unless you understand what Jesus has done for you, you have no hope at all of living it. Okay. How does Paul know that? How does Paul know that the Corinthians don't get it? Well the answer is in verses three and four. He says, for you are still fleshly. He says, for since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly? Are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, I am of Paul and another I am of a polos, are you not mere men? How does Paul know that they don't get it? And the answer, he would say, is because there is jealousy and strife amongst you. Now again, this text is a little dicey. I am going to give you an alternate translation for this text. He says, I know you don't get it because you are fleshly. That is there is jealousy and strife among you. The word jealousy here actually in the Greek New Testament is the word ze lost with a ze. And most of the times in the New Testament it is translated as zeal, or zealotry, or zealousness. And for some reason the translators of the NAS put jealousy. Sometimes it is translated jealousy, but I think the context here makes a lot more sense to say zeal. You see Paul says, I know that you guys don't get it because there is zeal among you which causes strife. Now the question is, what are zealous for? The answer is easy. There is zealous for their own agenda. There is zealous for their own agenda. There is zealous to convince other people that they are right and they are wrong. I am a Paul. Paul is correct. You are of Apollo's. Apollo's bad. You know, I am reformed in my theology. I am right. I am Armenian in my theology. No, I am right. And people are fighting and striving in the church always for their own agenda. There is zealous for it. And Paul says, I know that you guys don't get it because you are so zealous for your own agenda. You are so zealous to convince people of your position. You are so zealous to be affirmed. You are so zealous for someone to tell you that you are right. And Paul says, you don't get it. Why? He says because the root of zeal is generally speaking, at least the negative zeal. The root of zeal is arrogance and pride. And the cross, Paul, has told us over and over and over again, removes arrogance and pride. Why? Because you look at the cross and you see yourself for who you are. Can you honestly look at the cross if you have embraced it and say, you know, Jesus went through the cross because I was such a good person. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't even make sense. Roman 5-8 says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for you. You realized that. You realized that Jesus died for you when you were a sinner. You realized that if you were a moralist, that you were not good enough, you realized that if you are a hedonist, that you are not as free as you thought you were. And you look at the cross and you are fighting and fighting and fighting for your rights. And when you look at the cross, you see on the cross, God in the person of Jesus, giving up every single one of his rights. You realize this. He had the right to judge. He had the right to condemn. He had the right to cast us all away from himself. But instead of exercising his rights, he gave them up. And he gave them up not only to just save you, but he gave them up to serve you. You see the antidote to strife and the church is simply this. It is service. You see, when you begin to understand the gospel, instead of looking at people in church around you or looking at the poor or looking at unwed mothers or looking at sexual deviance, instead of looking at them and saying, wow, those are really bad people. And by implication, I am somehow better than them. Instead of looking at them and feeling superior, you look at them with empathy. Instead of saying, how can I avoid this person? How can I avoid being attached to this person? Because if they saw me with this person, people might think I was like them. Instead of saying that, you say, how can I serve this person? You see, the measure of whether or not you get the gospel is not just sort of a neutral position of, okay, there's no strife here. We're all copacetic. But it's whether or not there is service, whether or not there is a working together, whether or not there is giving up of rights. You know, Mark 10, there's a great passage which I use all the time with my children. You don't have to turn there. But in Mark 10, if you remember, very ironic. Jesus has just given his disciples this big spiel about how I'm going to suffer and to die and what it means to be the Messiah is suffering and death and crucifixion. And James and John, after the speech, they're walking with Jesus and they come up to him and they sort of whisper in his ear, hey, Jesus, when you come into your kingdom, right? They haven't heard anything about the suffering. When you come into your kingdom, when you take over and you take charge, grant that one of us sits on your left and one of us sits on your right. Let us be like your right hand man. We want to be the ones who are sitting there on the throne so everyone can see us. And you know, it's in some ways it's very funny because Jesus says, you sure you want to sit where I sit? And they're like, will sit where you sit? And he says, that's beautiful because you're going to be baptized with the same baptism that I'm baptized. They both live pretty horrible lives. But the next part of the text says of the other disciples, let me read it to you in verse 41. It says, hearing this, hearing that James and John had said, let us be first. It says, but hearing this, the 10 began to feel indignant with James and John. Calling them to himself, Jesus said to them, you know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles, Lord it over them. And they're great men, exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you shall become your servant. And whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. You see this passage freaks my kids out. Because if you have children at all and they're close to an age at all, what are they constantly trying to do? They're constantly trying to outdo each other. Or they're constantly striving to be first. Right? They run down for breakfast in the morning and if I'm serving pancakes, they're both screaming, me first, me first, me first. And you know what I've started to do? It's whenever someone says, I want to go first. I say, that's beautiful. I'll give you your pancakes last. And I serve all the other kids first and then I give them their pancakes last. And of course they say, what's up with that? What are you doing? And I say, oh, remember the story of James and John that Jesus says, the first will be last and the last will be first. When you came in and told me that you wanted to be first, I assume that you wanted to be last. And so now every time they come down, they don't know whether to ask for something or not. In fact, Flannery has taken it to her logical extreme because Flannery comes down and instead of calling good, she comes down and calls last. I'm last. And you know the beautiful thing about her coming down and immediately asserting that I will be last. There's never any fighting. You realize that we laugh at that. But when Flannery comes down and says, I want to be last. Serve my sisters first. I give up my rights. There's never any fighting. There's literally no fighting. It's a joyous place to be. And you know you wonder, is she just sort of working the system? And I don't think she is. Yesterday, I took all the kids to the park. When we came home and Flannery is just sort of philosophical in her thinking and she talks out loud and she says, hey, dad, you know what? What? She said, I bet if Jesus went to the park with us today and there was that big line in this life, he would have gone right to the end of the line. And she kept going. She said, I bet if other kids came up and wanted to go, he would just let them go. He would be last. And I started crying then because what did I say? It's winter. I think you get it. You get it. You see what the problem the Corinthians had is they were striving to be affirmed. They were striving to be first. They were striving to be recognized for all of their wisdom and all their authority. And to be seen as successes. And in the midst of that, they said, we are followers of Jesus. But you know what the gospel says? If you are really a follower of Jesus. If you know where you will always find it, you find it at the end of the line. You get the end of the line. So if you are looking for it, if you are really seeking Jesus, you are really seeking it to understand the gospel. You seek to be last because when you seek to be last, when you seek to give up your rights and you serve other people and you find yourself the very back of the line, you have given up everything, you are in good company. Because that is where Jesus is. Think about that. Let me pray. Jesus, I pray simply that you would come, give us your spirit, apply it to our hearts. Grace Seattle might be a church that is not known for its zeal, for agendas, for its zeal, for self affirmation. But it would be known for its zeal to serve. It is zeal to give up rights. It is zeal to take the last position. We thank you and praise you for all of these things. In your name. Amen.