What keeps a church going? This week I hit a wall. I just felt overwhelmed. And I had points where I couldn’t see how to keep going.
You all know that feeling, for all sorts of different reasons: Whether it’s the kids are up so early, crying all day, and then acting out in the evening because they’re so tired. How do you keep going? —it’s so exhausting. Or working multiple jobs just to make ends meet, or you can’t find enough work and you feel wasted, or you’re struggling with the job you do have. Or whether it’s because we live so far apart, so just getting together on a Sunday is a huge effort. Or worries about institutional connections, or things that have been said, or things hanging over us, or mistakes we’ve made or keep making, or addictions we keep being sucked back into.
We’re not always particularly loving people. We become impatient with one another. We misunderstand one another. We withdraw. We get frustrated. We want someone else to carry the load. We disappoint one another. And sometimes we wonder whether it’s all worth it:
What keeps a church going?
The congregation in Corinth had plenty of problems. Far more than these, actually. And Paul is about to spend most of this letter addressing just how terribly these Christians are behaving! And yet, before he does that, he starts with a word of pure assurance. And he says three things:
1) God has given you Christ in the Gospel you confess, it doesn’t depend on your intellect (vv. 4-6)
2) Christ will sustain you and make you guiltless, it doesn’t depend on your endurance (vv. 7-8)
3) God is faithful to keep you with Christ, it doesn’t depend on your faithfulness (v. 9)
So hear that first assurance: 1) God has given you Christ in the Gospel you confess, it doesn’t depend on your intellect
Please look at v. 4:
4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,
Many people I start the catechism with, see the Bible as an intellectual challenge that they have to apply their mind to, to work out. I think all of us here have struggled with this temptation.
But look at Paul’s language in this verse: —he thanks God, not the Corinthians —because of God’s grace, not their effort —which was given to them in Christ, not worked out And what is this grace given to them? vv. 5-6:
5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—
The grace given to the Corinthians is true speech and knowledge about Christ. Through Paul, God gave them a true profession of Christ; he gave them right doctrine.
Right doctrine and knowledge about God is not some impossible and unachievable goal. Right doctrine and understanding of his Word is not some trophy rewarded for years of studying in a seminary. Right doctrine is not some dry, pointless thing that puffs up.
Paul says it is God’s grace that he has given to them, and that it enriches them.
Our church is so bizarre. We are such a weird collection of people. And yet we are all united by this same knowledge of God. Not because we’re more clever than anyone else and worked it out. Not because we’re more holy than anyone else and earned it through our obedience. No, purely because you received it as a gift. Paul will say later, in chapter 2 vv. 12-13:
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
If you’re here just looking into this faith, or the clarity of a Lutheran church, or if you’re watching this online, and you’re still exploring all this stuff: —God isn’t asking you to work out some difficult puzzle. —He wants to give you understanding of Christ, and the key to that understanding is merely this: we understand the things freely given us by God.
God has given you Christ in the Gospel you confess, it doesn’t depend on your intellect
So when you’re exhausted and can’t think for yourself… …Christ isn’t any less yours. When people pummel you with confusing questions, and you don’t have the training to answer, you’ve got nothing to worry about! You never came to the truth by your own wisdom, it was a gift from God. Someone said to me on Friday: Theology isn’t really my thing. And that’s fine! God gives you right understanding, freely. Understanding is God’s gift to give. And it’s God’s gift to sustain. And it’s just received freely, as we trust what he says.
And the second assurance Paul gives to tired people is this: 2) Christ will sustain you and make you guiltless, it doesn’t depend on your endurance
Please look at vv. 7-8:
7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So if you have this gospel, you aren’t missing anything else you need to sustain you until the last day, and be declared righteous on that day.
All we need to sustain us until that last day is Christ, and the knowledge God has given us of him. You don’t need more people at church. You don’t need a better structure at home. You don’t need more success. You don’t need more money. You don’t need a better reputation.
All these things are blessings, and they are good to have and enjoy. But you don’t need any of them, for Christ to keep you until the Last Day. Because you don’t need to sustain yourself: Jesus is the one who sustains you. And he will sustain you all the way to the last day. And on that day he will declare you guiltless, he will point at you in front of everyone, and declare “This one is mine, this one is righteous.” Christ will sustain you and make you guiltless, it doesn’t depend on your endurance So, when you’re looking at the week ahead, and you genuinely don’t know whether you have the strength to face it: You don’t have to find that strength in yourself.
It’s ok to feel overwhelmed.
It is not up to you to find enough endurance in yourself to get all the way to the Last Day.
Christ promises to sustain you. And he will sustain you through those times when you feel completely unable to sustain yourself.
Every time he gives you his Gospel, every time he feeds you with his body and blood, every time the Spirit brings that Gospel to mind, every time we remind each other that God’s positive toward us in Jesus: Christ is sustaining you.
Even when you feel like you’re falling apart, that promise hasn’t fallen apart.
He isn’t asking you to sustain him. He has promised to sustain you.
And Paul’s final assurance is this: 3) God is faithful to keep you with Christ, it doesn’t depend on your faithfulness
Please look at v. 9:
9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Do you see the word that’s missing here? It’s a word that we automatically insert all over the Bible, like a bad habit—we almost can’t help it: We love inserting the word “IF”. But I don’t see an “if” here! Paul doesn’t say “God will be faithful, if you remain faithful.” He doesn’t say “God will be faithful, if you keep trying your best.” He doesn’t say “God will be faithful, if you are truly sincere.” He doesn’t say “God will be faithful, if you overcome that sin.” He doesn’t say “God will be faithful, if you believe it hard enough.”
No, he says:
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord
You were called into that fellowship. You didn’t put yourself into it. And when you fail, as we all do, God still has forgiveness for you. You don’t have to make yourself worthy of it. Turn away from yourself, and look again at Christ. Because, God is faithful to keep you with Christ, it doesn’t depend on your faithfulness What keeps a church going? You don’t. I don’t.
So don’t look at yourself. And don’t look at me.
Don’t look at your life, your situation, your education, your past: and think our church depends on you or that the preservation of your faith depends on you.
God has given you Christ in the Gospel you confess, it doesn’t depend on your intellect You don’t need to work it all out, or be clever enough. Just look at Christ, and see the things freely given us by God.
Christ will sustain you and make you guiltless, it doesn’t depend on your endurance You don’t need to be superman. When you don’t have enough strength for tomorrow, Christ has the strength to bring you to the Last Day.
God is faithful to keep you with Christ, it doesn’t depend on your faithfulness
You don’t have to prove yourself worth keeping. The God who called you into fellowship with his Son is still giving you Christ and his forgiveness today.