If you google the phrase “the church’s message,” you soon discover that not everyone is in agreement. One website says that the church’s core message is about love. Another says it is about reconciliation. Someone else thinks that it is about changing the world. In one sense the church’s message is about all these things. But today’s passage makes it clear that there is a concern that rises above all the others. The church’s core message is about Jesus Christ. It is a message about His death and resurrection. It is the message of the gospel. Paul’s summary of the gospel may seem theologically unsophisticated to some. It focuses on a specific set of facts. Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was raised again on the third day. He appeared to many of His disciples, including Paul himself (vv. 3–8). This summary is consistent with several others recorded in the book of Acts. Paul’s emphasis on the death and resurrection of Christ needed to be emphasized, given the doctrinal situation in Corinth. Some in the church had begun to question whether bodily resurrection was even possible (see vv. 12–19). Paul’s response was simple. If there is no resurrection of the body, there is no gospel. If there is no gospel, there is no salvation. Notice that Paul does not begin with the doctrinal problem. He begins with the gospel. He states what is true before addressing what is false. We need to remember this starting point today. In a world with so many religions and belief systems, it is impossible for us to understand every false doctrine in order to refute it. It is better to focus on the truth as it is revealed in God’s Word. If our faith is built on the solid foundation of God’s Word, we will be able to test every other doctrine or philosophy.

Many churches worry about their safety today. They form committees and develop action plans. Some install alarm systems and cameras in an effort to protect themselves. But the greatest dangers facing the church do not come from bullets or fires but from words. Paul’s primary concern for the church of Ephesus had to do with its doctrine. This is especially noteworthy since Paul knew that he would soon face physical danger (vv. 22–24). False teachers would come in from the outside while others would arise from their own number (vv. 29–30). This dual threat of false teaching prompted the Apostle to urge the church’s leaders: “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood” (v. 28). Paul had modeled the kind of shepherding he had in mind through his own teaching and ministry. “You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you. . . . I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus” (vv. 20–21). Paul’s pastoral strategy was both gospel-centered and personally involved. Paul’s deep concern about the danger of false doctrine can feel absent from the church today, which is often mostly interested in numerical growth. Some may argue that Paul’s determination to declare the gospel to both Jews and Greeks is proof that he was interested in numerical growth as well. But a desire for increased attendance does not automatically mean that we are interested in the gospel. We may be tempted to reduce our message to the lowest common denominator in order to attract a following.

A few years ago a brawl broke out at a Baptist church in Memphis, Tenn. The details are not fully clear, but apparently it started when someone was struck with an umbrella! The phrase “decently and in order” has often been used to describe the worship style of Presbyterians, usually with a measure of good-natured derision. But the phrase originally appeared in Paul’s directives to the Corinthian church about their worship practices (v. 40). The phrase is a corrective aimed at the way the Corinthians behaved when they came together as church. The church in Corinth had a highly participatory service, in which many people were expressing their gifts in the public context of corporate worship (v. 26). But this in itself was not wrong. Rather, Paul identifies two other issues. First, there was difficulty in the way the Corinthians exercised their spiritual gifts, especially those that involved speaking. They did so with impatience. This is essentially the same criticism he gives of their observance of the Lord’s Supper. Each goes ahead without waiting for the others (see 1 Cor. 11:21). Everyone wanted to be the first to exercise their gifts. Nobody was willing to give way to others. The second problem with Corinthian practice was not just the method but also the motive: “Everything must be done so that the church may be built up” (v. 26). In their worship and ministry as in their observance of the Lord’s Supper, the church was not putting others first. Each one was looking out for his own interests. Whether the goal was to fill their own bellies or seek their own glory, they were not interested in building up the church.

Many people know that Johann Sebastian Bach was a great composer. He was also a devout Christian. At the end of each of his compositions Bach affixed the letters SDG. These did not stand for his name but for the Latin phrase Soli Deo Gloria, which means “For the glory of God Alone.” Bach was right about the sacred value of music. Today’s reading shows that music played an important role in the early church’s worship and devotional life. Music was one of the ways the church communicated the message of Christ (v. 16); God’s people used it to teach and to reinforce what was taught. Music served the same function as preaching. The church employed music to teach and admonish. It is unclear what differentiated psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs from one another. New Testament scholar F. F. Bruce speculated that psalms may have been drawn from the Old Testament Psalter, hymns might have been Christian canticles, and spiritual songs may be extemporaneous songs that were sung “in the Spirit.” We can at least say that the early church saw value in worshiping with different musical forms or styles. It seems likely that this diversity of styles was for the benefit of the worshipers. There is no biblical evidence to suggest that God prefers a particular musical style. His desire is that these things be done “in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (v. 17). Since the goal of sacred music is to teach and admonish, it is reasonable for us to expect to “get something” out of worship. But it seems unlikely that the church will be able to employ a style that pleases everyone. Patience and sensitivity are needed as the church sings to God and to one another.

In a recent essay for Christianity Today Fleming Rutledge decries the fuzzy spirituality of our age where our religious ideas are “born out of illusion, wishful thinking, and a failure to look radical evil straight in the face” and “human potential itself . . . has become an object of worship.” The remedy? “We need substantive, biblical preaching that drives home our need for justification through Christ.” In an age where the church seems to be obsessed with musical style, we need to be reminded that words are at the heart of worship. Specifically, God’s words are at the center of the church’s worship service. In tomorrow’s study we will see this is true even of the church’s musical worship. As the return of Christ draws near, the church’s preaching grows ever more important. One of the characteristics of the end of the age is an unwillingness to listen to sound teaching from the Scriptures. People will be eager to listen—but to the wrong things. They will “abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (v. 1). As a result, the church will be tempted to set aside the Bible and focus on “godless myths and old wives’ tales” (v. 7). The age that Paul describes in these verses sounds much like the age in which we now live. The antidote he prescribes is the ministry of the Word of God. It begins by making sure that we ourselves are “nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed” (v. 7). This is coupled with a determination to keep away from false teaching and instead train ourselves for godliness (v. 8).

Everybody agrees that worship is a central aspect of the church’s mission, but we do not always agree about what we mean by worship. The so-called worship wars of recent decades are really a conflict about musical style and personal taste. Although today’s conflicts over worship largely revolve around music, it is important to note that the biblical concept is far more expansive. In view of our text today, we probably shouldn’t think of worship as an event but as a lifestyle. The church’s worship service is really just an extension of our larger offering of the whole self to God. Paul provides three descriptions of this sacrifice. He calls it a living, holy, and pleasing sacrifice (v. 1). When we offer our lives to God, we do so with the understanding that we ourselves have been given new life through Christ. This is a lifestyle shaped by the reality described in Romans 6:4: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Since we have been united with Christ in His resurrection, we are able to live the kind of life that the Bible describes as holy. We recognize that we are now consecrated to God. We let His standards shape our choices and actions. This does not mean that we live a sinless life. Our experience of redemption is progressive. A consecrated life is also a life of struggling against sin. Jesus has paid for that sin on our behalf. As a result, the life we offer God, even with its imperfections, is one that He can accept. It is pleasing to Him.

When Jane has guests for dinner, she often sets the table with her “good” china. She treasures the set because she received it as a wedding gift—but the dishes themselves are rather ordinary, having been purchased at a grocery store in 1979. What makes them special is what they represent, not what they are made of. The same could be said of the Lord’s Supper. This meal instituted by Christ is both common and special. It is composed of the common elements of bread and wine, but it is special for what it represents. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper during His last Passover celebration with the disciples. During the meal He changed the traditional liturgy by focusing on the bread and the cup and commanding the church to do the same (see Luke 22:15–20). In 1 Corinthians 11:17–34, the apostle Paul discusses the significance of this supper for the church. It is an act of remembrance which focuses on the Lord’s sacrificial death (vv. 24–25). The Lord’s Supper is also an enacted proclamation of the gospel. When we share this meal together we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (v. 26). Paul also describes a communal dimension to the supper. By ignoring their interdependence and eating the meal in a selfish manner, the Corinthian church defiled the sacred meal to such a degree that it was no longer the Lord’s Supper (v. 20). Some became drunk and others went away hungry. They didn’t grasp that a lavish banquet of exotic food was not what made this meal a special event. They missed the point that the focus of the Lord’s Supper is supposed to be Jesus, not the eating and drinking itself. This practice of the church should gather believers to participate together in communion, remembrance, and obedience.

In The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion describes the sudden upheaval that took place when her husband died unexpectedly. “Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.” For the Christian, life also changes in an instant. But in this case, it is because of the death of Christ, which is followed by His resurrection. Baptism signifies our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. It is no accident that Peter’s discussion of the significance of baptism follows his encouragement to those who suffer unjustly to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (v. 15). Baptism is the believers’ first testimony to their faith. Peter’s comparison of baptism to the waters of Noah have troubled some readers, especially his assertion that this water symbolizes baptism “that now saves you also” (v. 21). But the second half of the verse makes it clear that it is not the water itself that saves but “the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” It is Christ’s death and resurrection that has the power to cleanse our conscience, not the church’s religious rites. Like those who were saved from the waters of judgment in the ark, Christ rescues us from the punishment we deserve for our sins. Baptism also celebrates the change in our lives as a result of what Christ has done and our Spirit-empowered ability to live a new life (see Rom. 6:1–14). This does not mean that we no longer have the capacity to sin or that all our rough edges are suddenly smoothed over. But it does mean that we are granted a new capacity to obey that we did not have previously.

According to entrepreneur Steve Jobs, “Great things in business are never done by one person; they are done by a team of people.” But Sir Barnett Cocks, who served as a clerk in the British House of Commons, is said to have observed, “A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.” A committee is not always a team! Some people find organizational structure boring and irrelevant. If the church is a community of the Spirit and the body of Christ, why should it have to bother with organization at all? We should just let God run things. But today’s reading reveals that God has ordained an organizational structure in the church. The text outlines the qualifications listed for the church’s two offices. The term overseer is found elsewhere in the New Testament in connection with two other New Testament words. In Acts 20 Paul sent for the elders of the church in Ephesus to remind them of their duties: “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). In other words, overseers are elders and shepherds (that is, pastors) in the church. The other office is that of deacon. This term meant “servant,” and some see a link to the seven men chosen to assist the Apostles in Acts 6. The responsibilities of deacons are not spelled out in detail, but it seems likely that their role was to assist the overseers. Like the seven who were selected to ensure that the widows were served, they share the load so that the church’s overseers can focus on the ministry of the Word and prayer.

Have you ever wondered what your pastor does all week? The only exposure many church attenders have to the pastor’s ministry is during the sermon. They think that all a pastor does is stand up and talk about the Bible for twenty or thirty minutes. How hard can it be? In Ephesians 4:1–16, the apostle Paul offers a job description not only for the church’s pastors but also for its apostles, prophets, and evangelists. They were given to the church by Christ to “equip God’s people for works of service” (Eph. 4:12). Many church leaders see this as a command to train the congregation to staff the church’s programs. Some are frustrated by the difficulty they encounter in this task. But while it certainly can be a good idea to equip members to staff church programs, it is probably not what Paul had in view. The New Testament church did not have the kind of programs we see in churches today. Focusing on staffing church programs seems too limited. Most members spend far more time outside the church than inside, even when they are heavily involved in its programs. Evangelical author John Stott noted that all the gifts mentioned in Paul’s list relate in some way to the ministry of teaching. Paul’s concern was not to staff programs but to help people understand the truth of God’s Word and become mature. What then is the ministry for which they are being prepared? It is to bear witness to the truth in whatever context they may find themselves. It is to be Christians in whatever situation they happen to be. The gifted individuals Paul lists equip the church when it is assembled so that it can live like the church when it is dispersed.