Sermons / Sermon Discussion | 1st Corinthians: Part 16 - 1 Corinthians 10

Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Main Idea: a maturing church flees from any participation in idolatry and chooses to worship Christ alone Application; Do you see the temptation to mix the worship of Christ and idols in any area of your life? Will you turn from idols and turn to Christ? Questions: You started off your sermon by saying what would disqualify someone. What would they be disqualified from exactly? And if they were a believer, but chose to follow after idols instead of following God's way for a time, would they be disqualified if they didn't repent and turn back to God. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul uses Israel’s fall in the wilderness as a warning to the church and says, “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” If a true believer cannot finally fall away, as was asserted in the message this morning, what exactly is Paul warning believers could happen to them? Does the passage itself indicate that Paul is speaking only about outward members of the visible church, or should we understand the warning as describing a real danger that true Christians must avoid through continued vigilant faith? What in the passage itself indicates that Paul is distinguishing between the visible and invisible church? Since idols can be so subtle, and many Christians probably have idols they don’t even realize they have like food, hobbies, work, or even a particular image or picture of Jesus. Does that mean those people were never truly saved? How should Christians examine themselves and fight idolatry without living in constant fear that a hidden idol means they were never genuinely saved? Today, Jason gave some examples of situations Christians might find themselves in where we're being asked to participate in idolatrous practices, or whether others' perceptions of our participation would be seen as such. But because all of us lead different lives, with unique interactions and encounter lots of situations, what instructions can you give the church to be able to recognize and evaluate those situations as they arise? How can we prepare to be aware? Paul talks about how the Israelites were all baptized into Moses. I’ve heard this verse used in support of Paedobaptism. As a church that practices Credobaptism, how do we properly understand what this Mosaic Baptism is? Could you expound on what Paul means by the “end of the ages” in verse 11? Have there been other “ages? Is this a topic that falls into Dispensationalism VS Covenant Theology? If so, which camp are you in? Would you consider yourself a dispensationalist or a follower or covenant theology? What Scripture would you use to confirm this? In the sermon from 1 Cor 10:1-22, the idea of worshiping in gatherings with Christians, Hindus, Muslims, etc would be idol worship. Would having an Ecumenical worship with Catholic, Mormon, and Protestant believers be the same type of issue? What about worshiping with Protestant churches that ordain homosexual pastors? What do we do when participating in cultural practices comes into conflict with perceived idol worship? For example, in Japan, there is a saying that “Japanese are born Shinto, they marry Christian, and they die Buddhist”. Underlying this is the fact that most Japanese are atheists, and their culture has cherry picked and adopted cultural practices from the various religions that have passed through their country over the centuries. So, for example, visiting and “praying” at a Shinto shrine has become an accepted cultural practice for New Year’s regardless of faith. Is participating in something like this acceptable, where in the local culture it is viewed as the areligious norm but to those from a Western background it may be seen as idolatry? How do you reconcile this? With the growing number of grocery stores now selling Halal meat, should we as Christians avoid consuming meat that is slaughtered while the name of Allah is invoked? Thank you for listening and sending in your questions. As a reminder you can send your questions to SermonQuestions@ubcbeavercreek.com.