The Message of the Cross

In this week's lesson, we're going to get into First Corinthians in some direct ways.

But before we do, I want just to hark back to what we talked about last week a little bit.

We were doing some foundational work, and there were a couple of things I wanted to share that we didn't have time for.

So I'd ask Terry if she would read the opening verse of both First and Second Corinthians.

So First Corinthians 1:1, and then Second Corinthians 1:1.

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, including all the saints through Achaia.

All right, so these are similar texts, but there's some interesting differences.

First of all, in First Corinthians, he says he was called by the will of God.

So his point there is he's not doing what he's doing because he thought that was a good idea or other people thought it was a good idea.

It was a call from God Himself that each person has a calling, a life mission that is inherent even in their birth.

But then he goes on to a second kind of calling.

He said he's called to be an apostle.

And I'm curious, when do you think Paul was called to be an apostle? Well, he mentions something to that effect in First Corinthians 15:9-11.

And I think he unpacks that for us just a little bit.

For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace towards me has not been in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me.

Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim, and so you have come to believe.

You could say we all have a certain calling from God, and that that is inherent in who we are, who God designed us to be.

But this call here has a timestamp on it.

He wasn't called when Peter was called.

He wasn't called when John was called.

He wasn't called when Thomas was called.

Paul was called after the others.