Transit Church Sermons

We're all in different places in our waiting. For some, everything in life is going right and you want to celebrate. Others may be grieving loss, lamenting disappointment or failure, or just feel beat up by their own sin. Marys' songs encourages us to wait well; to wait faithfully.

In the very name Immanuel, we find both the identity and purpose of the One who was to come in Isaiah 7:10-14. This Immanuel was God with us, and came so that, both now and forevermore, God would be with us.

Waiting. We don’t want to wait, we don’t like to wait, and if you’re under 30 you don’t even think you should have to wait. We think waiting is a waste of time. But for Christians, time waiting is not time wasted. That’s the lesson of Advent.

The young Corinthian Church was plagued with immaturity and immorality. And yet, instead of wishing upon the Corinthians judgment, the Apostle Paul closes his letter to them with a final wish for the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus to be with them.

As Paul nears the end of his letter, he echoes one of the overarching themes that’s been weaved throughout, which is how this Corinthian church should be living out the Christian faith in the real world. He teaches us about money, talks to us about mission, and then he exhorts us on what it looks like to be true servants of God.

We all want some taste of victory. As Paul continues to defend the resurrection, he says God gets the victory through Jesus. In Jesus, He gives us the win.

Paul addresses the topic of resurrection because some of the Corinthians were believing that there is no bodily resurrection. His central point: if Jesus wasn’t raised, then our faith is futile and we are still under the curse of sin.

So far in his letter to the Christians at Corinth, the Apostle Paul has addressed a myriad of issues and topics. However, nearing the end of his letter, Paul reminds them of what is to be front and center of everything they think and do, and that is the gospel.

Paul's response to the Corinthians abuse of the spiritual gifts is not to demand disuse, but to prescribe proper use. All things in the corporate gathering of God's people are to be done for the sake of building others up in love, and love requires both intelligibility and order.

Speaking in tongues is a divisive issue. The Corinthians were using this gift in their corporate worship, out loud, and without interpretation. Paul’s emphasizes that it would be great for all to speak in tongues, but he says it would be even better to prophesy, because when you prophesy you build people up, you encourage, and you console.

Paul tells the Corinthians that he's not impressed by what gifts they have or what they do with them. What’s most important is the way of love.

Instead of stewarding the gifts God had given them to unify and edify the church, the Corinthians had begun to use the gifts to divide. Paul addresses this spiritual pride by reminding them of their corporate identity, their need for diversity, and God's sovereignty over their gifts.

Paul addresses the Corinthian’s spiritual pride, confronting the idea that to have certain gift or spiritual experience make anyone more spiritual than other people.

Paul raises the issues that corporate worship was meant to be a display of the gospel, yet for the Corinthian church, the way they celebrated the family meal (communion) was doing everything to undermine it.

Paul commends the Corinthians on their adherence to church traditions, yet corrects them on their attire in the worship gathering, particularly head coverings. For us in the 21st century this translates to the issue of headship and authority.

The Corinthians were repeating this phrase, "all things are lawful for me…" Paul in response says, yes! You are free to eat and drink and do what you want, but not all freedoms are helpful, nor do they all build up.

Paul is showing us how the people of God throughout history share a bad habit. After God rescues them and sets them free, they return again to their slavery by serving other gods. Israel did it; the church at Corinth was doing it; and we do it too.

The gospel reframes every aspect of our lives, both our posture towards others and to ourselves. Paul exemplified this, as he considered his life of no value except that he finish the race and complete the task that the Lord had set before him.

The gospel both sets us free in unthinkable ways, and yet also binds us in love to our Savior and to others. For Paul, knowing this Jesus and making Him known was of ultimate importance and value, so much so that he was willing to lay aside all of his rights as an Apostle for the sake of others coming to know and follow Jesus.

The early church at Corinth was faced with the dilemma of how to faithfully love and serve Christ in a city where almost all aspects of the culture, down to the food you would buy in the market, were overtly pagan. Paul's exhorts the stronger believers at Corinth to be less concerned about how far they can go with their freedom in Christ, and more concerned about limiting that freedom to build up...

Paul addresses singleness, but his overarching theme is undivided devotion to God. Married or single, the question he asks the church is are you able to have an undivided devotion to God? And if not, what might be keeping you from pursuing full devotion to God’s purposes for your life?

Paul tells us that both marriage and singleness are good. Yet none of us is meant to gain fulfillment explicitly from any relationship over Christ. All that we need is found in relationship with Jesus and the community of the church.

The misnomer is that our sexuality is about us. It's not; our sexuality about Him. It's about God's glory and telling Jesus' story by the way we live. Our bodies are His, and we exist for Him.

The church at Corinth was plagued with division, so much so that certain members were taking each other to court over trivial matters. Paul's exhortation to them is not simply to stop this foolish behavior, but that their behavior is not who they are or what they now have in Christ Jesus.

The word discipline oftentimes means something negative. What the text commends to us is that discipline is good for the church. It's redemptive. It's not about pushing people out; it's more about pushing people towards Jesus so they'll reengage with the church community.