Provoking God?

Series on I Corinthians

V Meat Sacrificed to Idols

E The Incompatibility of Christ and Idols, Text:10:14-22

Title: Provoking God?

Introduction

The apostle Paul faces here a dispute in the Corinthian church over the eating of meat which has been used in idolatrous worship. To the strong believers who understood that the meat in itself was not polluted, Paul has said be humble, and defer to your brethren in love. But to the weak he says flee from idolatry. If you question for one moment whether this is right or not, avoid it like the plague. If to you the meat is only meat and nothing but meat then eat it as long as you do not offend your brother, but if there is the tiniest spark of doubt, avoid it like the plague. We need to see that this advice is for all the Christians at Corinth. Even among the so-called strong there may have been those who harbored secret doubts, and this advice is for all of us, everyone. Although we do not face this issue, we do face many issues in life where we act with doubt, and the Bible says, Whatsoever is not of faith is sin in Romans 14:23. I suggest to you today that there is no issue that goes more directly to the heart of our Christian lives and our growth in grace than this issue. How often do we have mixed feelings about the rightness of a course of action and take it anyway? Paul reminds us of three facts here which we need to heed. Acting in doubt is a perversion of our faith, a playing with fire, and a provoking of our father.

I Perverting Our Faith

In verses 14-18 the Apostle uses communion as a symbol of our faith, Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? What is the Lord’s supper except communion with Christ in the most intimate way conceivable: Eat my flesh, drink my blood. We do this as one body which is Christ’s body for which he gave himself. It is the one and only body, experiencing by grace through faith, union with Christ. This union is only possible because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus which we celebrate in the Lord’s supper. Listen to the words of the author of Hebrews 10:5-10 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, O God.’” First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. If you read on in Hebrews 10 you will discover that according to this scripture everything, absolutely everything, in the Christian life depends upon this union with Christ in his death and resurrection. The author goes on to say: let us therefore draw near, let us hold to our hope, let us spur one another to love, and let us not give up meeting together. Salvation, assurance, service, worship are all tied to the sacrifice of the body of Jesus. Now putting it very simply, idolatry occurs anytime we become so absorbed, so attached, so dedicated to any earthly thing that it takes the place of this relationship to Christ. This includes people whether Hollywood stars, athletes or even pastors. Reasons for attending church fall into two categories, good and bad. In the bad column: attending is socially acceptable, God is angry if i don’t, going merits His favor, and i feel better. In the good column are these reasons: God’s word commands it, I need Christian fellowship and others need my encouragement, I can hear the Word, I can meet God. The story is told of the telephone ringing in the rector’s office of the Washington church attended by the President. An eager voice said, “Tell me, do you expect the President to be there Sunday?” “That i cannot promise,” the rector said patiently, “But we do expect God, and we fancy it will be incentive enough for a reasonably large attendance.” Before we go on I want you to think seriously about this. Notice that the Apostle addresses them as wise. They thought they were wise, but maybe not! He calls them beloved. It strikes me as singularly important that Paul here, when he tells them to flee idolatry, calls them beloved. The apostle John in I John 5:21 says, Dear children keep yourselves from idols. What else is the purpose of this form of address than a way to help us see how susceptible we are to idolatry, and how no Christian should take offense or be insulted when he is warned about idolatry for it is so common for us to do this very thing.

II Playing with Fire

And so Paul proceeds to explain the danger in verses 19-21, Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. It is true that the sacrifice offered to an idol is nothing. in other words the meat which is at issue here is nothing more than meat in itself. In the same way idols are nothing, whether they are made of gold and silver or of wood or stone or clay, they are no gods and therefore the object of worship is nothing but wood or stone. A two inch long discolored eyetooth is reverenced by 400 million Buddhists as the most sacred object on earth. The tooth is alleged to have been reclaimed from Buddha’s funeral pyre in 543 BC, and was brought to Ceylon 800 years later. Today the tooth sits upon a golden lotus in the glorious temple of the tooth in Kandy, Ceylon. It is surrounded by rubies and tons of flowers. Each year a hundred thousand faithful Buddhists come from many countries to gaze at the sacred tooth. They bring gifts of gold, silver and jewels to place within the temple. The Samaritan woman who met Jesus, in John 4, says to Jesus, Sir i perceive you are a prophet, and without so much as a breath, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, yet you say Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. This was idolatry. Jesus answers, God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. We may not worship teeth, or mountains but this does not mean there is no danger to us. The danger is not just that people impute to the idol characteristics which are more than what it really is. The danger is that behind the scenes there is a god of this world, satan and his demonic messengers, who encourage this folly. In Ephesians 6 Paul reminds us that we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers with the rulers of the darkness of this world, with spiritual wickedness in high places. On this Reformation Sunday let us recall Martin Luther’s great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” In it he says, “And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us we will not fear for God has wllled his truth to triumph through us.” I know that as 21st century Christians we are not tempted to bow down to idols of wood and stone. Let’s take the world of entertainment which is a multi-billion dollar industry in this country. Here’s a movie you are uncertain whether you should see. It need not have lewd or lascivious scenes in it, but it presents a non-christian lifestyle in a favorable light. Some people may be able to view that film and sit in judgment on it. Others may doubt that it is right but go anyway. They are playing with fire. Their doubt is their downfall. Their conduct betrays Christ and their brothers and themselves. Christians all too often do this sort of thing. We need to realize that just as idols are made of all sorts of substances, so all sorts of circumstances can become an idol. The most precious institutions of life can become idols: our business and work, our home and family, our friends and marriages, if they engender ties that are more dear than Christ himself. The hymn-writer William Cowper penned these words, “The dearest idol I have known, whate’er that idol be, help me to tear it from its throne, and worship only thee.” We don’t make rules about not going to the movies, and we don’t make rules about not having friends or not getting married. But, beloved, dear children, in the midst of this present evil age, keep yourselves from idols, flee idolatry. When we play with fire the thing that gets burnt is our relationship to Jesus.

III Provoking Our Father

God is jealous over us as we read in verse 22, Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he? This is a good and holy jealousy. We belong to Him alone. Letting other things become dearer than he is provokes his jealousy. I remind you that the Bible says God is a jealous God and it says it in Exodus 20 where the moral law is given. and it says it in connection with the second commandment, you shall not make for yourselves an idol. Let us note that God, at that point, has already redeemed Israel from Egypt. Israel is his son, his beloved. It is to his son that he says Exodus 20:4-6, You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. He is our father. we are his sons. We rest secure in His grace, and bask in the glory of His love which will not let us go. But that is exactly the point. If we weren’t sons of God then the Lord wouldn’t be jealous over our allegiance. It is because we are sons that we may foolishly play with fire and provoke His jealousy. Paul doesn’t say anything about what might happen. Will we be chastised? Sometimes the betrayal itself is enough punishment. Paul’s burden is, “Shall we make trial of the Lord, shall we tempt God? Shall we provoke Him?” One of my mother’s favorite expressions was “I am provoked.” If she was talking about somebody else it was time to sympathize. If she was talking about me it was time to duck. It’s hard to duck when you have aroused God’s jealousy. How utterly stupid to think that we are stronger than God is, but that is exactly what we are saying every time we act out of doubt. I remember Mrs. Ironsides advice to her husband Harry who used to bring his shirts to her and ask if he could wear it a second time. She always said, “Harry, if its doubtful, its dirty.”