AN UNLEAVENED FELLOWSHIP

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on October 28, 2018 under 2018 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday message; October 28, 2018 from 1 Corinthians 5:1-8

Theme: As Christ’s ‘unleavened’ people, we must not be tolerant of the ‘leaven’ of sin in our Christian fellowship.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

This morning, in 1 Corinthians 5, we come to a new division in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Christians. In it, he introduces us to a new problem within that church family. It’s one that we must constantly be on guard against in our own church family as well.

But before we consider what Paul said, I ask that we first go back to the Old Testament—to Exodus 12; and to a very important story that serves as the background for what Paul had to say to the Corinthian church.

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Way back in that Old Testament passage, we’re told of how God was just about to bring judgment upon the Egyptian people. He had said that He would pass through the land and slay the firstborn of each Egyptian household. But He promised to spare the households of the Jewish people if they took a lamb—the Passover lamb—slew it, painted the blood of that lamb upon the doorposts of their home, and ate the lamb as a sacred meal. The Bible tells us that as God went throughout the land of Egypt, He saw the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of that house and would ‘passed-over’ that house in His judgment.

The Jewish people were to observe this meal—the Passover meal—every year from then on. It was a permanent commemoration for them of God’s gracious deliverance. And of course, we can see a picture in this of our Lord Jesus Christ—who is, Himself, our Passover Lamb.

But as a part of this regular observance, God also commanded this—as we read in Exodus 12:15-20;

“Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread” (Exodus 12:15-20).

You know how leaven works in bread; don’t you? It is a substance that creates fermentation. Ordinarily, whenever someone mixed dough for baking bread, they add in a little amount of leaven—or yeast. The influence of that leaven spreads throughout the bread dough; and when that bread dough is heated in the oven, that fermentation results in little gas explosions in the bread. That’s what makes baked bread have that spongy texture. Without the leaven, bread is flat and crisp—like a cracker.

Part of the reason that God commanded the Jewish people to celebrate the Passover feast with unleavened bread had to do with the fact that they left Egypt in a hurry. They didn’t have time to bake their bread in the normal way. They simply had to grab unleavened dough and leave. In Deuteronomy 16; when Moses spoke to the people before they entered the Promised Land, he reminded them of this. He told them;

You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days … (Deuteronomy 16:3-4a).

And from that point on, leaven became a symbol to the people of Israel of the pervasive influence of sin. Let just a little bit of sin in your life; and pretty soon, it spreads like leaven and brings its negative influence upon everything. As God’s holy people, during that time when God called them to celebrate His gracious deliverance from bondage, they were to search their homes carefully and get rid of any trace of leaven. It was a picture of getting rid of every trace of ‘the leaven of sin’ from their lives.

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Now; I’ve taken the time to share that Old Testament story with you because it gives us the background to the words of the apostle Paul in this morning’s passage.

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul began to deal with a very serious problem within the moral life of the church. He jumped right into the subject and wrote;

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! (1 Corinthians 5:1).

And you read those words and assume that he is about to deal with that particular situation. But no! That’s not the thing that concerned him the most. He went on to write;

And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you (v. 2).

It turns out that the attitude of the church toward this situation is the problem that most grieved the apostle. The Corinthian Christians had actually become prideful of the fact that they tolerated this sin in their midst! They were proud—we might say—that they had allowed ‘leaven’ into the fellowship!

Now; Paul does indeed address this matter of sin. He tells them in verses 3-5;

For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (vv. 3-5).

But he then goes on to say this to the Corinthian Christians in verses 6-8;

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (vv. 6-8).

And this makes Paul’s treatment of this problem a very important message for the church in general—and for our own church in particular. We—like the Jewish people of old—have been delivered from bondage. Ours, however, was even a greater deliverance; because ours had been a bondage to the devil. He kept us prisoner through the shackles of sin. God has set us free through Jesus Christ—our Passover Lamb—who was slain on the cross for us. Ours is truly the greatest and most glorious “exodus story” of all. Because of what Jesus has done for us, we are truly an ‘unleavened’ people.

But this being true, it would be utterly wrong for us to then tolerate the continuing influence of the old leaven of sin in our lives—or in the life of our fellowship together. I believe that the message of this passage to us is that, as Christ’s ‘unleavened’ people, we must not be tolerant of the ‘leaven’ of sin in our Christian fellowship.

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Now; that gives us a good description of what was going on within the Corinthian church. There was an ongoing practice of very serious sin—an influence of ‘leaven’—in their midst; and they were tolerant of it, and were even proud that they were so tolerant. In the first two verses, we can see …

1. PAUL’S ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM.

Paul starts off—as I said earlier—with a real ‘bang’. He writes to tell them that a report that had been going around about them—a reputation that they had gained. He tells them; “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles” (that is, a kind of sexual immorality that is not even heard of among non-Christian people) “—that a man has his father’s wife!” (v. 1).

We’re not told the details of how this came to be. But apparently, there was a man in the church—a professing believer—who was carrying on an immoral relationship with his step-mother. This is put in such a way as to describe an ongoing practice—that this man “has”, as an ongoing practice, his father’s wife. And it doesn’t appear that there was any secrecy about the matter. It was something that was done out in the open and that had become well-known.

Now; this was an extremely serious and grievous sin. In the Old Testament law, God made His standards of sexual relationships very clear. And in Leviticus 18:6-8, He declared to His people;

“None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the Lord. The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness” (Leviticus 18:6-8).

To ‘uncover the nakedness’ of someone was a euphemism for a sexual relationship. God—who is the divine Creator of our sexuality and of marriage—is very holy. He demands holy conduct from His people in this area. And to have violated this holy standard in this particular way was a serious enough sin that—under the Old Covenant—it warranted the death penalty. It was to transgress into the place of sexuality that only belonged rightly to another. God later said in Leviticus 20:11;

The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them (Leviticus 20:11).

So this was a very, very serious matter of sin. It was something that would have been shocking and scandalous to even the people of the unbelieving world. But notice what Paul then goes on to say to the Corinthian Christians;

And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you (1 Corinthians 5:2).

Certainly, Paul was very upset about how this incestuous relationship was being carried on openly within the church of Jesus Christ. But he was most upset of all over the fact that the church family itself had become “puffed-up” about it; and that the folks in the church were proud that they were tolerating it.

What a danger this is for us today; dear brothers and sisters in Christ! We live in a day when ‘tolerance’ of sinful practices is set forth as a great virtue. And if we are not careful—and if we carelessly embrace that attitude—we will end up tolerating the very sins that are an abomination to our Lord. Sin, of any kind, separates us from a holy God and made it necessary for our Savior to die on the cross. To tolerate such sin works into us an indifference toward all sin, and causes its influence to spread like leaven. It leads us to become open and tolerant toward other areas of sin. We even become “puffed up” in pride over how “tolerant” we appear to the unbelieving world around us—never stopping to think of how much that sin in our midst is defiling us, and of how much our pride about it grieves our holy Lord.

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Now; Paul’s great call to the people was to repent of their pride. He wanted them, instead, to mourn that such a thing had been happening in God’s holy household—to mourn so much, in fact, that they would plead with God that He would deliver them from it.

And so; as a part of that mourning, Paul called upon these believers to deal with this sinning church member. Verses 3-5 tell us about …

2. PAUL’S ACTION TOWARD THE SIN (vv. 3-5).

He was physically far away from them at the time. And yet, he acted upon the authority that God had given him as an apostle—just as if he were there in their midst. He told them, “For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (vv. 3-5).

I believe that Paul was acting upon our Lord’s teaching when it comes sinful matters within His household of faith. Jesus told us in Matthew 18;

“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:15-17).

At that final stage, it’s no longer just a matter of calling that person to repentance. It then becomes a matter of protecting the whole church family. We must withdraw our fellowship from them, and treat them as if they were outside of a relationship with Jesus until they repent—indeed praying for them to do so.

I believe that when Paul said he had already judged the matter in the Corinthian church, it meant that he had taken it to the final stage. The matter had already become known to the whole church family. It was now time to come to the grievous declaration that this man—sinning with his step-mother—was an unrepentant man who was living in a manner that was outside of a relationship with Jesus. That is always a very serious declaration to have to make. It carries a great deal of authority. In teaching about that process to us, our Lord said;

“Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (vv. 18-20).

How terrible the consequences of that are! Paul said that it amounted to turning the man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh—his outward person. It wasn’t, of course, that the church was ever to itself actively bring about that destruction. Rather, it was that they were to simply remove their protective care from the man and allow Satan to have his way with him. In 1 John 5:19, the apostle John wrote;

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one (1 John 5:19);

and so, this was basically a matter of turning this unrepentant man out into the world and over to the ‘wicked one’.

The purpose, however, was a redemptive one. It was done, as Paul said, “that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Satan may be a malicious enemy to our souls, but he still cannot do anything apart from God’s sovereign purposes. He is, in a sense, God’s unwitting ‘sheep-dog’ that is sometimes used to drive wandering sheep back to the fold. And as this man suffered the consequences of his sinful choice from the malicious hand of Satan, it was Paul’s hope that he would come to his senses, repent of his sin, and return to obedience to the Lord Jesus. Paul had to do a similar thing with some who were teaching false doctrine;

of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme (1 Timothy 1:20).

It’s a very sad and serious matter when such a thing has to happen. But dear brothers and sisters; we must remember that—in such cases—it is also the most loving thing that we can do! The world doesn’t think so, of course. The world thinks that the loving thing to do is to be tolerant of sin. But if it’s the kind of sin that God says in His word will result in someone eternal judgment, then how can it be loving to tolerate it? The most loving thing to do is to treat it as the Lord teaches us to treat it—so that person can be moved to repentance and can be saved on the day of judgment!

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Now; I have to jump ahead in the story just a bit and tell you—dear brothers and sisters—that it apparently did result in the man’s repentance. We find several indications in 2 Corinthians that the man turned away from this sin in sorrow; and that the church was encouraged to welcome him back. This matter of church discipline had a very happy ending.

But the condition of the church itself was not a happy thing at the time when Paul wrote the words of this morning’s passage. It had fallen into the trap of tolerating the man’s sin—and of becoming prideful of the fact that they did so. This leads us, finally, to …

3. PAUL’S ADMONITION TO THE CHURCH.

Because of the story from Exodus with which we began, these words ought to have a familiar ring. Paul told them in verses 6-8, “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (vv. 6-8).

As God’s holy people—as a people who have truly been ‘unleavened’ by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus for us—as a people who have now been made completely clean in God’s sight—as a Passover people who are now keeping the ‘feast’ of God’s gracious favor—then we absolutely must rid ourselves of the ‘old leaven’ of the past. We must—each one—be holy in our lifestyle before God, and we must strive to keep our fellowship together in His household holy and pure. We must not allow ourselves—either personally or corporately—to become indifferent toward and tolerant of those kinds of practices that caused our Savior to go to the cross!

We even must be holy in the way we seek that holiness. We are not to keep the feast with the ‘old leaven’ of the sins of the past; but we also must be careful not to keep it with ‘malice’ or ‘wickedness’ in the way we rid ourselves of those sins. We are not to seek to destroy those who are sinning; and thus fall into patterns of sin ourselves. We must keep the feast with ‘sincerity’ and ‘truth’. We must be the real thing with one another and adhere wholeheartedly to the holy standards of our Lord—never compromising with God’s revealed truth, but loving one another when we fail and forgiving one another when we repent.

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Dear brothers and sisters; the world is watching us. Let’s show that we truly are an unleavened people. Let’s remember Paul’s wonderful call in Ephesians 5;

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light” (Ephesians 5:1-14).

And look at how He does this. We’re told that He intercedes for us “with groanings which cannot be uttered”. I think here of the time when someone will come to church with a small child. I’ll lean down and try to talk to their little son or daughter, and the child will say something back to me that makes no sense at all. They may even try to say their name, but I’m just not getting it. I try to be polite and smile; but then, I look up to mom or dad, and they tell me exactly what the child is trying to say to me. I think that that’s a good picture of what the Holy Spirit does for us. He is able to express for us our concerns to the Father in ways that we ourselves cannot express in words. He intercedes for us, with the utmost accuracy, in whatever it is that we try to express in our ignorance. He even does so through deep expressions of the heart to the Father for which mere human language is insufficient to form into words.

What prayers it must be that He prays on our behalf! Aren’t you glad He does so? Perhaps in heavenly glory, we’ll be allowed to hear the ways that He interceded for us in our ignorance—and we will be forever thankful Him that He helped us so much.

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And that leads us to one more point Paul made about the Holy Spirit’s help, and that is that …

3. HE ENSURES THAT OUR PRAYERS ARE EFFECTIVE.

In verse 27, Paul wrote, “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Do you remember how Pastor James wrote that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much? Well; here’s why that is so. It’s the Holy Spirit who makes those prayers effective.

Now; the One who “searches the hearts” is the Father. As He says of Himself in Jeremiah 17:10,

“I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:10).

And not only are our hearts thoroughly searched by God the Father through the ministry of the Spirit, but the same Father who knows our hearts also knows the mind of the Spirit. As the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11,

For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).

We could not possibly have a more effective Intercessor than our indwelling Helper; who—knowing fully what is in our hearts—is also fully known by the Father. What’s more, He knows fully what the will of the Father is because He knows the mind of the Father. Thus, He is our completely efficient Helper because “He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” When the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, His prayers are prayed on our behalf perfectly, and in a way that is always in the Father’s will, and that truly meets the need.

His prayers for us on our behalf are always offered in perfection—and are always answered perfectly!

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Now, dear brothers and sisters; let’s never allow ourselves to think, “Well, then; if the Holy Spirit interceded for me so perfectly, why should I even bother to pray?” A thousand times no! Our response ought to be the exact opposite! We should now be even more motivated to pray; knowing that, whenever we pray in Jesus’ name, we never pray alone! We have a divine, indwelling Helper who aids us in our weakness, who intercedes for us in our ignorance, who speaks on our behalf with groanings too deep for human words, who always prays in perfect accord with the Father’s will, and who guarantees that our prayers are effective.

We truly have been given the greatest resource that human beings can ever have—the greatest power on earth. Let’s not neglect this gift. Let’s eagerly and faithfully use it; knowing that it is the Holy Spirit Himself who is our indwelling Helper in all our prayers.

EA