Life-threatening Idolarty: A Lesson from History - 1 Corinthians 10:1-22

Sermon Series: Confused?

When it comes to our children’s health, I don’t consider myself or my wife to be big worriers. We encourage them to exercise, to eat healthy, and we allow them to have vitamins each morning after breakfast. As a result we feel like our children are pretty healthy children. If one of our children begins to run a fever or complain of a stomach ache we don’t rush to the phone to schedule a doctor’s appointment. We’ve learned that kids are pretty tough and resilient and that there are lots of things that can factor into our children not feeling well. But there is a particular time when things get very serious, very quickly – when Davis says that he is having a difficult time breathing. From the time that Davis was a baby he has wrestled with seasons of difficulty in regards to his breathing. There was even one time as an infant that we had to rush him to the emergency room because he was having such a difficult time breathing that you could see very noticeable chest retractions each time he tried to take a breath. To our knowledge a sore throat or a scraped knee hasn’t ever killed anyone, so we aren’t quick to worry if our children have one of those. But breathing is essential to life – so when Davis says he is having a hard time, we get very serious. We don’t listen light-heartedly; nor do we rest in his regular exercise or vitamins to help him through his breathing troubles. No, we immediately go after his inhaler and start working to help him breathe easier.

I share this because I think that there are many churches and many who say that they are believers in Christ that aren’t paying attention to symptoms of life-threatening spiritual trouble. Instead they are resting in past experiences or routine habits, paying little to no attention to the symptoms that are showing themselves, and never going after the medicine that is necessary to save them. This is an area we have to shed light on in our churches and 1 Corinthians 10 helps us to do that, as we see Paul shedding light on this problem with the church at Corinth.

In chapter 8 Paul had instructed the church at Corinth that knowledge wasn’t the aim of our faith. When one obtained great knowledge it often resulted in puffing that individual up with pride and causing that individual to live in pursuit of his or her own rights and freedoms. In the church at Corinth that was working itself out when certain believers who felt as if they had arrived at knowledge were going to and participating in sacrificial feasts at some of the pagan temples. They argued with Paul that their knowledge and understanding of God as the only real and true God gave them the freedom to go to these feasts and to partake of the food, because the animals being sacrificed weren’t being offered to real gods, but rather to fictitious and imaginary concepts. In response, Paul did not argue with their knowledge or understanding, but rather argued that they were sinning against their brothers and sisters in Christ who were not as firm in their understanding and knowledge. The ‘knowledgeable’ believers had been encouraging others who were less grounded in their faith to participate in these pagan feasts, probably believing that by acting on the knowledge they did possess they would be built up. But what was really happening was that those who were less grounded in their faith were going to these feasts and getting caught up in the celebration and emotions that they had probably grown up experiencing – which ultimately led to them getting inadvertently caught up in the idolatry themselves. So Paul encouraged the believers in Corinth to be willing to lay down their freedoms for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of their brothers and sisters in Christ.

The issue of ‘rights’ and ‘freedoms’ was an important topic of concern for Paul. Not only because some in the church at Corinth were misusing and abusing theirs, but because it was the grounds on which many had been denying Paul’s apostleship. So while Paul was speaking to their ‘rights’ and ‘freedoms’ in chapter 8, Paul also decided to turn aside from the topic of participating in feasts to idols in order to give a defense of his apostleship and to show how he was modeling a willingness to lay aside ‘rights’ for the sake of the Gospel. In chapter 9 Paul made a strong defense for his ‘right’ to receive payment for his work as an apostle. But Paul followed that defense of his ‘rights’ with an explanation for why he had not taken advantage of those rights. Paul taught that he had laid aside his right to receive payment for his work as an apostle so that it did not become a hindrance to the gospel message or grounds for future accusations of misuse or abuse. Paul understood that fulfilling his call of proclaiming the gospel, making disciples, and glorifying God often meant laying aside personal rights and freedoms, and his refusal to receive payment for his ministry wasn’t evidence that he wasn’t really an apostle, but rather an example of being self-disciplined and living for a purpose greater than himself.

However, having addressed the concerns of many in the church of Corinth regarding his apostleship, and having given a strong defense for why he laid aside some of his own rights and freedoms in Christ, Paul returned in chapter 10 to the issue of believers in Christ celebrating sacrificial feasts in the pagan temples. Paul began verses 1-5 saying, “For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” What Paul said in these verses is incredibly intriguing. He said that those who had been set apart long ago as God’s people once rested in some things that were very similar to things the Christians in Corinth rested in. He made reference first to their deliverance from Egypt and focused on their passing through the Red Sea in particular. In doing so Paul recognized the Israelites passage through the Red Sea as a type of baptism. Notice how Paul articulated verses 1-2. Paul said first that the Israelites were ‘under’ the cloud. When you think about the “cloud” in the exodus story that’s probably not where you typically think of the cloud being. While the Israelites were in the wilderness the cloud would go before them, leading them through the wilderness. And on the occasion when Pharaoh’s army went after the Israelites, the cloud moved behind them in order to hide them from the view of the Egyptians until they could escape from them. So where did Paul get the idea of the cloud covering them? Probably from Psalm 105:39 where the psalmist is recounting God’s goodness to Israel during the exodus and says, “He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by night . . .” So give some consideration to the imagery here: the Israelites are immersed under the cloud with water all around them. Add to this the context – that this immersion was taking place immediately after their deliverer (Moses) had delivered them out of the hands of their enemy and oppressors – and this begins to look a lot like the baptism that the Christians at Corinth had received. Christian baptism was an immersion of an individual under the water shortly after he or she had been delivered out of the hands of his or her oppressors by his or her Deliverer, Jesus, and baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Paul didn’t only make reference to a ‘type’ of baptism in the first five verses of chapter 10 though – he also made reference to a ‘type’ of Lord’s Supper. Listen to how Paul articulated verses 3-4. Paul made reference to God’s people, the Israelites, eating spiritual food and drinking spiritual drink. Additionally, make note of what the source of the spiritual drink was. The “spiritual drink,” Paul said, came from the “spiritual Rock” which he also went on to say was Christ. This sounds a lot like the Lord’s Supper that the Christians at Corinth participated in. As Jesus was celebrating the Passover Feast (His last meal with His disciples before He would be crucified) the NT tells us that “Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Matthew 26:26-28). This Lord’s Supper became one of two ordinances (the other being baptism) that Jesus commanded His followers to participate in as His disciples. The believers at Corinth would have done this on a regular basis, partaking of this “spiritual food” and “spiritual drink,” which symbolically represented Jesus as its source.

So these Israelites rested in their identity as God’s people in part because they had experienced this unique, baptism-like experience, coming out of Egypt and crossing the Red Sea, and because God daily provided them with food from heaven and water from a rock. What reason did these Israelites have not to rest?!?! They were (1) God’s chosen people; (2) they had been delivered by God’s miraculous hand and saved from Pharaoh’s army; and (3) God miraculously sustained them with food and water every day. Had I lived during that time and had opportunity to reflect on those evidences of God’s goodness in my life I think I too probably would have felt pretty confident about where things were heading. But then we have to ask the important question, “Of all the thousands of Israelites who experienced those things, how many made it into the Promise Land?” The answer is two – Joshua and Caleb. The rest died in the wilderness, which is why Paul wrote in verse 5, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” Despite their confidence in the ‘type’ of baptism they experienced; despite their confidence in the ‘type’ of Lord’s Supper they experienced; and despite their confidence in their designation as “God’s chosen people,” thousands upon thousands died in the wilderness and only two got to enter the Promise Land. It’s kind of hard to believe when we put it that way, huh?

Begin to think about where Paul might have been headed with all of this. Like the Israelites, “Christians” today tend to rest in their identity as “God’s chosen people.” Like the Israelites underwent a baptism right after their deliverance from the Egyptians many Christians undergo a baptism shortly after they have been delivered from sin and Satan. And like the Israelites remembered God’s faithfulness through “spiritual food” and “spiritual drink,” we too remember God’s faithfulness through partaking of the Lord’s Supper and remembering that Jesus’ body was broken and His blood was poured out so that we might receive salvation. If we are honest, wouldn’t we say that knowing those things and participating in those things gives us a lot of confidence? And yet what happened to the Israelites in the wilderness who had similar experiences to ours?

So Paul went on in verses 6-10 to speak to the believers at Corinth to provide them with warnings on how they might prevent the same fate. “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.” The “these things” in verse 6 refer back to verses 1-5, to both the spiritual privileges that the Israelites experienced as well as the judgment they experienced. Paul said to the church at Corinth that those things served as examples for those who were at that time professing to be believers in Christ. Israel’s judgment, despite there great sense of security, should serve as inspiration for those who were a part of the church of Corinth (as well as those who make up the Church today) to give greater consideration to their desires. The church at Corinth (and the Church today) could not be found guilty of repeating and persisting in the sin Israel had been guilty of. In verses 7-10 Paul gave some clear examples of what Israel’s sin was, so that the church at Corinth could guard against that sin. And in these examples verses 7-8 are key to our understanding. In verse 7 Paul wrote, “Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’” Paul first went after idolatry, but he did so in a way that helps the reader to see that he hadn’t moved past his concern from chapter 8 (the believers from the church at Corinth eating meals in the pagan temples). Paul gave a very clear command to the church at Corinth not to be idolaters like some of the Israelites were. He then went on to quote Exodus 32:6. That verse is located in the narrative of the Israelites constructing and worshipping a calf of gold while Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the Law from God. Of all the verses included in that narrative, Paul chose the verse that made reference to the Israelites sitting down to eat and drink. Coincidence? Probably not! Paul picked a verse that referenced the Israelites eating in the presence of the golden calf because some from the church at Corinth had become guilty of eating in the presence of idols. The final phrase, “and rose up to play” should almost certainly be understood to be a reference to sexual immorality - another reason that Paul would have picked this particular verse. Paul had already written against sexual immorality in his previous letter as well as in this letter (see 1 Corinthians 5:9-11, 6:12-20). It may have been that those participating in the meals at these pagan temples were also engaging in sexual acts after the meals, as engaging in sexual immorality with temple prostitutes was not an uncommon activity after temple feasts. So not only did Paul warn them against idolatry, but in verse 8 he warned them against sexual immorality. “We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.” In this verse Paul was referencing what took place in Numbers 25:1-9. For time’s sake we aren’t going to spend time rehearsing the details of that text because Paul’s warning is clear – there is no room for sexual immorality in the lives of those who profess Him as Savior and Lord. To his commands not to be idolaters and not to engage in sexual immorality Paul added the commands not to put Christ to the test and not to grumble in verses 9-10. It was ultimately Christ they were putting to the test by trying to eat both at His table and at the pagan feasts and ultimately Christ that they were grumbling against when they were resisting and speaking out against the instructions that Paul had previously given to them. As Paul had already written in verse 6, he repeated the idea again in verse 11, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” The believers who were part of the church of Corinth needed to grasp the seriousness of what had transpired in history and what was presently transpiring in their church. If God had not tolerated Israel’s idolatry He would not tolerate theirs either – and they were deceiving themselves if they thought that He would.

So Paul gave a very firm warning in verse 12, “Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” It wasn’t a warning to the newly converted who were still learning about their faith, and learning about how God, Jesus, and the Gospel were to affect their lives. It was a warning intended for those who believed that they possessed knowledge and who believed that they had a firm grasp and understanding on their faith. It was a warning to those individuals who probably considered themselves “mature” believers in Christ - men and women who felt secure in their faith; men and women who were probably leading Bible studies; and men and women who were confident about what their own rights and freedoms were in Christ. These were the ones to whom Paul directed his warning. “To all of you who think that your faith is firm and your understanding solid,” Paul said, “you all are the ones who need to pay careful attention that you do not fall into sin and idolatry.” We would imagine that Paul would have to warn those whose faith was shaky not to fall into sin and idolatry, but that wasn’t who Paul addressed this warning to. So what should we make of this? This isn’t a warning that we ought to take light-heartedly, but it should be a warning that weighs heavily on those of us who consider ourselves to have a strong faith. Paul saw something in this kind of person that made him/her vulnerable to falling into sin and idolatry. So regardless of how strong you and I believe our faith is, we need to constantly be aware of sin around us and we need to (1) look for the escape when temptation sneaks up on us, and (2) run from where we know temptation will be (rather than light-heartedly placing ourselves in the midst of temptation. Paul went on to say in verse 13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Paul was reminding the believers in Corinth that when the temptation to sin came their way they would not face a temptation so great that they would be helpless to prevail against it. God was always faithful and He would always provide a means of escape when temptation sneaks up on us. That was a truth that the believers in Corinth had to hold firmly to, and one that believers in Christ today must hold firmly to. Jesus’ victory over sin means that those of us who have trusted in Him as Savior and Lord have been given victory over sin in our lives. But we have to remain vigilant – we must take heed lest we fall. When the temptation to sin shows up we have to be aware of our vulnerability and start looking for the way of escape that God provides. We can’t live as if our faith in Jesus places us in some kind of protective bubble that keeps us from coming into contact with sin or temptation. Sin and temptation are all around us, and we are still vulnerable to falling. Regardless of how strong our faith is we are still vulnerable to falling into sin. We cannot act as if we are immune – we are not! Instead we must be vigilant concerning sin and temptation around us and dependent upon God for the way of escape.

Paul brought this topic of committing idolatry by participating in the feasts of pagan gods to a conclusion in verses 14-22. Paul pleaded one last time with those who were participating in these feasts, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” God’s way of escape was promised when temptation came upon an individual – not when an individual knowingly placed himself/herself in the midst of temptation. So Paul said, “When you know where the temptation to sin lies, don’t put yourself in the midst of that sin – run from it!” They were to always be running from idolatry and the things that would tempt their hearts to love, treasure, and worship something other than God, Himself. But these Corinthian believers weren’t fleeing from these pagan feasts, they were placing themselves right in the midst of them – throwing themselves right into the middle of great temptation. This wasn’t what sensible believers in Christ were supposed to do. So Paul continued in verses 15-17, “I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” Jesus had instructed His followers to regularly partake of the Lord’s Supper until He returned. Doing so would (1) remind them of the sacrifice that He had made (that His body had been broken and His blood had been poured out) and would (2) be a declaration that they had believed in and trusted in His death, burial, and resurrection on their behalf as the means by which they had received God’s salvation. Participating in the Lord’s Supper was a way in which the believers in Christ identified themselves with Jesus. It also served as an identification with one another – separate members who together made up one body – because they all ate from the same loaf of bread. Paul was working to make the point that one could not participate in one of these kinds of meals (whether it be the Lord’s Supper or a meal that celebrated a false god) without identifying oneself with the one who the meal was being offered to. The Corinthian believers knew that to be true of the Lord’s Supper, but Paul also made that clear in verse 18, “Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the alter?”

The Corinthian believers had argued against this earlier – that they weren’t really participating in anything wrong because those ‘gods’ were imaginary. But it is at this point that Paul clarifies a misunderstanding in their argument. “What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons” (verses 19-20). The Corinthians were right about one thing – there was only one true God. However, what they failed to understand was that there are other spiritual beings – beings who possess powers and who have set themselves in opposition against God. They are demons. It was those demons who had disguised themselves as gods and who had drawn the Corinthians to exalt and worship them. So while it was true that these pagan sacrifices weren’t sacrifices to real ‘gods,’ they were in fact real sacrifices to demons who had disguised themselves as gods. So when those believers in Corinth were participating in those feasts in pagan temples they were inadvertently identifying themselves with demons, and Paul said in verse 21, “You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” Because Christ and those demons were set in opposition against one another, it was impossible for a person to identify himself/herself with both. For the Corinthian believers to declare that they belonged to God and identified themselves with Christ, and then to go out and also identify themselves with demons was to provoke God to jealousy. So Paul concluded in verse 22, “Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”

Participating in idolatry is a dangerous sin. It is life-threatening! Just think back on all of the Israelites who God delivered out of Egypt, but who then got caught up in idol worship. All but two of that generation of Israelites died in the wilderness. Paul said to the church at Corinth – as well as to the Church today – those things happened as an example for us. But unfortunately, it seems very few in the Church today are concerned about idolatry. I think that lack of concern comes from one of two places. (1) I think some in the church have failed to diagnose the sin of idolatry in their lives. They don’t have little statues laying around the house and they don’t worship at a pagan temple, so they feel as if their lives are free from idolatry. (2) Others I think have failed to treat idolatry as seriously as God treats it. They look at their idolatry and liken it to a spiritual sore throat or scrape on the knee. They call themselves Christians, think back on a time when they were baptized, and know that they participate in the Lord’s Supper on occasion. Those things provide them with a sense of confidence, much like people who eat healthy, exercise regularly, and take their vitamins are confident in their overall health. They are relying on their title, their baptism, and their participation in the Lord’s Supper to smooth over little concerns like idolatry in their lives. The only problem is that idolatry is a much bigger problem than a spiritual sore throat or scrape on the knee – it’s more along the lines of a bad asthma attack that threatens to suffocate and kill the one having the attack. It is a problem that needs immediate attention and the right medicine to fix. One has to treat the idolatry with the Gospel!

The Gospel reminds us that we are broken sinners by nature and that our sin has had devastating effects on our lives – it has eternally separated us from God and made us objects of His wrath. It tells us that our sin had left us completely helpless and hopeless and in need of rescue. But while the first part of the Gospel sheds light on our sinfulness and on our helplessness, the rest of the Gospel proclaims the good news. The forgiveness and cleansing we needed, which we could not accomplish on our own, was purchased for us by another – Jesus. God sent His Son, Jesus, to be our Rescuer. He came to earth as a substitute to take the punishment for sin that we deserved (though He was without sin and completely undeserving). On the cross Jesus took upon Himself the sins of humanity. On the cross Jesus suffered the full measure of God’s wrath for every sin. On the cross Jesus died and shed His blood for the sin that we committed so that we would not have to. But Jesus did more than die – Jesus also proved His power and might over death by conquering death and coming back to life. In all of human history there has only been one person who came into death’s grip and who had the power and strength to free Himself – Jesus. By His resurrection from the dead Jesus proved that He was who He said He was – God, Himself. Jesus demonstrated His power and sovereignty over all things – including death. And Jesus showed that He was the source of life, which not even death could take from Him. Because Jesus died in our place He says that we can believe in His substitionary death on our behalf. Because Jesus took our sin upon Himself and paid for it in full He says we can be reconciled to God and come into fellowship with Him once again. Because Jesus rose again He says that we can believe that He offers us new life. And because Jesus demonstrated that He was indeed God He says that we can surrender our lives fully to Him and not only live in relationship with Him, but live for a greater purpose – His glory. This is salvation! It’s a posture of the heart in which we completely trust and depend on the completed work of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection for our forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Salvation isn’t saying a prayer that contractually obligates God to us because we said the right words in the right order. Salvation doesn’t come because we are baptized or because we participate in the Lord’s Supper. Salvation comes when we repent of our sin (including our idolatry – all of it) and in humble dependence, daily lean on and trust in the sufficiency of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection on our behalf for our forgiveness, cleansing, and reconciliation with God. Are you doing that today, or are you continuing in idolatry and resting in your title, your baptism, and your participation in the Lord’s Supper for your rest and security?  We cannot continue in idolatry resting in our own efforts - that won't save!  (Just look at Israel.)  We have to repent of our idolatry, trust in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection on our behalf, and live lives fully surrendered to Him.