Sermons on Local Church
1 Cor. 1:1‑9
Back to the Basics Introduction: The world’s greatest evangelist of all time was on his second of three great missionary journeys, planting churches around Greece and Turkey, when he first visited the city of Corinth. He had just come from Athens, about 50 miles to the northeast, where he experienced a rather disappointing reception to the Gospel message. The philosophers who debated him on Mars Hill, just below the Acropolis, ridiculed his witness to the resurrection of the dead, though a few believed…
1 Cor. 3:5-15
Building the Church Introduction: Did you know that the manner in which you serve in God’s church will determine how you spend eternity? Now some of you are probably saying to yourselves, “Did I hear him right? Is this Pastor Andrus, who has always preached salvation by grace, not works, now telling us that our service in the church will determine how we spend eternity?” Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. But please note, I didn’t say where you spend eternity, but rather how you spend it. The…
1 Cor. 3:16-23
Destroying the Church Introduction: I have always been fascinated by ancient ruins. Especially intriguing are the temples that archeologists have unearthed and preserved for posterity. There is the great Acropolis in Athens, the Temple of Aphrodite in Corinth, Petra in Jordan, Karnak and Luxor in Egypt. These great temples conjure up visions of ancient cultures, of gods created in the image of man, and of man’s futile search for meaning in a pagan world. They stand as stark reminders of the truth of Paul’s assertion in 1 Cor. 3:11: “For no man can lay any foundation other…
2 Corinthians 1:1, 2
Going Against the Grain Let me begin this morning by expressing my gratitude for the study month I just experienced. When I went to St. Louis in 1984 one of the really attractive carrots the leaders there enticed me with was a 3-month sabbatical every five years. I suspect their thinking was that within five years the church plant would either succeed to the point they could afford to let me have the sabbatical or it would fail and they wouldn’t have…