1 Corinthians 13 | The Upward Way | Bible Study with A. Z. Adams — Transcript

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1. 0:00So, in the previous chapter,
2. 0:02Paul explained
3. 0:04that we can't claim that Jesus is really
4. 0:06our Lord until
5. 0:09the Holy Spirit is manifested through
6. 0:12the gifts of the body. That's why we
7. 0:14have to be in a church that actually has
8. 0:16the gifts of the Spirit. Period. If
9. 0:18you're in a church that doesn't have the
10. 0:19gifts of the Spirit, you've robbed the
11. 0:21Holy Spirit of its [music] voice, and
12. 0:23you're in at risk of serving a mute God.
13. 0:26Now, in chapter
14. 0:2813, he's going to tell us the more
15. 0:30excellent way. Not more [music]
16. 0:32excellent than gifts, but more excellent
17. 0:35than merely desiring them. This is how
18. 0:38you activate the gifts.
19. 0:41If I speak with the tongues of men
20. 0:43[music] and of angels,
21. 0:45but do not have love,
22. 0:47I have become a noisy gong or a clanging
23. 0:50cymbal.
24. 0:51So, you can desire your gifts, and you
25. 0:54can even get your gifts,
26. 0:57and move in your gifts,
27. 0:59but if those gifts are not rooted in
28. 1:01love, it's all going to be bad. Now,
29. 1:04remember in chapter 8 and chapter 9, he
30. 1:07compared knowledge to love. [music] He
31. 1:10said, "Knowledge puffs up. Love builds
32. 1:13up."
33. 1:14So, knowledge is not unimportant. It
34. 1:17just needs to be anchored, rooted, and
35. 1:19grounded in love. So, in the same way,
36. 1:22gifts are positively essential because
37. 1:25we have to manifest the Holy Spirit in
38. 1:28order to know the Lordship of Christ in
39. 1:30our midst.
40. 1:31But,
41. 1:32that Lordship and that
42. 1:35gift has got to be in love. So, love
43. 1:39should be the start, and love should be
44. 1:41the goal of the teaching.
45. 1:45If I have the gift of prophecy and know
46. 1:48all mysteries and all knowledge,
47. 1:51and if I have all faith, so as to remove
48. 1:53mountains, but do not have love,
49. 1:56I
50. 1:58am
51. 1:59nothing.
52. 2:01Now, he's just told us in the previous
53. 2:02chapter
54. 2:05that if I'm in my place,
55. 2:07I
56. 2:08am
57. 2:09part of Jesus.
58. 2:11I am a member of Christ, [music] and
59. 2:14Jesus will never say he doesn't need me.
60. 2:17But if I just take love out of my
61. 2:19motivation,
62. 2:21I'm by myself again. I'm a big zero with
63. 2:23the rim knocked off.
64. 2:25I am nothing.
65. 2:28And if I give all my possessions to the
66. 2:31feed the [music] poor, and if I
67. 2:33surrender my body to be burned,
68. 2:36but do not have love,
69. 2:38it profits me
70. 2:40nothing.
71. 2:41Others may be profited. I assume the
72. 2:44poor would be profited,
73. 2:46but it's not going to help you at all.
74. 2:49Because what God wants is for you to not
75. 2:52seek your own.
76. 2:54Don't seek gifts for you. Don't even
77. 2:57seek sacrificial gestures
78. 3:01for you.
79. 3:02Let it be for someone else.
80. 3:04And that's when it all makes sense.
81. 3:06That's when it's agape.
82. 3:08I can give my body to be burned. That
83. 3:10sounds like love.
84. 3:12But that can just be heroism. That can
85. 3:14just be exhibitionism.
86. 3:17That can really be another form of
87. 3:18vanity.
88. 3:21Love
89. 3:22is patient.
90. 3:25So now he's going to define.
91. 3:27You were asking yourself, do I have this
92. 3:29love? Let me tell you what love is,
93. 3:30Paul's going to say.
94. 3:32Love is patient.
95. 3:34Love is kind.
96. 3:36And love
97. 3:37is not
98. 3:39jealous.
99. 3:43So he tells us two things love is, and
100. 3:45one thing love is not.
101. 3:48Love is patient.
102. 3:50It allows people to grow.
103. 3:53It doesn't get
104. 3:55antsy and frustrated while the body is
105. 3:58still under maturation process. Love is
106. 4:01patient.
107. 4:03Love is kind.
108. 4:05And love is not jealous.
109. 4:10Love does not brag.
110. 4:13And is not arrogant.
111. 4:17Two things love is.
112. 4:19Four things love is not.
113. 4:24No, I'm sorry. Two things that love is,
114. 4:27three things that love is not so far.
115. 4:30Love is patient, love is kind. It is not
116. 4:33jealous, it does not brag, and it is not
117. 4:36arrogant.
118. 4:38It does not act unbecomingly.
119. 4:40There's the fourth thing.
120. 4:42It does not seek its own, fifth thing.
121. 4:47It is not provoked.
122. 4:52It does not take into account a wrong
123. 4:55suffered.
124. 4:57It does not rejoice in unrighteousness.
125. 5:01But rejoices with the truth.
126. 5:04Now we get the next one.
127. 5:07It does something, it rejoices.
128. 5:10So here are the things that love is not.
129. 5:14Love is not jealous. The first thing
130. 5:16love is not is it's not envious.
131. 5:19It is not competitive towards its
132. 5:21brother. If you've got that,
133. 5:23you don't have love.
134. 5:25Love is not jealous.
135. 5:27It does not brag. It is not arrogant.
136. 5:31It is not unbecoming.
137. 5:32It does not seek its own. It is not
138. 5:35provoked.
139. 5:37It does not take into account a wrong
140. 5:39suffered.
141. 5:41It does not rejoice in unrighteousness.
142. 5:45Eight things that love is not.
143. 5:49Then we get the next thing that love is.
144. 5:51It rejoices in the truth.
145. 5:53Let's look at this for a second.
146. 5:56The first murder was released through
147. 5:58jealousy.
148. 6:00But what often produces jealousy?
149. 6:04Bragging.
150. 6:05So he says, "If you're jealous of Abel,
151. 6:09then you don't have love. If Joseph's
152. 6:12brothers are jealous of Joseph, they
153. 6:14don't have love."
154. 6:16But Joseph bragged a little bit. He told
155. 6:18dreams where everybody was going to bow
156. 6:19down to him.
157. 6:21He was arrogant. So the two things that
158. 6:24provoke jealousy are bragging and
159. 6:26arrogance.
160. 6:28If you create a culture of bragging and
161. 6:29arrogance, you're going to you're going
162. 6:31to feed a culture of envy and
163. 6:33competition.
164. 6:35And to create a culture of
165. 6:37bragging and arrogance is to be acting
166. 6:40unbecomingly.
167. 6:42It's immodestly.
168. 6:44It's acting with without modesty. That's
169. 6:46what that means.
170. 6:48And then it does not seek its own.
171. 6:52That's the core of love.
172. 6:55It's not living for itself.
173. 6:57Does not seek its own.
174. 7:00Here's a big one.
175. 7:02It is not provoked.
176. 7:05But why is it not provoked? Because it
177. 7:07does not take into account a wrong
178. 7:09suffered.
179. 7:11Why How can you not take into account a
180. 7:14wrong suffered?
181. 7:16If you're not your own.
182. 7:18If you don't seek your own and you're
183. 7:20not your own,
184. 7:22then you're Jesus's.
185. 7:24And when something is coming against
186. 7:26you, it's not really coming against you.
187. 7:29It's coming against the one who you
188. 7:31belong to. It's coming against God.
189. 7:34So it's not yours to defend. Doesn't
190. 7:37take into account a wrong suffered.
191. 7:41If you take into account the wrong
192. 7:42suffered against you,
193. 7:44you're going to be provoked.
194. 7:47It does not rejoice in unrighteousness.
195. 7:51So, it's not happy. Oh, yippee, wicked
196. 7:53things are happening to me or to others.
197. 7:56It's not happy about that. It actually
198. 7:58gets happy
199. 8:00when the truth prevails. It rejoices in
200. 8:03the truth.
201. 8:05And now we're going to hear some more
202. 8:06things that love does. It rejoices in
203. 8:08the truth.
204. 8:09It bears all things.
205. 8:14How is she holding up? Did you see what
206. 8:17came against them?
207. 8:20How is she still smiling? Her friends
208. 8:23threw her under the bus.
209. 8:25Love bears all things. Why? Because love
210. 8:31is rooted in Jesus who bore the cross.
211. 8:35He bore the world on his shoulders. So,
212. 8:38if you're in his love, you can handle
213. 8:41it.
214. 8:42You can ski keep walking cuz this isn't
215. 8:45about you, it's about him. And he
216. 8:47already rolled away the stone when he
217. 8:49bore the whole weight of the world's
218. 8:51sins on his shoulders and in his hands.
219. 8:53Love bears all things.
220. 8:56Love believes all things.
221. 8:59That's like saying love believes for all
222. 9:01good things. Love has faith is how you
223. 9:04could translate that. Love is quick to
224. 9:06say, I think they can make it. Love
225. 9:08believes all things.
226. 9:10Love hopes
227. 9:12all things.
228. 9:14Love endures all things. Well, there's a
229. 9:16sandwich, bears and endures. But between
230. 9:19bears and endures, we've got belief and
231. 9:21hope.
232. 9:23Love
233. 9:25never
234. 9:26fails.
235. 9:29There's a lot of failure in our lives.
236. 9:31There's a lot of failure in our
237. 9:33humanity, in our churches, in our
238. 9:35families.
239. 9:36and every failure
240. 9:39can be
241. 9:40pinned to an absence or a loss of love.
242. 9:43Because the one element inside of you
243. 9:46that is from God that never fails is
244. 9:49love.
245. 9:50When there's failure
246. 9:51there's a loss of love.
247. 9:53When there's success
248. 9:56it must be love cuz it's the one thing
249. 9:57that never fails. Love never fails.
250. 10:00But if there are gifts of prophecy
251. 10:03they will be done away.
252. 10:06If there are tongues
253. 10:07they will cease.
254. 10:10If there is knowledge, it will be done
255. 10:12away.
256. 10:13For we know in part and we prophesy in
257. 10:16part.
258. 10:17But when the perfect comes
259. 10:19the partial will be done away with.
260. 10:22Okay.
261. 10:25So
262. 10:27Paul says elsewhere let one prophesy and
263. 10:28the rest judge. There's no gift that you
264. 10:31can operate in perfectly.
265. 10:33But when you operate in love, you get
266. 10:35your gift right.
267. 10:37Right? But Paul's telling us that even
268. 10:39these gifts that we need in the body
269. 10:42they're temporary.
270. 10:45When do they go away? When the perfect
271. 10:46comes. What is the perfect? Heaven.
272. 10:50Heaven.
273. 10:51This is exactly what John said when he
274. 10:53says it does not yet appear what we will
275. 10:55be like.
276. 10:56But
277. 10:57when he appears, we will be like him for
278. 10:59we will see him as he is.
279. 11:02So the gifts are for the Lordship and
280. 11:04dominion of God's spirit on the earth
281. 11:07through the church now.
282. 11:09And the perfect is going to come. And
283. 11:11some will say, "Oh, look at there. He
284. 11:12says tongues will cease. Yippee."
285. 11:15But he also says knowledge will cease.
286. 11:16So if you can tell me that knowledge has
287. 11:18ceased, I'll accept that tongues have
288. 11:19ceased.
289. 11:21He also says that prophecy will cease
290. 11:23which is the testimony of Jesus. Now in
291. 11:26heaven we're not going to be testifying
292. 11:27and telling people to be saved.
293. 11:30But if testimony has not ceased, don't
294. 11:32tell me tongues has have ceased. They
295. 11:33haven't.
296. 11:35For we know in part and we prophesy in
297. 11:37part.
298. 11:39He includes himself in the part. We, not
299. 11:43you, we. So if you're less partial than
300. 11:45Paul, I'll listen. If not, be quiet.
301. 11:50But when the perfect comes, the partial
302. 11:52will be done away.
303. 11:55When I was a child,
304. 11:58I used to speak like a child,
305. 12:01think like a child, reason like a child.
306. 12:06When I became a man,
307. 12:08I did away with childish things.
308. 12:12For now,
309. 12:14we see in a mirror dimly.
310. 12:18But then face to face.
311. 12:22Then
312. 12:23speaks of heaven.
313. 12:25The perfect, when the gifts go away, is
314. 12:27heaven. If we're on this side of heaven,
315. 12:30we're on this side of perfect. And if
316. 12:32we're on this side of perfect, we still
317. 12:34need the gifts. We just need them in
318. 12:36love.
319. 12:38Amen. Now he says this puts this little
320. 12:41parenthetical in, "When I was a child, I
321. 12:42used to speak like a child." And what
322. 12:45does that speak about? That speaks about
323. 12:47love.
324. 12:48Cuz a child doesn't really know how to
325. 12:50love. Everything is about himself. But
326. 12:53it also speaks about how God's grace is
327. 12:56going to work in the church.
328. 12:58That when we mature out of being
329. 13:01children and we come into the glory of
330. 13:03the sons of God, that's when we're going
331. 13:05to be in heaven. And so all of these
332. 13:08things, these imperfect things, these
333. 13:10imperfect gifts of the spirit, are the
334. 13:12child phase. But that child phase is
335. 13:14going to stick around until the Lord
336. 13:15comes.
337. 13:17For now we see in a mirror dimly.
338. 13:20What are the mirrors that we're seeing
339. 13:22in dimly?
340. 13:23Beholding it is in a mirror the glory of
341. 13:25the Lord, we are being changed. If you
342. 13:27don't see God's glory in a mirror,
343. 13:30you won't be changed. But who is the
344. 13:32mirror?
345. 13:33It's the faces of your brothers and
346. 13:34sisters.
347. 13:36You are made in the image and glory of
348. 13:37God. So when I look at you, I can see a
349. 13:40faint reflection of God in you.
350. 13:43And if you're looking at God, then you
351. 13:45are reflecting and refracting that light
352. 13:48to me. We are beholding his glory.
353. 13:51So to see in a mirror dimly says we are
354. 13:53seeing God in the faces of his people.
355. 13:57It's a fractured mosaic, but we still
356. 13:59see the Lord.
357. 14:01Amen.
358. 14:02But one day we're going to see him face
359. 14:04to face, and we're going to be like him
360. 14:07because we're going to see him without
361. 14:09the human flaws and imperfections.
362. 14:11Human fallen humanity reflects God's
363. 14:14glory dimly in a mirror.
364. 14:17Heaven will give us God's glory
365. 14:19precisely face to face.
366. 14:23For now we see in a mirror dimly, but
367. 14:26then face to face. Now I know in part,
368. 14:30but then I will know fully just as I
369. 14:33also have been fully known.
370. 14:36I'm going to know God like he knows me
371. 14:38cuz I'm going to be with him and have
372. 14:40that light in heaven.
373. 14:42But now faith,
374. 14:44hope, love
375. 14:47abide
376. 14:48these three.
377. 14:50But now.
378. 14:51So he's saying
379. 14:53when the perfect comes,
380. 14:55I'm going to see God
381. 14:57as he is.
382. 14:59And I'm going to see him like he sees
383. 15:01me.
384. 15:03The final verse.
385. 15:05Verse 13 of chapter 13. But now.
386. 15:09But now.
387. 15:11Not then, not in heaven.
388. 15:13Today.
389. 15:15But now.
390. 15:17Faith,
391. 15:18hope,
392. 15:20love
393. 15:21abide these three.
394. 15:24But the greatest [music] of these
395. 15:26is love.
396. 15:28So, we're going to have perfect vision
397. 15:31in heaven,
398. 15:32but we have abiding faith, hope, and
399. 15:35love here on Earth. And if we've got
400. 15:37that, we've got God, and we're moving
401. 15:39[music] toward that eternal goal.
402. 15:53>> [music]