“For You, With You” (1 Corinthians 5:1-8)

Where Is God in All This?

When have you felt closest to God? It was July 2^nd, 2021. It was my mother’s birthday. My family and I were still on vacation, staying overnight in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. We were about to head off to Washington D.C. Joyce and I planned out what we would do that day – when to go, what to see, where to eat and so on. We were kind of in a hurry. In the hotel parking lot Joyce didn’t see me coming toward the car and pressed the button to shut the trunk and left. I bumped my head against the trunk, then I saw the blood coming down on my head. Eventually, I was taken to the emergency room by ambulance. I had to have my forehead stitched. It all happened so quickly. As I was lying down on the bed, waiting for a doctor, I said to God, “Why today? Why now? Why is this happening to me?” Our whole plan was ruined. Joyce and I had to wait in the ER for hours, and my family in the hotel lobby for hours. I was upset and frustrated. The accident had exhausted my family and me physically and emotionally. The plans changed. We had felt like we knew what we were doing before, and now we felt uncertain and vulnerable. But by God’s grace we got through the day. We safely arrived at our new place in Washington D.C. It was a rough day for everyone, but at the end of the day we felt that we got nothing that we had planned for but everything that we had hoped for. And most importantly, we felt closer to God and to each other.

Corinthian Church

I share this because today’s scripture asks the same question: When have you felt closest to God? The situation in Corinth is that a man is having sexual relations with his step mother. Verse 1: “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife.” An even worse problem is the church’s reaction to this affair. Instead of grieving over sin in their midst, they were tolerant, unrepentant, and proud. Verse 2: “And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?” The Corinthian church had no remorse, no repentance, no fleeing from this immorality. Then, what is God’s cure for this? And what should we do?

Handing Someone over to Satan?

By the Holy Spirit the apostle Paul says this way:

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (vv. 3-5, NRSV)

From this passage we learn the following truth: God can use Satan to sanctify his people. But here, what does it mean to hand someone over to Satan? In the book of Job these very things actually happened and these very words occurred. Job 2:6 says, “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold I hand him [Job] over to you. Only spare his life.” The next verse says, "So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head." And what is the purpose of Job’s suffering? What is the result of God’s gracious purpose? Job 42:5-6: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” In this story under his sovereign control God even uses Satan as the means to sanctify Job and to bring him closer than ever to him.

Another good example would be Paul. Paul describes his thorn in the flesh as a messenger of Satan. In 2 Corinthians 12:7 Paul says, “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited” (ESV). Three times Paul pleaded with the Lord to take it away from him. But the answer he got was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Who is in control of whether the messenger of Satan stays or goes? Christ Jesus the Lord! And what is the purpose of handing Paul over to the messenger of Satan? To help him stay close to Christ and bring him even closer to Christ. God can use Satan to sanctify his people.

This past week I read an article about how the Nigerian school girls stood their ground. In 2014 nearly 300 Nigerian secondary school girls were kidnapped by a terrorist group called Boko Haram. These young women had endured three years of captivity. They were pressured daily to marry fighters and embrace Boko Haram’s creed in return for better food, shelter, clothing, and soap. More than 100 refused, holding on to their Christian faith. Repeatedly they were told their parents were dead, their places of worship were torched, and their community was now flying Boko Haram’s flag. But these women stood their ground. They took turns renouncing food for a few days to have a spiritual energy. They secretly gathered to pray. They whispered hymns. They memorized the Book of Job from a smuggled Bible. Naomi Adamu, who was one of the oldest captives, said later, “We put our fate in the hands of God.” Again, in this story God uses Satan to sanctify his people.

If God can use Satan, he can use anything, good or bad, to restore, sanctify, and bring his people closer to him. It could be an accident. It could be an illness. It could be a relationship crisis. Whatever it is, God’s aim is to save us and sanctify us.

God Is For You and With You

Whenever we face trials of any kind, it’s important to remember that God is for us, not against us. Hebrews 12:7-10 says, “Endure trials for the sake of discipline… he [God] disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness.” Timothy Keller rightly said, “Suffering is unbearable if you aren’t certain that God is for you and with you.” In today’s passage Paul gives a clear reason why we must never grow weary or lose heart when we are chastised: “Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed” (v. 7). At the foundation of the discipline is the love of Christ Jesus, our Passover Lamb.

Israel had been in bondage in Egypt for more than 430 years. The Israelites cried out to God. God heard their groaning, God looked upon the Israelites, and God understood (Ex 2:24-25). Then, God sends Moses to save his people. By the power of God’s Spirit Moses brings ten plagues to stubborn Pharaoh and his people. The final plague is that every firstborn in the land will die. The head of every household is commanded to take a male lamb that is one-year-old. At twilight, the lamb for each household is to be killed. The Lord then reveals what the Israelites are to do with the slain lambs and why they are to do it. Each head of a household is to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorposts and lintel of his house. God explains that the blood will be a sign. When He sees the blood on the door, He will pass over that house, and the firstborn in it will be spared from the coming judgment. Here the passover lamb has to be without any blemishes. This substitutionary lamb foreshadows the true Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who was without blemish (cf. 1 Peter 1:19). He was bound, so we could be whole and free. He was whipped so we could be healed. He was slain and shed his blood so we could have life.

When troubles come our way, if we focus on “why” questions (Why now? Why me?), we will be lost. But if we focus on “who God is,” we will be saved. Job asked God many “why” questions when he was in distress. But when God appeared to him, he didn’t answer those questions. Instead, God simply revealed Job who He is. The result? Job said, “But now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

When the Nigerian girls were in captivity, they transcribed paraphrase of Psalm 22 and prayed: “Oh my God I keep calling by day and You do not answer. And by night. And there is no silence on my part” (v. 2). Psalm 22 is a psalm of David. But David wrote this prayer by the Spirit to prophesy the passion of Christ. Verse 14: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast.” All these things actually happened to Jesus on the cross. But that’s not the end. David continues to prophesy, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him” (v. 27).

Christ Jesus became our Passover Lamb and has gone before us. Brothers and sisters in Christ, God is for us and with us. And if God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us, is there anything he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture. Absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are the beloved children of God. So let us trust God and stand our ground.