Preparing for Sunday - 1 Cor. 3:16-17

December 2, 2016 by Sam Walker Preparing for Sunday

Prepare your heart for Sunday by looking through these suggestions that will assist you in making the most of our time together.

You will find suggestions for thinking more critically through the passage, meditating more intently on the text, and tangibly putting scripture to action in your personal life and in our corporate body.

Carefully Think

Read through the text for the week, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. Read again 1 Corinthians 3 in its entirety to set the context.
Look back through your notes from two weeks ago on 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 to remember the point of text. You can also listen to the sermon again here.
What was Paul illustrating in verses 10-15? Who was he talking to? Does the audience change in these verses? Does the illustration change? How?
In verse 16 Paul exhorts the Corinthians that they should know they are the temple and that God’s Spirit dwells within them. What would that mean to the people in that day who knew of the temple? What did they understand about God dwelling in the temple? Who is God calling the temple?
In verse 17 how can God’s temple be destroyed? Why would God destroy those who destroy his temple? What kind of destruction is this referring to? Paul then states that God’s temple is holy. What relation does that have to the preceding clause? How is the word “for” connecting the previous sentence to this one?
Paul joins the idea of holiness to declaring that his audience is the very temple he is describing. Would they know what that means?
The Sermon Study equipping class notes are available online for anyone wanting to dig deeper. Please review this week's notes to help study this passage. Click here for the notes.

Prayerfully Meditate

• Is the audience of Paul in these verses a singular individual or the group of people in the church at Corinth? What insight does that give to the meaning of the temple and where God’s Spirit is dwelling? What view have you had of the temple in these verses?
What does it mean to destroy God’s temple? Can we destroy God’s temple today? What would that look like? Can you say that you have ever participated in destroying God’s temple?
What is Paul’s point of declaring that God’s temple is holy and that the Corinthian church is the temple? How does that affect us here at Summit Woods today? Is there some aspect of this verse that we are not rightly understanding today in the context of the local church
Meditate on God’s graciousness in his perfect word to preserve what the unity of the church should look like and how much disunity we have when we leave the Gospel behind in favor of something from man? Do you see a disregard for the Gospel and unity in the local body today? Are you part of the that? How does that impact the church body when we are all a part of that body? How should we as a church address destruction of the temple?

Intentionally Act

Plan for time this week to meditate on the passage this week and seek to apply it to your heart for conviction and then to turn that into a tangible action you can do within our local body and individually.
Pray for those that attempt to destroy the temple and that God would be full of grace to allow them to come to repentance and saving faith. Reach out to those who are attempt
Click the links below to find the lyrics and recordings of the songs planned for our gathering this Sunday; practice the songs, study the lyrics and sing together..
Pray for those leading our corporate gathering this week and for the Holy Spirit’s work as the Word of God is further explained and applied: Dawson Bryant: music; Rob Stouffer: Elders' prayer and Scripture reading; Bret Capranica: teaching.

Songs for Sunday

Lyrics

Lyrics Morning Gathering - December 4, 2016 by Summit Woods Baptist Church on Scribd