The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

August 11, 2024

1 Corinthians 10:1-5, 11-13

The Bread of Life —

Always Be in Awe of God’s Spiritual Blessings to You!

1For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3They all ate the same spiritual food 4and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.

11These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (NIV1984)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Can you remember the very first time you saw the Golden Gate bridge? I can! It was shortly after we moved here to California. We were making our way down to SFO and we got to the point on the 101 where we could see the Golden Gate! It was awesome! The skyline of San Francisco, the view of San Francisco Bay and the sight of Alcatraz— I was caught off guard at just how awesome it looked! Sadly, I have seen the Golden Gate bridge, San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz so many times that it doesn’t impact me in the same way. While it is still impressive it just doesn’t fill me with awe anymore.

I experienced a similar situation when we moved to Seattle. At first the sight of Mt. Rainier was awesome! Over the course of time, however, the sight of Mt. Rainier lost its luster. On the days that I could see Mt. Rainier I was more excited to see the blue sky than I was to see the mountain. Being able to see Mt. Rainer meant that it was probably not going to rain that day!

Have you ever experienced situations like that? The first time or the first few times that you see something or experience something you are filled with awe. But at some point the awe begins to fade and the ordinary begins to set in.

The portion of Scripture that serves as our sermon text for today reminds us that since we have received many spiritual blessings from the Lord our God— blessings that do indeed fill us with awe!— we need to be careful that we do not get to a point in our walk with our Lord where the “awe” of the blessings God has given to us becomes “ordinary.” With that in mind let’s study our text under the theme: Always Be in Awe of God’s Spiritual Blessings to You!

Paul begins our text by reminding God’s people in Corinth of the awesome spiritual blessings that the Lord gave to His children in the days of Moses. Paul writes, “For I do not want you to be ignorant (that word can also be translated as “fail to understand” or “disregard”) of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.”

Most of what Paul says here is very familiar to us. We know that when the Lord God led His Chosen People out of the land of Egypt He did so in a truly awesome way! Scripture tells us, “By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light; so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people” (Exodus 13:21, 22). Imagine how awesome it must have been to have the Lord God Himself visibly guiding you both day and night! By staying focused on the Lord, God’s people always had the guidance that they needed for the journey they were taking! What an awesome blessing that must have been!

In addition to guiding His people the Lord God also protected His people. By the time God’s people arrived at the Red Sea the mighty Egyptian army was closing in behind them. So what did God do? Scripture tells us, “Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel” (Exodus 14:19, 20). Again, you know what happened next. God parted the waters of the Red Sea, allowed the Israelites to cross over on dry ground and then caused the water to come crashing down on the Egyptian army when they tried to pursue the Israelites. Imagine how awesome it must have been to walk across the Red Sea with a wall of water on both sides of you! Imagine how awesome it must have been to see how the Lord God protected you from your enemies! But there is more!

In addition to the awesome things God had done for His people— guiding them and protecting them in truly awesome ways!— God also provided for their physical needs— in truly awesome ways! He provided “bread from heaven” in the morning and quail at night. He provided water that flowed from a rock. And as awesome as all of this was, the most awesome part of it all is found in Paul’s words, “They drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” Under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit Paul reveals to the Corinthians and he reveals to us that all of these awesome blessings— the pillar of cloud, the pillar of fire, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna, the quail, the water— these were all blessings that came from “the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” What a truly awesome blessing!

Did God’s people always stand in awe of all the blessings the Lord God had granted to them? No, they did not. That sad reality is brought out in Paul’s mournful statement, “Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.” As you know, only Caleb and Joshua were allowed to enter into the Promised Land. All the other Israelites over the age of twenty perished in the desert. Why? Because of their unfaithfulness and their disobedience. Instead of standing in awe of God’s blessings they grumbled and complained and took God’s blessings for granted.

The awesome blessings that God gave to His people of old easily remind us of the awesome blessings that God gives to us! While we do not have a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire to guide us on our journey through this world, we do have God’s holy, inspired and inerrant Word! The guidance that God gives to us through His holy Word is like a “lamp for our feet and a light for our path” (Psalm 119:105). The guidance that God gives to us through His holy revealed Word is what keeps us on the “narrow road” that leads us to eternal life in heaven. (See Matthew 7:13, 14).

Do we stand in awe of the blessing of God’s holy Word? Is our personal Bible reading high on our daily priority list? Where do we place church attendance on our weekly priority list? Do we gladly come to church because we are in awe of the spiritual blessings God gives to us here in His house? Or do we reluctantly attend church because that is what we are “supposed” to do or because that is where we get to visit with our family and our friends? Those are questions we would all do well to ask ourselves as we strive to always stand in awe of God’s spiritual blessings to us!

In addition to the awesome blessing of guidance that our God gives to us in His holy Word, we also receive His awesome blessing of protection. Think about it. God uses His holy angels to guard and to protect and to serve us. (See Psalm 91:9-12; Matthew 18:10; Hebrews 1:14) God uses the Truth of Scripture to guard and protect the gift of saving faith that He has created in our hearts. God uses the Sacrament of Holy Communion to protect us from the devil’s accusations that we are “too sinful” to be forgiven, “too sinful” to ever live with God in heaven.

Do we stand in awe of these awesome spiritual blessings, or do we take them for granted? Do we maintain regular contact with the spiritual food that God has given to us to strengthen and nourish our soul, or do we all too often put our soul on a spiritual starvation diet through sporadic attendance at church and infrequent reception of the Lord’s holy Supper? We need to be careful, my friends. We need to be careful that we do not allow our soul to “perish” in the “wilderness” of this spiritually dry world.

That warning ties in well with the warning that Paul gives to us in verses eleven and twelve of our text. He writes, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”

The Holy Spirit had Moses record Israel’s sins so that they would serve as examples for all those who would come after them— including us! If we fail or if we refuse to learn from the generations who have preceded us, if we simply ignore what they teach us about the wages of sin— that is utter foolishness. More than that, if we fail or if we refuse to learn from the history of God’s people— that is the height of conceit!

The Holy Spirit has Paul warn us that pride goes before the fall. To look at all of these warnings and say, “That could never happen to me!” is eternally dangerous. If we think that we most certainly do not have the weaknesses that God’s people have revealed in the past— that is proof that we do! When we stop being humble, when we stop being repentant, when we stop standing in awe of the spiritual blessings our Savior has given to us (Pointing to the cross) we run the very real risk of stopping to be the children of God. When we take pride in ourselves, when we elevate ourselves over other people because in our estimation we haven’t murdered anyone, we haven’t stolen anything, we haven’t been unfaithful to our spouse, when we convince ourselves that we don’t need to come to church because we already know what we need to know about Jesus— then we run the risk of being disciplined or perhaps even punished by God. We need to be careful my friends. We need to be careful that we do not lose our “awe” concerning Who our God is and what our God has done for us! (Pointing to the cross)

To help us maintain our awe concerning Who our God is and what our God has done for us, the Holy Spirit has Paul say to us in the closing verse of our text, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

One of the most awesome blessings we have been given centers on the faithfulness of the Lord our God. Over and over again God’s Old Testament children were tempted to sin against God. Over and over again God’s people chose to give in to those temptations. Over and over again God’s people deserved to be rejected by God. But over and over again God’s faithfulness led Him to call His children to repentance and forgive them.

It’s not difficult to see how this applies to us, is it. God never promised us that we would never be tempted. In fact, God knows just how often we are tempted! But God has made two awesome promises to us. First, God has promised us that every “temptation,” every “period of testing,” every “trial” we face is “common to man.” In other words God has promised us that we will not face something that no one has ever faced— and overcome!— before! Our “trials,” our “periods of testing,” our “temptations” are “characteristic” of being human.

Second, God has promised us that whenever He allows a “trial,” a “temptation,” a “test” to come into our life He will not only make sure that we “are not tempted beyond what we can bear,” but He will also “provide a way out so that we can stand up under it.” I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life when I think that God has given me more than I can “bear.” But as I look back on those times I can now see that God did indeed keep His promise and provided me with “a way out.”

What is that “way out”? Sometimes God provides a “way out” by giving us the spiritual strength to face that temptation head on and conquer it! Think of when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. How did Jesus conquer those temptations? He used the power of God’s written revealed Word— the same awesome Word, the same awesome “sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17) that is at our disposal!

Sometimes the “way out” that God provides to us is exactly that— an “exit ramp” so to speak. God can use our conscience to convince us that as a child of God we have no business being in a certain place or being in a certain situation or being with certain people and we need to leave! Leave that group of people! Leave that place! Maybe even leave that job before it damages our relationship with Him! (Pointing to the cross)

Sometimes the “way out” that God provides to us is by having someone “discover” what we are doing. While it may be embarrassing when this happens we are to see this as a “way out” that God has given to us. That person can now lead us to repent of our sin. That person can now help us to avoid that sin in the future.

This brings us back to the awesome truth that “God is faithful.” God’s goal is to always bring us closer and closer to Him. God’s goal is to one day bring us home to heaven where we will live in His presence for all of eternity! That truly is an awesome spiritual blessing!

On our way home from Michigan last week we had to cross the Golden Gate bridge. Since I was not driving I was able to look around at the view. That’s when I realized that while the Golden Gate bridge, the view of San Franciso Bay and the view of Alcatraz is still quite impressive, it no longer fills me with an overwhelming sense of awe.

We cannot allow that to happen to us in our spiritual lives, my friends. The blessings that the good Lord has graciously granted to us are and will always be the most awesome blessings we will ever receive. May God grant that no matter how many times we come into contact with God’s holy Word and God’s holy Supper, no matter how many times God guides us and protects us as we journey through this world, no matter how many times we lift up our eyes to His cross and remember what He has done for us— may God grant that we will always stand in awe of God’s spiritual blessings to us!

To God be the glory!

Amen