Message Notes

Senior Sunday School 4 January 2026

Text: 1 Corinthians 5

Subject: “Sexual immorality”

Lesson #26

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!

2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed.

4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1 Corinthians 5:1-5

INTRODUCTION

1. A peculiar problem of sexual immorality in the Corinthian Church

2. This was reported to the Apostle Paul

3. This problem had to be dealt with effectively

REPORTING OF THE PROBLEM

1. The problem was reported to the Apostle Paul

a) He was the founder of the Church at Corinth

b) He was also an apostle with special apostolic authority

c) To make this report is correct

d) Evil must be dealt with effectively

2. The local Church Community

a) The leaders

b) The members

c) They did not deal with the problem adequately

A CANDID ASSESSMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1. A man was having an affair

2. This illicit relationship was with his father’s wife

a) Not his mother

This would be called “incest”

b) It was his step-mother

Probably a younger woman

3. Paul responded swiftly with this remark

a) Not even among the Gentiles (non-believers)

Even non-believers would not commit such sins easily

b) Yet the Corinthian Church had this problem

4. The response of the Corinthian Church

a) They were puffed up with arrogance

b) They had not mourned

c) They had not called for the church community to exercise discipline of the wrong-doers

d) The least that should have been done would have been to put away such a person

e) The church failed to respond to this heinous problem of immorality

THE APOSTOLIC JUDGMENT OF PAUL

1. Judgment was made in absentia

2. There was an invocation of the name of the Lord Jesus

a) The name and power of the Lord Jesus were invoked

b) Apostolic authority was declared

3. The judgment proclaimed

a) The unrepentant church member was to be ex-communicated

b) He was to be “delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh”

c) Perhaps, his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus’ Return

LESSONS FOR US TO PONDER OVER

1. To understand Apostolic authority

a) The authority to judge

b) The power to excommunicate

2. To understand what it means

a) To be the Temple of God

b) To uphold the purity and holiness of the Temple

3. To understand the complex problems that would arise

a) If sin is not dealt with effectively

b) This problem would severely harm the credibility of the church