Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Opening Illustration: Well Done Good & Faithful Servant

There is a story told in the Gospel of Matthe w, in chapter 25.

A very memorable passage in which Jesus teaches the Parable of the Talents.

To paraphrase, Jesus likens the final judgment of mankind to a story of a man who entrusted the assets of his estate to servants of his to manage while he was gone.

To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent.

The master goes on the journey and returns and questions his servants of what they have done with the master’s wealth while he was away.

The master discovers that while he was gone the servants who had been entrusted with the two larger portions had doubled the money in his absence.

They had invested it wisely.

To each of them, the Master says

Matthew 25:21 “21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.

Enter into the joy of your master.’”

The third servant however begins to make an excuse of why the single talent he was given had not produced anything.

He says,

Matthew 25:24-26 “24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.

Here, you have what is yours.’

26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant!

You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?”

Personal

Every follower of Christ has been called a servant of Christ.

Servants are those who have been instructed with a very particular set of responsibliity upon which they will be judged.

Every Christian has been given varying degrees of talents to be invested in this life.

Varying degrees of money to steward, relationships to steward, gifting to steward, responsibilities to steward.

Christians are called to invest the Lord’s resources.

How are you investing what God has entrusted you with?

Is the allocation of Kingdom assets that has bestowed upon you bearing fruit for the King?

Or are his talents lying buried, just wasting away?

Context

Today we continue through 1 Corinthians.

If you recall last week we began this section in chatpers 3 & 4 where Paul looks at the main issues that were causing division and partisanship in the Church.

And last week we saw that much of what was traced to an unholy vision of Church Leadership, an obsession personalities within the Church that was leading to a divided body.

And Paul reminded them that they are the New Temple, where the glory of God dwells, and that within the Church it is infantile to place too great a sense of worth on any one person.

Rather we are the body of Christ, each person vitally responsible for the furthering of the Kingdom.

Today he develops this theme a little further.

The main idea of chapter 4 is ‘Strive for that ‘Well done good & faithful servant’.

How do we do that?

I want to pull from this text three Reflections on Living as faithful servants.

Reflection 1: Faithful Servants Live With an Audience of One (1-7)

First, faithful stewards live with an audience of one.

1 Corinthians 4:1-7 “1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.

In fact, I do not even judge myself.

4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.

It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.

Then each one will receive his commendation from God. 6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

7 For who sees anything different in you?

What do you have that you did not receive?

If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not recei…”

Faithful Servants & Stewards (1-2)

Right in the initial verse of this chapter we see Paul identifying himself with two very similar and yet distinct terms.

He calls himself a servant of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God.

A servant is one who does the work the master asks him to do.

A healthy servant does not double guess the master, he does not partially serve the master but partially serve his own agenda.

A servant’s work is to do whatever the master tells him to do.

The second term steward refers to a person who has been assigned both assets and a particular responibility with those assets.

Another term similar to stewards is manager.

Stewards manage the master’s resources.

This is why in verse 2 Paul says they must be found faithful.

Faithfulness in this sense has one definition.

A faithful servant, and a faithful steward must manage the master’s resources according to the Master’s wishes.

The Only Thing That Matters is What God Thinks of Me (3-4)

In verse 3-5 Paul develops this idea of being found faithful.

Apparently there were some in Corinth who at least in some degree were accusing Paul of being unfaithful.

They were judging him according to some standard that they had set.

They looked at his ministry and said , “he’s not cutting it.”

Perhaps that is how some of the divisions began in the first place.

I love the strength of this man’s character.

Only a person who is deeply rooted in Jesus can do what Paul does with that idea.

In verse 3 he says, “What they think about me, means nothing to me.”

Then in verse 4 he says, “What I think about me, means nothing to me.”

Neither their opinion (which is probably skewed one way), nor my opinion (which is probably a little skewed the other way) means anything.

The only thing I’m concerned about is God’s judgment over my life.

I have an audience of one.

God Will Have His Day In Court (5)

And he culminates this idea in verse 5 by saying that at the end of the day, God is going to have his day in court.

I’ll be held accountable to him for what I did with the time I had on this Earth.

I’ll be held accountable for how I spent my money, how I used the gifts he gave me, how I invested in people, how I cared for the poor, the orphan, the vulnerable.

Whether or not anybody thinks I’m doing a good job of balancing all the responsibilities I have, says Paul, makes no difference to me.

All that matters is that one day, I’m going to stand before my holy God.

And on that day I will be found righteous not because of my performance, but because of the free gift of grace offered to me by Jesus Christ on the cross.

My salvation is secure.

But beyond my salvation the Lord will judge the inner purposes of my heart.

He will lay my motivations out, and what I did with everything he gave me.

And whether or not I receive greater or lesser reward for the work I do is not dependent on you or me.

It is depedent on the Lord, who judges according to His standard.

Who Sees Anything Different In You

I love how he closes this section.

He says, “I’ve tried to apply these principles in my life.”

But then he turns it on them and says in verse, “When you behave as our human judgment of each other is the defining motivation of your life, “who sees antything different in you?”

In other words there are two mistakes we can make, two sides of the same coin, that will hinder greatly your saltiness to the world around you.

On the one hand when you judge according to man made human standards, you play the same game as the world around you.

On the other hand, when you seek to people please and play into their judgments, you play the same game as the world around you.

Illustration: New Philosophy: Comparing Ourselves to Others

I was reading recently of a new movement among philosophers.

Philosophers are always debating what are the primary driving motivations of humans.

Why do we behave the way we behave.

One of the newer movements is that deep down inside each of us, the primary motivator that drives why we behave the we behave in all of our decision making, is one thing, Comparing ourselves to others.

Essentially what that says is that which we are worshiping in reality, is the opinions of others and the opinions of ourselves as we compare ourselves to others.

When I read that, there is something inside of me that says, “That’s probably not too far off.”