Act Like Men: Watchful. Faithful. Strong & Courageous. Love 1 Cor 16:13-14

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Stand Still and Die!

In 1852, the troopship Birkenhead struck on a sunken rock off the African coast; she had on board over 400 English soldiers of the 12th Lancers and other regiments, along with them 124 women and children. As the boat slowly sank, the women and children were ushered into lifeboats. As the boats shoved off safely, the men, drawn up by their officers as on parade, stood at attention without a murmur, and went down with the sinking ship.
The word of command was given by Major Seton, “Stand still, and die like Englishmen;” and those four hundred and fifty-four men went down to their sea-grave that day in soldierly order, firm, steady, and satisfied, since there was only room in the boats for the women and little ones.
Men, I think all of us in this room would agree that if the time comes where we have to lay everything on the line for the weak and vulnerable, we would have the courage to do it; that we would not pass the buck onto the next man, and God forbid the women and the children. And yet, that seems to be what are doing as a society today.
More and more men are not leading in the three spheres of life: the church, community, and home. Bill O’reilly when he was with Fox News, said, “This generation is seeing the largest voluntary absence of men in the home.” Meaning, we are seeing men either leaving their home or not engaged with their more now than when there is a crisis of war or unemployment. There was a time when men were prominent in all levels of eduction. There are over 3. 8 million teachers currently employed in the United States. 74.3% of all teachers are women, while 25.7% are men. Since the year 2,000, women principals have steadily increased to 55%. Moreover, most of us in the church realize that things are not much different in the church. One survey revealed that an average American congregation is roughly 61% female and 39% male. There shar absence of men in the church assumes the women must bear the responsibility of leadership. Its as if the men of our society rushed first to get into the boats while the ship sinks with the women and the children.

Toxic Masculinity

Some would rightly argue that our culture does not lend itself to kindly to male leadership. Any time a man takes initiative or asserts himself with any amount of testosterone, even in a chivalry, is seen by our culture as toxic or misogynistic. Toxic masculinity is the buzz word for any young man who is charmed by a young woman’s beauty enough to honor her by opening the door for her, only to be accused of objectifying her. That is a reality for men today.
There is another reality that has existed a lot longer and has been far more predominant in the hearts of our men; the sin of passivity. Since the fall of Adam in the Garden, men have been passive, passing the buck, to the detriment of their families and communities.
For example,
In Genesis 2:17, God promised Adam that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. As we all know, Eve is deceived in Genesis 3 by the Serpent. Adam is not mentioned by the author of Genesis until Gen 3:6, to which Eve gave some of the forbidden fruit to her husband, and the way the text reads it assumes Adam was close to Eve. Adam sat by and watched the Serpent take advantage of his wife knowing what they were doing would bring certain death.
Later on in the story, God comes looking for Adam and Eve. They are hiding in the shrubbery afraid of God. When God asked them, “who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the forbidden tree? What does Adam do? He passes the buck onto his wife.
Genesis 3:12 ESV
12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Adam knew full well that the consequence for his actions was death. Instead putting Eve on the life boat while went down with the ship, he threw her on the alter of God’s judgement to save himself. You might be thinking, “Well that was just Adam.” No sir, all men are contaminated with sin and the desire to pass the buck. Abraham did the same thing to Sarai, his wife. She was very beautiful. Abram thought that the king of Egypt would kill him to have her. So he told her to say that she was his sister. Think Sarah was his sister, Pharoah took Sarah into his harem as his wife. Although Abram was treated nice and was given all kinds of wealth, he compromised the linage of the Messiah and the lively hood of his wife foe his own sake (Gen 12:10-20). Abram did this, not just once, but twice (Gen 20:1-7). Would you believe his son Isaac did the same thing (Gen 26:6-30)?
Men, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We miss God’s mark of holiness and righteousness, and we miss the mark of being good men, good fathers, and good sons. We are prone to pass the buck to escape the wages of sin, which is death-eternal judgement, God’s condemnation. The Bible says,
Hebrews 9:27 ESV
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
There will come a day when you will not be able to pass the buck. God will judge your sin of passivity. He knows every time you rejected hIm and your responsibility to glorify him by loving your wife, discipling your children, serving your community, and leading in your church. All who enter eternity in their sin, will pay for their sin in hell. But God, however, sees your plight, sees your death, sees your weakness, sees your Adam like tendencies, and offers you a gift.
Romans 6:23 ESV
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God is a good father who refused to give up his love and desire to save his elect. Jesus refused to pass the back of his God ordained responsibility to do whatever it took to save sinners like you and me. Jesus put on flesh, lived a perfect life, and did not do what Adam did. He did not through his wife, His bride, the church on the alter of God’s judgement. He provided a lifeboat to place every sinner who repents for salvation. The lifeboat is his cross. Jesus went down with the ship. He died on the cross, as your substitute, taking your sin with him and in return giving you his righteousness. But he did not stay down. He resurrected from the dead, conquering death, and ensuring your eternal life. He is alive now, sitting at the right hand of the Father, praying for you and I, awaiting to come back to gather us. To be in the lifeboat you must confess hour sin, repent, and trust Jesus for your salvation. That is trust that God will accept his sacrifice on your behalf. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. You will be adopted as sons and given the power to show up and man up.
When you accept Jesus as your Savior, he does not leave you powerless. He ascended into heaven so that He could pour out his Spirit into all who believe upon Him. Everyone who accepts Christ, who is adopted into God’s family, is baptized in the Spirit. He empowers you to live the Godly life he lived. Filled with the Spirit, you have the power to die to yourself, to take up your cross and follow Jesus. You have the power to do what Paul calls every man to do in the church, community, and home.
1 Corinthians 16:13–14 ESV
13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love.
Men, its time to start owning our God-given masculinity and leadership. Paul offers you four points of application.

Be Watchful

To be watchful is a military term. It conveys the idea of a soldier keeping watch over his patrol. to be alert in regard to influences that would corrode the truth. The Corinthian church was to relaxed on its morality. It was allowing pagan culture to creep in and define sexuality, right and wrong, and even truth. Paul warned them to not become too relaxed about sin and temptation. The true Christian life is the life of the soldier on the field who, to survive, must “stay alert.” (Adams, Jay E. 2020. I Corinthians and II Corinthians. The Christian Counselor’s Commentary. Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies). Francis de Sales wisely warns to be watchful of our passions for Jesus. He says,

It often happens that our passions slumber and become torpid, and if, while they are in this state, we do not lay in a supply of strength to enable us to fight and resist them when they wake up again, we shall be worsted in the battle.” Francis de Sales

Stand firm in the Faith

Using another military metaphor, Paul implores the men to “stand firm” in the faith. By faith he means the gospel. Do not lose ground in the midst fierce battle. Do not lose ground on your doctrinal convictions about God, Jesus, salvation, about the truth. There is not such thing a your truth. All genuine truth is God’s truth. You live in the truth and you die in a lie. There is no place to live in wishful thinking. Don’t lie to yourselves. Stand firm in the truth. Also, stand firm in your standards for the church, community, and home. The Corinthians were being conformed into the pattern of Rome more than being transformed into the image of Jesus. Rather than “taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5), they were more likely to allow their thoughts (and actions) to be taken captive by Roman or Corinthian values and perspectives. (Ciampa, Roy E., and Brian S. Rosner. 2010. The First Letter to the Corinthians. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. )
Men, fight for what you allow in your home. Guard your phone, your t.v. your laptop. Do not give any ground to the values and norms of Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, or Prime T.V. Do not allow deception to creep into your children and grandchildren. Stand firm in the gospel.

Be Strong and Courageous

The phrase “act like men” means to be courageous. In antiquity, to be courageous was synonomous to being a man. Little boys looked to their daddies to as examples of courage. Wives expected their husbands to be courageous. The community depended on men to act like men in order to defend and protect their community. Men were pillars of strength. They were resolute in their convictions and raises their boys to be the same.
To be courageous is to faithfully carry out one’s responsibilities even in the face of extreme danger and frightening circumstances. To be courageous is not to give in to fear or hopelessness or to let them interfere with one’s duty. (Ciampa, Roy E., and Brian S. Rosner. 2010. The First Letter to the Corinthians. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.) The Christian faith is a war time faith. It is your duty as a Christian man to disciple your children, shepherd your wife, serve in your church, and share the gospel in your community. Courage is not an absence of fear, but a in spite of fear a determination to act virtuously.
G.K Chesterton understands the tension inside of courage. He says,
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. —G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
G. K. Chesterton

Do everything in love

Love is the thread that sows all of these together. It is the bedrock form which you build your house. It is the living stream of water you drink from fro refreshment and you pour out to refresh others. Strength, courage, faith, and watchfulness are nothing but an opportunity for tyranny if they are not governed by love.
Love is the theme that Paul works into every aspect of his moral teaching in his letter to the Corinthians. It shows up in chapter 8:1 and is the epicenter of Pauls point in chapters 12-14 being Chapter 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Men, if you do all of these wonderful acts, even if you are the exemplar of watchfulness, faithfulness, strength and courage, if these are not done out of love for God and your neighbor, they are worthless in the eyes of the King. Roy Ciampa notes that, “God is glorified when people act in love, when they put the welfare of others first and worship God in a way that is consistent with his own character. Self-sacrificing love is the model given to us by Christ and the key to the health and growth of his church, community, and home.
Most of us will not have to go down with the ship while we wacth the women and children boat toward safety. But our lives should reflect the same kind of courage everyday with our wives and children. The little boys in those boats who watched those men sacrifice themselves for the love and care of others were branded with an example of what courage motivated by love looks like. The little boys in our lives should be able to look at us and see the same love and courage because we are looking to Jesus as our example. Jesus died for you to demonstrate his love for you. He calls you to do the same everyday with your life. Die to self. Give your life as a ransom so others can know the joy of Jesus. Do everything in love. Be watchful in love, be faithful in love, be string and courageous as God ordained men in love, in love of your friends and your enemies.
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