1 Corinthians 4:1-21
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Servants of Christ
Servants of Christ
We have been talking lately about legacies. Paul has been reminding us that he may have planted and Apollos may have watered but it was Christ who was causing the growth. Paul reminds us who is the object of our praise and affection, and it isn’t earthly teachers. God is demonstrating His power and wisdom by choosing the weak and foolish to carry out His plans. The Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of God’s people calling us to contribute to the household of faith. The foundation for our faith is Christ and Christ crucified, but what we contribute to our faith lays the building blocks to spiritual maturity. When tests come we will see what is found to be precious verses what is burned by the fire.
If it isn’t about our legacy, how should we see each other?
Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
When we think about identity and trying to understand who we are there is so much the Bible has to say about it. Identity is one of the easiest ways satan can attack us. If he can get us to believe something that is untrue about ourselves or about others he can jack up our whole world view.
Who am I? What am I alive?
I am a servant of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God.
The word servant used here is a little different than ones we have seen used in the past. This word is used everywhere else as the word officer. Paul here is almost calling us soldiers or guards and stewards of the mysteries of God. There is an aspect of defense that Paul describes here. This isn’t saying we should take up arms against infidels. This isn’t a call to holy war. The way we guard the Gospel is not with swords and shields but in how we live our lives.
Is my life a living defense for the Gospel?
I love this question. It is such a great question. Our lives are living testimonies to the Gospel and to the power and wisdom of God. When people look at our lives do they see God’s wisdom and God’s power demonstrated and lifted up or do they see a bunch of people doing things in their own strength and poorly representing Christ?
One of the best defenses I have for my faith is my grandparents. Their walk with Christ was evidence to me that Jesus is real. They weren’t perfect, but they were authentic in their faith. Their lives were a testimony to the Holy Spirit at work in them.
Who in your life as been an example of authentic faith?
What do we do when these great guards of the faith in our life fail?
In some ways I am doing the thing that Paul directly tells us not to do. And I don’t mean to be irresponsible, but I do think it is easy to see how quickly we can go right back to honoring people who are just regular people.
We have to remember that our faith is not in mankind’s ability to follow Jesus. Instead our faith is in Jesus who makes mankind able to follow Him. We do our best to serve Christ knowing that we will never do it perfectly and that there is grace for every failing.
Paul calls us stewards of the mysteries of God. The Gospel is never to be something used for profit or leverage over people. We are to steward it well. To protect it and defend its accuracy but also we are to share as often as we can.
I think of the parable of the talents. The master gave out talents to all his servants. All of them doubled and tripled the investment except one who buried it in the ground. He could have put it in the bank and received interest but instead he hid the talent. As stewards of the Gospel we cannot hide the good news that Christ has tasked us with proclaiming.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
The world needs unashamed stewards who defend the faith in the way they live their lives.
How do we remain faithful as servants and stewards of Christ?
This is the question of the hour. One of my biggest fears in ministry is that I won’t be above reproach. I fear I will blow up my ministry and let everyone down. It is almost a daily fear that I have. I see all these people around me having affairs and abusing their churches and it almost feels like something every pastor is doomed to repeat.
Absolutely it is not. Every single pastor that blows up his church does so because of decisions he has made throughout his ministry. Nobody accidentally has an affair. These are choices being made. Shortcuts being taken. Pastors opporating with no accountability. Paul reminds us that all of us are held accountable for the way we live our lives.
In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.
But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.
For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.
Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.
A man’s intentions will be revealed. There is no hiding from God. He knows not only the actions of mankind but the motives of their hearts as well. A pastor may be able to maintain appearances for a time with his congregation, but there is no hiding from God who sees all. Paul’s prayer is that Christ would continue to search our hearts. Human accountability is essential, but we can hide things from eachother. We need the Holy Spirit to see even the places we cannot see for ourselves. We need the Spirit to clean house. Expose those secret places in our heart so that we can repent and grow in our faith and testimony.
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
I don’t have to be afraid of the future because I am begging God to show me my sin and to soften my heart. When I stop looking to repent. When I start keeping secrets and hiding from the Spirit’s direction in my life I am a ticking time bomb.
I am not living my life for man’s approval. I am living for God’s approval. That is what I desperately want in my marriage, my ministry, as a father. I don’t want man’s praise I want my King’s.
Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.
For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
Paul is preparing a future generation of Christians to carry the torch after he has passes. Paul’s greatest concern is that within the church, they will elevate human teachers to a position of authority beyond what is taught in Scripture. A fear that they might not only boast of their accomplishments but even begin to pray to them, or say that they were infalible, or say that the church was built on a single apostle rather than Christ. We are all of equal standing in the faith. Regardless of Spiritual maturity we are all disciples of the master. Arogance and exaltation of human leaders creates division. We don’t have to look hard at church history to see that Paul knew exactly what he was talking about. The dangers Paul sought to prevent are exactly what happened in church history.
You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.
For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.
Paul’s hope for this next generation, like any father, is to give them a better life than what he had. This generation is getting all the Spiritual blessings and getting to have relationship with Christ much sooner than Paul did. They are getting to raise their families in Christ. By the grace of God Paul hopes they will be able to accomplish far more than even he and the other apostles were able to accomplish. As Christianity grows the specticle of the faith is decreasing. As more people grow and grow and grow thier dependancy on the apostles is fading. Which is a good thing! That means the faith is growing up. The Apostles labored diligently so that the next generation would be able to not just survive but would thrive under Christ. This is the hope for every generation. This is why I love to work with students. I want to see the next generation of the church healthier and stronger than my generation could ever be. Paul and the other apostles were figuring it all out on the go, but the next generation is building and continuing Christ’s work and the work of the apotles.
We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor.
To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless;
and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure;
when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.
Paul is explaining how difficult the road has been for the Apostles. He is not doing this to boast in his labor or make Corinth feel guilty. He is explaining what selfless ministry looks like. Spiritual fathers sacrifice to see thier kids succeed. The hours we put in studying the hours we spend in prayer are not just for our benefit. We do these things so the next generation has someone to build them up in the faith.
Hard times make strong men - Strong men make good times - Good times make weak men - Weak men make hard times
The apostles were strong men, not because of anything they did, but because the Holy Spirit was working through them in hard times.
I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.
Paul’s goal is not to shame the Corinthians but to warn them. He is writing to them as a Father writing to his children. He is not trying to raise weak men of the faith. He wants the next generation to be strong and mighty in the Lord, but they are getting off to a rough start. Paul isn’t writing as a tutor or a teacher. The faith isn’t a form of academia like Plato and Socrates. This is about fathers and sons. Mothers and daughters. The body of Christ is a family.
Paul says Im not just a teacher to you. You aren’t just another student I grade papers for. You are my kids. My sons and daughters and I urge you, be imitators of me.
Reread the paragraph before. What is Paul asking them to imitate?
When I became a dad, all the things my dad tried to get me to understand started to make sense. All the ways he did things started to click in my brain and I started to find myself doing and saying the same things he did without noticing. As a father in the faith Paul is doing the same things. Throughout the rest of this letter you are going to hear Paul correct a lot of Corinth’s behavior but it is all done in love. Like a father pulling his son aside and saying, “don’t you know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Son this isn’t beneficial. Son the way you are living and the choices you are making are hurtin the poeple around you. You need to knock it off.”
Be an imitator of me. That’s discipleship. Follow me as I follow Christ.
What would it look like for you to be a father in the faith?
For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
Paul sends Timothy to deliver this letter. Usually he saves this stuff til the end but he puts it in here to drive this home. Timothy is a second generation Christian of whom Paul sees as a son in the faith. Timothy is the template for Corinth in a way. His being there is an encouragement in that Paul means what he is saying here. He isn’t being fake about what he is telling them. Paul loves this church like any other church. He doesn’t play favorites.
Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power.
For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.
What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?
Paul says I am a father to you and you are a son to me, now come here and take this whoopin’. He says we are going to figure this out now through a letter and if you don’t think I’m serious you are about to see I mean business. You can keep being arrogant punks and catch these hands or you can listen to what your dad tells you and we can just have fun and talk love and gentleness. The choice is yours.
