The Chapter One: The Fathers Dilemma

I. The Corinthians had it all. The Apostle Paul Planted them, they had teachers like Apollos, Peter must have come to see about the work and in doing so have taught them.

a. The Apostle Paul Planted them. (NKJV) Ministering at Corinth 18 After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. 3 So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. 5 When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. 6 But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7 And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. 8 Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. 9 Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” 11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12 When Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, 13 saying, “This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” 14 And when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crimes, O Jews, there would be reason why I should bear with you. 15 But if it is a question of words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves; for I do not want to be a judge of such matters.” 16 And he drove them from the judgment seat. 17 Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. But Gallio took no notice of these things.

b. Apollos was a teacher in the Corinthian Church. (NKJV)Paul Returns to Antioch 18 So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He had his hair cut off at Cenchrea, for he had taken a vow. 19 And he came to Ephesus and left them there; but he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay a longer time with them, he did not consent, 21 but took leave of them, saying, “I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem; but I will return again to you, God willing.” And he sailed from Ephesus.22 And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up and greeted the church, he went down to Antioch. 23 After he had spent some time there, he departed and went over the region of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples. Notice the Apostolic team.

c. Peter must have been there for some to say, “I’m of Cephas.” (NKJV)12 Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Notice the Unity.

d. The Church was full of the Word and Spiritual gifts. With all this favor and charismatic experience, you would think they where a model however they were not, rather, they where a mess. They confessed their gifting with there identity. Evidently so many of the Corinthian believers Prophesied and spoke in tongues they thought those gifts elevated them.

e. Their use of Charismatic giftings as Identity rather than use for the body caused confusion and indecency in congregational gatherings.

f. Its in this setting that our beloved apostle wrote: (NKJV) 4 I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. 15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me. 17 For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. Timothy, was son first; teacher pastor second. The apostle speaks to them as a spiritual father and sends to them a son to remind them into spiritual truth.

g. The Apostle Paul is not on some ego trip of spiritual stardom by pleading with a group of Christians to become His fallowers, the Apostle Paul is well aware of His own Identity saying later in the same letter (NKJV) 9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

h. Paul knew who he was and why he was given a place in God. It was the Corinthian church that was not receiving calls fatherhood and had no true father to follow. As long as a congregational ministry stays out of God’s order, the people will have disorder and lack identity. If we’re without a father, we had no name, no identity, no heritage, no inheritance, and no true brethren.

i. The order of God and his kingdom is the order of father and son. All rights to a chaotic charismatic culture as a father to sons since Timothy as a model of what his son in the ministry is really like. The apostle then says this is part of Paul’s “ways would she be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church.” If we’re going to find our way out of this confusion, we need to find God’s way in the kingdom.

j. We must return to God’s principle of father and son. This truth was lost in the church because we model our relationships according to the modern practices of business management instead of following biblical pattern. We hire pastors and leaders to perform certain functions within an organizational structure that mirrors the operation of the chicken or hamburger franchise more than spiritual truth.

II. Biblical patterns not burger franchises!

a. Today a local church will associate with a large ministry or its denominational headquarters and serve as a franchise representative about well-known product line.

b. The local church receives its name, its logo, and its organizational security by attaching itself to a nationally known “chain.” Pastors become CEOs of these locally run out post that a higher assistant managers to perform in specific areas: visitation, music, youth, office administration, etc. This results in more business and recruitment of new customers who support more buildings and better locations. We call this church. Growth we call this success. But what does God call it?

c. We do things God never told us to do. God never told us to form ourselves by the nation of the world. He never said to develop systems the divine truth into separate camps by neighboring and numbering people. We make our denominations so we can appear like all other nations. The organizations of God’s kingdom should model after his word, not the principles of this world. The church is more than a franchise on a street corner; it’s more than a preachers union. The church is to be the representative of the King of truth in the earth.

d. A relationships and ministries are based on voting processes of majority rule instead of God’s will worship. Authority flows from “headquarters,” a disconnected part of headship that substitutes politics and organizational authority for familial dependence. The covering ministry has become a legal façade, not a true garment for a priest.

e. Those who have figured out that denominations are not the answer move to fellowship. They commit the same practices. Shakespeare said a rose by any other name is still the same.

f. Father God does not call us his ambassadors, or ministers he calls us his Children.

III. When we follow earthly Patterns, we get un Biblical Generations

a. when God’s people refuse to follow his order, the judgment they receive is a lack of any order and loss of truth and revelation. When the excellency of God’s word is not applied to the church, then the excellency that comes from God is removed from the church.

b. (). For behold the Lord of host, dust take away from Jerusalem and Judah this day and the staff, the whole stay of brand, and the whole stay of water. The mighty man, and the man-of-war, the judge and the profit, the prudent in the ancient, the captain of the fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, and the coming artificer, the eloquent orator.

c. This prophecy reflects the situation in 606 BC when Nebuchadnezzar took all the treasure and the people from Judah into Babylon. For instance the prophet Daniel and his three friends were some of the princes and mighty men who were removed as leaders from Israel at the time (see two kings 24:13-16). Because of Israel sin, will relive excellence from the supply of leadership is judgment to turn the remnant from going into further transgression and deeper judgment. God will always remove the best in order to bring the rest into alignment with his purpose.

d. Where is the power of God in the church today? Where are the money men, the apostles and prophets of your who spoke and nations trembled? God is taken away his excellence from us so that we returned to his way.

e. God desires to fully restore the church to the kingdom “he taketh away the first that he may establish the second (: 9B).

f. God takes away the mature leadership, which results in a loss of excellence in leadership.

g. (). And I will give children to be there princes, and babies shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor: the child shareable behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the based against the honorable. When the people of God refuse maturity in Christ, they are judged by losing maturity and having immature individuals in leadership positions. The fathers are replaced with children!

h. When Paul tells the Corinthians they have “10,000 instructors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers” (first Corinthians 4:15), he is referring to the root of their problem: a lack of mature father leadership instead of having many fathers, they had 10,000 instructors.

i. The word for instructor here is paidagogos, which means “boy-leader.” This term refers to a servant’s official position was to make sure children went to school. Ross fathers were substituted by their higher servants unrelated to the spiritual inheritance.

j. Today there are 10,000s of ministry people who have been educated in the finest schools. Many have supplemented their formal education through audiotapes and videotapes as well as through books and magazines from qualified scholarly sources. Voters of Florida the material available, there are precious drops of the power manifest. We reach millions with information, but without spiritual relationship impartation of truth is not given and received.

k. The reason we have not seen the manifestation of power in biblical proportion is because we’re not giving and receiving impartation by biblical pattern. We have 10,000 “boy-leaders” in Christ, but not many fathers.

l. One of the results of a fatherless church is oppression. Isaiah said, “and the people shall be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the based against the honorable” ().

m. A family without a father suffers financially, socially, and psychologically, as well as spiritually. The pressure on single mothers and fatherless children is oppressive. When a father is not present in a home to train the child in matters of the Lord, the heart of the children turned outrage in the dishonor authority (see through four). The oppression occurs when immature rulers service babysitters over congregations, leading people without having any true vision. Where there is no vision the people perish ().

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o. The Israelites grabbed hold of anyone they thought look good enough to be their leader. The right clothes and appearance were the only qualification for leadership. If the person dressed for success, then he was a success. The shortage of fathers made gender alone qualification to be that of a house.

p. With a lack of fathers comes a lack of identity. We need so desperately to belong, to have boundaries, to know who we are in God. An orphan will seat for many years for any information you can find concerning his heritage, for without a family line you will never really know himself. He may have many brothers and sisters, but without any knowledge of his father, he will never be able to recognize that kinship. Perhaps he is the recipient of a large inheritance, yet without proof of his lineage will never be qualified to receive it.

q. Many Christian leaders today can we question give a list of many his teaching influenced their lives, but these same leaders cannot point to a father in ministry. Thus, like the Corinthian church, we have ample instruction and abundant gifting, but we have not many fathers. As a result, we gather under the banner of a particular teacher organization or identity. Only use a particular gifting as a source of personhood in the kingdom, which converts the very purpose of the gift that God gave to men. The product of this disorder is a sick infantile church. Unable to walk in the spirit she toddles and sways, fulfilling the lust of the flesh.

r. What the church must have his renewal, not only of the Holy Spirit, but also relational patterns in ministry. We must rediscover the wonderful truth of important relationship in the order father son. The only find God’s order, we will know our identity and fulfill our purpose in the kingdom of God