I Corinthians 4
Notes
Transcript
I Corinthians 4
I Corinthians 4
I Corinthians 4
Pray
God has called you to invest/impact/influence spiritually.
-Whether this is formal. Like being a parent or Sunday School teacher.
-Or informal like being a Christian friend.
-God has called you to be a spiritual influence on others.
-This influence we call spiritual leadership.
The idea of Spiritual leadership makes us feel very inadequate because we have all experienced others who have done it well & we know we are them.
-In God’s great wisdom He has placed you in the relationships you are in now. To influence others for Jesus.
Today we are going to look at...
5 Characteristics of Spiritual Leadership
Read , I Corinthians 4:1-2,
The Standard of Spiritual Leadership, vs. 1-2 humility
Spiritual Leadership Starts With Humility. vs. 1-2
Verse 1, How a Spiritual Leader is to view him or herself:
Servants, Stewards, with high regard for faithfulness.
This humility that God calls a spiritual leader to.
That God calls you to is the opposite of what those in Corinth were looking for.
The Greek orators
Were know for entertaining with smooth words and polished language. They would stand and speak for entertainment in the huge city of Corinth, 400,000 strong. People would go to these huge outdoor theatres to listen and be entertained with smooth words and lifting speeches.
These orators were the rock stars of their day - celebrates. These celebrates would be invited to the greatest parties, be surrounded by the best looking people, wear beautiful clothing.
The people of the church at Corinth were use to picking their favorite orator - there favorite rock star and lining up behind them.
They picked their spiritual rock stars
Paul - Apollos - Peter, and lined up behind them.
This caused a great devision in the church.
In verse 1 & 2 Paul says,
No - your spiritual leaders are not Rock Stars.
We are servants, stewards, looking to be faithful to God and His word.
Illustration
The word “servant” in verse 1 originally referred to a rower on a slave ship. On the slave ship they would have levels or 3 floors for rowers on the ship. The rowers on the top level had the longest oars to reach the water, then the second tier or floor of rowers had oars with middle length, then the bottom rowers at the bottom deck of the ship would have the shortest oars to reach the ship.
-That bottom floor closest to the water had little to no ventilation, no air flow.
-It was considered the worst and lowest place to be on the entire ship.
-This was reserved for the lowest of the slaves.
-The slave rowers were all chained in position.
-What would happen if the rowers on the floors above had a bucket of water thrown on their filthy bodies as they were chained?
-That dirty water would fall down through the cracks on to the bottom rowers.
-What would happen if the top rowers got sick and vomited our could not hold their bladder?
-The bottom rowers would get the worst of it.
Paul says, As A Spiritual Leader, in His place as an Apostle, He was a servant - a bottom rower.
Not a celebrity.
Spiritual leadership must start with humility.
Let me ask you a question.
What if all leaders and all believers had this kind of humility?
What if our attitude was - “This life is not about me. It’s about God.” “It’s about His glory.”
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Have this mind among you … Jesus … Servant
And here is the problem with exulting people instead of God.
-Every person that you exult will fail you.
Man will fail. I will fail.
Believers have their struggles with sin.
Spiritual leaders struggle against sin and sometimes fail.
The good news is that their is a greater spiritual leader.
Much greater than myself and much greater than Paul. God must be your spiritual leader.
God does not fail.
45 Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
GOSPEL
We are reminded that it was Christ who lead in humility as He went to the Cross to bear the sins of His people.
It is this Christ who calls you to trust Him today.
It is the Christ that paid for your sins.
He invites you to humble yourself and trust Him in faith.
He will take you and remake your identity.
He will make you a child of His.
Spiritual leadership requires humility.
Transition - Next we see an challenging effect of spiritual leadership
Spiritual leaders will experience judgement. vs. 3-5
Read I Corinthians 4:3-5
Verse 3-5, Paul is being judged.
What is he being judged for?
Many in the church at Corinth didn’t think Paul was an Apostle.
What is an Apostle?
An Apostle is one who saw Jesus, has been sent out by Jesus & spiritually speaks for God.
We don’t have Apostles anymore today.
Paul became an Apostle in an usual way.
Not by being first a disciple of Jesus.
But, when Jesus confronted him on road to Emaus.
Paul saw Jesus in the heavens and was temporary
blinded.
Here was the problem...
-If Paul wasn’t an Apostle, then he didn’t have the Spiritual Authority to tell the Corinthians how to live life. If Paul wasn’t an Apostle, He did not speak for God.
-Paul had to deal with people doubting his Apostleship in many places he went.
Some people at Corinth were doubting and negatively judging his Apostleship.
In our passage simply says, I’m not worried if others judge me, because God is my judge.
I would like to take a detour and focus on the word “judge”. It is used so much in our culture, I think it would be helpful.
There are 2 ways the word “to judge” are used in the bible.
#1, Judge means to look down on someone. To condemn someone in your heart.
1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
example: You see a very young teenage looking girl with a baby. You don’t simply notice and think - that baby may not have a dad around.
No, instead - you not only notice the situation, but you look down on & condemn a young mother in your heart. This is biblical sinful judging.
We don’t condemn in our heart for 2 reasons:
-1) God is The True and Righteous judge. He alone has authority to condemn.
Verse 5, tells us that God will reveal all things in final judgment.
-2) We don’t judge because if it wasn’t for God’s mercy you would be in the same situation you are condemning in your heart.
If not for God’s great mercy and grace - you would be the addict, the adulterer, & the thief.
This condemning in the heart was what some of the Corinthians were doing with Paul.
#2, Judge
The second way we use the word “judge” in the bible is something that is good.
to judge = to make a determination or a decision.
Determine if something is wise or moral. Determining if it is right/wrong.
-Parents do this all the time with what kids watch.
-We do this in relationships.
-God calls us to make decisions about wisdom and morality all the time.
You are encouraged in scripture to be discerning and to judge whether something is right or wrong.
God wants you to learn how to do this well.
Application -
In our current culture. In the world you live - If you make a moral determination if something is right or wrong...
There are some who will call you out for sinning against our culture.
Our culture does not believe in right or wrong.
Just recently I saw a picture of people burning bibles in our country.
This is an extreme example of our culture rejecting the wisdom and morality of God’s Word.
This is what God wants for you:
To make moral determinations, based on the Bible, without condemning others in your heart.
This brings glory to God. This is a righteous judging.
The irony is, when someone tells says you are morally wrong for judging another - they are doing the very thing they told you not to do.
In spiritual blindness - this person is being intellectually dishonest.
-As a spiritual leader (formal or informal) others will judge you. You will be misunderstood. This will hurt.
Here is what we see with Paul. His love for the Corinthians is greater than the pain of the judgment/criticism.
Isn’t this what Jesus did on the cross. His love for saving the lost was greater than the unfair judgement placed on Him.
Do you love others spiritual growth, more than others the criticism?
...
Transition - Not only do we see that spiritual leaders must embrace humility and will expe
Transition - Paul turns the letter back to not just focus on him pushing back on against judgment, but to both he and Apollos holding tightly to scripture.
Spiritual leaders will hold tightly to scripture, vs. 6-7
Paul says this, Apollos and I have become servants of your spiritual growth why?
Purpose - that you may not go beyond what is written in the scripture.
Illustration - Around many football fields is a track. That track is made of rough material to grip shoes well.
Your football field has sidelines that keep tackling off the track.
-Every now and then, tackles and falls get way past the boundaries and onto the track.
-When tackles hit the track, things get ugly.
God loves you so much he doesn’t want your life to hit the track.
He wants you to play in the boundaries.
-Especially in the area of
One play that the Corinthians struggled in
That you may use the Bible to know Him and make Him known.
I Cor 4:6b, There is a second purpose that verse 6 shows us. Not to be puffed up. Strive for humility.
Like we get proud of our College Football teams, the Corinthians were get proud to line up and stand behind their favorite spiritual leader. They were picking teams - picking sides and Paul reminds them that humility is central.
From the example of their lives Paul hoped the Corinthians would learn the lesson of humility. This was a difficult lesson, for the Greeks believed humility was a despicable trait of a slave, a sign of weakness, not a characteristic of great men (Plato Laws 6. 774c).
Summarize - The Purpose of Spiritual leadership - show another how to follow the scripture and embrace Christ daily in humility.
Spiritual Leadership confronts/challenges, vs 8-13
Here we see a confrontation by Paul.
You say you are rich spiritually, you understand that you are spiritual kings and that you will reign with Christ.
-You are speaking in tongue. There are healings among you.
-Supernatural things are happening among you.
BUT - You are babes in Christ.
When we look at the whole of the New Testament.
You notice that the church in Corinth is one of the most unhealthy broken churches that is spoken about. Despite it’s brokenness & getting so much wrong … God still works mightily among them.
When God does great things in your life it is not because of how great you are spiritually
- it is due to how great his mercy and grace is toward you.
Paul’s confrontation is shown by how he contrasts the Corinthians to Himself and Apollos.
Corinthians - You are babes in Christ, but you think you are Spiritual Kings & because you are so strong spiritually you think you have brought blessing on yourselves.
While Apollos and I - The rock stars - the ones you hold in such high esteem are:
disrespected, hungry, thirsty, beaten, homeless & are considered the scum of the earth by some.
Corinthians, Blessing is wonderful, but it doesn’t mean you have spiritually arrived.
So we see Paul’s leadership come out as he Challenges/Confronts
Illustration - 5 years ago I took a plane ride to Minnesota for a leadership group I signed up to be a part of. I sat in this room with 50 young leaders. I felt out of place. All of them were Yankees. Over the course of the first 2 hours I came to notice that all these leaders men and women were Eagles. They were the kind of spiritual person that you wanted to be around. These were really quality people who loved Jesus.
-Over the weekend I noticed in them one thing I had been missing in the church in the South. Gracious, Kind - Courage to confront and challenge each other. Yes, Courage to challenge ideas … but courage to lovingly confront and challenge each other to grow spiritually. They didn’t have the southern sensitivities that hold us back from lovingly confronting and challenging each other.
The best of spiritual leaders will graciously and lovingly confront.
We see Paul doing this here.
Transition - and finally.
Spiritual Leadership means spiritual care/Spiritual Father, vs. 14-20
Paul was the spiritual father of every church he planted including this church in Corinth.
Like a child needs a father for daily direction.
People need spiritual leaders to help them grow and avoid tripping points.
Paul even sends Timothy to the church to help them to spiritually navigate their faith.
God calls you to spiritually care for others.
-You say, I don’t know how to do this.
-Here is how you do this. Simply ask:
How is your relationship with God going?
What has God been encouraging you with recently?
How can I be praying for you for?
Question
Who has God called you to spiritually care for?
Who has God called you to spiritually pull up beside?
Who has God called you to spiritually be intentional with?
Gospel-