WHAT DO YOU HAVE THAT YOU DID NOT RECEIVE?
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Greetings to the Brethrens.
SERMON BODY
TEXT:
1 Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.
4 For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord.
5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.
6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other.
7 For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
After reading, tell the audience where you will build your sermon.
I will build my message on the three rhetorical questions Paul made in Verse 7.
I will build my message on the three rhetorical questions Paul made in Verse 7.
Give the background of the previous and surrounding verses.
The whole purpose of 1:10-4:21 is to address the factionalism that has developed in Corinth, with various people in the community associating with Paul, Apollos and Cephas respectively.
POINT #1:
POINT #1:
And what do you have that you did not receive?
And what do you have that you did not receive?
23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
verse 28
28 “for in Him we live and move and have our being..”
We Exist, Live, and Move in God
Then Paul gave what may be the most profound philosophical statement anywhere in the New Testament. Quoting pagan philosophers, he said of God, “In him we live and move and have our being” (verse 28).
Did you hear that, Thales? Ultimate reality is found in God and only in God, who is the creator of everything. He is an absolutely pure being. He reveals himself to Moses in the Midianite wilderness by the memorial name, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). He alone eternally is. He alone is pure actuality. What is God’s potential? How can the Lord get any better? He is already perfect.
There was room for improvement. But with God, there is no room for improvement. He is pure being and ultimate reality. The only hope for finding unity in the diversity of this world is in his perfect being.
I’m a human being. More accurately, I’m a human becoming. I still have potential that has not yet been realized. I’m changing. I’m undergoing mutations. That is the chief characteristic of creaturely existence — mutability. We change. But God does not. That means my being is not found in me independently. None of us created ourselves. All of us are dependent on something before us to account for our very existence.
Where do we find the power of that life? Not in water. It is found in God, who alone brings something out of nothing. He brings life out of death, for he is the God of resurrection. That is why Paul was addressing the Athenians about Jesus and his resurrection. He was talking to them about the ultimate answer to life, which is found in God and in his resurrected Son.
When it comes to motion, the universe cannot move without the providential power of God. The only thing that is hylozoistic in the ultimate sense is God himself. Our power to move is secondary. We have no primary causal power. Primary causal power belongs to God and to God alone.
The Bible Gives the Ultimate Answers
I hope you can see from this brief introduction that biblical revelation gives to us the answers to the ultimate and persistent questions that have plagued the quest of theoretical thought as long as there have been people. We will never find an explanation for being, for life, or for motion if we try to find it outside the being and the character of God.
For from Him, through Him and for Him are all things, to whom be all glory forever.
Now, in the original context, Paul and Apollos are servants of Christ - generic, and stewards of God’s revealed mysteries. In every place we have in God’s Economy, in God’s Program, everything has been given.
Now, in the original context, Paul and Apollos are servants of Christ - generic, and stewards of God’s revealed mysteries. In every place we have in God’s Economy, in God’s Program, everything has been given.
Of John the Baptist:
27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.
9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
SO, WHAT SHOULD BE OUR ATTITUDE IF WE ONLY JUST RECEIVED THESE THINGS and ARE MADE TO BE STEWARDS OF ANYTHING? (life, finances, businesses, jobs, positions, family, and esp. endowment, giftings for the Church?
SO, WHAT SHOULD BE OUR ATTITUDE IF WE ONLY JUST RECEIVED THESE THINGS and ARE MADE TO BE STEWARDS OF ANYTHING? (life, finances, businesses, jobs, positions, family, and esp. endowment, giftings for the Church?
BE FAITHFUL (V. 2)
BE THANKFUL
1 Thes. 5.18 - familiar(Not given tfor slide)
POINT # 2
POINT # 2
(NKJV) For who makes you differ from another? Who distinguishes you from another?
(NKJV) For who makes you differ from another? Who distinguishes you from another?
(NLT) For what gives you the right to make such a judgment?
(BSB) For who makes you so superior?
(God's Word Translation) Who says that you are any better than other people?
The word "Diakrino"
The verb diakrinō [1252, 1359] is not the same word as in 4:5, referring to the final judgment reserved for God (krinō ). Used five times in 1 Corinthians (4:7; 6:5; 11:29, 31; 14:29), this word literally refers to separating people who are in a fight. Paul uses it here in the not uncommon sense of making a distinction between people in terms of preferring one over another. The NIV reads “makes you different.”
The original audience is the Corinthian Church.
In the secular world, there is a maxim popularized in the US Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
But in the Church of God, what the Bible say about it?
25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,
28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
Notice verse 25: rulers of the Gentiles lord it over; great (men), great ones tyrant over, exercise authority...
3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;
1 The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:
2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;
3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;
In the Church, where Christ is all and in all, Col. 3.10-11
Romans 10.12;
James 1.9-11
1 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.
2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,
3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,”
4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?
7 Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well;
9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.
13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Talks about the sin of partiality or favoritism in the church.
POINT # 3
POINT # 3
Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
How?
By asserting that everything you have in your hands, in your life are fruit of your own labors. Your time, finances, your life, your strength, your loved ones, your empire. Without thinking that God is Sovereign over all.
In loss of what God has given, what’s your attitude?
21 And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
9 Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase;
10 So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine.
The right boasting:
The right boasting:
31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
SONG:
TO GOD BE THE GLORY