Scum of the Earth
Notes
Transcript
Top Golf
Top Golf
Last night Jake had a little birthday party. Get together at “Top Golf.” It was awesome. I am terrible… but I was in great company because most of us were terrible.
Lowest score wins, right?
There’s a few different games there - kind of gamifying the driving range.
Some are like skee ball, some call out your shots. We played one that like angry birds.
We don’t even know how this game works. Hit the ball long… and it’s too long. Hit the ball short and it’s too short.
I shanked one all the way to the right… took down the whole thing. All the points. I don’t get it.
We talked last week about “treasures in heaven.” That’s a real thing, there are prizes to be had, crowns, jewels, the Bible uses different metaphors.
But we, humans, tend to be WAY off in how we think we are progressing there.
We are terrible scorekeepers. Blind refs.
We are quick to judge one another.
We are quick to judge ourselves, even. Positively (which leads to pride and arrogance) or negatively (which leads to insecurity and fear). Lose lose.
Fundamental misunderstanding of leadership in the Kingdom of God. They are arguing about who is better: Paul or Cephas, Apollos or Christ. That’s not how any of this works.
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
Servants. Deacons.
He picks up that thread. We are workers in the field together, builders building y’all, the temple of God.
And it will never be the “wisdom of the world.”
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”
and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,
and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
He will unpack that more later. “All things are yours...” that is, as a gift. You have already received the very best that can ever be given. You are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.
You have all the gifts, all the best… and everything you have is God’s because you are His body, His temple… and everything Christ has is God’s, belongs to God, because Christ is God… so stop arguing about who owns what! It’s ridiculous!
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Now this is a profound statement.
Yet another word for servants. In addition to “deacons” earlier, which is like a servant waiting tables, here we have like a secretary, maybe in the governor. An administrator.
and “stewards” . Another servant, a manager, one who has responsibility but not ownership. Thus it carries a great sense of responsibility:
Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
More about that. Paul knows who will judge him, who he is responsible to. Is he offended that some prefer Apollos or Cephas??? Or Matt Chandler, or Francis Chan, or John Piper???
No, not a bit, it doesn’t work like that.
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.
Fun fact: every pastor, minister, leader, has nights they lay awake judging them-self. We are no wiser in judging ourselves than we our in judging others in this sense: we don’t see the fruits of our own labors. We don’t see the seeds we have planted.
For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
That’s true for how we judge each other. That’s true for how we judge ourselves.
I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.
For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
You were born on third and acting like you hit a triple.
You didn’t figure it all out, you were taught. You didn’t save yourselves, you were saved.
They are boasting like they are “spiritual” but they aren’t!
Their whole standard of how to judge is off. They are using the wrong scoring system, it’s all backwards.
They are thinking in terms of worldly wisdom, worldly measures and standards. Who has wealth, who speaks eloquently, who knows who.
So Paul is going to tear them apart with vicious rhetoric.
Bring out the sarcasm.
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!
Oh look at the kings! I wish you were, that sounds great!
By contrast, he holds up the “highest” of the Christians. The ones who knew and walked and talked with Jesus. The highest authority in the church. The apostles:
For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
This is a spectacle like in the Collisseum, men being fed to lions. Not a spectacle you want to be!
Hear the contrast here:
We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.
He’s… laying it on pretty thick.
To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,
and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;
Hear that attitude. Beautiful.
when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
The “scum of the world.” Scum of the earth.
This is the stuff, when you clean something, the stuff that is left after. The dirty mop bucket.
We watch these car cleaning videos sometimes as a family. They clean the grossest cars, and they use the upholstery wet vacuum to suck out all the foulness from the seats. Then they collect it in a bucket and pour it out in slow motion.
It’s… disgusting, but oh so very satisfying.
Paul says: oh hey, that’s us!!!
There are our heroes, ladies and gentlemen. That is our standard. That is what we aspire too.
Our leader: became sin itself, executed shamefully as a criminal, buried.
Our leaders top followers: scum of the earth! Maligned and reviled, slandered.
Kings of filth, of slime, of garbage, of puuuuutrescence!
Is that what you want? Is that the model you want to follow? After all, we don’t all have to be like Paul, do we?
I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
Oh. Okay. Dang.
Well, then, that’s our goal. To be the scum of the earth!
Humility
Humility
What does that mean: to be the scum of the earth?
They called us scum sucking pig. Us!!!
It certainly is humbling. It certainly means to be humble. Jesus taught us to be “poor in spirit” and that God “opposes the proud” and “exalts the humbled.”
We can find that 100 places in Scripture. You hear that enough times, you should start being pretty wary about being in the “proud” camp. Paul calls us to humility, and he models it.
He models it by calling himself a servant over and over again, using every word he can find. Using every metaphor he can.
Paul is humble. Be like Paul - the scum of the earth.
Attitude
Attitude
In that humility, listen to the attitude Paul adopts:
and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
The attitude in that. It doesn’t matter what you throw at me… I’m going to bless you, I’m going to endure… I’m going to “entreat” or “exhort” or encourage.
Where does he find the strength to do it?
Paul has his eye fixed on the prize, fixed on the goal. His eye is on the only scoreboard that matters:
Faithfulness
Faithfulness
The world holds up this scoreboard:
Wealth
Status
Popularity
Virtue Signalling
Respect
Belonging
The top of that list is a bit easier to reject. We know those are “bad”… even though we still want and pursue them, too.
“But I’ll use my wealth for Jesus...” we say. And few ever do, because someone once said “it’s harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”
As we go through that list it gets even trickier.
We want others to think that we are good and awesome. Look at what amazing things I post on Facebook!
Of course I want the respect of my peers, of my family, of my friends, of you all.
What if Paul really means what he says: that he is ready and willing and currently experiencing being reviled, rejected, persecuted, wronged… seen as the scum of the earth.
Well that can’t possibly feel good.
But his eye is on the only scoreboard that matters.
It is about humility: but what is the scoreboard that matters?
Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
Faithfulness. Faithfulness is where it counts.
You can’t measure your ministry by results. You don’t know the final score, you can’t see the hearts of men and women, you can’t see the movement in spiritual realms, you can’t see the growth in your own Spirit.
You are an untrustworthy judge, a blind ref, a bogus scorekeeper.
What is important? You are a steward, a steward of His Kingdom, His ministry, His gifts, His talents, His treasure, His time, you are His.
The only opinion that matters is His.
The only judgment that matters is His.
He is going to, on that day, measure everything you did with the time, talent, and treasure He gave you.
We aren’t talking about salvation, here. Your salvation is secure in the name of Jesus. If you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord… you are saved forever and ever, Amen.
This is treasures in heaven. And what is the score?
Were you faithful?
In the end, this is the scoreboard: were we faithful. Faithful with what God gave you. Faithful to what He called you to do and to who He called you to be. Every other measure of "value" or "success" falls away... only worthwhile if it translated into faithfulness.
Are you being faithful to what He has called you to?
Are we being faithful to what He has called us to?
More steps forward next week.
Be like Paul. Scum of the earth, poor and reviled. Rich in the only treasure that matters.