Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Reading of Scripture

This is God’s Word, Amen.

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

| “Be Imitators of Me”

II.

Introduction

A. Introduction to Theme

How would you describe the role of a minister?

A pastor? Clergy?

A person set a part for the Lord’s work?

Is a minister a CEO?

A Chief Executive Officer of a local church?

Is a minister a nurse?

One who is present for every cough and fever and ailment?

Is a minister a chaplain?

One who cares for a sick and dying flock?

Is a minister a leader?

One who organizes and mobilizes the living for growth and mission?

How would you describe the role of a minister?

What expectations do you have for him?

I searched online and found a blog post by a Dr. Raymond C. Osborne with a job description for “the perfect pastor.”

This is what it said:

The perfect pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes.

He condemns sin roundly but never hurts anyone's feelings.

He works from 8 AM until midnight and is also the church janitor.

The perfect pastor makes [$400] a week, wears [expensive] clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates [$300] a week to the church.

He is 29 years old and has 40 years experience.

Above all, he is handsome.

He also knows when somebody is sick and needs visitation even without anyone telling him about it.

He loves to spend time with his family and the perfect pastor has no problem with you dropping in unexpectedly.

And he also spends most of his time in preparation to speak God's Word.

He remembers everyone's birthdate and of course, their anniversary dates as well.

The perfect pastor eats nutritiously, gets his rest, exercises daily, and is always there to listen to you night or day.

The perfect pastor has a burning desire to work with [children], but he spends most of his time with the senior citizens.

He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in his office to be handy when needed.

He spends all day each Saturday preparing the Sunday sermon, and he focuses on his family too.

He also doesn't overburden the church finances, so he holds down a full time secular job as well.

The perfect pastor is always in the next church over!

Now if your pastor does not measure up, simply send this notice to six other churches that are tired of their pastor, too.

Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of the list.

If everyone cooperates, in one week you will receive 1,643 pastors.

One of them should be perfect.

Have faith in this letter.

One church broke the chain and got its old pastor back in less than three months.

(http://wordsofgrace.blogspot.com/2006/02/job-description-for-perfect-pastor.html;

accessed 06 06 2021)

Many of those comments are funny because they are the types of things we expect out of a pastor or a minister.

Each one of us has our own individual expectations of what a minister should be and do.

But what does God say a minister is and what does God say a minister should do?

If we choose a minister like we choose our entertainment, we’ll quickly be divided.

This isn’t a problem if you are in a Baptist church, for you can take your group, split off, and form another Baptist church and call a pastor of your liking.

The point is this: We have a tendency to want a minister to imitate us, rather than for us to imitate the minister of God, as God defines a minister.

We want our own private, controllable, priests.

I have seen plenty of job descriptions for pastors that churches have created and sent over the years, and it is amazing how many non-biblical expectations are placed on that office by the people.

If you marked out every line that wasn’t an expectation of God, the result would look like in of those redacted government forms.

This is just one small example of how worldly wisdom has influenced and infiltrated the church of God today.

So few of the expectations placed upon a minister are truly God’s expectations for that minister.

In Chapter 3 of this letter of 1 Corinthians, we learned that ignorance in the church was one reason for this.

The church in Corinth did not know how to be godly people, they did not know how God’s church is served, they did not know how God’s church is built, and they did not know that God’s Spirit dwells in them!

The saints had not purged jealousy and strife from their midst, and because of their sin, they were incapable of growing beyond infant-hood, on to maturity in Christ.

They were quarrelling, following their preferred minister, and the result was a divided church that lost her witness for Christ in the world, because she was too content acting and behaving like the world that she didn’t look any different from it!

B. Introduction to Text

Now, in Chapter 4, the apostle, the special messenger of Jesus Christ to His Church, concludes this section that has dealt with division, before moving on to address further problems, by turning the view on himself and on his co-laborers, co-ministers, and he answers this one question —

“How should one regard a minister?”

“How should a person consider a minister?”

“How should one think about a minister?”

In other words - what is a minister?

And what does a minister do?

At its core, the division in the Corinthian church centered around how the church members thought about the various ministers - Paul, Apollos, Cephas and Christ.

And the apostle is going to get to the bottom of this issue and answer it once and for all - not according to the wisdom of the world, but according to the word of the cross of Christ.

I will remind us all, that this letter is written “to the church” in Corinth, but it is also written to us as well.

We should prayerful consider if we have a problem of division like this in our midst?

Or, if we have expectations that are not biblical for our ministers that might lead to a problem like this.

At the least, we should be aware and informed about this, so that we might be on guard, lest complacency set in and we find ourselves just as easily divided.

III.

Exposition

Verse 1 begins with this statement:

“This is how one should regard us...”

So the apostle is giving instructions to the church on how they should rightly view ministers.

First, Ministers are:

A. Servants and Stewards (4:1-7)

We have seen the word “servants” already in Chapter 3:5, where the broader word for “deacons” is used [διάκονοι].

That does not mean that these men hold the office of Deacon, but that they do what Deacons do - as we all should - and serve the Lord and His Church.

But here in Chapter 4, a different word for “servants” is used.

The word in verse 1 is the word [ὑπηρέτας].

For our purposes, the meaning is the same.

But the apostle is employing a variety of words to communicate the point that as ministers, we are servants.

Helpers.

In this case, this word [ὑπηρέτας] would highlight their position as subordinate to another.

Meaning, a minister is never at the top of the chart.

A minister is never the highest rung in the corporate ladder.

A true minister of God is not someone who boasts in himself, or elevates himself, or makes much of himself.

A true minister of God is a servant.

Subordinated to another.

And notice the text - who is that minister a servant of?

“as servants of Christ”

Here is one example of a mistake the church makes today in this regard.

Do we not convince ourselves somehow, that the minister exists to serve a specific church and is subservient to that church, and we often structure ourselves to support that view?

It would be as if I am called by Southside Baptist Church to be the servant of Southside Baptist Church, serving at the pleasure of the congregation, or the Personnel Committee, or Stewardship Committee, or the Deacons.

You need to know I don’t view it that way.