Our New Testament lesson this morning comes from the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 4. This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy, 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. 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. I have applied all these things to myself and to follows 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 you then received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. Without us you have become kings and wood that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you. For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become as spectacle to the world, do angels and to men. 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 dispute. 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, when slandered we in treat. We have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you then be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon at the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod? Or with love in a spirit of gentleness? The word of the Lord.
We have begun a study of first Corinthians and today we are finishing up a series dealing with unity and how to address this unity in the church. That's the topic of the first four chapters. And we've seen that unity is founded on Christ crucified and understanding the significance of the gospel in Christ crucified. And we have seen that Paul has also talked a lot about our identity, who we are. That was the theme last week. God's people are set apart as God's field to receive the word of God and to bear fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. God's people are the temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. And we are to receive the work of God and be changed and be a holy tabernacle to the Lord. And therefore we are to shun the wisdom of this world and to embrace the hidden, the secret wisdom of God which has been revealed and proclaimed through the apostles and prophets about Christ Jesus. In this chapter as Paul finishes his teaching on building unity in the church, he becomes very practical. He addresses four problems that are one of which at least is a root problem that leads to all the other aspects of disunity. And he gives three instructions or commands and we'll look at the passage according to the three commands or the three instructions that he gives. Now, the four problems that in a sense will be addressing as we go through this or these, there is a lack of regard for God's leaders. That's the first one. The second one is people seem to be making superficial judgments and that is causing disunity. Third, they are not responding well to the gospel message. They are living more like they always used to rather than being changed. They kind of have that idea of, I'll do it my way. And the fourth problem that is addressed and really the root issue that is kind of woven throughout this chapter and into the next and kind of unique as far as the word puffed up being used by the apostle Paul. He uses it one other time than in the book of 1 Corinthians. And it's translated often arrogant. That's the fourth problem. And it kind of sums up the other three problems as well. So three application points, three words of instruction to deal with the problem of disunity. It is a problem. God, the father's son and Holy Spirit are one God united in their love for one another, in their mind, in their purpose, in the work that God himself is doing. And we, having been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, are to reflect that as image that image that we are united. We are one in Christ. We are to have the same mind and to pursue that kind of unity as those who have been redeemed, purchased by the blood of the cross of Christ. So with that in mind, let's look at these three instructions. The first one, number one, give proper regard to Christ's leaders. We see that in verse one where Paul writes, this is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. There's three words in that first verse that just we need to spend at least a little bit of time thinking about. The first one is servants. You know, often when we see the word servants, it's the word slay that comes from the Greek word do-lots, right? And Paul will say, Paul, he slays a do-lots of Christ Jesus, but that's not what he says here. He uses a different word here than do-lots. It's who pair a taste, forgive my spluttering the Greek. You should hear me in other languages. It's just as bad. It means an attendant. It's used this way in the scriptures. It's used of the guard who serves the judge in Matthew 5.25. It's used of the attendant of the synagogue, kind of the official of the synagogue in Luke 4.20. It's used of the officers who are sent by the chief priests and scribes to arrest Jesus in John 18 verse 30. And it's used of John Mark who is to assist Paul and Barnabas in the work. So really, this first word could be translated slaves. It is, or servants, it is because its original meeting was underroers, and underroers were either prisoners or slaves on a ship. But it did become used in all these other ways that we've talked about. And I think Paul means it here this way. It's also used according to Kenneth Bailey as a physician's assistant or an adjunct or a priest helper. It's used in these ways. And that's how we ought to think of it here. The apostles and the leaders in the church are assistants to Christ Jesus. They, in a sense, are his officers who carry out his work. They are his guards and officers as he is the king. Now, the next word is the word steward or steward. We need to think about that for a second. It's brought, we get the word economy from the Greek word economy. And steward is okay. A manager is another way it's translated in the parables of Jesus where he entrusts talents to managers to run while the head of household and the parable is out taking care of business. And I like that. It could be a slave or it could be a free man. I think Joseph from the book of Genesis, a slave, is a good example of this kind of steward. He is indeed serving in this very capacity. And you remember the words. This is how I encourage us to think about it and what I think Paul means. Remember the words that Joseph said to Potiphar's wife? She was coming on to him and trying to get him to go to bed with her. And he was refusing. And he said, behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. And he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in the house than I. Now, I point out these two words because I'm pointing out the fact that when Paul says, this is how one ought to regard us. He is not using deprecating language. Oh, we're lowly. He's using more exalted language. Look at who we are. We're the assistance to Jesus Christ himself, the one who has redeemed you with his blood. We are the house managers of the temple of the household of God. And we manage the mysteries of God. That's the third word, by the way, this mysteries. We've been talking about how Christ crucified is the foundation for all unity. It Christ crucified being, in other words, the gospel that is preached, that Jesus Christ came into the world, that he, the Lord of glory, the Messiah, suffered and died, was buried and rose again on the third day. And that through faith in Jesus Christ, we are saved. And that God says, not only Jews, but Gentiles too, through this great gospel. This, this is the hidden wisdom of God, which has been revealed through the Spirit. And this is the mystery of Christ. Let me read to you. There's, let me commend to you. First of all, the idea of just doing a word search with your concordance, on the word mystery. It's glorious. The mystery has been revealed and spoken to us. And this is how Paul talks about it in Ephesians chapter three. He talks about the fact that he's the prisoner of the Lord for the sake of the Gentile. And then he says in verse two, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship, there's a word of God's grace, which was given to me for you. Here it is, that by revelation, there was made known to me the mystery. As I wrote before in brief, and by referring to this, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed through the His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow airs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through my gospel, Christ crucified. And so he's calling the first instruction as a correction, he's saying, this is how we should be regarded. Church leaders ought to be regarded as those who handle the mysteries of God. They're like managers and God's house, they're like officers or servants and God's employee. And so his main point is they are to be honored. And so he will say in places like 1 Timothy 517, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. So the two reasons to honor respect regard God's helpers as assistants and the managers of the mystery, well they handle the things of God. They speak on behalf of God and the Lord who has redeemed you has given them to you and thus they are to be regarded. Now Paul gives us some practical working out of what this meant for them in Corinth in verses 6 through 13. He says, I've spoken these things rather figuratively. I've applied them to myself in a palace for your sake so that you may learn from us not to exceed what is written so that none of you may become arrogant in behalf of one against the other kind of the problem that was going on there, the root problem. And by the way, that word arrogance is also translated puffed for who regards you as superior. And what do you have that you did not receive? And what did you receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? He engages in a little bit of sarcasm. You are already filled. You already have become rich. You have become kings without us. He becomes theological and indeed I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you a little bit of eschatological theology going on there knowing that when Christ returns we will be seated with him in the heavenly places that we will be at His right and His left that ruling as it were in the heavens. But he goes on and he lays out his heart in pretty strong language. He says, for I think that God has exhibited us apostles last of all as men condemned to death because we have become as spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men, we are fools for Christ's sake but you are prudent in Christ. See the irony? We are weak. You are strong. You are distinguished. But we are without dishon. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty and are poorly clothed and are roughly treated and are homeless and we toil working with our own hands when we're reviled we bless and when we are persecuted we endure when we are slandered we try to conciliate when we have become the scum of the world the drags of all things even to now. You see how he kind of moves from sarcasm to the irony of the situation that here he is is the manager of the mysteries of God and yet he's not only treated shamefully by the world that rejects Christ and sees it as foolishness to believe the gospel but that seems to be the paradigm in Corinth too. There's a disregard for the people of God. They're wealthy, they're wise, they're powerful whereas the apostle and God's servant are weak and foolish and despised and they're treated that way even among God's elect. Now I want to point out just quickly before we move on why Paul addresses this. It's interesting to me that Paul does address it especially because he's kind of in the middle of it. If you've ever been in the middle of a conflict or part of the conflict where you're the one being trashed to speak to it it's very difficult. You're open to the charge of self-serving and so on and so forth but that's not at all what's going on with Paul. In fact he sees that the unity of the church and reflecting the image of God in their harmony and unity is being destroyed and for sake of life he has to address it and so address it he doesn't and we saw by the reading of the whole text that he even uses stronger language than that by the time we get to the end he says some are arrogant as though I were not coming to you but I will come to you soon if the Lord wills and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power but the kingdom of God does not consist and talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness? Those are strong words aren't they? They're very strong and they didn't come easy. You know we have been in second Corinthians kind of like the story continued and with their Paul writes about I think this situation and what happens in the next chapter and he says in second Corinthians chapter two verses three and four and I wrote as I did so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice for I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all listen to this verse four for I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with minute tears not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you and so we see why there's not only sarcasm and irony and the laying out in plain terms you're the on that and such but these strong words he has a sincere love for them and they were hard to say it I think reinforces how important it is that in the church we regard God's leaders as officers of Christ as managers of the mysteries of God of those who who unpack for us what God has for us people it's critical to unity and Paul has to address it the second instruction that he gives is refrain from making superficial judgments we get that from verse five where he says therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes who will bring to light the things that are hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart then each one will receive his commendation from God so he calls on God to be the judge and and I want to I want to say a few things here first why I say he's talking about superficial judgment okay it doesn't say therefore do not make superficial judgments I've added that word superficial and this is this is why I think it's what Paul means the first reason is Paul himself is making judgments in this passage some of you have become arrogant verse 18 that's a judgment right he's declared he's pronounced a judgment right there and as is nothing compared to what you see in chapter five you want to talk about declaring judgment just get to chapter five this is what he says in verses two and three again you have become arrogant and have not mourned someone was sleeping with his stepmother so to speak you should have mourned but so that the one who had done this would be removed from your midst for I on my part though absent in body but president spirit have already judged him who has committed this as though I were present and he calls upon the Corinthians to judge them in verses 12 and 13 what have I had what do you have I'm sorry what have I to do with judging outsiders do you not judge those who were within the church but those who are outside God judges remove the wicked man from among you that's pretty strong language again of judgment right so that's one reason in the in the context judgments are being made he says in verse five don't pronounce judgment and then in verse 18 you are arrogant or some of you are arrogant and then in chapter five big thing about hey you need to judge this situation and put the man out right so that's one reason the second one goes like this this is why I said he we have recorded for us some of the what I would consider superficial judgments that are made about Paul that for second Timothy sorry second Corinthians 10 10 for they say and that speaking about Paul his letters are weighty and strong but his bodily presence is weak and his speeches of no account second Corinthians 11 6 even if I am unskilled and speaking I am not so in knowledge and he goes on to talk about it so it seems like they were they were dissatisfied you know there's a Paulist and he spoke with such eloquent same gospel message but he was by far the more eloquent one and Paul was taking the superficial judgment you know just because the scriptures don't call for they had gone beyond what was written in the way they were making these superficial judgments now it'd be worth our time and let's let's do this quickly let me show you how the cross of Christ helps us refrain from making superficial judgments Paul gives himself as an example in verses two and three I'm sorry three and four he says but with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court in fact I don't even judge myself I am not aware of anything against myself but I am not thereby acquitted it is the Lord who judges me and then don't pass judgment but wait for the Lord who's going to judge and there's something incredibly profound about this as it relates to peace and dealing with superficial judgment and it's rooted in the cross of Christ this is what I mean we know that Paul understands that he sins and struggles with sin in fact he will say to Timothy in first Timothy 115 this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners right that's worthy of full acceptance you know what he says after that I know you do of whom I am the foremost I'm a big sinner you're not going to get bigger than me Paul says but we have to think about how he views him to me he says to me I don't it's a very small thing what you judge or or any court and he uses the term court like there's a verdict given and he says I don't even judge myself so so he's basically saying I'm not going to let you control my life by what you think you know and that's a struggle for us isn't it right you know well what will people think if I cut my hair if I don't cut my hair if I shave if I trim my beard if I do this or that what will people think if I say I know if I say this you're going to think and we're consumed with that and Paul is saying don't be consumed with it don't let people control you by what you think they may think by their judgments and then he says I don't even control myself by what I what I think I'm not aware of anything against me now I'm not by that held innocent right it's like that's not the the thing that the weather I'm good or bad I'm just saying I'm not judging myself I'm not going to be controlled by your judgments and I'm not going to be controlled by my judgments because what do what do we do with ourselves I want to look good and what does the world tell us don't worry about what they say well what do you think about yourself you know and for those of you who know me you know I love the movie what about Bob a little bit beyond your time perhaps but I recommend watching it and you know he's I'm okay I'm alright he's going down the street talking that way and that's the way right I'm good I'm great I love myself I think I'm proud I like to hold my little hand and on he goes but the problem with that is if I judge myself if I if I feel good about myself by my judgments then what if I fail then I feel bad about myself and what if I succeed then I'm arrogant and it's not so much being it has popped up your your full of what other people think are your full of yourself either one is death it's arrogant it kills you but God is the one who John and so he's aware of this and but look at what he says and you don't have to look there but I'm gonna reach you just a couple verses from Romans 7 where he talks about a sin in verse 14 he says we know that the law is spiritual but I am of the flesh sold understand I don't understand my own actions for I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate now if I'm the one now if I do what I do not want I agree with the law that it is good so now listen to this this is verse 70 so now it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells it within me what's he saying he says it again in verse 20 now if I do what I do not want it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me so what it says though he says yes there's this thing called sin and I see it in my life but it's an alien intruder it's not the real me how can anyone say that how can the apostle Paul the the manager of God the mysteries of God say that well there's only one way and it's all over the book of Romans isn't it there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law the spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death and it goes back to the cross of Christ if you are in Christ you know Paul sees himself as a sinner that's true but he puts the emphasis when he sees himself as a sinner look at the text that you find about that and see that it's more what happened in the past when he when he talks about himself in the present it's more he's the redeemed he's the saint he's the only one he's the one who's been redeemed by the blood of Christ and the blood of Christ has washed away his sin so that having been justified by faith having been declared righteous by faith yeah I see this soon but it's not who I am you see that that's powerful and brothers and sisters he's insisting that it not only be true about him but it be true about the way we view other people who are in Christ Jesus how can we have harmony and unity and love in the church well by not viewing people according to their fight against sin but by viewing them according to their righteousness in Christ Jesus and thus we don't make superficial judgments now we're out of time but the third fill in the blank is this imitate the face of godly leaders Paul uses that language all the time and he shows us what that's like and what I just talked about in his view of sin and himself and how he judges himself or not judges himself and in that hole when persecuted we endure when you know when slandered we intrigued and these sorts of words he shows us how to live humble lives according to the cross of Christ so that unity rules among the temples of god where the Holy Spirit dwells amen that's pray we pray oh lord Jesus that we would believe the gospel with such intensity and clarity that it is in fact more real to us than what other people say or what we even see in ourselves so that when we do see sin may we see it as an alien intruder that is not us but that we are yours set apart by you holy and Christ Jesus for your service amen