to Massachusetts. As you all know, we only have two or three churches in Massachusetts. Maine has about 15. So it’s a little strange. And so, you know, so keep praying for that. As always, I’ll close. I’ll close Ethan now. But as always, you know, even in the midst, personally, cranking out the work, just trying to keep up with the work as clerk and everything. Every time we get up a sing and exalt Christ, and Christ is our living head, our source of comfort and exultation, that always just comes through, even in the midst of all of this work, this policy, these tough decisions, we keep coming back to Jesus and his ministry and his love for his people. And so that always encourages me. So with that, any questions? All right. Thanks, Chris. And thanks, David.
If you have a Bible, you can turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. This is actually the final installment of Paul’s the final installment of the first part of Paul’s letter to those in Corinth, before he shifts over in chapter five to talk about some significant ethical issues they were dealing with, and he talks about those for a few chapters. All right. Here we are, 1 Corinthians chapter four. In your pew Bible, it’s page 1,212. These four chapters, he’s been rebuking the church for their church divisions. They all had their favorite pastor, just like I’m sure you do.
And we discovered that’s not actually an issue. The problem is, though, when we start thinking of ourselves better than others. Because of our preferences, if you like Paul better than Apollos, or Peter better than Apollos, What kind of theological tradition do you come from?
Does it make you look down on people from other kinds of churches? These are the kind of issues that we’re dividing this church in Corinth. And Paul has been making arguments and arguments and arguments, four different arguments, four or five different arguments, to help teach them how to grow out of that kind of immature spirituality. He actually calls them infants in Christ, baby Christians, because of the way they’re acting.
And I think this has been a helpful consideration Like I said last week, as you reminisce on your former pastor and as you anticipate a new pastor, how should we view ministers? And how might we enjoy the kind of unity that Jesus provided for us in the Holy Spirit? So let’s finish this section and I’ll read the entirety of chapter four. Let’s listen now to God’s word. Paul writes, this is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it’s required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
But with me, it’s a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any other human court. In fact, I don’t even judge myself, for I’m 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 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 whose is anything different than you?
What do you have that you did not receive? And if then you received it, why do you boast as if you didn’t receive it? Already you have all you want. Already you’ve become rich. Without us, you become kings. and would 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’ve become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We’re fools for Christ’s sake, but you’re wise in Christ. We’re weak, but you are strong. You’re held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, We labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we entreat. We’ve become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
I did 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 don’t have many fathers. For I have become 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 if the Lord wills. And I’ll 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 and a spirit of gentleness?
This is God’s word. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, we ask that you now help us to see your word, to hear your word. Would your spirit illumine our minds and help us to see how we are exposed by this passage and how in being exposed, we can turn to Christ and be reshaped evermore into his image. It’s in Jesus’ name we give you thanks for hearing us. Amen. while a single church is being divided among themselves, boasting about pastors they like more than others, and looking down at people in their very church who have different preferences. And Paul writes at the end of verse six, his main exhortation, don’t go beyond what is written. Don’t go beyond what is written. What does that mean? Don’t get too big for your own boots.
There’s a particular humility that we ought to have as Christians. And then he goes on. And only then will you not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against another. You can find the same temptations in our culture today. We can easily fear what other people think of us and be controlled by that fear of what other people think. And so what do we do? We fake it till we make it. You’ve been nervous what other people might think of you at work, what other friends in your class or on your team think about you. You’re tempted to fake it.
We exaggerate our successes when someone asks how things went. We boast about being self-made even. If there were anything great or admirable about us, we live as if everybody has to know about it. So we advertise our achievements and we wear our wealth. We’re puffed up to one degree or another and we often have much more talk than actual power to back it up.
This is a big problem, though, if you call yourself a Christian, because the kingdom of God is not of talk, but of power, as he concludes in verse 20. So what does Paul mean by this, that the kingdom of God is not of talk, but of power? Well, you know that a coffee shop absolutely does not have the best cup of coffee if they have a sign that says we have the best cup of coffee. You know that that’s not true. You know that a restaurant doesn’t have the best burger if they have to say, we have the best burger in America. You know that someone or something is absolutely not the best if they have to say they’re the best.
On the other hand, where do you find the best coffee? You walk by the shop without even noticing it. And the only reason you went back is because you asked someone in town where to get the best cup of coffee, and they told you, you know that place you didn’t even notice? You gotta go back there. They have the best cup of coffee. So you go into the shop and it seems fairly ordinary.
Perhaps even off-putting. They didn’t really tidy up. Maybe it’s a little weird or quirky. Has a certain smell. Everything was so unassuming, even the barista, who didn’t seem to particularly care to talk to new customers. You begin to wonder if you made a mistake. Then you have that first sip, and everything changes.
Unlike the glamorous diner with the sign, the world’s best cup of coffee, the best of the best is not a matter of talk, but of power, of actual substance. As we say, the proof is in the pudding. It’s self-authenticating. You don’t need to manufacture compelling power and grand signs, clever slogans, or multi-level marketing schemes to get the word out. All the compelling power that’s needed is in the product itself. So it is with the gospel. This is what Paul is trying to say.
It shows that the power of the kingdom of God, which is breaking through to our present world, is powerfully changing people. At face value, The gospel seems like a stumbling block to some and foolishness to others, but the proof is in the pudding. Consider some main ideas of the Christian faith, for example.
We’re sinners. We’ve offended and rebelled against the Holy God. He created us and now he demands justice. But in kindness and love and grace, he’s sent a Savior to win his victory. And this is how the Savior wins a victory, by being crucified on a Roman cross. It’s like winning by losing, in a way. And yet he rose bodily from the dead and is alive today.
I mean, I probably just said like 12 things that seem outrageous to an average person here on the Cape. Some of these things sound silly. Others are offensive, if you saw them at face value. And so, some Christian pastors and preachers among the church in Corinth, and even today, thought they need to dress up this message of the gospel to make it more obvious and attractive, like the way you might put up a big sign that says, we have the world’s best cup of coffee. They made sure to preach in smart and clever ways that other famous public speakers would use in order to win over a crowd. But from the beginning of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 until now, the Apostle Paul’s been warning the church.
What these guys are doing is actually emptying the gospel of its power. They’re diluting it. making you unable to taste and see it for what it really is on its own terms. They were preaching a message that was simply puffed up. It sounded impressive and persuasive, but you realized it had no substance.
Some of the members of the church in Corinth were being puffed up too. They were puffing themselves up, considering themselves better than others in their own church because of the particular personality or approach to ministry or preaching that one apostle had over another. And some people among American evangelical churches today will say things like, I wouldn’t even make sense of this term, but I’ve been hearing it, that message was fire. That message was fire.
But Paul writes in verse two, what matters is not that a message is fire, but that a preacher was faithful. Paul writes, I care very little what you think about me. And I don’t even care what I think about myself, for that matter, I do have a judge, and I only care if I’m faithful.
If a messenger is simply faithful, then the power of the gospel will be displayed as self-evident on its own merit. This is what it means that the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power. So long as the gospel is faithfully preached, God’s power will be displayed in the message, regardless of a pastor’s particular personality or style of preaching or approach to ministry compared to one another. You can get the power in all different ways.
No reason to be looking down on others. Therefore, we shouldn’t be puffed up in ourselves. We shouldn’t be puffed up in ourselves because of a particular tribe we prefer, church we belong to, the pastors we like. We should not be comparing ourselves to brothers and sisters in Christ at all, but only that we believe the same gospel, and the gospel itself is the power of God. This leads us to the big idea of our passage in the sermon tonight. Because the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power, we should not puff ourselves up in any way.
But instead, what should we do? Imitate the humble life of Jesus. Imitate the humble life of Jesus. This is the only way we can make sure that we don’t get lured into the kind of pride that was dragging down the church in Corinth by pursuing the humble life of Jesus, knowing that the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. Paul writes in our passage three ways that the kingdom of God proves it really is a matter of talk and not of power, which are also three reasons that we shouldn’t be puffed up. The first reason he gives is that no one is self-made. No one. That’s a myth. No one is self-made.
We are what we are by the grace of God. We see that in verses seven to eight. Chapter four, verses seven to eight. Now when we watch our favorite athletes on TV or Olympians, our eyes are fixed on them. And they receive all the glory for their victory. What we don’t see was the crowd of teammates and supporters and trainers and doctors behind them, getting them to the stage.
In 1953, Richard Bannister ran one mile in four minutes and two seconds. The fastest mile was ever recorded at that time. The problem was that he had people running in front of him to break the wind. So it didn’t count. So as Bannister continued to train, his team continued to think about ways that they could get around these rules and restrictions. And as journalist Alex Hutchinson wrote, when Bannister finally did break the four-minute barrier, he was once again paced by his training partners, but only for about the first three-quarters of the race. This form of pacing, he said, remained highly controversial because none of the pacemakers had deliberately allowed himself to be lapped, the record was allowed to stand this time.
These days, he says, such pacing is so routine that there are runners who make a living doing nothing but pacing other runners. What should we think then about these fastest runners that we watch on TV now? I’ve just ruined you all. You can’t now watch someone and actually admire them knowing all the little tricks that they put behind getting to where they are. But despite the fact that our eyes are fixed on individual athletes and they alone are the one who received the gold medal, there is a crowd of teammates and strategists who are actually making their victory possible. Here’s the point.
If the greatest athletes in the world aren’t self-made people, what makes us think any of us are? Is anyone self-made after all? Paul writes in verse seven, Who makes you different than anybody else? What do you have? Think about everything you have, everything you believe. What do you have that you didn’t receive, he says. And if you did receive it, why are you boasting as if you didn’t?
Once upon a time, there was absolutely nothing. But then God spoke and created everything. Without God, nothing would still exist. And so everything that exists owes its existence to God. Psalm 24 verse 1, the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. Jesus said in John chapter 3, a person can’t receive even one thing unless it’s given to him from heaven. Acts chapter 17, God himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
It’s easy to think too highly of ourselves. hogging all the credit for who we are and what we’ve accomplished, and forget about all the help and all the people that we needed. But even the things we give to God are merely being given back to him. Solomon writes that, God, we’re giving all this to you, but we’re just giving you stuff that you gave us.
It’s like when my kids want to buy me a present, I have to give them money to buy me a present, my money. So we need to be careful not to puff ourselves up or claim that we’re self-made. The fact is, no one is self-made. We are what we are by the grace of God, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11. God has not only given us everything we have, but he’s also given us every one he’s placed in our life to help us along the way.
This is where Paul goes next in verse 8. He says, sarcastically, look at you. He says, already you have all you want. Already you’ve become rich. You’ve begun to reign, and that without us. Look at you, church inquirant. You’ve done this all by yourself.
Some people in the Church of Corinth did think that. They thought they were making it big. They finally found the right theological tribe and philosophical ministry to hold to. They made the in-crowd. Here, Paul is speaking sarcastically to them. Look at you. You’ve been filled. You’ve become rich. You’ve begun to reign, and all by yourself, as if you didn’t need us apostles. and pastors to get you where you are, as if certain people in life hadn’t helped you, as if God wasn’t the one who placed them in your life in the first place.
To be honest, sometimes the health or size or impact of some of our churches brings us to such outward appearances of development and success, even the common community and watching world around us can admire us by their own standards of what success looks like.
Our messages go viral, our music goes mainstream, Our budget grows larger than any other in town. We do more for charity than any other organization. The way we crank out leaders is everyone asking us about our training methods. But we can embrace the humility that we ought to have as Christians because the kingdom of God has already proven its power in our lives.
And I think for churches like yours and churches like mine, my church, Forest Hill Church, we have 34 members right now. We’re not a big, cool church. We can have the opposite kind of pride. Look at us, we’re the frozen chosen. Look at our confession of faith. Look at the way we preach the Bible. Not like those other churches that are trying to be cool. Pride can go both ways.
As Paul wrote back in chapter one of 1 Corinthians, brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Meaning, think about what you look like and what you were when God first found you. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many of you were influential, not many of you were of noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him.
It’s because of him that you’re in Christ Jesus, he says, who has become for us wisdom from God. That is our righteousness, our holiness, our redemption. Therefore it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. So even if our ministries were to grow, we need to remember the message of the gospel itself is the power of God, not the messenger as we saw in chapter one. It’s the Holy Spirit who does the work of revealing God’s word to us in the first place, chapter two. And it’s the Lord who alone gives growth, not pastors who plant and water. 1 Corinthians 3. No one is self-made. Here’s a second way that the kingdom of God displays its power, and a second reason that we shouldn’t be puffed up.
The Christian faith is a humble faith. The Christian faith is a humble faith. Verses 9 to 17 is where Paul describes this. What I mean, and what Paul means, is that the founders of the Christian faith themselves lived lowly and humble lives. Jesus and the apostles, they lived lowly and humble lives. Did you ever know a family that seemed to all be musically talented? Or a family that all seemed to be creative and crafty or attractive or athletic?
If someone said, I’m a Kardashian, for example, What would we assume about them? Well, they’re probably beautiful and wealthy. If someone said, I’m a Manning, we might assume they’re probably a really good football player. But if somebody said, I’m a Christian, what should they assume about us based on our family heritage? What should or could describe us? If something could describe the entire family of the Christian faith throughout history, across every culture, and over every demographic group within the Christian faith, what should it be?
We don’t need to look any further than the life of the apostles as they imitated the very life of Jesus. If anyone models what it means to be a Christian and to follow Jesus, it would be the apostles. Right? But what did the life of the apostles actually look like?
Look back at chapter 4, verse 9. Paul says, it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of a procession like those condemned to die in the arena. We’ve been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.
He’s describing the Roman Colosseum and gladiator fights. What was really happening there was brutal and disturbing. If there was a criminal who was condemned to die, Instead of leading him to his death penalty with some quick or simple way, they would instead put him in a stadium to fight off a lion or Roman warriors for as long as he could last. And they would sell tickets to thousands of people who would cheer and laugh and drink as they watched him being torn limb from limb. The apostle Paul is saying, that’s how I feel sometimes as an apostle. My life as an apostle is hard. and humiliating. On the one hand, the message that I preach sounds so silly to most people.
On the other hand, the Roman government doesn’t like the impact we Christians are making. So now we’re on the run for our life. We’re persecuted by various kinds of people only. And what are we doing this for? To serve poor churches who can’t even support us. So that we have to work night jobs. And other churches like this one in Corinth who’s causing us so much grief by the way they’re acting. Verse 11, to this very hour, we go hungry and thirsty, he says. We’re in rags. We’re brutally treated. We’re homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we’re cursed, we bless. When we’re persecuted, we endure it. When we’re slandered, we answer kindly.
When we’ve become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world, right up to this moment. The apostles weren’t just a general, humble people who lived lowly lives. In their day, they were the scum of the earth. the bottom of the barrel, a sorry form of entertainment for the world to laugh at. You would not be proud to say that you come from the line of the history of their family.
Yet Paul writes in verse 16, imitate me. After saying all that, he says, imitate me. He says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, imitate me, he goes further, as I imitate Christ, which is translated, follow me as I follow Christ, because the Christian faith is a humble faith. and we serve a humble and lowly Savior. For this reason, Paul writes, I’ve sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who’s faithful in the Lord, and he’s gonna remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere, in every church.
So it wasn’t simply the apostles’ providential example from history. This was the very way of the life of Jesus Christ himself, as the prophet Isaiah foretold, chapter 53, The Messiah is not going to have any beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering. He’s well acquainted with grief, like one from whom people hide their faces. He was despised and we held him in low esteem. Jesus himself owned this identity. He says, come to me all ye who are weary and burdened. Why? Because I am gentle and humble in heart. I myself am this way. That’s why you can come to me if you’re lowly. This is why, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.
Are any of us who claim the name of Christ better than Christ? Do we have something about life figured out that he was unaware of? That we could have given some life advice to Jesus, the apostles, to make life not so hard on themselves? If Jesus only knew what we know, or perhaps if he lived in our day and age with our culture and economy, perhaps he would have enjoyed more prosperity and popularity and success. But no, the opposite is true. Jesus is the example that we ought to conform our lives after.
It wasn’t something that only the apostles needed to do or something only the early church needed to know. Paul says, this is what I teach everywhere in every church. Not just for you, Corinth. This is a universal and timeless truth embedded in the very fabric and DNA of the Christian faith.
The Christian faith is a humble and lowly faith. Let’s keep it that way. Because Christians serve a humble and lowly Savior. 1 Peter 2, Christ set us an example that we should follow his steps. Hebrews 13, Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood, Let us then go with him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.” So then why are some Christians in churches trying to be so cool?
It reminds me of trying to begin being a fashion trendsetter as a teenager, wearing an utterly ridiculous outfit and playing it off as if it’s cool, hoping maybe I can convince people it really is. Or like an elderly person who dressed as if they were still in high school. It’s like that outfit just doesn’t fit your situation in life. It’s not you. You look silly.
From a purely human perspective, it should seem laughable and ridiculous to be a Christian at all. To live your life dedicated to the same beliefs of Jesus and the apostles. So why are some Christians trying to be so cool? We Christians should not live puffed up lives as if The faith community that we claim to be part of doesn’t come from such humble origins.
Or as if many of our brothers and sisters in Christ today aren’t still suffering and living lives that very much looked and felt like the ones the apostles lived. Let’s not act as if we already have all that we want, as Paul says, or we’ve already become rich, or we’ve already begun to reign.
No, heaven is breaking through, but it hasn’t broken all the way through yet. On this side of glory, we remain wanderers in this world. eagerly waiting a greater city that’s to come. We remain sufferers in this world, eagerly waiting the redemption of our bodies.
But we can do this because the kingdom of God has already proven its power. It’s already proven its power in history, through the history of the Christian faith itself. For the Christian faith, think about it just as a sociological phenomenon here. The Christian faith had every historical and social and cultural reason to have been quickly snuffed out. and lost and forgotten. But it wasn’t. In fact, you can’t underestimate the historical impact of Jesus and the Christian faith once you start looking into it. The kingdom of God is powerful. It’s not of talk. It is a power, and His power has been proven throughout history. There’s a second way that the kingdom of God proves itself in its powers, because it is of such humble origins.
Now to the third, And final way, the kingdom of God displays its power, and it’s the third and final way that reason why we shouldn’t be puffed up as Christians that Paul talks about. Number three, in the end, the Lord is gonna show everyone for who they really are. He says this in verses 18 to 21. In the end, the Lord’s gonna show everyone for who they really are. He’s gonna prove the kingdom of God is really not a talk but a power, and it’s also a reason that none of us should be puffed up.
I like to call the gym, if you go to a public gym, the great equalizer. Doesn’t matter if your supervisor at work boasts in his authority or a military officer boasts about their rank, let’s all get in our gym clothes. Run some laps around the track, grab the pull-up bar, we’ll see who boasts about what. We’ll see who’s who. Strength and athletic competition have a way of being this great equalizer. of reversing power dynamics, and I remember that when I was in the Marine Corps. We boasted about our strength, right, in the Marines.
And then there’s this lowly private first class, who we always picked on, all of a sudden is outrunning everybody and putting the rest of us to a huffing and puffing shame. The kingdom of God wields this same kind of role-reversing power, where some who you thought were wise and strong and honored are revealed in the end to be fools and weak and full of shame And others that we consider to be fools or weak or full of shame are raised up and shown to be wise and strong and honored by God. This is how the Kingdom of God works.
In verses 18 to 22, Paul writes about his plan to come back to the church in Corinth himself to set things straight, though some of the people in Corinth were acting as if he weren’t coming back. But he said that when he came back, it would prove to everyone if they simply were talking the talk or if they had any substance to what they were saying. It seems this is the kind of preview for a final judgment to come, which Paul mentioned at the very beginning of our passage. There’s a final judgment coming for all people where the Lord will return to judge the living and the dead, to set things straight, to prove all the talkers to be without any real substance or power like they were boasting that they had.
But in that day, he’s also going to raise up people who are content to imitate the humble life of Jesus and seat them in thrones of glory. Whether a person seems impressive in their outward appearance or not, Paul writes back in verse 5, judge nothing before the appointed time. Rather, wait until the Lord comes. Then we’ll know he’s getting at. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.
So if you happen to be proud or strong or rich in the eyes of the world, take caution. Those who seek satisfaction in this life will come up empty in the end. Those who pursue the wealth of this world will be left poor and pitiable in the kingdom of God. Those who pursue power in this age will be dethroned and brought low when Jesus claims all creation for himself. And yet the Apostle Paul is not speaking like this to the church in Corinth as if he were a hired teacher.
He cares much more for them than that, like a father, he says, would care for his children, hoping that they would grow by this and develop and mature and find success. true success in the eyes of God. Although there is a serious warning to the proud, at the same time, we can flip this over and see great encouragement for the lowly and the weak. Great assurance for the humble, because when the kingdom of God comes in its power, he says, at that time, each will receive their praise from God.
Can you imagine that? We spend a lot of time praising God. What’s it going to feel like that day that God praises you? Can you imagine that? That’s what he says. At that time, on the day of the Lord, each will receive their praise from God, the lowly, the humble, those who imitated the meekness of their Savior.
We don’t need to shy away from the reality of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to believe the gospel, what it means to follow Jesus. We can embrace this kind of humility that we’re called to have. We can openly acknowledge the fact that we’re not self-made. but we are indeed standing on the shoulders of many who’ve come before us and influenced our lives by God’s grace. We can unashamedly confess that the Christian faith is a humble faith, and often humiliated throughout history. We can do all these things because the kingdom of God is not of talk, but of power. It’s a role-reversing power.
God opposes the proud, but he shows favor to the humble. Proverbs chapter three, Jesus says in Matthew 23, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. As sure as God raised Jesus from the dead in incorruptible glory, so God will raise his people from the dead, together with all creation, making all things new, and making us the crowning glory of his creation underneath the headship of Christ. The humble and the lowly are given glory and honor. This is why Jesus calls the poor in spirit, blessed, in Matthew 5. So if you happen to be weak or poor, Or your church happens to be small or pitiable in the eyes of the world. Take heart. Whoever’s found in Christ is going to receive praise from God. You won’t be sold short and forgotten.