1 Corinthians 2:14-4:21 - Part C

As God's servants, whether we're planting the church or we're like Apollos or Cephas, whatever, we come and we unravel the meaning of the text. We explain the meaning of the text. We make it clear to you. We're stewards of the mystery of God.

With our inherent fallen nature, it's easy for us in the church to let pride motivate and guide us. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how you can be a faithful steward and helper in the body of Christ. But before we begin, we want to share about a resource that will help you experience hope and renewal in your life. Forbes.com recently published an article with 22 tips for how to completely change your life in one year.

Sounds complicated. The Bible tells a different story about how to change your life. The Bible says, repent and return to God. And it reminds us we need to always insert but God into every situation.

Here's Skip Heitzig. But God is a phrase that appears 45 times in scripture. It's a game changing phrase. It means that no matter who you are, no matter what you have done, no matter how you may have failed, the truth is God can make things different for you from now on. But God. Discover the power of but God in scripture and why it's a game changer for your own life with the But God teaching series from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Our thanks when you give $35 or more to help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air. Get your CD collection today.

Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, let's get into today's teaching. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter three as we begin our study with Skip Heitzig.

There's another way to do it. And that is through the systematic teaching of God's word. Teaching the Bible. Okay, listen, listen, but listen, it gets real boring.

Verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, Genesis to Revelation 66 books. That's long and laborious. Now here's the downside of that. The growth will be slower usually than the sensational ones, but it'll be solid. That's the plus.

That's the positive. It'll be solid growth because you're growing people's lives. You're taking them from carnality to spirituality. You're not just haranguing them and having a pep rally where you say some profound thing and you shout it and go from one part of the stage to another shout and people clap at every little thing you say.

It's like a little holy pep rally. And you're even impressed with what you say. But you're building deep spiritual truths. You're building them up in truth and you're going deep and it will show and it will last.

Ah, we'll go on. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss but he himself will be saved yet as though by fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple are you? Now a couple of things about these verses. He's not speaking about the human body individually.

He's not speaking about your body. We call ourselves individually. I'm the temple. Personally, this is the temple.

Right? Got to take care of the temple. And usually we speak individually.

And it is true. You are individually the temple of God. God does dwell in you. But when Paul says you here, it's a plural you. He's writing collectively to the church.

He's not thinking of individual Christians that have individual personal relationships with Christ and are individual little children. He's not in our individual little temples. He's saying all of you together as the church, the body of Christ, that is where God dwells. You are the temple of God.

God dwells in you. And he says if anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. This is a warning. Evidently there were people coming into the Corinthian church who were trying to divide. They were false teachers and causing havoc and ruining things.

That's why they had the issues that they had. And so he says look, if anybody's messing with the church, God's going to mess with him. You're trying to destroy or wreck havoc on the church.

Look out. You're touching, you know, the apple of his eye. Like Saul of Tarsus. Saul, why do you persecute me?

Who are you? Lord, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. And I told you so many times that Jesus so identified with his people that if you're going after them, Jesus says I'm taking it personally. You're messing with my people.

I take it personally. You're coming after me. So you try to defile the temple of God, God will destroy you. But the temple of God is holy, which temple you collectively are. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it is written he catches the wise in their own craftiness. Now that's a quote from the book of Job chapter 5 where one of the friends of Job named Eliphaz the Temanite said this. Paul pulls that out. Though Eliphaz gave a lot of bad advice to Job, he did make a few statements that were right on and true and this is one of them.

And he pulls that out. He catches the wise in their own craftiness. And again, quoting now from Psalm 94, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile. Therefore, let no one glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours and you are Christ and Christ is God.

Just so you know if you're interested, if not, have another thought I guess for the next few moments. But this is a figure of speech called Amerism and Paul does this a few times. He does this at the end of Romans chapter 8 where I'm persuaded that neither life nor death or principalities or powers or things to come or things present.

Remember when he does that? Nothing will separate us from the love of God. It's called Amerism and Amerism is a figure of speech whereby you have objects that are poles apart, opposites apart. And the idea is you're putting a pole here and a pole there, things present, things to come, life, death, this, that, and you're putting them in and he's saying that it encompasses everything between all of those poles. It's just a way of saying nothing can separate us from the love of God in Romans 8 or this is another way of saying everything you need God will give to you. You're not going to be lacking in anything.

All are yours. God gave you Paul. God gave you Cephas.

God gave you Apollos. All for your spiritual benefit and you are Christ and Christ is God. So he's summing up unity and the need for unity. So you belong to Christ and your brother in that church of Corinth that you're arguing with because you're in a different group than he or she is, they also belong to Christ. And since you both belong to Christ, you should figure that out and get along.

It's a good reason for unity. When Jesus taught us to pray, he said, and when you pray, say this, what's the first what's the first words he said? Our father. Huh. American evangelicals love to talk about personal relationship with God. Okay. Why didn't Jesus say, when you pray, say my father. All right, make it personal. It was always our father.

Why? Because Christianity came to take out words like I, me and mine and replace it with ours, us and we. By the way, you know, you know something fascinating in the book of Revelation, there are several different anthems of praise, songs in the book of Revelation. Not one song in the book of Revelation is a solo. You have 24 elders singing, praising. You have the angels of heaven joining them in singing together, praising God. You have those who overcome the beast after the tribulation period, singing together with harps in their hands, giving praise to God. There's never a solo.

There's always anthems of people singing together. And so Paul is dealing with the area of unity. You are Christ, Christ is God's. And he continues the theme.

If we can make it part of it, let's try it. Let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human being, 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. Now, I know that some of you know the answer to this, and so I'm going to ask you and you can just shout it out if you know. Usually in the New Testament, when Paul says, I'm a servant of Christ or I'm a bondservant of Christ, what is the word, the Greek word that he usually uses?

Anybody know? Shout it out. Dulos or doulos or doulos or douloi for plural.

So that's typical. Paul, a servant of the Lord, he often begins his letters that way. Here he calls himself a servant. It's translated servant here in verse one.

Let a man so consider us servants, but he uses a different word. It's the word that means under rower, under rower or under oarsmen. It speaks of being in a large ship, a galley ship run by slaves who have oars, and they're pulling on those oars in a synchronized fashion, and they're taking orders from a supervisor, and so they are under rowers.

They're under the galley of the ship. They're galley slaves. So that's a picture Paul wants to put in our minds that none of us are the boss of the church. We're slaves. We're galley slaves. It's Christ's church. He's the one shouting out the orders.

I'm just the under roseman. So let a man so consider us as servants, hupertas, under rowers or under oarsmen. So servants and stewards. So we're given a trust. That's the idea of a steward.

You manage that trust. Stewards of the mystery of God. That is, we as God's servants, whether we're planting the church or we're like Apollos or Cephas, whatever, we come and we unravel the meaning of the text. We explain the meaning of the text.

We make it clear to you. We are stewards of the mysteries of God. We told you before, the mystery here doesn't mean like murder mystery. It means it was a secret hidden in the Old Testament, but now revealed in the New Testament. So Paul and others are stewards of that mystery. Now something about a galley slave, because Paul says, just when you think of us, when you think of a Paul and Apollos, don't think of, whoa, they're like superheroes of the faith. No, actually, we're like galley slaves. Do you know that in a ship, the hardest job was to be a galley slave? It was the hardest position you could have in an ancient ship. In other words, Paul's saying, I just got to tell you something. If you're going to work in the ministry like Paul or like Apollos or like Cephas, it's not going to be easy.

If you do it right, it's going to be hard. I remember my mom, when I was a kid, she had to feed four obnoxious boys of whom I was the last. And we would, you know, we would have food and we would complain about it.

I don't like this. And I remember sometimes she'd kind of lose her mind and sometimes she'd kind of lose it. Moms ever do that here? Any of you moms ever lose?

Okay. So my mom looked at her, she goes, you know what? She'd say something like, I slave over a hot stove all day long for you four boys. And I'll never forget that because I see that as my job, to slave over a hot stove, so to speak, to really labor in the word and in doctrine, to spend hour after hour digging into the text, understanding so that it can be made plain.

But I just feel that's the job of the under rower. Work hard, make it easy for people to digest the truths that are in the scripture. As it says in Nehemiah, make sense of it. Give the sense, give the understanding. Moreover, it is required in Stewart's that one be found faithful. But with very small thing that I should be judged by you Corinthians or by a human court.

In fact, I do not even judge my self. Paul knew that he was being evaluated by them. He heard the reports. It's the way it is. If you were in public, anything you are scrutinized in public.

And if you're in public ministry, you get scrutinized in public. That's live with it. Next, it's just the way it is. But let me just say the easiest activity in the world takes no effort at all, no brains at all, is to be a critic. Just remember that.

And I just explained to you in a nutshell the world of social media, pretty much. The easiest thing in the world is just to make, because once you develop a critical eye toward people and toward things, it's hard to stop. It's hard to reel it in. It's hard to use restraint.

It's hard to govern yourself. So it's best to think the highest of someone, realizing you don't know their motives, and they're not going to have to stand before you thank God for future rewards or disapproval. So though Paul did have a tender conscience, and he said, I lived in conscience, good conscience before God and men unto this day, he goes, I don't even judge myself.

I know nothing against myself. That is, I don't know that I'm doing anything wrong in ministry that I can pinpoint, yet I am not justified by this. But he who judges me is the Lord. 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 heart. And then each one's praise will come from God. Okay, so we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, right? But let there be no pre-judgment before the judgment seat. You're not like the pre-judge before that. I know they're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, but they ought to go through me first. I'm going to make sure they hear this first. We don't need that ministry.

Thank you very much. Now these things, brethren, verse six, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written and that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against another. For who makes you to differ from another?

And what do you have that you did not receive? Now, if you indeed did receive it, why do you glory as if you hadn't received it? Remember what John the Baptist said when his disciples, his own followers said, you know, this guy named Jesus is gaining a whole lot more popularity than you. John said, listen, nobody can do anything unless he receives it from God. And then he said, he must increase, I must decrease.

Now Paul in verse eight gets into some holy sarcasm. You are already full. You are already rich. You have reigned as kings without us. And indeed, I could wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you. It's sarcastic speech, obviously, as you can tell, because he's writing to people. He just said you are carnal.

And now he says, oh, you're already full. You're already rich. You've reigned as kings without us. Let me rephrase it for you. You guys are already acting like it's the millennial kingdom and you have received your reward and jurisdiction of reigning with the Messiah. You're already acting that way.

Boy, I wish I was rich like you guys. I wish I was in the position you are, but I'm too busy being an apostle, preaching the gospel and getting beat up for it. That's the sarcasm he's using. For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles last, as men condemned to death, for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. Now keep this in mind, because later on, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul will give a list and he says, God has put the apostles first. The apostles are first. First the apostles, then the prophets, then teachers.

He kind of lists the order. But here he says, I think God has displayed us, the apostles, at last, as men condemned to death as we have been made a spectacle. Now that is a word picture for a Roman general after a Roman general won a battle. They would go to Rome and they'd have a triumph procession through Rome. Some of the monuments to those are still in Rome to this day.

You can walk under these arches that were put there a couple thousand years ago. So the general, after winning a battle, would make a parade, a victory parade through Rome. The people would be applauding the general as he was lifted up on his throne and carried by his royal guard. And then behind them was displayed all the spoils of war that were collected, the things they stole when they plundered the different people they had war with. Behind that, last in the possession, were prisoners of war.

Men condemned to die, they were usually taken to the arena and either competed or fed to wild beasts. And Paul says, it seems like God has allowed us to be those people. We aren't rich and influential, as awesome as you guys who have all the critique in the world against people like us.

I'm too busy getting beat up and I am displayed last. We are fools, verse 10, for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are dishonored. Even to the present hour, we both hunger and thirst and are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands, being reviled. We blaspheme, persecuted. We endure it, being defamed.

We entreat. We have been made the filth of the world, the off-scoring of all things until now. That's Paul's life. I do not write these things to shame you. Now, if I'm in Corinth, I'm kind of hanging my head, but I don't know.

I feel pretty busted by that. I didn't write these things to shame you, but I do not write these things to shame you. I didn't write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children, I warn you, for though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers.

For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. Paul said he was a servant. Paul said he was a steward. Paul said he was a planter.

Paul said he was a builder. Now Paul pulls out kind of the card of authority and says, yeah, but I'm also your father because I was the one who led you to Christ. And he wasn't using this as because of that, I have more authority. He's saying that because of that, I have more responsibility.

And that's why he's taking this tone, this parental tone with them. I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore, I urge you imitate me. For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. Now some are puffed up as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you shortly if the Lord wills. Remember, he's in Ephesus writing this letter. If the Lord wills, I will know not the word of those who are puffed up, but of power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of gentleness? You make the choice. I'm coming, and those guys who are stirring up all the trouble, I'm going to see them face to face. I'm going to see if they're as big as what I'm hearing they are because I'm going to kind of get in their grill and get eyeball to eyeball with them, and I can come gentle or I can come kind of hard.

You make the choice. So Paul kind of ramps back up his authority as the apostle, as the founder of the church, and we'll tell you why next time I want to finish the chapter. We'll take a few of the thoughts as we get into chapter five, but at least I wanted to say that I finished chapter four. That's Skip Heintze with a message from the series Expound 1 Corinthians. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep these messages coming your way and connect others around the world with God's truths.

Even though we're believers in Christ, we still have to wrestle with the sin nature inside us, but God's word equips us in the fight. That's why our goal is to get more clear Bible teachings to as many people as possible, and through your generous gift today, you can help connect more people to God's word. Here's how you can give today. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate, or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity, and come back tomorrow as Skip Heintze shares why it's so important for you to focus on Christ instead of people and things of the world. But Chloe's household told Paul that there were some divisions going on in the church, that people were rallying around different spiritual teachers. Some were saying that they were of the school of Paul, others of Apollos, others of Peter, Cephas. And the problem was, it was ruining their unity. So they had their eyes on the servants of the Lord, rather than having their eyes on the Lord of those servants. Connect with Skip Heintze is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.