Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / October 2, 2022 | 1 Corinthians - Humility in Christ

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October 2, 2022 | 1 Corinthians - Humility in Christ · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Good to see everybody.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: In a past life, I was a counselor at Cannecook Camps.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's a Christian summer camp.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And one of those uh one of those weeks, I was in charge of running the blob, which for those of you guys who don't know, that's the colorful thing that you jump onto and somebody else rockets off of, right?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And um at this camp in particular, uh the blob was actually in a swimming pool, right?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm watching the swimming pool.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh if you've been to a swimming pool, right, which applies to almost all of us, you know there are like two main rules.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: You don't dive in the shallow end and you don't run around the pool, right?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there was one kid who seemed to like not grasp the gravity of that second rule, and there's a reason that it exists, and so all morning long, you know, I'm telling him like, hey man, you gotta quit, you know, running around the pool, you're gonna get hurt, yeah, so on and so forth.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he he didn't listen to me.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's a little bit later on in the day, a little bit later on in the morning, he's running around the pool, right?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And at this point, right, you're just like, okay, keep doing it.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he's running around the pool, slips, pull of water, slides about 10 feet into the pool sort of railing around.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: He was fine.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I was very gratified when the first thing that he did was make eye contact with me.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I just looked at him and I was like, what did you learn?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Don't run around the pool.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, yeah.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's um there's a very popular phrase that pride goes before the fall, right?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um very popular, often misattributed to various people.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just in the the quick Google image search I did, it's apparently a guy named Joseph said it, a guy named Michelle said, or a woman named Michelle said it, and then it's an Egyptian proverb, right?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you didn't know, because God was the one who said it first.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 16, 18, uh pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: This morning uh we're gonna be talking a little bit about that, and in particular, where we're at in 1 Corinthians.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been with us the last few weeks, you know Paul has sort of developed this argument.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Over the first three chapters, he has highlighted there uh the division uh within the church that is there mainly because they are focusing on the world instead of God's kingdom.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he's listed, though, different reasons for why this division has taken place, given some different suggestions for things that they need to be doing, but overall has sort of given them instruction.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And now we find ourselves kind of on the back end of that particular segment in the letter to the Corinthians.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And really what we get to now is Paul says, I've given you this instruction, but I am concerned that you are so arrogant that you are not actually going to listen to it.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what's fun is that there's sort of two levels to this argument, right?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: In the sense that he says, sort of the gatekeeper is the fact that you just might be so arrogant that you won't even listen to what I'm saying.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have humility, and so receiving instruction and changing is something that is very difficult for you because you don't want to admit that you might be wrong.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: But if they can get past the gate, though, there's this deeper truth that Paul is trying to expound, which is the fact that the only way that they can actually develop true humility is by walking through the cross and finding Jesus Christ first.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: The Corinthians, as we're going to see in a moment, that they really want to find the shortcut to the end.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And what Paul is going to say is the only route to true humility and to Christ-likeness is by walking the path that Christ has walked himself.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So as we begin here in 1 Corinthians 4, we see that it says, Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, nothing beyond what is written.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: The purpose is that none of you will be arrogant, favoring one person over another.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: For who makes you so superior?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: What did you have that you did not receive?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: If in fact you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn't received it?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: You are already full, you are already rich.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: You have begun to reign as kings without us, and I wish you did reign so that we could reign with you.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Give me one second here.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why that white bar is there.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta deal with it.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Love you.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So now, brothers and sisters, he's applying these things.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: So what he's saying here is he's like, look, uh, and if you recall the first three chapters, right, a lot of things centered around Paul and uh Apollos and some of the other teachers.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's and what he's saying is I've applied these things, I've applied my instruction and my rules to myself and to these other teachers so that basically I could protect you.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, there is a form of this letter in another universe where um I'm calling out every person individually who is creating these factions or is doing these kinds of things.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And instead, he says, I've I've placed the onus upon myself so that you can see how I am leading by example here.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Something that he's gonna hit on later.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I want you to watch me, and I'm putting the pressure on myself because I'm going to carry this out, and I just want you to follow after me.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says, so that you may learn the meaning of the saying, nothing beyond what is written.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: The purpose of Paul doing all of this is that none of you will be arrogant, favoring one person over another.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: For who makes you so superior?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can you can interpret that first question in one of two ways, right?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can positively or negatively.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can either take it, like basically the in our sort of language, um, who died and made you king, right?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: The that effect.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Who made you so superior?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: But probably the one that's more fitting to the other questions in Paul's heart for them is he's wanting them to turn their focus to God.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Who was the one that made you so superior?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you remember back in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, right, they have every spiritual gift that they could ever want.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: They are wealthy, they are prosperous, like they are successful by pretty much any measure that you could put to them.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is saying, yeah, but who was the one who made you so superior?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: What do you have that you didn't receive?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: What Corinthians do you have that you actually gained for yourself?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just within this little context of their church community, he's like, man, God has chosen you, he has saved you, he has revealed his mysteries to you.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, what of those things did you get out of your own power or your own effort?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: See, the twist that comes as you journey further towards Christ and as you develop spiritual maturity, and as particularly as you are blessed by God in spiritual ways, what's odd is that it becomes even easier than it was previously to think that you got there by your own merit.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you first come to Christ and you receive that understanding of, man, my the depth of my sinfulness is hard to bear.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: I need Jesus.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: I can't get anywhere without him.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing that I can do by myself to absolve all the guilt that I have.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus forgives me.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: But then as you grow and become more and more like Christ and you become to look more and more like him, and like the Corinthians, you are blessed in all of these different ways.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Man, you're like, poof boy, I'm doing pretty good.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: The Corinthians here are struggling with this.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, but what do you have that you did not receive?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: If in fact you did receive it, here's the other problem.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you boast as if you haven't received it?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I think you know what's going on, but you're still acting like you were the ones who got it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're already full, you're already rich, you have begun to reign as kings without us, and I wish you did reign so that we could also reign with you.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: What does he mean there?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Corinthians, right, they already see themselves as superior.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we know, based upon uh the city of Corinth and kind of the history there and other things that Paul says here in his other visits, we know that they were quite wealthy, or at least some of them.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: The church had wealthy members, that's going to be a problem later on in 1 Corinthians, the sort of the first class versus the second class.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: But here Paul is saying, you are living like you are a part of the world.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is something he's already picked up on.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: I won't dive too deep there.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've said much and more about this, but he's like, you can't live for the world and live for the kingdom of God.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Those two things don't mix.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: We like to think they do.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: But if you were living for both at the same time, you're sacrificing one, right?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you're living for God, you can also live for the world, and vice versa.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, but you're reigning as kings, which is not really a compliment to them.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: But then he says, and I wish you did reign so that we could also reign with you.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: See, Paul's about to go in in the next passage here and explain what his life is like, and moreover, what the life of the apostles is like.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's about to contrast in some really, really remarkable ways how his life looks so much different than the life of the Corinthians, and why there might be a little bit of a problem there.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we kind of get the heart behind Paul here, where he says, man, it would be nice if the Christian life was filled with wealth and prosperity and success and recognition.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: It would be nice if those things came along with it.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: But as we're about to see, the Christian life is often filled with pain and tragedy and torment.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is often filled with a lot of very, very hard things.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is saying, I wish we could reign as kings.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not what we have been called to do.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: We have been called to live separate from the world.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're finding that all of those things are present, we must be careful.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: As he goes on to say in verse 9, he says, For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place, like men condemned to die.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: We are fools for Christ.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: But you are wise in Christ.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: We are weak, but you are strong.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: You are distinguished, but we are dishonored.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless, we labor, working with our own hands.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: When we are reviled, we bless.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: When we are persecuted, we endure it.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: When we are slandered, we respond graciously.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even now we are like the scum of the earth, like everyone's garbage.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that sounds a lot different than the first part.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, You are living like kings, you are superior, everything about you is wonderful.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And oh, look at us, the apostles, those who lived under the ministry of Christ, and though it hasn't happened yet, almost all of them will end up being killed for their faith.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Look at the lives of the apostles.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he begins to contrast these things, right?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: He says to them, let's see.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says, We are fools for Christ, but you are wise.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: We are weak, but you are strong.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are dishonored, but you are distinguished.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you might think if this was sort of a normal sort of letter, that he would be listing out these things and he would be complimenting them.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: But in the sort of inverse world of the kingdom of God, where being a part of the world is not a good thing, that we are supposed to be living for the kingdom, all of these are tantamount.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're basically criticisms of the church.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to be careful here.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to hear this as if you are rich, then you aren't a part of the kingdom of God, or if you have success, then you aren't a part of the kingdom of God.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: What Paul is saying here is that they have sought out these things outside of the provision of God.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: They have tried to sort of wear the badge, the moniker of Christianity, and yet seek out all of the pleasures of the world and all of the recognition of the world.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul's saying when that when that becomes our aim there, that we're trying to sort of, if you will, have our cake and eat it too, there's a huge problem that comes up.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that problem is evidenced and shown in the lives of the apostles who are the closest to Christ, and that none of them have really attained those kinds of things.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, they are fools because they follow after a faith that people see as foolish.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ crucified.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about that.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, by association, I am a fool also.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: I am not seen as wise.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: We should also pick up on that language from a couple weeks ago when he talked about the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: We are weak.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: What a thing to boast about.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: But you are strong, you are distinguished, we are dishonored.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: He gives six things here that describes their life.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul later on in his letters, in particular 2 Corinthians, he'll get even more specific about the kind of things he has had to endure for the sake of the cross.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And as you're reading these things, one of the questions that should be coming to your mind is what in the world is so appealing about following Christ?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you were trying to, I don't know, make a persuasive argument for it, and Paul's like, man, I've been shipwrecked, I've been stoned, I've been beaten, I've been arrested a bunch.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm homeless, I don't have a permanent place to live, I am poor, I'm seen as the scum of the earth, you'd be like, okay, okay, and you know, but he just kind of keeps going.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we see though, and for those who know Christ, they know this to be true, but it is that the the beauty of following after Jesus and the understanding of what accepting our weaknesses in humility means, is that we get to experience the power of God.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Something he's going to talk about later.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: But up to this point, right, it is just highlighting the differences.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Corinthians, hey, you are living for yourselves, you are living this wonderful life.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: We are not, and that is a bit of a problem.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, when he finishes out here, at the end of 12 and 13, though, now we see sort of actions that they take.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: When we are reviled, we bless.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: When we are persecuted, we endure it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: When we are slandered, we respond graciously.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Those three things here, now we begin to see if we didn't already.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is not just the life of the apostles that Paul is talking about.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is the life of Jesus Christ.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is the life that our Savior led.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Our Savior, which is often split up into different categories.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, oh, he was the he was for social justice, right?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: He loved everybody, right?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: He was so gracious and kind to those who needed it.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, he valued the poor and the weak and the needy.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, oh yeah, Jesus was all of those things.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: But also he lived a very difficult life.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: His family didn't believe in him, that he was the Savior, except for Mary, until after he died and resurrected.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 53 tells us that there was nothing physically that was appear was wonderful about him.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing that when people looked at him, they admired him for his appearance or his traits.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: That he was rather a sick child and experienced sickness quite often, experienced loss and pain.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that for those three years of his ministry, as much as we read about in the gospels, the vast majority of people ridiculed him, rebuked him, and then ultimately murdered him.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: There is much to admire about the life of Jesus Christ, but there is a little bit less to envy.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And yet we see that this was the life that the apostles were living.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And this is ultimately the life that Paul is saying that the Corinthians should be living.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can really summarize it in this way.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: The apostles, right?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Last place to first place.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're fools, they're wise, they're weak, the Corinthians are strong, they're dishonored, they're distinguished, they're treated like garbage, like refuse, the Corinthians are treated like kings.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: And really, this is this is the end of Paul's sort of segment here on arrogance.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's just highlighted the difference.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, here's how we live, here's how you live.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we are humble because of it, and you are superior because of the way that you live.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And what we're gonna see here, though, is as we endeavor to figure out what does it mean for us to be humble?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for us to get rid of arrogance?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for us to walk this road?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to see that there are no shortcuts.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's no way to just buy humility.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul is saying is the reason the apostles are humble is because they have lived the life of Christ.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason the Corinthians are superior is because they have lived the life of the world.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the experiences they have chosen and sought out, there's a reason that they're arrogant.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's a reason, there's this almost self-fulfilling prophecy of, we're pretty awesome.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: As we keep going, though, Paul now is going to switch gears a little bit.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to say, I'm not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Other translations say, my beloved children.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: For you have many countless instructors in Christ, but you don't have many fathers.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I've sent Timothy to you.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: He is my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Paul here is saying, I know the message that I've given is hard.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I get that.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's not easy to be told that you're wrong.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not writing this to shame you, though.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: The church in Corinth and that Greek culture was an honor-shame culture.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of hard for us here in America to relate because shame doesn't really have much of a place in our culture.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: But in this honor-shame culture, being somebody who was lifted up or being somebody who was rebuked publicly was really significant.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is saying, I'm not doing this to try and hurt you or harm you.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: But as he says here, like your father, like a parent who wants to see their child be raised up in the ways of the Lord, he's like, I just want you to grasp this.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you could just please figure this one out and listen to my instruction.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: The sad thing is that the Corinthians didn't do that.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: We know from Paul's other letters or from his letter in 2 Corinthians, we know from his other visits that he describes to them.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: We know from those who have written about 40 years after Paul visited the church in Corinth, that they were still an arrogant church.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: They were still a church that had divisions and troubles.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: They were still a church that didn't listen to Paul.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're also, we have this kind of cautionary tale before us, where we say, is that going to be the way that we respond?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Are we going to walk forward saying, Um, there's nothing that I need to change?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea that there's something about me that needs to change is something I don't like.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, Paul says, I'm not writing this to shame you.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it for my children, for you have many countless instructors in Christ, but you don't have many fathers.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, he planted the church.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: He lived with them for over a year, right?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: He was there living amongst the people.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: He loves them, he knows them, he cares for them.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: He really, he knows them by name.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's just choosing not to name them in the letter so as not to shame them.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so what Paul's saying is, you know me, you know my heart for these things.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: I am not one of the countless sort of talking heads that you have in your church that you are sort of lifting up here.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: He says, No, I'm I sort of have a separate category.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: You should be listening to me because of what I represent.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: You should be listening to me because I'm your father.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: I care for you.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not just some guy who walked in off the street.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I urge you to imitate me.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: For being a humble guy, what a statement.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it is a humble statement.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's for two reasons.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: The first is we have to understand that when Paul is talking to them, they don't have a New Testament.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody in this church knew Jesus personally unless they were one of the apostles, right?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so the fact that Paul would be asking them to live a Christian life is a little bit more difficult than it might be for you or I because they don't have the revealed canon of Scripture.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have New Testament.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: They have Paul, their church father, writing them letters.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so, for all practical purposes, the closest thing that they can see to Christ-like living is Paul himself, who is walking the talk.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the first thing.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that Paul is asking them to follow him because he is the closest sort of link to Jesus Christ that they might be able to have.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: But the second is this is not some all encompassing idea about, hey, you should just look like Paul.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if we understand what has happened before in this argument, Paul is saying, I want you to follow me in Insofar as I am acting like Jesus, Paul said, I've applied these things to myself.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing my best to act like Jesus.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm living, as he said, right, the life of the apostle, which looks like Jesus.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And to that end, he's saying, hey, imitate my life.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that you need to pick up his hobbies, you know, you need to start making tents and all these things.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, follow, as he says later, follow me as I follow Christ.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul says, imitate me.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I've sent Timothy to you.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Same Timothy that you're familiar with in the New Testament.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Timothy, that was sort of the disciple of Paul, later received the letters of 1st and 2 Timothy.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Timothy was present in Corinth when the gospel was first preached to them.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Timothy was there at the founding of the church.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Timothy knows all of these people well.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so in Paul's absence, because he's currently in Ephesus writing this letter, and his inability to currently reach them, he's going to send the next best thing, which would be Timothy.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so Timothy is going to go.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that final statement I appreciate.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because lest the Corinthians think that Paul is going particularly hard in the paint against them, right?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying, I'm asking you to do the same thing that I'm asking everybody to do.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, you guys seem to be struggling a little bit more with it than a church in Philippia or something like that.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, we've all been called to the same standard.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: You are not receiving a gospel that is different than another church's gospel.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: The instruction that I'm giving you, the standard you have been called to achieve, is not different than anybody else.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we follow the gospel of Jesus Christ, it demands a radical life from us.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean being radicalized, I mean that it is radical in the sense that when the world looks at us, if we are following after Jesus Christ, it looks a lot like the life of the apostles.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: That we are rejected and we are abused because we are carrying out the message of Jesus.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: So as Paul is saying all of these things, he's saying, I'm lifting you up to a standard that I myself am following.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to imitate me.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sending you the resources to do it.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: He has one final warning, though.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Now some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk, but the power of those who are arrogant.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Should I come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of gentleness?
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think this, out of out of everything we've looked at this morning, is probably the passage that grieves me the most because it shows in the heart of the father this assumption that his children in the faith are not going to listen to what he is saying.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's sort of like when you see sort of the teen that has gone off the rails, and you're just like, they are on the dark side of the moon right now, and we just have to wait for them to come back.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: They are not listening to what I'm saying.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, Some of you are arrogant and you don't like this.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like you've been shamed.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: You aren't concerned about living the life of Christ.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, you are concerned about yourself and about being superior and about being recognized and about being, you know, looked well after.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Says, as though I were not coming to you.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: We know that Paul does make another visit to Corinth.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: He fulfills this desire, though later on in 2 Corinthians he refers to it as his painful visit.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Looks like he did what he said he was going to do.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: I will find out not the talk, but the power of those who are arrogant, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Here's one of the last things I want to share with you here.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is I want you to see if you haven't already, when we talk about the kingdom of God, and we talk about weakness and we talk about power, the counterintuitive thing is that we say as Christians we should be seeking out weakness, because through that comes the Lord's power.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: That does not make sense to the world, but it makes sense in the context of what Jesus did.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because he was weak, because he was willing to go to the cross for our sins, because he didn't call upon all of his rights as the kingdom of God, but instead willingly chose to subject himself as a slave to the world, because we follow a Savior who was weak.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is the inverse relationship that the kingdom of God has with weakness and power.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: When you think you are strong in the world, you are weak in the kingdom of God.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: And when you are strong in the kingdom of God, it means you are weak as seen by the world.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is how it works.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul here doesn't think that this is some pity party that he's throwing on himself when he says, My life as an apostle means I don't have a home.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: It means that people don't look well upon me.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: It means that people don't regard me as anything.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: They think I'm a fool.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't trade that for anything.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because what he knows is that through his weakness, as he says elsewhere, right?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is the thorn in the side passage as well.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: He says, through my weakness, Jesus Christ is perfected.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And other people can see the power of God as they realize that through my weakness, miracles are happening, transformation is happening, life change is happening.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's like if you would think by the world that this weak guy is being able to transform and turn things, you would recognize that it is the power of God that is working through me.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is where he says in 2 Corinthians, after his painful visit, in another letter to the church, he talks about Jesus.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, For he was crucified in weakness, but he lives by the power of God.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: For we also are weak with him.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: But in dealing with you, we will live with him by God's power.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you will, Paul has an ace up his sleeve.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's saying, I've got God's power behind me.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I'm not truly weak.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've got God's power behind me, it doesn't matter all of these other things that I'm going through.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't enjoy them, as he says.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: I would probably prefer to not be stoned.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: But he is also relishing in the fact that he gets to walk the same path that his Savior did.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: How significant that is to him, that he gets to live a portion of the life that Jesus Christ did.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, as we think about this, there's one last thing that I want to share with you, though, about arrogance and humility in the kingdom of God.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's something that we've actually already talked about, which is we hear about being humble, and we know that that is a good trait, right?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even the world loves humble people in a lot of instances.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: But we know that in the kingdom of God, being humble is good.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is not only good because it means that we recognize our weakness, but it is good because then the power of God can be revealed and we can understand instruction so that we can live a more Christ-like life.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Humility is the gate that unlocks our ability to understand all of God's commands and to appreciate them and to follow them.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: If we are arrogant, that is a very difficult thing to do.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: But the tricky part is you cannot shortcut your way to humility.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can't.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the part that is going to make the most people stumble, is because we don't like the idea that humility was found by living the life of Christ.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's sort of like people who I remember I was watching a video a couple weeks ago, and a celebrity was giving like one of those architectural digest tours of their home, right?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And they walk into this room because they have enough rooms for this kind of thing, and they're like, Yeah, this is the piano that our designer picked out.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's this beautiful Steinway, and they're like, I don't really know how to play piano, but this is our piano room.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can't play piano just because you bought a piano.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: And just because you bought the most complex piece of sheet music to put on it doesn't mean that you can play it.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can't just be humble by seeking out difficulty.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: The only way that you can be humble is by seeking out the cross of Jesus.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And by seeking out the cross and becoming more like Jesus, you will inherit all of the difficulties that come with living a life like Jesus, and through that you will become humble, as Jesus was.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can't shortcut this.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is arrogance to think that you can.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: The only way to do it is by going to the foot of the cross, giving yourself over to Jesus, saying, Lord, let me live a life like yours.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be superior, I want to be weak.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be somebody who is seen as a king.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be somebody who is seen as the waste of the world, because I know that with that comes your power.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: That is what we're seeking out.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we can't shortcut it.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: As we transition here into a time of communion together as a church, I have a couple questions that I'd love for you to reflect on.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to step off the stage here and I'd love for you to just think about some of these things.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Am I willing to accept that I need to change?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Am I willing to reject the world's praise?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: That'll catch some of us.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Am I willing to model my life after Jesus, knowing that his life was difficult?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Am I willing to stop relying on my own strength?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: That'll catch some more people.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to give that up.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Am I willing to welcome my weaknesses?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Am I willing to welcome, and I don't mean your sin nature.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your weaknesses are those things where you recognize you can't do it on your own and you accept that reality, and God's power comes in to fill the void.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Am I willing to trust in the power of God?
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things, walking down this path of humility and weakness and meekness, right, it requires trusting that God's power is on the other side.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're walking down, you can sort of get there, you know, a little bit, being like, Lord, I'm trusting you in this space.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is difficult for me, and he will find you there.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, we can't be like the Corinthians and say, I'm living for the world and I'm living for Jesus Christ.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: We can't do both those things at the same time.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Only by living for Christ can we find the power of God.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to go ahead and pray for us, and then I will step off.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have a little bit of time of reflection, and then I'll come back on and we will take the elements of communion together as a church.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for the cross of Christ.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you that we have a Savior that lived a hard life.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we're thankful for a Savior that was humble.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, not proud.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I ask that you would help us to follow the life that He led in all of its difficulty.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, recognizing that that might mean and often will mean ridicule from the world, being called fools, having a different idea about money and possessions, having a different idea about our priorities.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, please help us, though, to live the life, as Paul says, to imitate Him and the lives of the apostles, which were just imitating yours.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray also that you would help us to not be so arrogant as to think that we don't need this instruction.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: But Father, that in humility, by the power of your spirit, you would help us to become more humble.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, that we would not do it by trying to shortcut, but that we would do it by seeking out the cross first, blessing those who revile us, being gracious towards those who reject us, Father, just as you did.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: God, we love you and we thank you.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to take a few moments, I'm gonna step off, and when I come back on, we'll take communion together.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: On the night before Jesus was crucified, after he had been the servant and washed the feet of the disciples.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then he took the bread before them and broken.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: As often as you drink this, do that in remembrance of me.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for your body and your blood.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, as often as we do this, and much more, we remember that it is your sacrifice that has saved us.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Father, it is your body that was broken, it is your blood that was shed that paid the penalty for our sins, Father.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, please help us to keep these things in mind.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: To remember that it should change the way that we live our lives, knowing that you are our Savior, Father.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: And God, as we walk that road and all the trials and travails that come along with it, Father, would you help us to see your power that is made perfect in our weakness, just as it was done in Jesus Christ.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: We love you and we thank you.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: And in his name we pray.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everybody.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.