I Corinthians 3:18-4:5
“Servants of Christ”
Sermon by
Mark A. Horne
As a young boy, I learned a lot of lessons of servanthood from my father. However, one particularly came to mind as I was studying this passage for our study this morning. We had all gotten up to get ready for school as any other normal day. We started down the road towards school and came upon this wreck at the bottom of the hill, right as you cross the county line. The wreck had not too long happened, because if I remember correctly, we were the second set of people on the scene. The people in the wreck were high school kids who were driving too fast because they were late for school. The girl in the car had left a notebook at home with homework to turn in and she made the boys turn around so she could get it for class.
I remember the scene vividly. My father pulled over on the side of the road because he knew that something bad had happened. I was in middle school and my mind worked like a middle-school child, very selfishly. I did not know how bad the situation was. I did not really care. All I knew was that if we stopped I was going to be late for class. Daddy told me to sit in the truck and he would be right back.
It was not until a few minutes later when I started taking my eyes off of myself and observing the situation that I really understood what had happened. The girl was thrown out of the car and her face was bleeding really badly where she had landed. One of the guys was pinned under the car. And the other had been thrown out some distance. I watched as my dad tended to several of the situations happening at one time.
When EMS arrived and the accident was in the hands of people who could give better care, Daddy got back in the truck. First I asked him about being late for school – he told me not to worry that he would take care of it – and explained to me that those kids needed help more than I needed to be at school on time. Then I asked him how he knew what to do for those people – and I learned that he had been an EMS worker.
On this Father’s Day morning Paul takes us back to his discussion on worldly wisdom and then a discussion on being a steward for Jesus Christ. There are several points that I think we ought to gain from Paul teaching his church at Corinth that, of course, applies to us today:
1. Humility is the remedy
2. We possess what is unpossessable
3. We are servants for the Perfect Servant
In verses 18-20 we learn that humility is the remedy when there are irregularities in our life. Paul returns more directly to the discussion contrasting human wisdom and divine wisdom. In verse 18 he says, “let no man deceive himself.” In other words, do not let yourself be led away by the truth and simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul is giving them a warning, or an exhortation, explaining that arrogant wisdom leads to no other place than conceit. When we become conceited with worldly wisdom, we place ourselves in great danger of not knowing the will of God. How can a church be a church, be a faithful church if all the leaders are running around behind these other men lifting them up to some high standard? Paul explains to them, that there is no high standard on holy wisdom. There is no way one can make a 1600 on God’s SAT’s because there isn’t such a thing. To obtain the wisdom of God doesn’t take studying for years. It doesn’t take cramming overnight. It doesn’t even take being a gifted genius. This kind of thinking leads to human wisdom. This is wisdom that is fallen and tainted with sin. Paul is explaining to the leaders of the church that the only way for the church to prosper, and the only way for the church to grow, is that they have to quit putting so much emphasis on these so called great leaders, including himself, and start putting the emphasis on the leadership and head of Jesus Christ. All they are doing is causing dissension and heartache. I don’t know how Paul felt as he was writing this text; but can you imagine how you would feel if people you loved were acting like this. As I read this passage, it is as if I feel tension. I probably would be thinking “these guys. They know better than this. What in the world are they thinking? They should know Christ is supreme. They should know not to put trust in human wisdom. But here I have to write this letter and explain it all again.”
But what does Paul tell them to do? He tells them to become humble. Verse 18 “one must become a fool so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of the world is foolishness in God’s sight.” Paul says: “Open your eyes, Corinth!!” It is not you. Come to your God given senses and see the ignorance you have. You don’t need to be puffing yourself up over what you or someone else thinks they know. God looks down on all man’s “craftiness.” If you are going to be wise you have to distrust your own understanding. You have got to distrust what you know. If you want to know what is divine, you have got to empty yourself. You can’t discard what you have learned as bad totally, because God has implanted some wisdom in us just because we are created beings in His image. For Calvin says:
“For even natural knowledge is a gift of God, and all the liberal arts, and all of the sciences by which wisdom is acquired are gifts of God. They are confined within their own limits; for into God’s kingdom they cannot penetrate.”
Therefore what we have has to be turned over to him.
Verse 20 says that “God knows our thoughts…and they are futile or vain” Here we have an admirable passage for bringing down the confidence in the flesh. God has perfect knowledge of our thoughts, even the most secret ones and the ones that have certain purposes behind them. How much more does one need to realize that God is God, and nothing you can do, learn, say, or be can come close to what God is. Right here Paul points us to the only thing that can get us to realize where wisdom lies, its not in one human, not its in humbling our own self and totally relying on the wisdom of God.
Are you feeling bad about yourselves? Are you thinking, “hmm, the preacher is standing up there telling me I am just a ignorant wash-bucket? Why am I even a Christian? Why has God chosen me again?” The next two verses tell us why. It is because we possess what is unpossessable. Paul says, “no more boasting with men.” Get Cephas and Apollos and myself off of your list of futileness – because what you have is more glorious than anything wisdom us three could ever have put together. Yes, we are yours – not because of what we know – but because we are ministers. We have been set apart of those things which are in the kingdom for you to possess for common benefit.
But you know what, you have even more than what any minister can give. All is yours. All? What do you mean by all? I mean all that is unpossessable. Look in verse 23. The world is yours. Life is yours, especially the life that has prepared for you in heaven. Even death is yours. As Christians we own death! Well how do we possess death? Matthew Henry says, “we possess it because it is the kind of messenger that fetches us to our father’s house.” Things here are yours. Things to come are yours. Everything that spans time and space and eternity is all yours. Why? How? It is so because we are Christ’s and Christ is of God. Christ is the church’s sole master. Christ took upon himself the flesh of this world and assumed the form of a servant so that he might be obedient to His father in all things. We are united with God who is the chief good when we are gathered under the head that he has set over us – being Jesus Christ our Lord and Master. God in Christ reconciling a sinful world to himself, and shedding abroad the riches of his grace on a reconciled world, is the sum and substance of the gospel.
This leads us to chapter 4:1-5. We are servants of the Perfect Servant. In this passage Paul is addressing the accusations that he has been charged with as a minister in the kingdom. Paul tells them look, we ministers are no better than anyone, and we are fallen just as the next human. We are servants of the King. We are not masters. Yet, Corinth, we are not doormats either. You cannot just walk over me and Cephas and Apollos. We are functioning in the kingdom as ones that hold the “divine mysteries of God.” So there is a respect issue. But it is not a power issue.
Paul is expressing service. Paul is saying look; “I did not want to be doing this. I did not want to be a minister. I was perfectly happy killing you guys. But that was not God’s plan.” God has handed all a purpose and has chosen us as ministers of Jesus Christ. You are servants of Jesus Christ in the world. People look at you and wonder if you are a Christian or not. And I have to ask you, like I ask myself everyday, are you being stewards of Jesus Christ? Are you displaying the mysteries of God by the life you live and the things you say. Notice here in these five verses Paul is addressing ministers directly; but also notice what he is alluding to the Corinthian church about their actions. Paul is indirectly telling them that they are leaving the background of the heavenly mysteries. They were hunting after strange inventions, and hence the teacher they valued were was good for nothing but profane learning.
It is not just good enough to be a good steward or servant of God. What is important is to conduct oneself with fidelity. Why? Well it is not for men to judge, but for Jesus to judge when the day comes. Our conduct places a great witness in the hearts of our neighbors. But we have to make sure we have the right motives for doing such. The motive should not be mere southern hospitality, or great manners – but only for the advancement of the Kingdom of God and for the testimony we will give before Jesus. It is on this day that all those things hidden deep in the dark regions of our heart will be brought out in the light in front of Jesus. He is the model of life John 13.
One final note in closing. Notice when the all of our sins will be brought into the light. It is when Christ returns, the appointed day. I want you realize why this is so. Our sins just don’t affect the present, they affect the future as well. What we do may have repercussions on our children or other people for generations. You see we will be judged not just for the here and now sin, but also for the effects of that sin tomorrow, and the next day and the next day, etc. until Christ comes back. But in that day good will is shown as well because “each will receive his praise from God.” Oh! How thankful we should be that we have been made clean as Jesus explained in the rest of John 13. That is what it means to be a servant of the Perfect Servant.
Let us pray: Oh Heavenly Father. How great is your name in all the earth. As we respond to the teaching of your word with the great hymn Like a River Glorious help us to remember that you perfect peace is what we desire. And Father we know that the perfect peace we desire only comes from you. Help us father to remember the humbleness of Jesus, the Lordship of Jesus, and the Servanthood of Jesus as he washed his disciples feet. Lord may our peace be assured through knowing that on the appointed day we will receive praise from you as your children. In Jesus’ Name – Amen.