I exhort you

Okay, one of the things that we have as we go through a book like this, particularly the New Testament books, is we have what we call expanded and explained. In other words, it's the passage with some additional explanation and insight. And we're making that available for this and last week's passage, basically for the entire chapter, on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. That's been available last week, so it'll be the same this week, and you can avail yourself of that. We'll also have several other supplements, and so I'll point those out to you.

And don't be confused, just look carefully, okay? They'll all be on the cabinet to the right as you exit the room. Now, you have on page one of your handout a slide that starts like this. No, it doesn't have the picture of the twin boys in it, just the title on the slide there. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 4. We'll be looking at verses 8 through 21, which will complete the chapter. Paul is going to be telling them two main things in this passage that completes chapter 4.

First, in contrast to the Corinthians, who had a nearly unbelievable amount of arrogance. As a matter of fact, the arrogance is so extreme that he's been addressing it now for the fourth chapter. Paul is going to be telling them about, and this is in summary, not his own personal experience explicitly. He does that elsewhere. But in summary, this is the kind of thing that the Apostles go through, and it's humbling all the way. And so he's going to give them a fair summary of the general things that the Apostles went through, the experiences that they had. So the humility of the Apostles, the humble circumstances versus the incredible arrogance of those who are trying to drum up support for their own social ladder within the church. Next, Paul is going to tell them that he has sent Timothy to them and that he himself plans to come and to see them.

He is going to finish it off with a question that's really going to put upon them to make some choices about what do you prefer? How do you want this to turn out? What would they prefer be the nature of Paul's next visit? Would you like it to be severe or would you prefer that it were gentle? You choose. You guys, the ball's in your court.

That's the way he's going to leave it with them at the end of this chapter. He's going to do so with questions. We'll take a look at that. That's the quick summary. The passage starts off with this verse, verse 8. We looked at it last week as an introduction.

He says, you are already filled, you have already become rich. Basically, they've arrived. You have become kings without us, and indeed I wish that you had become kings, because you really haven't, so that we might also reign with you. What's he doing? He is becoming, well, sarcastic. He's being sarcastic with them. He doesn't do that often. He wants to sanctify them with sarcasm.

Now I have to tell a little story. Nancy knows the story I'm going to tell. And not because I told her. She can tell already what story I'm going to tell. Nancy and I met and got to know each other at this little college, Los Altos Hills, California. And we met about here, about a few weeks before classes started, at a Bible study. We were introduced there at this Bible study across the street from where we went to college. Well, long story short, and I'm sure you want the short version, when Nancy and I first met, I mean it was okay at the first introduction, but for the better part of a year we did not like each other. Nancy had been raised in a home where, oh yes, there was plenty of humor, but plenty of sarcasm. Lots of it.

I had been raised in a home where sarcasm was absolutely forbidden. You're going to become a gourmet of soap if you use a lot of sarcasm. And so to me, sarcasm was something you just plain didn't use. Nice people didn't go there. And so when I was introduced to Nancy and there was this outpouring of sarcasm, well, she had me pegged and I had her pegged. I had come off the farm and had been doing sports at this small high school, so I was a stuck-up farmer jock.

And she was this sarcastic young girl. So it took us the better part of a year to get past that. Obviously, after almost 36 years of marriage, we've gotten past it. So now we have advanced in our relationship. But Paul is going to use sarcasm briefly. He didn't use it often, unlike Nancy's household. He didn't use it often, but he did use it judiciously and carefully and with great effect.

Here in this very first verse of our passage, 1 Corinthians 4.8, He did indeed intend to come along to them to get them thinking how incredibly arrogant they are. I wish that you had been kings so that we could reign with you. They were trying to set themselves up as royalty. They were phenomenally arrogant. The believers in Corinth there were so arrogant that Paul wrote wishing that they were indeed royalty that he could reign with them.

Paul at this point, from this verse, is going to take them from this place where they're trying, reaching for royalty, to getting them familiar with the humble state of the apostles. all the things that the Apostles went through, the hardships and humility. So, verses 9-13, Paul describes for them the typical experiences. Later on, he's going to give them his own in detail, but that's in 2 Corinthians. Right now, he gives them typical experiences of these Apostles as messengers of Jesus Christ. As Christ's own Apostles, one might be inclined, if arrogance had any virtue, that they would have the highest place among those in the body of Christ. We know in fact that that's not the case. What Paul actually does tell them about the Apostles is nothing about this world's status and high esteem. Nothing at all.

You have it here as well as on page one of your handout. This is kind of a bullet point listing of what he tells them. He says the apostles were exhibited by God. God's doing. Last of all, as if they were put on display. How would you like to have your life put on display? But not put on display as a high level display, but put on display as these guys are at the bottom rung. That's the kind of display he's talking about. As men condemned to death. Men on death row, is the way we would put it. Walking around, but you wonder why. Walking around, but under sentence of death at any time. A spectacle to the world. People looking at, oh heavens, what are these guys doing now?

What have they done to themselves? Why would they go around making fools of themselves like this? Fools for Christ's sake, as a matter of fact. Appearing weak, and by the way, that's in a world where appearing weak is very bad. And without honor. Here the Corinthians are going around trying to elevate themselves to the highest honor. And what do these apostles do? It's not that they have a small amount of honor, or minimal, or average. He says without. None. Zip.

He goes on to describe some of the physical circumstances. Hungry and thirsty. I assume that that's fairly extreme, hunger and thirst. Poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless after all they're traveling about. Toil, working with our own hands. Oh yes, reviled, persecuted, and slandered.

Thanks for the gospel, right? The scum of the world. That doesn't sound very good. the scum of the world. Are you impressed yet? Dregs of all things. And not only that, look at reviled, persecuted, and slandered. To those, Paul adds a gracious response from the Apostles for each of those. Reviled, persecuted, slandered, we respond graciously. He spells that out.

What's interesting is we examine the Apostles, we have accounts of varying degrees of reliability about the Apostles, but we do have some account for each one of them. The Book of Acts records the death of the first Apostle to die a martyr's death, James. And curiously, the one who was last to die was his brother John. John was, as far as we know, the only one who died natural death.

The Apostles went out to the then known world, into Europe, into North Africa. Thomas, by a couple different lines of evidence, went even to Madras, India. Some evidence that he might have even gone farther than that. There was a communist Chinese professor who has said that the gospel got to China by the 80s AD. These men went out with great vigor, and in spite of all these terrible circumstances and great dishonor, laid their lives on the line.

Let me ask you this question. Would they have done it for a made-up Jesus? A made-up Savior? The accounts have Matthew as he is being staked to the ground with wooden stakes, screaming out the gospel with his last breath. Some of them were crucified, according to one tradition, Peter upside down.

Fits with the description in the Gospels. Yeah, Paul's summary is fitting. He apparently had kept up with them enough to know that this was their lot. And this was not at all an unrealistic summary of how the apostles had been living. He gives his own summary, we won't go through it in detail here, in 2 Corinthians 11, verses 23-33.

And he goes on and describes specific things. Shipwrecks, more than we have record of otherwise. Five times I received from the Jews, 39 lashes. Of course, that's more than we have otherwise record of. So he's giving the full account here. He gives quite a bit of detail. We won't go into it here.

But Paul knew what he was talking about, and he wasn't a lightweight when it came to receiving consequences for his being an apostle. In this next set of verses here, we find some words, some terms that fit with both Christian counseling and Christian parenting. And so some of them, he says, we don't write these things to shame you, but to admonish you.

That means to put it in their minds as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors, and yes, that does fit, yet you would not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became, I Paul, he said, became your father through the gospel. Therefore, I exhort you, I come alongside you. be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy who is my beloved and faithful child, obviously spiritually speaking, in the Lord and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ just as I teach everywhere in every church.

Now there is a six page supplement, another supplement, on the cabinet to the right, Addressing this I exhort and I admonish in similar words, it's from the biblical counseling elective, I'd recommend it both for those who are interested in the counseling, which by the way is for every Christian, not just for a particular few, but also for parents, grandparents, even if you don't have grandkids, but your kids are grown, I would recommend it.

It is a very valuable insight. Now, in verses 9 through 13, one of the things that Paul does is give a caution. He says, be very careful, there is a world out there. Okay? Now, so with this caution, and by the way, I need to have a correction. I think your handout has some different numbers. It should be 9 through 13 on this slide. Okay, this is the reference verses.

So with this caution, As believers, we're always being bombarded with the world's messages. Messages that are from the world, for the world's purposes, and with the world's values. The world wants to try to tell us what's important while you're here walking this earth. Yeah, they do. We want to be careful about that. Why? The world is offering all sorts of things that are, in truth, deceptive. You've seen all these kinds of things yourself, of course. You deserve blah, blah, blah. You hear that repeatedly. If you deserve it, why don't they just give it to you, right?

The technologies of our day make the number and magnitude of these messages just overwhelming. The number of billboards, advertisements that we get our ears and our eyes pounded with regularly is really overwhelming. The numbers are staggering. We continue to get these kinds of messages. The you deserve message, of course, creates an entitlement mentality. I deserve this. I deserve that. I ought to get this. I ought to get that. And we're given this message repeatedly. We come, of course, to places that say all you can eat, right?

But don't worry about it. If you're worried about too many calories, no problem as long as you buy our exercise machines. As long as you buy all 12 different kinds of ab crunchers. As long as you work out with all these things, you'll have no problem. Go ahead and eat all you can eat, every meal, all six times a day.

So the world keeps giving us this message. And since you're so happy about exercising and eating all the time, be sure to get your teeth whitened. And if you're worried about how you're going to pay for it, don't worry. We have plastic that will make you smile and allow you to show those white teeth. And you deserve blah, blah, blah.

And as a matter of fact, while you're at it, we've got a car to give you. And it's a wonderful car. And it has a lovely young lady that goes along with it. And matter of fact, It's all free! As long as you're willing to pay for a $120,000 owner's manual.

So the world's constantly selling you this nonsense. What might impress us here and now is fleeting and fading in the eternal view. What Paul's trying to get across to them is, look, the world's got messages for you. Get real. The world's messages to you all have a twist. They are designed to make you dissatisfied. They are designed to make you, well, frankly, they're lying to you. They're lying to you. If you eat our stuff, you'll be happy. If you use our charge card and customize it, you'll just be elated and staring at your charge card in wonder and glory every moment.

Right? The bill will never come. Right? No interest for a thousand years. That's what they tell you. Right? What Paul's laying out here, and he makes it very clear, God values what the world doesn't see. And you might notice that that's missing a couple of words. We'll get there. Does the world see this? Let's step through a few verses in Ephesians. We'll stick with just the first half.

Ephesians 1-7, according to the riches of His grace. Does the world see the riches of His grace? By the way, you can substitute for riches, wealth. The wealth of His grace. Impressive wealth is grace. Here's Ephesians 1.18. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? Riches of glory. Does the world see that? Not a bit.

Ephesians 2.7. He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Surpassing is over the top, out of the ballpark. Grace. Out of sight. Out in orbit kind of grace. Ephesians 3, the unfathomable, so deep you can't find the bottom of it. Riches of Christ. Immense, uncountable wealth of Christ. Spiritual wealth.

Does the world see it? Does the world understand it? Does the world comprehend it? No. God values what the world doesn't even see. God says, Wow! This is really, really, really rich! And the world says, huh? Duh! 316, according to the riches of His glory, wealth of His glory. And how long does it last? A few decades? Lifetime? No, eternity. That's real wealth.

The stuff we stack up here doesn't even start to count. God values what the world does not see as valuable. As a matter of fact, the world just doesn't even see it. Paul showed the believers in Corinth that they were pursuing just the opposite of what the apostles were experiencing. Paul was contrasting God's values with the world's values. The apostles were appointed to the suffering.

And God calls that a good thing. Eternally, the payback is huge. Eternally, the payback is huge. Immense value. In contrast to climbing the social ladder. building their own personal empires within the church. How do we know what's of value? We know it's of value because God has revealed it. The Bible spells out what's of value. Remember, we saw those verses in Ephesians, and that's just the beginning. What's true wealth? What is truly of value? When you count riches, what really counts?

That's what gets spelled out in God's Word. We know from God's Word what's valuable, and matter of fact, if it wasn't for God's Word, we would have no idea. We wouldn't have a clue. Only God's Word reveals it. And one of the things that God's Word makes very clear is the ultimate value in the entire universe is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. That's the greatest value in all the universe. That's the ultimate in value.

Does the world see it? Nah. Not a chance. Most of the world, if they have any interest in Christ, is a really nice guy. Not quite sure what he was doing up there on that cross, but it seems sacrificial and impressive. The world just doesn't get it. They certainly won't consider it of great value.

One of the things that Paul also talks about in this passage is verses 14 through 17. He uses a lot of terms that refer to household and family relationships. I say household because he does also mention some other household roles and personalities we'll talk about in a minute. But household and family relationships are mentioned very frequently in this passage.

One of them he says is my beloved children. Who's he talking about? This is spiritual household. These are his spiritual children. These people who have become believers because of him. That's what he's talking about. Those there in Corinth. He's writing to them. He's having to say some hard things, but he says, I'm doing it because they're my beloved children. Countless tutors. Tutors were something that I was fairly glad to have from time to time going through schooling at different stages. However, this kind of tutor is something else.

In the culture of the time, in the Greek-speaking world, a tutor was like this. A tutor was someone that your father would send to school with you and he would drag you along. You will go to school because the tutor's job is to make sure that that's what you do. The tutor would drag you to school and on the way might be drilling you about the prior day's schoolwork. While you're in class, the tutor would listen to the teacher. Oh, no. The tutor knows exactly what the teacher is saying, okay? And then the tutor drills you on the way home. And make sure you get there. And drills you until dinner time. And then when dinner's over, guess what? The tutor drills you some more. You get to see more and more of this tutor.

This is the same word that we saw in Galatians chapter 3. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." That's the particular word he's talking about here. He says, you would not have many fathers, but he says, I am your father. He makes reference there again to these family relationships.

Timothy, he calls here, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. And he says something similar to that when he writes to Timothy at the beginning of each one of his letters to Timothy. 1 Timothy 1 to Timothy, my true child in the faith. 2 Timothy 1 to Timothy, my beloved son.

These verses, along with other passages like 2 Thessalonians, give us some of the critical guidance for Christian parents. The Bible actually does have quite a bit to say about Christian parenting all the way from the very youngest ages and even on into the time when they're grown up and hopefully out of the house. We have a four-page handout on parenting insights from 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 that you're again welcome to take advantage of. I recommend it not only for parents but for grandparents. or even if you still have kids at home and no grandkids yet. I highly recommend that. Along with that, there's about four other pages that will be helpful and that also is in the same stack there on the cabinet to the right as you exit the room.

Also in those same verses, Paul talks about ways which are in Christ. Timothy's present assignment to the church at Corinth included reminding them of ways which are in Christ. And of course, parents never have to do any reminding, right? The same things that Paul taught in every one of the churches.

One of the things that's really key here is he emphasizes, it's the same things I teach in all the churches. Now, think about this. Why didn't he say, well, this church I teach this, but over here they kind of like this, and so I teach that over there. And these people, they're kind of of a different culture and mindset, so I kind of teach some different things over there. He says, the same in all the churches. Why the same?

One of the things he's underscoring, because he's been talking in various places about his message and about the Bible, Paul underscores here the point that what Paul taught and what the Bible teaches is totally consistent and objectively true. Ever heard that? It happens at Bible studies, especially I would say all across the United States, but maybe even other places around the world. where people come and they have what they call a Bible study, but what really happens is somebody says, well, I think it means this, but I kind of feel like it means that. Or I feel kind of like it has this message for me. Or I've had this experience and that makes me understand it this way.

No, it's not that. What the Bible teaches is consistent all the way through, and it ultimately is conveying the same message. Each passage that is taught does not have six correct interpretations. There's one. There's one intended message. Very important. He says, the same thing I teach in all the churches everywhere.

In 1 Corinthians 1.10, this is the very starting verse of his beginning to address this church. Essentially, he's coming back to a similar message.

In 1 Corinthians 1.10, he urges them to all say the same thing. I urge that you speak the same thing. That you be of the same mind and of the same judgment. How could that be?

God who authored Scripture by means of the Holy Spirit inspired it all. There may be 40 different authors in that Bible that you have in your hand, but ultimately there's one author, the Holy Spirit, inspiring every word all the way through. The message is consistent because the ultimate author is one. It's the Holy Spirit, abundantly clear from Scripture.

I urge that you all say the same thing. And the same thing that I want you to say is the same thing that I taught in all the churches everywhere. We pointed out earlier that this passage addresses Christian counseling and Christian parenting. There's another little clue in here. He says, therefore, I exhort you. I come alongside you. I urge you, be imitators of me. And you might be thinking, oh no, here we go again. Be imitators of me. Now what does he mean by that?

Ever heard of this term copycat? I've never heard of a copy dog, but anyway, copycat, for some reason that gets in there. But there are two words here in the Greek New Testament that speak of copying the life of another, and I don't get the impression it's a copycat or a copy dog.

One of them is this word, it's called mimitis, not too complicated. We get our word mimic in English from that, and certainly a derivation is imitate. The meaning of the Greek word in the New Testament is to imitate the behavior of another in a positive way from the heart. So it's just as a kid wants to imitate the behavior of the parents frequently, or other adults.

That's what he's talking about here. Farther on in this very same book, he's going to give them the same message with an additional tag on it, In 1 Corinthians 11, he's going to say, be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. Notice this, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. He adds on that feature. The second word that's also an important part of this pair of words here is tupos.

We get our word type from it. It means to be a pattern or an example. And the word was used then, as it is now, of a stamping die. The idea where you have a number, a letter, maybe even a whole word or series of numbers spelled out, sometimes symbols. And you will have a die like this and then come along with a hammer and go bang and impress the number or letter or symbol into typically metal. And then that number, letter, or symbol is then impressed into that material that's receiving the stamp or the die. That's the word that's used here. And it's used for example throughout the New Testament in various places. Here are some insights.

One we looked at, 1 Corinthians 11.1, be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. So what is he asking for there? He wants the Corinthians to look at Paul as Paul looks to Christ. Now, lest you think that this is just an acting job, back in 1981, Anthony Hopkins, who has made quite a few movies, I think he's a great actor, he played the Apostle Paul. And he just does a great job of acting.

The only thing is, he wasn't the Apostle Paul. And as impressed as people might have been, as impressed as people might have been, he wasn't Paul. And he wasn't really taking on Paul's character deep inside. God is not asking us to take on an acting job here. Imitating the external behavior very well is not what we're being asked to do. This isn't superficial imitation. It's not impersonation or just good acting.

Biblical imitating looks to the life of Christ. So when Paul is saying, imitate me as I look to Christ, he is saying, look at the life of Christ in me as I look to the Lord himself. It's a consequence of beholding the Lord. Only you're beholding the Lord in another believer. That's what it's talking about. In 1 Thessalonians, he puts these two words together. And I'll move ahead to verse 6.

So you also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit. so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia." He puts this word imitators together with examples.

And how does that spell out? It spells out like this. He said, the believers in Thessalonica imitated him. and in turn became an example to the other believers in that area. So that's how these fit together. The person who learns by imitating, not superficially, but in depth, another believer then turns around and is an example to another believer. That's the pattern he's laid out here.

You have on side 2 of your handout, page 2, this slide that puts together this list of passages that has imitate or example in there. And we have even a couple of them in Philippians and 1 Thessalonians that we looked at where both words are used together. Here's this one in 1 Corinthians 4. We'll be looking ahead when we get to it, 1 Corinthians 11. Now Paul begins to address, you guys think that I'm staying at a distance and I'm sending you this letter because I'm going to stay away. He says, I'm not.

I'm going to be seeing you face to face. And you need to realize, I want to come to you as my fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord and I want to see you and be loving and gentle. But you guys have a choice. If there's going to continue to be this phenomenal arrogance, he says, I'm going to have to deal with it. That's not the way the body of Christ is supposed to work. So contrary to this mentality that they had, oh, Paul's just going to stay away for a while, which certainly was not the case, Paul asked them what they would prefer. Do you want me to be severe in dealing with your arrogance?

Or do you want me to be loving and gentle? You choose. You pick. You see that it isn't my choice here. It's really yours. If you want to be arrogant and stay that way, I'm going to have to deal with it. But if you finally come to your senses, then I can be loving and gentle. You pick. You choose.

If we look through scripture, we can piece together kind of an outline summary of his contacts with the church at Corinth there. You have this slide also on your handout on slide 2 or page 2. First was his founding visit. This is the one that's described in the Book of Acts when he first went to Corinth.

He refers to a former letter. So in fact, 1 Corinthians is not the first one. It is, in fact, his second letter, but we have only two of actually four letters that we're aware that he wrote to them. So here is 1 Corinthians. There is also Paul's painful visit that's referred to here. He also refers to a severe letter. So boy, he has some correcting to do with these folks. And then finally, 2 Corinthians and then Paul's anticipated visit. So these are the quick of his visit. He did indeed go to see them and he did indeed write to them more than once after this. So he's not going away and he's not just keeping his distance.

Now what we're going to find as we turn to the next chapter is that he's also going to turn and finally in one sense change the subject. He's going to address some different issues among them Oh, they're not pleasant ones. But he's got to address different issues among them that he hasn't addressed before. For the first four chapters, he's been addressing their divisions, ultimately addressing their arrogance. What he's going to do, he's going to leave off their divisions, at least for now, and turn to another issue that's come up before him that he must address, and it'll consume pretty much all of chapter five. But he's not going to let go of one thing.

In verse 2 of chapter 5, another reason for arrogance. Can you imagine that? Not only are they arrogant, they're arrogant! So he's going to have to continue to deal with it because he's got additional reasons for their being arrogant. What's happened in this next one, and we'll certainly go into the details further next time, what's happening in this one is they're saying, we are so tolerant, we will tolerate anything. We will let anything go in the church, and we are so tolerant, we will allow anything to happen. And they're proud of it. And he's saying, that's the problem.

And what's worse, you guys are arrogant about it. The arrogance continues. The subject changes, but the arrogance remains. In the end, oh yes, it's a couple letters away, but in the end, he's trying to tell them, look, you guys need to put your focus on the Lord through this. Quit trying to put the focus on yourselves.

He's going to tell them in 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. We are transformed spiritually as we behold the Lord. Anything less than that is not transforming. building up little personal social empires is not transforming. Trying to exalt and look to anyone else, but the Lord is not transforming.

He's pointed out all the different reasons for their division here. But in the end, they need to look to the Lord. In the end, that's how they're going to be built up. That's how they're going to get past this locked-in immaturity that's been plaguing them all along.

Let's turn to the Lord ourselves, okay? Lord, as we look at this passage, we see certainly the different things that Paul addressed and overriding through those is this issue of arrogance in the church and the divisiveness that is coupled with it. But Lord, we see the overriding theme as well, that the eyes of our hearts must be turned to you.

And only in that will we be transformed. Only in that will we be unified. Only in that will we be being changed into the people that you want us to be. We ask, Lord, that you would draw our hearts. We ask, Lord, that you would bring us to behold you. Give us hearts that long to look at you and be occupied with our Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.