First Corinthians 4:9-13 Suffering is involved in the ministry of Paul

Okay, well today we're going to be looking again at chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians. We're getting toward the end of chapter 4. So I labeled this section called 9-13 called Suffering is Involved in Paul's Ministry. You know if you look through scripture, there's several sections of scripture that describe Paul's suffering and it's pretty astounding. There's a section which we'll cover in 2 Corinthians down the road a piece, probably a year or so from now. But this is a section that's going to talk about his suffering.

He's also going to talk about, as Mike started last week, he's going to talk about, and let's just get right to the outline here before I'm just kind of carrying on here. So this outline is from Macaulay, and so the section we're going to work on today is down here. Mike started last week.

This is all in Paul's answering the problem that the Corinthians had of division among themselves. And we're down to the section about pride has no place in the service to the Lord. Number E in this bullet chart. And then today we're going to take up section F. which involves suffering. And actually what we're going to see is that Paul is going to address two issues kind of intermingled. He's going to address this idea of pride among the Corinthians. And his answer to that pride is going to basically to show them that the life of an apostle is one of suffering.

Suffering for Christ. So let's just kind of get into that. And actually, I thought I'd just kind of go back just briefly, you know, we've been in Corinthians now for several months now. This is just back to this. This is Paul's missionary journey. And that's where he first, after he left Athens, he went on to Corinth and he spent a year and a half in Corinth. And initially it was a very difficult time there, and then if you remember, the Lord appeared to him in a vision and assured him that he was in the right place at the right time, and that his plans would succeed. And so really interesting, Corinth is one of the interesting parts of Scripture that you see the heart of Paul, and we actually have two of his letters, actually a third one that's referred to.

So this kind of puts you in perspective here. So now for the verses for today. And this is picking up from last week's verse. You're already filled, you have already become rich, you have already become kings without us, and indeed I wish you had become kings so that we might also reign with you. So that's from last week.

Then this week, we're going to start into verse 9, and the blues indicate, this is the blue indicates where he kind of In a rhetorical fashion, he kind of says, hey, you Corinthians, is this really where you think the life of Christ should be? And he's going to kind of point out several things about the life that they're leading. And he's also going to talk about the life of a true believer, a true believer, a true apostle of Christ. And in verse 9, it says, for I think or I assume God has exhibited us, apostles, last of all, as spectacles to the world both to angels and to men.

For we are fools for Christ's sake, and here's where he kind of goes back and forth, but we are fools for Christ's sake, speaking about himself, but you are prudent in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are without honor.

Then in the last three verses, he starts into this section describing one of the sections, like in 2 Corinthians, about the trials and suffering in his ministry. He says, to this present hour, we are both hungry and thirsty and poorly clothed. We are roughly treated and homeless. We toil, working with our hands. We are reviled. We bless. When we are persecuted, we endure. When we are slandered, we try to conciliate. We have become the scum of the earth, the dregs of all things, even until now.

Not a pretty picture. This is the resume that you're going to have. This is what's going to happen to you. You're probably going to say, wow, I don't know. It doesn't sound too good to me. Hopefully we can walk our way through that. So let's get into it here. I'm going to go back and just cover a couple of these. I think they're interesting. I'm just going to put them all up here right now. So basically, I like the amplified rendering of these little sections, pieces of the verse. So Paul's going to talk about the Corinthians and how this is how they viewed themselves.

You're already filled. The amplified brings it across as you behave as if you are already filled. You think you have enough. You are full and content. feeling no need of anything, anything more. So the idea here, it seems like that they thought that they had arrived. Well, we have these spiritual gifts, and they excelled in that, and we're going to see part of that later on. They felt they had arrived. They had no need of additional. They weren't, as we said, they weren't hungry believers. They weren't really seeking out the truths of God. They felt they already had it. Well, we got these gifts, and we're doing all these great things. We've already arrived. To make it worse, in the second part, you have become rich. The Amplified has it, you have become rich in spiritual gifts and graces without any counsel or instruction from us in your conceit.

They felt they didn't need Paul's, you know, here's the Apostle Paul, all this time he was with them, and then by these letters, they didn't need his counsel anymore, they didn't need his instruction. And then the third point is, you have become kings without us. And this is kind of maybe a sharp rebuke. You've ascended to your thrones and come into your kingdom without including us.

It's like, well, you've already entered the kingdom, the kingdom of God, and you're doing fine and you forgot about us. And then the last part of that verse, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you. They felt that they were being rewarded for their great spiritual gifts because they were exercising them. So they were pretty conceited and puffed up.

So Paul comes back with that with verse 9. So he'll describe what a true Christian servant can expect. Paul will also describe his life as an apostle. Those two things. He says, for I think, or probably better, is for it seems to me, that's a we surrendering, that God has exhibited us as apostles, last of all.

So it's kind of interesting. The subject here is God. I wanted to do, you know, this is an easy little passage to diagram or to get the subject, verb, and direct object. Pretty straightforward. But the point I want to make here is that God is the subject, obviously. He's exhibiting or showing forth the apostles. He's putting them on display. He's the one that's doing it.

Remember back in Job? Remember what God said to Satan he said Consider my servant Job. Well, I kind of saw this is what what Paul's pointing out Don't you realize Corinthians that that you as Christians are being put on display you're being shown forth you're being exhibited as a as a Example of God's grace how he's changed people's lives dramatically and how you're how you're preaching Christ that's what the Christian life is about and And it turns out that as we do that, we wind up being last. We're not first. You would think that, well, okay, God is showing me fourth, just like with Job. Job was not rewarded in the sense of earthly things. He lost everything, right? Well, Paul's going to point out that he loses everything for Christ. He loses his health, he loses many things.

But that is God's purpose and God's aim is displaying him as an apostle. And so last of all, we're going to see that part shortly here. So it says, as men condemned to death, doomed to death, and there's a verse in Romans 8.36 that talks about, this is a verse that, you know, the previous verse says, who will separate us from the love of Christ with tribulation or distress or persecution? Then it comes down to verse 36, just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. So this verse tells us that as a result of this persecution, the stress and perils, that's being put to death, we're being put to death day by day.

And the idea of this being at the end, this is interesting. It says at the end of all in the Roman procession, you know, I tried to find a good picture of this I looked online and you can just you can searching there's all kinds of pictures of Roman processions just say just you know Web page after web page all this stuff. I was trying to find one that really listed Here's them at the first of the Roman procession. There'd be the most important people it may be like the Caesars or whatever or the conquering Person of that campaign at the very end of the procession would be these criminals or people condemned Condemned to death.

So that's what Paul's bringing across here He says for I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all as men condemned to death That's how though, you know, we're put in a position where You know, it doesn't look good for us if the fact looks very bad for us and but that's why the gods design and Because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to the angels and to men. So part of this whole thing is to show God's glory, His great grace. And that's going to be apparent to both men and also to angels.

What's interesting, he talks about we apostles have become a spectacle. And this is the idea of a theater. This is like a theater, a drama going on as we live the Christian life. And this verse in Hebrews kind of speaks to that. But remember the former days, when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of suffering by being made public spectacles through the reproach and tribulation.

This is interesting. If you look in 1 Peter, which we've already covered this verse earlier, angels, you think, wow, they're angels, they're at God's right hand. The good angels, they do God's bidding, they do God's service, But they want to look into the affairs of man. And they desire to understand. They don't understand God's plan of salvation in mankind. They don't quite understand it. They don't get it.

And it's, you know, 1 Peter kind of talks about that. Okay, so now he's going to kind of go back to this. Okay, we talked about the apostles suffering and how they're last in this parade of people. He's going to talk about the fact, he's going to do a we-you comparison. We apostles versus you Corinthians. He's going to go down that path. He's going to do a we-you comparison.

So he starts off, we apostles We as apostles, you Corinthians, how they saw themselves. So he's going to say, we as apostles, as true believers, act this way, and you Corinthians see yourselves that way. He says, we are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ.

So let's look at the first part. And it's pretty obvious that That if you look at scripture, and we've been studying this since the beginning of 1 Corinthians, that the word of the cross, Christ crucified, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who believe, us who are being saved, is the power of God. And that's one of the stumbling blocks for many, many people. They look at the cross.

They look at, it's been said, Christianity is a bloody religion. They say, look at all this blood. You guys talk about the blood all the time. What's all this all about? They talk about resurrection. Resurrection from the dead. That was mocked, actually. When Paul was in Acts there, he talked to some prominent men and when he talked about resurrection from the dead, they thought, this guy is kind of weird. No one is raised from the dead. But that's what happened to Christ and that's what can happen to us too. It will happen to us.

This is a favorite little passage that I think kind of defines. People ask, what is the word of the cross or the message of the cross or the doctrine of the cross? I thought Macaulay just kind of capture it so beautifully. This is about the fourth or fifth time I've used this passage. You're probably going to get tired of me using this passage by the time we get through Corinthians, but it's just so wonderful.

The doctrine of the Word of the Cross is the teaching that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died a death wherein the guilt and penalty of man's sin was placed on him, making it possible for salvation to be extended to all those who believe in Christ. That kind of encapsulates what You know, people say, well that's foolish, that's what you believe. But the Word of the Cross explains why God did it and why it's so important.

So, in contrast to that, the Corinthians thought themselves as prudent, they thought themselves as being very wise. They thought themselves as wise men. Well, Paul's already kind of addressed this earlier in 3.18, earlier in Chapter 3. He says, let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks he is wise, in this age he must become foolish so that he may become wise." Sounds like an oxymoron, right? He must become foolish so that he may become wise?

Well, if you think about it, that's exactly what believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is about. The world says that's foolishness, but we believe that and we become wise. We become in tune with God. We have been God's wisdom, not man's wisdom. So it is true, he must become foolish, believe in the foolishness that some men call the cross, so he may become wise and know the Lord Jesus as his Savior.

So really, the contrast is obvious. You Corinthians are over here thinking you've And these are supposed to be believers, and it's hard to believe that Paul is so hard on them, and just really slams them, so to speak, so hard. Okay, so let's go on. So here's another comparison. We are weak, but you are strong, or you think yourself strong. So I'm going to rely on the Amplified again, well, in a bit I will. So first of all, in going back to the fact that talking about being weak, You know Paul says actually, you know, it's really interesting in Paul's life He kind of came to an epiphany if you will when he had this thorn in the flesh He realized that his weakness was actually a benefit and not a not a negative most of us think well if I have this weakness and I can't do X Y & Z if I have a if I have a bad knee I Have a bad arm. He's waving. Thanks, Phil. I You think, well, that's a negative. That's a negative. That means I can't do this and I can't do that.

Well, Paul, in his weakness, which we're not exactly told, he came to this point of realizing. He says, therefore, I'm well content with weakness, with insults, with distresses, with persecution, with difficulty, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. And he goes on. He talks more about that. He learned the lesson of weakness. And if it's God's purpose for you to have a weakness, then you can rejoice in it. And that's His purpose. And you can rejoice in all your weaknesses for His sake, certainly.

Okay, so that's contrasted with what the Corinthians said. They're strong. And they saw themselves as strong or mighty. And that's within themselves, within their person or whatever. But without Christ, well, they had Christ. And that's what's kind of...

It's kind of confusing as you go through. You'd say, well, we are weak, but you are strong. They were strong in themselves and not in Christ, probably, is the best way to look at it. Next comparison. You are distinguished. He kind of flops it around. You are distinguished, but we are without honor. And I thought of our held in honor. I thought this may seem a little bit contrary to my argument here.

I think they saw themselves that they were able to find the right man. They had these four groups of people, including Christ, including the Lord, and they had this party spirit, and they joined a group, including Paul, and they felt themselves, well, I'm obviously of Apollos, he's the most distinguished of those, he's the best whatever, and this party spirit It's not what the Lord was looking for, but what the Lord is looking for is, or the case being, is that the servant of Christ is many times without honor.

Many times the person that talks of Christ, that speaks of Christ, that proclaims Christ is not held in honor. And there's many verses like this where it talks about Christ himself testified that a prophet Has no honor in his own country. He's not honored or I thought well of when he brings a message that is true Okay, let's go on so now in verse 11.

So now he's going to get into this section We're going to describe these sufferings. There's 10 10 total in this section So we'll start into those to this present hour present this very our present time and these are the items that we're both hungry thirsty and poorly clothed and So the Amplify brings us across, we have gone both hungry, thirsty, we habitually wear one undergarment and shiver in the cold. A lot of you say, are you sure?

That sounds kind of strange. Well, I think what this means is they were not well off, they didn't have the means. Imagine you didn't have enough coats to put on in the wintertime. You only had a few garments to put on your body. You could be pretty cold, and I think that's what that's referring to. were roughly treated and homeless. Roughly treated and homeless, so maltreated, going from place to place and having no fixed home.

If you think about, and this is where this other section in 2 Corinthians, if you look at that section, you'll see that, actually I'll quote it here. I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

And then he goes on, there's a section, actually it's a little bit before this, he talks about this, where it says roughly treated, and this is roughly treated Squared if you ask me, I mean, it's just intense. He said he was beaten times without number five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes I think actually 40 or over 40 was considered You know the maximum they could do so they did 39 to make sure they didn't go over go to 40 Three times beaten with rods one time. I was stoned. So Paul was was Roughly treated to put it mildly So now we get into 12. He continues on this theme. He's going to start into the next section of these. Now Paul continues.

We toil, working with our hands. Paul was a tent maker by trade, and in Acts 3 he talks about that when he arrived in Corinth, he came across Priscilla and Aquila, and they were also tent makers as well. But I found another piece of information which I hadn't realized, If you look at Paul's life, and you look at how much time, the time he spent, he spent a lot of time doing his trade. He was, and he worked with his hands a lot.

Now a lot of the time he was in jail. So that didn't count. He got a free moving board there, so to speak. I'm not sure I'd like for that one. Sometimes it was good. House arrest wasn't too bad, I guess. It wasn't as bad as it could be. So Paul, you know, he had to earn his way. He earned his way a lot more than you might think. besides the time that he was suffering for the Lord in prison or wherever it might be. So that was with his hands.

When we're reviled, we bless. So he gets into a section here where he talks about what would the response of a believer be trusting in the Lord to these sufferings. So if you're reviled, it says in 1 Peter 3.9, do not return evil for evil or insult for insult. but give a blessing instead, for you were called for this very purpose, that you might inherit a blessing." So it glorifies Christ, and we were studying that today. It glorifies Christ when we do, when we walk with the Lord, contrary to what man would do. We act contrary to that. And we give a blessing for being reviled. And that's not easy to do. In fact, it's impossible to do in our own power. Okay, so we continue on in this vein.

When we are persecuted, we endure. In John 15, 20a, it says, Remember the words that I said to you, A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should expect that they will be persecuted as Christ was persecuted. We are slandered. We try to conciliate. Amplified has, when we are slandered and defamed, We try to answer softly and bring comfort. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

I tried to think of an example of this one. I had a couple that came to mind. One I had, I'm now retired, but many years ago I was trying to get access to Buckley. I had to go out there, and I hadn't been there. Actually, I had been overseas for a while, so my license, my U.S. license had expired. But at that time you could write to the state of Colorado and you could ask them to extend your license for another year or something like that. And they send you a little sticker and you put that sticker in the back of your license plate, license plate, your driver's license. So it would say expired in the front, you know, but in the back it said extended to so and so. So I arrive out at the gate at Buckley, the outside gate. And he said, can I see your license, sir? And I gave him my license. He says, well, this license is expired. You can't pause me. Turn around immediately, sir. Get out of here. You're blocking traffic.

And I said, sir, one of my few times of not blowing it up. I said, could you just please turn it over on the back side and take a look there? He turns it over and looks. Oh, okay, I guess you can come through. And so he waved me through. So that's one of the times that a soft answer can turn away wrath. Rather than say, well, wait a minute. Look at the other side. You could answer that several ways, but Lord willed I was able to answer it in a gentle way. So anyway, okay. All right. So let's continue on.

We have become a scum of the earth, of the world, the dregs of all things until now. And so we have become, in the estimation of the world, as filth by humanity as a result of cleansing oneself. And this is actually the dirty scrapings off of all things. It's actually kind of picturing the fact that if you have like a scrubby or whatever, let's say you're scrubbing a pan, and you get the grease and the grime off that pan, well, that scum is what's left on the pad. It looks pretty yucky, right? It's all the grease and grime. That's the estimation of the world about what Paul's talking about, the scum of the world.

So now, I thought, you know, after this, I thought, well, if somebody's looking at this and they say, well, how can a... what does a person believe that could get them into this? What do I believe that causes me to be in this situation? So I'm going to do a little review here. So I went back to earlier chapters that we covered in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 1 and 2.

And this is talking about when he came to Corinth, what was his... Because he's speaking to the Corinthians here. How did he get to this point where they thought of him as he describes? And so he said, and when I came to you, speaking about the Corinthians, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. So let's just look at that. So basically he says, when I came to you, brethren, proclaiming the testimony of God, the middle part just kind of is an amplification of that.

Proclaiming is the idea to declare or proclaim, to preach. So he came preaching to the Corinthians. And the mysteries of God, the testimony, the mysteries of God, mysteries in the New Testament are things that have not previously been revealed. So, Constable kind of has here, points out, the gospel was both a message God had previously not revealed to them, but it also was a message that he gave to them and bore witness of. So that's a message that he was proclaiming when he came to the Corinthians. And he says, I proclaimed that message.

I didn't come with superior audio speech. So this fits in this weakness idea. He came to him in weakness according to superior audio speech. So it refers to rhetorical skills. He didn't have excellent rhetorical skills, it seems, even though he had an excellent mind, a very logical mind. His rhetorical skills may not have been the best. And speaking the wisdom of man, he didn't bring man's wisdom.

So we saw this word before in proclaiming the cross of Christ And actually what God says, you know, God works differently than man works We saw that in 1st Corinthians 1 17 Not in cleverness or wisdom of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made valid It was God's intent for the cross of Christ to be what it is to be an affront to man, but it glorifies him it can be an affront to man, but it does glorify God and So here's kind of the bottom line of Paul's ministry.

For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So he determined, or he resolved, he only spoke about a Christ crucified and we certainly saw that many times in Galatians, look at Galatians chapter 3 especially. So the next part is, and this is just kind of Review 101. So this is except to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So here are the things that we need to know about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We need to know about the person of Christ.

He's God with the following attributes. He's both with God and is God. He is the creator of all things. In Christ is life and life is the light of men. Christ is the image of the invisible God. And then Christ works. We need to believe in the person, in the work of Christ, His work.

He died for all sins. Christ is the propitiation or the satisfaction for our sins. And not for ours only, but for those of the whole world. And He died unto the sin nature. Not only did He die for sins, plural, He died unto the very nature of sin, the thing that causes sin to happen in a person's life. He died with respect to our sinful nature once for all. God having sent his own son as an offering for sin, he condemned sin and the sinful nature in the flesh. So God separated us from that sinful nature so that we can live a life for him.

And this is what is an affront. This is what a person believes. And that's why he becomes an affront to the world. Because it's God's doing, not man's doing. It's God's stature, and not man's stature. And this is what insults the integrity and intelligence of the world. So I thought, how do I kind of close it out?

And this verse kind of occurred to me, which I think is really good. This is Paul again, in Philippians here. And this is how Paul lived his life. Philippians 4, 12 and 13. I know how to get along with humble means. I know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstances, I learn the secrets of being filled, going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

So that's the message. Kind of a contrast here where Paul's telling the Corinthians they're on the wrong track. What they're doing is not a true Christian. And a true Christian is one who suffers for Christ because that's God's plan and God's purpose. So let's close. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for our time today. Lord, thank you for the blessings we have. Thank you that we can proclaim the message of our wonderful salvation through Jesus Christ. We ask in His name. Amen.