Transcript

Let’s turn over to 1 Corinthians 4 as we continue studying verse by verse through this wonderful New Testament book. 1 Corinthians 4, let’s look at verses 6-21.

Let’s read the text together “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, in order that you might learn not to exceed what is written, in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and I would indeed that you had become kings so that we might reign with you. For I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church. Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power. What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness?”

Paul is finishing up his exhortation to the church at Corinth concerning their problem of preacher worship, and the real problem, the root problem behind this preacher worship problem was their own arrogance, they were puffed up and proud. That’s typically the way a carnal, backslidden Christian is, he’s just very proud and puffed up that he can be his own boss and he can make his own conclusions and he does not need to submit to God and surrender to the authority of God’s word. So I’ve entitled, as we conclude this last part of Paul dealing with the preacher worship problem, I’ve entitled this message “How to Deal with an Arrogant Church.” How to deal with an arrogant church.

Now I want to glean three things about how Paul dealt with this arrogant church so we can find out how to deal with an arrogant church. Number one, notice his straightforward manner in dealing with it. What I mean by this, Paul spares no words, pulls no punches, he goes straight for the jugular, he goes right down to the marrow of the bone and pegs this thing. Notice how strong he is in his straightforward manner, and let’s just exegete this, verses 6-13. As we see his straightforward manner in dealing with this arrogant church.

Look at verse 6 (1 Corinthians 4-6) “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes”. Now first of all he says, you’ve got a problem with preacher worship and Paul said, just to make it simple and practical, I’ve been comparing myself with Apollos and Cephas and some other equally called, equally God ordained preachers to reveal to you, you are not to be choosing one above the other, you are to be looking beyond us and to be honoring the Christ that we are servants of. That’s what he means by he says, figuratively applying these truths to himself and Apollos.

Middle of verse 6, “that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.” Now actually what the arrogant Corinthians were doing, was they would hold to one preacher, but they would hold to that preacher with the motive of being against another preacher. It wasn’t just that we are praise God for the power and the oratory skills of Apollos, they would honor Apollos so that they could put down Paul. And Paul said, there’s where your arrogance comes out. Not that you honor the man of God but that you honor one in order to say I’m of this one, and I’m better than those who are of the other preacher.

Now he said they were exceeding what is written. He said, I’m writing this so that you might learn not to exceed what is written. What he’s referring to there is the general teaching of Old Testament scripture about the way you view the man of God. They were in essence laying aside what the Bible said about how you view and honor the man of God, and inserting their own criterion for honoring or their view of the man of God. And Paul said, man, there’s where your arrogance is. By the way, the word for arrogant here in verse 6 is the word for bellows. You know what a bellows is, it is filled up with air, and you blow air on the fire, you stoke the fire actually with a bellows. Well, that’s what he means, you’re all full of hot air. You’re all blown up.

Because you think you have the superiority and the ability to esteem one God called man over another equally God called man. Now again, we’re not comparing here, God called preachers with false teachers. There are a lot of those to be dealt with and some of that’s involved here also, but Paul says, for the purpose of illustration in proving my point, I use two equally God called preachers, myself and Apollos. Don’t pick one or the other, don’t honor one above the other, we have different gifts, different talents, different abilities, but both equally God called, honor the Christ we serve. Do not honor us in and of ourselves for our talents and abilities.

Look at verse 7. “For who regards you as superior?” Paul’s point: Where did you get this superior ability to choose one God called preacher as the superior one over and against another one? How did you get such criteria or the ability to evaluate and judge the preachers of God, who regards you as superior? And continuing, “and what did you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast, as if you had not received it?”

Now I believe Paul is talking about both the natural realm and the spiritual realm here. First of all let’s talk about the natural realm. He said, okay, you folks in Corinth, and remember the Greek Gentiles of Corinth were people who were greatly arrogant about their learning and their education and the superiority of their intellect and their great cultural standards and their philosophies of the day, they were just so full of themselves about this, and this has come over into the church. Now he says, now listen, if you had a good parentage, you were born of a fine family, and maybe you’ve got a higher IQ than someone else, and you were educated in the finest of schools, of the Greco-Roman Empire world, and you have all of these fine things, even if all of that is yours you didn’t choose any of that, God provided all of that.

None of that’s anything you can boast of. Some of you sitting here have PhDs, some of you have Masters degrees, some of you have backgrounds in families perhaps that were more cultured than the rest, but whatever you have or do not have, you are not responsible for that, you received it. God did all of that, you didn’t do any of that. So in the natural realm, everything you have that you think is positive and good, is a gift from God.

And certainly it is so in the spiritual realm. These Corinthians didn’t wake up one day and say, I want to find the true God of heaven, I’m going to be born again today. Wrong. Paul makes it very clear in the earlier chapters, God chose them. They were predestined of God, they were God’s choice, he had regenerated their heart, he birthed faith in their heart, we could go back through all of that again, but he’s already laid that out. If you’re saved, God did it all, Jesus died on the cross, he paid for your sins, he birthed you into the family.

Maybe you had great Bible teachers, who taught you a lot of good Bible knowledge. Well, God gave you those, that’s nothing that you did, you received that. Maybe you have certain spiritual gifts that someone else does not have, that’s no basis for arrogance though. You received all of that. So Paul gives them a strong rebuke and exhortation of saying here, that everything you are and everything you have, and it is true about all of us, everything you have sir you received.

You made a lot of money, God gave you the capacity to make that money. Got a lot of influence, God gave you the position that gave you influence, got a great education, God gave you that. Paul says, why are you acting like you didn’t receive it? Let me ask you that today, church member, preacher, staff member, why do we act like we didn’t receive what we’ve got? Why do we act like this stuff came out of us somehow? Every breath we take is a grace from heaven. Paul says, why do you act as if you have not received it?

Now we look at verse 8, and in verse 8 Paul for lack of a better phrase, cleans their clock. He blisters their britches, he pierces them to the core, using irony and sarcasm, he just really reveals their arrogance in the most pointed and maybe even painful way. His motives are pure, but notice the irony and the sarcasm in what Paul says here beginning in verse 8. He says, “you are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings,” and notice the next two words, these are key words, “without us.”

We’re God’s called apostles, and you’ve done attained up to the height of the kingdom, you are way up at the top spiritually and you didn’t even need us. Boy, aren’t you something, Paul is saying. Notice the last phrase of verse 8, sarcasm: “and I would indeed that you had become kings so that we might reign with you.” So in essence he’s saying, man, you’ve already attained, you’re already reigning as kings in the millennial kingdom, and you left poor apostles, me and the apostles way behind. Boy, and then Paul’s just adding on the sarcasm, says well, I can tell you what, I wish y’all were reigning in the kingdom, and maybe y’all would let us in with you.

Woooo. That’s cutting them boy, that’s really. I mean, here we are baby mature church, and Paul says, you’re acting like you’ve arrived and you’re already reigning in the millennial kingdom. We’re all been left out. Boy, you guys are something, Paul is saying.

Look at verse 9. Powerful strong verse here, talking about straightforward: “For I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all.” The word exhibited there is to expose or to show. So Paul says, God is exposing or showing us apostles in a certain light in this present world. Now the office of apostle I believe is the highest office ever given by God to man, there’s office of prophet, office of king, office of priest, office of pastor teacher, office of evangelist, but the office of apostle I believe is the highest of the high.

Those were the men who walked with Jesus, those were the men who saw him physically, and those were the men who he used to pen the New Testament scriptures, at least the greatest part of it, and give the final completed revelation of God about Jesus Christ. And so Paul says, the highest of the high of God’s high, notice how God has shown us, how he’s exhibited us to the world. Now the first phrase he says there, look at it in verse 9: “for I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all.”

Now he’s building on something when he uses that phrase last of all. That’s the phrase that would be used in the gladiatorial show of the day. They had gladiators in those days and they did horrendous and awful torturous brutal murders as the gladiators would come out there with their spikes and their clubs and their spears and sometimes they would just devour and destroy the men or they would put animals in there, and the gladiator would have to fight the animal, and then the last one to come into the arena, during a gladiatorial show was the person or the animal that was going to get the more horrific torture, brutality and murder.

And Paul says, that’s where God puts us Apostles, we’re the last ones in the arena. We’re the ones that receive the most severe and awful treatment. He says, that’s the way God shows us to the world. What a contrast with the lofty exalted comfortable wealthy, esteemed arrogant Corinthians. God’s highest office, are like the last ones thrown in the arena. The carnal Corinthians, we’re the kings, we’re spiritually high, we’ve obtained it all.

Paul is thoroughly rebuking them for their arrogance. Notice what else he says there: “for I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all as men condemned to death.” Now that phrase as men condemned to death doesn’t just mean that often where they went there were men who would try to kill them, that was very true. We know that’s true of the apostle Paul’s life. But what he means as the world treats us like a convicted convict. We’re treated like a man on death row, that’s the way the world hates us. Derides us and abhors us.

Now Paul’s not saying that God has willed that we Apostles go out into the world and try to make this happen, the apostle Paul is simply saying as we do what God tells us to do, as we preach what God tells us to preach, as we stand for the things God tells us to stand for, this is the way the world looks at us. And in essence he’s saying, contrast that to the way you look at yourselves and the world looks at you. Christians in Corinth. The last phrase of verse 9 there, he says, “we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.”

The word spectacle means theater, he says, the men of the world and even the good angels of heaven watch us with amazement at how the world is hostile to us and abhors us and persecutes us. We’re like players on a stage. As men watch us and good angels watch us as a spectacle.

Verse 10. Paul still using irony and sarcasm, begins to more thoroughly draw the contrast between the way the Corinthians viewed themselves and the way the world viewed the Corinthian Christians, and the way the Corinthians viewed Paul and the Apostles, and the way the world viewed Paul and the Apostles.

Notice how he says it there in verse 10: “We are fools for Christ’s sake.” In other words, you Corinthians think we apostles are fools for the suffering and the things we go through for the gospel, the way the world abhors us. “But you are prudent,” you think you are wise and prudent, and the world generally speaking, looks at you Corinthians Christians and says you are wise and prudent. Right the opposite of the way the world looks at us. And then he says, “we are weak.” The world looks at us and says, we’re a bunch of weak men.

Men who have nothing, nothing going for us, but the world looks at you and what else, well they say, “but you are strong.” You look at yourself and boast about the strong influence and power you have in your community and the world applauds you for it, but we, the men in God’s highest office, we’re just weaklings, by the world’s standard. “You are distinguished,” third comparison, “but we are without honor.”

You know what Paul’s point is: One of us is missing it. One of us is a phony. One of us is off track. Either you guys have arrived and have obtained, you are the spiritual giants, and all this glory and esteem and self grandiose statements and positions you put yourself in, and we apostles have missed God completely, or we apostles are honoring and following God and you guys, who are glorying in your wisdom, and in your great power and in your great authority, you guys are missing it. Somebody’s missing it completely. Of course, you know the point. The Corinthians were.

Now, Paul is not suggesting that all lay Christians are to go through the same sufferings and toil and trials that he went through as an Apostle, but he’s saying, the general pattern still stands true for all believers. If the world abhorred Jesus, it should abhor us if we’re walking with Jesus. If the world persecuted Jesus, it should persecute us if we’re walking with Jesus. And the Apostle is simply saying, we’re walking with Jesus and look what the world is doing to us, the world applauds you, so what does that say about you guys. Somebody’s missing it. Paul’s not through, talk about straightforward and thorough.

Look at verse 11. “To this present hour,” therefore Paul is emphasizing, this is a continual pattern that we experience as we minister. “To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed,” just enough clothes to get by on barely, “and are roughly treated,” the literal Greek for roughly treated means punched with the fist. “And are homeless.” One scholar said they were vagabonds and spiritual hobos. Paul said, that’s the way we are.

Now the world would look at men like this in this day, and they did, and say it is utterly ridiculous and foolish for them to live like this to spread some message about a Jew named Jesus who claimed to be the king of the world. They’d said this is ridiculous. Boy, when you read a verse like verse 11, you think, so much for prosperity theology. Paul said, this is the continual condition we are in serving our Lord. Now folks, I don’t know if you can get more sanctified than Paul, I don’t know if you can get more spirit filled, spirit anointed, and spirit gifted then Paul.

But Paul said, you want to know what characterizes me. Now he’s not saying there wasn’t a time at Cornelius’ house when he was comfortable and had the finest of everything, or when he stayed at Lydia’s house and ministered there, there were points and times when this was not the exact situation, but as a pattern he says: hungry, thirsty, barely enough clothes to wear, physically beaten by people’s fists and no home to live in. Shames us, doesn’t it.

I heard a prosperity preacher the other day say that he could prove from the Bible that Jesus Christ wore designer clothes. And he said, that’s why I drive a Rolls Royce. And I mean this with all my heart, I would challenge anybody that holds to an absolute doctrine that everybody who walks with God and is spirit filled, God wants them to be healthy and wealthy. I would challenge them to do me a verse by verse, solid exegesis of this text of scripture. God may allow that for some, but that’s not the pattern for all.

And we need to stop this stuff of putting thousands, tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands of Christians on inferiority and guilty trips because God’s not blessing them with wealth, when he’s blessing the TV preacher with such wealth, and mainly because the TV preacher is saying, you send it in to me and God will give it to you. I wish he’d send it to them, and see if God would give it to him.

Look at verse 12. He continues with this straightforward reproof: “And we toil, working with our own hands.” Now the Greeks were far above physical labor. I mean, man, if you were a cultured Greek you hired slaves to do the physical labor. And so they ridiculed, sort of laughed at Paul because he was out there making tents, working with leathers, with his hands. And then Paul says, “when we are reviled we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure.” That endure means we hold back, we don’t retaliate back in the flesh.

Verse 13, continuing on. “When we are slandered, we try to conciliate.” When somebody slanders us, we try to console them in return. Then some powerful statements here. He says, “we have become as the scum of the world.” That word scum there means what is carried off when you rinse a pot with water. You know, when you get through cooking something, there’s a few loose things in there, you just sort of rinse that with water and throw that out, that’s what, Paul says, that’s what we are, in the world’s estimation.

And then he says, that’s not enough to really give you the picture, he goes on in verse 13 says “we are the dregs of all things, even until now.” It means again, this is a continual way that they are looked at. The word dregs there means what you have to scrape off of the pan. The first word scum means what’s rinsed off the pan by water, the second word dregs means what you scrape off. Ladies, what’s it worth when you cook a casserole and every bit of its gone and you scrape what’s left off. Paul said, that’s what we are in the world’s eyes.

While you in Corinth are applauded and esteemed for your wisdom and for your wealth and for your power and for your influence by a carnal, lost, unregenerate world, Paul says, I want you to know the world calls us the scum and the dregs of the society. Somebody is not spiritual. Somebody’s missing it here. That’s the point Paul is making. So first of all, Paul says, you’ll deal with an arrogant church, deal with it in a straightforward manner. Get right to the point.

Secondly you must do it also with sincere motives. Notice the sincerity of Paul’s heart. Some people think it’s not loving if you are firm and straightforward and hard and to the point and don’t let them up until they get right so to speak. But that’s exactly the way Paul is, we’re going to see that even stronger in verse 21, but notice we see here the sincere motive and that has to be there.

Notice verse 14. He says, “I do not write these things to shame you.” But let’s note this, I guarantee you, they were shamed. And if they were not ashamed, they are calloused beyond any help. But Paul said, that wasn’t the motive of my heart, I didn’t do this just to mortify you and put you to shame, I did it because I love you. And notice how he says that in verse 14: “But to admonish you as my beloved children.”

You see, he wanted them to see what they really were in contrast to what they thought they were. Because he knew that is what they needed so Paul reveals a very sincere motive here, just as a parent is sincere, when a parent has to take a child, a child that wants the glory, a child that wants to reign, the child that wants the blessing, but the child that doesn’t want the process of toil and hardship to get there. Isn’t that a part of parenting, sometimes you have to say son, you know I know you want the new car and the new house and all that kind of stuff, but there’s a process.

And I need to yank you back down to the process. That’s what Paul’s doing. I need to get you back down. Yeah, you are going to reign one day with Christ, but in this foreign world that hates Jesus, you can’t reign now and reign then too. This world is anti-Christ. You are thinking you are something glorious, you’re thinking you’ve arrived, you’re thinking you are the spiritual champions, and you haven’t even started. You are not to the ABC blocks of spirituality, Paul is saying, and I’m correcting you as a father would a child, because I want what’s best for you.

Now look at verse 15. “For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” Now the word tutor there means an attendant. A tutor in this day was one who took the children along, and was a guardian or a chaperone and took them to the school master. So in this picture the tutor here would be Apollos or Cephas.

They were men who came along and helped guide the church at Corinth, but the spiritual father was Paul. Paul was the one who made the sacrifice and paid the price to get the gospel there to start with. Endured the hardship, endured the criticism, endured the ridicule, endured the persecution and preached the glorious gospel of Christ to pagan Corinth, and that’s how they got saved. So Paul is saying, you have some good tutors who’ve guided you and managed you and chaperoned you and gotten you to Jesus, the school master, but I am your spiritual father who brought you to him to start with.

They had in essence denied their own spiritual father for the Judaizers that had crept into the church. Now the Judaizers were those who said, yes, believe on Christ, but add these works. Add these works of the Mosaic covenant and then you’ll have it all together. And Paul is saying, as you look to all of these clowns out there, teaching this false doctrine, what about the person who paid the price to get you the truth to start with?

Why have you abandoned me? You know, it is an amazing thing to me how quickly some Christians will leave the church that sacrificed to win them, and then to nurture then in the faith. It is not at all unusual for someone to come and say, you know, I just don’t agree with the church and I just, I’m not happy with this, I’m going to go to another church and I look back at the Sunday school classes that stayed up all night, went to the house at three o’clock in the morning, kept the kids, brought clothes, counseled them, helped get their marriage back together, hours and hours of labor and service and love, bingo, little something pop up and they’re gone.

That’s what Paul is saying here. I’m the one who toiled and sacrificed to get you the gospel and now you are following after every hot shot philosopher that hits town and claims to be a God called preacher. You know it made me think about something, as I was thinking about Paul saying he was the spiritual father, and realizing the hardship Paul went through to spread the gospel, and that was this thought. This thought. Somebody paid the price to see to it that you heard the gospel. Think about it.

Somebody paid the price to see to it that you heard the gospel, somebody gave up a television show to go on visitation. Somebody gave up a vacation to give money to a missionary, a billion and one stories out there on planet earth tonight of what somebody gave up so that you and I could hear the gospel, isn’t that awesome to think about that. That is so awesome to think about, and I thought about the churches that we’ve planted in South Africa, we’ve planted four churches in the bush of South Africa.

In those village bush churches, there is no gospel witness. I think they told me six million people with no indigenous gospel witness. That means no one can get up out in the Laboya bush area of South Africa well they can now, but before that Henny Vinter and his group started planting churches, no one could get up in that region, no little boy, no little girl, no mom or dad and in their own community go and find Bible preaching.

Now there’s a lot of churches, but there are still a lot of villages unreached. And as I was thinking and calculating in my mind, it cost upwards to 30,000 dollars for each church we planted there in South Africa. When you add all the expense together, everything involved, building the building, doing the crusade, paying the airfare, the whole nine yards, upwards to 30,000 dollars.

And I thought, that’s a very small price to get one gospel preaching, Bible preaching church in a village that’s never had it. Because you know somebody sacrificed, paid a price, did without something to see to it that I got the gospel. And thinking about this, I couldn’t help but think about a 19 year old depressed, lonely boy in his car driving back to college and turned on the radio. And somebody somewhere had gotten out a billfold or a check book, said preacher, I’ll pay to get the gospel on the radio.

Somebody paid that bill, that night that boy was in his car driving back to college so that a radio broadcast could be on the air. And there driving through Columbia, Tennessee, I was that boy, I turned on that radio and I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and I was saved. Somebody paid the price. Some technician in some studio somewhere mixed and edited and did the production work on that broadcast, like Tim Martin does here.

Somebody did that, probably some lady or some girl like so many ladies in our church, took the hours to edit the manuscript so they could put it on the air, somebody took the time to do that. Somebody paid the radio station for the air time. Never knowing someone that God had marked out to be saved and be his preacher was going to hear it that night. Maybe, I don’t know, this was 1979, maybe it took $25, I don’t know.

Let’s say there’s one person in one church somewhere that said, put the word, get the gospel of Jesus Christ on the air, I’ll give $25. And totally and completely to God’s credit and through his grace, God saved a man, that is now pastoring a church that gives upwards to three million dollars a year to spread the gospel around the world. Is that not phenomenal. Don’t you minimize what you might can do to see that the gospel can get to somebody, do what you can do.

When we get to heaven aren’t we going to have a fit seeing how all this fits together. Isn’t it going to be glorious just to see how it all fits together when we get there. And I was just overwhelmed as I read Paul saying, I’m your father, thinking the sacrifice he made to get to Corinth. God thank you, somebody sacrificed so that I would hear the gospel that night in my car.

Look at verse 16. Notice Paul’s sincere motive comes out even more. He said, “I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me.” Paul knew he walked with God, Paul knew his consuming desire was to glorify Christ, and to do what would be good for the churches. And he could simply say with confidence, not arrogance, but if you’ll imitate me, you’ll be imitating Christ.

If you follow me, you’ll be following Christ. You know that’s still God’s plan today. It is still God’s plan today that you learn to follow Christ by following somebody who follows Christ. That has not changed. As a matter of fact, keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 4 and look at 2 Timothy 2. Would you do that. Look at 2 Timothy 2, and look at verse 2.

2 Timothy 2:2. Paul writing to Timothy the young man he was discipling says this: “and the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Now Paul said, now Timothy, let’s keep this reproduction going. I’m going to tell you something, God’s church needs reproducing men.

I am convinced God does not want us to make disciples, God wants us to make disciple makers. And Paul was saying, Timothy I poured my life into you, you know a lot from my teaching, but also you know a lot about following God from following me. Now Timothy, you find a few faithful men, find the ones the holy spirit is making hungry. And then Timothy, you give them what I’ve given you.

And then Timothy they will be able to reach others also, and keep that reproduction going. It is true it is a biblical principle that chiefly you learn to follow Christ by following men who follow Christ. I don’t mean you learn everything, but a substantial amount of walking with God. You know we’ve got a lot of men in this church who are reproducing in that way, and that is the backbone and the strength of what we’re all about.

I challenge a whole lot of the rest of you, get in on it. Get in on it. Join up, be a reproducer. You say, preacher, I don’t really like that system, that accountability notebook and all of that. That’s fine with me, would you share with me your system. Would you share with me the number of men you’ve impacted who are reproducers.

I can share with you the number that God’s allowed us to impact through reproducers. We haven’t arrived, I can tell you that, we need to do a better job, but God is blessing the system. I don’t care that much about the system, I care about biblical scripture and principle, but you need some kind of system, to keep the reproduction steady and going.

That’s what we use the accountability notebook for. So Paul had a Timothy that he was reproducing into. And Timothy was being used by God. Well, let’s look back over to verse 17, as we continue seeing Paul’s motive for why he’s so strongly addressed this problem of arrogance in the church at Corinth. Verse 17 he says, “for this reason I sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.”

In other words, Timothy was a solid reproducer, he was right on track, Paul knew that. “And he will remind you of my ways, which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.” Man, what apostolic authority comes out here. Paul said, now when Timothy comes, Timothy is not going to teach you what he wants to teach you, he’s going to teach you what I’ve taught him, and he’s going to teach you the same stuff I’m teaching everywhere.

In other words, Paul’s saying, I know I’m God’s called Apostle and I teach and speak with authority to all the churches everywhere. I may send a messenger Timothy or Titus or whoever, but they are speaking what I tell them to speak. Now folks, there are no more Apostles. There’s no one else that can roam around here and jump in any church at any time and speak God’s truth.

God now has pastor teachers to take the finished writings of the Apostles, the New Testament, and preach the full counsel of God. But in this day and time, the canon of God was not complete, and these Apostles had authority everywhere they went, and sometimes they relayed the message through men like Timothy. And the point Paul is saying there is, I am concerned about you, I can’t come to you, but I’m going to bring the message of the Apostle, which I am, to you, through Timothy.

So we see verse 14-17, overflowing with a sincere motive of Paul that he loves them like a child, he’s not trying to mortify them or just condemn them or shame them, he knew they needed correction or they were going to be on God’s ash heap very soon. Now thirdly. Notice the stern mandate he ends with. The stern mandate.

What I mean by this, Paul is saying, this problem is going to be corrected one way or another. Paul’s going to say, listen, the choice is yours. This arrogance problem is sin, I’ve tried to educate you about it, I tried to exhort you about it, time is up, I’m coming, and we’re going to stop it one way or another. Period. A stern mandate. Look at verse 18. “Now some of you have become arrogant as though I was not coming to you.”

Now the false teachers, the Judaizers would come in the church and they’d say, hey, what about old Paul you guys are so fond of. And they’d say, well, Paul’s not coming, he’s sending Timothy. And the false teachers would say we told you, he’s a coward, he teaches false doctrine and he’s not going to come. That’s what they were doing, they were arrogant about the fact that Paul was sending Timothy and was not coming himself, they were puffed up.

Notice verse 19. Paul says, “But I will come to you soon. If the Lord wills.” You know that should be our attitude about everything, if the Lord wills. Now, it doesn’t mean that every time we say something, I’m going to the store — if the Lord wills. You know, it doesn’t mean that every time we say something about our plan or our activity, we’re supposed to throw that phrase in, but that should be the residing attitude of our heart.

God we’re totally yielded to you, we have plans as best we understand honors the teachings of scripture, but you can veto, stop, change, alter, anything you want in my plans. If the Lord wills this is where we’re headed and this is what we’re going to do. That ought to be all of our desires. Well, let’s finish the verse.

“But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills, and I shall find out not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power.” Now here’s what the apostle Paul knew. He knew these jokers creeping in the church and trying to put him down, they’d never started a church and probably hardly ever won anybody to Jesus. So he is saying, they’ve got a lot of big bold powerful words, but what about what they’ve accomplished for the kingdom.

Look at their lives and see what they’ve accomplished for the kingdom. Oh, they talk big and talk bold and put me down, but Paul is saying, you can look around the globe and there’s churches all over the world that God’s started through me, how many churches have they started. You know, that’s just exactly the way a trouble making false teacher works. They don’t start anything, they don’t sacrifice, they don’t toil, they slip in behind another faithful preacher or teacher and they are a parasite trying to suck the life off what somebody else has toiled to accomplish.

That’s what they were doing. He said, I’m going to find out when I get there, just what are the credentials that shows God’s power and authority is working through their life. I do not believe in any way Paul’s talking about outward signs and wonders at this point. He’s talking about substantial elements. How many souls have been saved, how many marriages have been saved, how many missionaries are out on the mission field. What is God’s power doing through their work. Paul says in essence, compare that to mine. We’re going to see whose words and whose got God’s power working through them.

Verse 20, he continues, “with the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power.” And then verse 21. Talk about a stern mandate. Now what do you desire. That’s Paul’s words. “What do you desire. Shall I come to you with a rod, or with a spirit of gentleness?” What was Paul’s mandate. His mandate was, one way or another, this thing is going to be shut down.

One way or another, I’m going to deal with the problem of backslidden egotistic arrogance in the church at Corinth. Now I can come with the rod and beat the devil out of you. Or I can come like a father whose pleased with a child who saw the error of his own way and corrected his error. Now one of the two. This thing is going to be stopped.

I’m going to tell you, Paul had a boldness that every man of God needs. Now, don’t misunderstand me, there are no more Apostles, but Paul had a boldness that I think was based on three things if you study his writings, these will jump out at you.

Number one, he knew he was God converted. Number two, he knew he was God called. And number three, he knew he was God placed. God converted, God called, and God placed. Paul wasn’t scared of nothing. He didn’t care what happened, he knew he was God’s Apostle for the church at Corinth, didn’t matter what threaten he had or what he false teachers were saying about him. And so with boldness he says I’m going to come with the rod if you hadn’t straightened this out before I get there, and if you have straightened it out on your own, I’ll come with gentleness as a loving father, who looks at a child whose already gotten himself right before his father.

Well, those are a few insights on how to deal with an arrogant church.