We are in First Corinthians 16, so as you find your seat in your
Bible, you can turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 16.
We have two sermons left. You'll have Jasper preaching
with you next week and he'll finish out the series for us.
So last week in First Corinthians 16, we looked at the
1st 9 verses of this chapter. Today we'll start in verse 10
and go through 18 here in a moment.
But there what we saw last week was that Paul called Corinthians
the faithful stewardship. So we talked a lot about
faithful stewardship last week. We we learned there that we
should give generously, we should plan wisely, we should
serve courageously for the advance of the gospel.
And all these things involve the stewarding of time, talent,
treasure. All right now, as Paul continues
closing the letter, the focus shifts from giving to serving,
from giving to serving. So he talked about the
stewardship of resources last week.
This week it's the stewardship of relationships.
The stewardship of relationships.
So the title of the sermon today is serving Together in the
Gospel. Serving Together in the Gospel.
Paul names some specific people, Timothy, Apollos, Stefanus,
Fortunatus, and a Cacus. I have no idea if I'm saying
some of those correctly, and that might get worded
differently as we go. All right, but I'm trying.
All right, I'm really trying. These are not just closing
greetings. They are living examples of
gospel teamwork. They show us what kind of people
the Spirit of God uses to build his church or to refresh the
church. And what we'll see today is that
there are humble servants, there are devoted laborers, there are
encouragers who strengthen the body of Christ.
So again, First Corinthians 16, verses 10 through 18, if you
would, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God's
Word, verse 10 when Timothy comes, see that you put him at
ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am.
So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace,
that he may return to me, for I'm expecting him with the
brothers. Now concerning your our brother
Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other
brothers, but it was, it was not at all his will to come.
Now he will come when he has opportunity.
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Let all that you do be done in love.
Now I urge you, brothers, you know that the household of
Stephanus were the first converts in a Kia and that they
have devoted themselves to the service of the Saints.
Be subject to such as these and to every fellow worker and
laborer. I rejoice at the coming of
Stephanus and Fortunatus and a Caicus, because they have
made-up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well
as yours. Give recognition to such people.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.
God, we are nearing the end of this letter to the Church of
Corinth and we are grateful, Father, for all that we have
seen. And so, Lord, as we open up
here, the First Corinthians 16 and look at verses 10 through 18
today, would you allow us still to see more of your word to to
understand it, help us to rightly divide it today as I
teach through it. That we might know it's truth,
That we might be affected in mind and heart and spirit and
body by its truth, Lord, That it would guide us and instruct us.
That it might correct us where we need correcting.
But all of that so that we can be strengthened as men and
women, boys and girls, who are striving to love the Lord with
all that we are and to love those around us.
And so, Father, would you use your word today to grow us up in
our faith, to grow us up in our love for each other?
It's in the name of Christ, I pray, Amen, Amen.
Plus said something similar last week.
But it's worth repeating that as Paul brings this letter to a
close, he doesn't end with lofty theology or sweeping commands.
We said last week that First Corinthians 15 was the pinnacle
of the mountain. Everything that First
Corinthians had been working toward was to get to chapter 15,
where Paul can land on the resurrection.
The hope that it gives, the surety that it gives, the
strength that it provides for us as we labor for the Lord,
knowing that our labor is not in vain.
And so now he's ending with final commands, if you will.
Like, these are gospel implications, right?
We've understood the gospel. We've understood all that he
said. Now we're being urged to go be
these kind of people. So we don't necessarily see
lofty theology or sweeping commands in this passage, even
this morning. He ends with people, All right?
He ends with people. He's mentioning a lot of names,
Timothy and Apollos and Stefanus and Fortunatus and a Cacus.
What I want you to know about these people, whether you can
pronounce their names correctly or not, is that they're real
people. All right.
These are these are men who are serving faithfully in
Christchurch, the real servants of God.
They carry with them real stories of gospel partnership.
And Paul's drawing those things out today to teach us something,
to teach the Corinthians something.
And that's significant. And the reason it's significant
is because the church is not an institution that's built on
programs. The church is not an institution
that's built on programs. Doesn't mean there won't be
programs, but churches are not built on programs.
A church is a family of God that's built on people who serve
together in the gospel, right? It's built on people who serve
together in the gospel. So all throughout this letter,
Paul has been calling the Corinthians away from pride.
He's called them away from competition.
He's called them away from exalting personalities or gifts.
He's called them away from their various factions and divisions,
and he's been calling them towards something.
So he's not just saying, don't do these things.
Say, hey, here's the kind of people we ought to be.
He's called them toward humility.
He's called them toward unity. He's called them toward love,
and then here in these final verses, he gives them living
examples of what unity and humility and love look like.
The main point for the sermon today, if you've got one of the
worship guys, the new worship guides, or some fill in the
blanks there, feel free to follow along using that today.
The main point of the sermon today is this.
Faithful gospel servants strengthen the church through
humble cooperation, devoted service, and mutual
encouragement. Faithful gospel servants
strengthened 1SS Their faithful gospel servants strengthen the
church through humble cooperation, devoted service,
and mutual encouragement. And Paul's going to show us that
in three movements, if you will, or three sub points to the
sermon. First, we'll see the spirit of
gospel servants. We'll see humility and
cooperation of freedom and ministry.
We'll see the example of gospel devotion, wholehearted service,
member initiative. And then finally, we'll see the
encouragement of gospel fellowship, refreshment, and
then a recognition among God's people of those who are worthy
of encouragement. All right, so these verses show
us that gospel work is not sustained by celebrity.
We don't need big names. We just don't.
God may grant us some through the years, but we don't need big
names. We don't need the Gospel work is
not sustained by great strategies, regardless of plans.
We talked about this last week. It's wise to make plans.
Gospel work is not sustained by great skills, although God does
gift his people and employs them for his service, right?
What we want to see and what the book of Corinthians has been
showing us is that gospel work is sustained by spirit filled
servants who love Christ and love his people.
That's how gospel work is sustained.
It's sustained by faithful men and women, boys and girls and
the Lord. And that's how God advances his
work. So Paul begins these closing
words by pointing to two familiar names, right?
You've probably heard if you've been in church at any length of
time or you've been here through the series, you've heard of the
you've heard of Timothy, you've heard of Apollo's.
Both of these men are servants of the Lord, yet they're very
different men in them. What Paul shows is that gospel
work doesn't depend on personality or power, but on
humble cooperation under Christ authority.
So before Paul charges the church to be strong and devoted,
and some of the things we're going to get into this morning,
he reminds them what the spirit of true service looks like.
And it's humble, cooperative, and free of rivalry.
So point #1 the spirit of gospel servants.
Look again at verses 10 through 12.
When Timothy comes, see that you put him an ease among you, for
he is doing the work of the Lord as I am.
So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace,
that he may return to me, for I'm expecting him with the
brothers. Now concerning our brother
Apollo's, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other
brothers, but it was not at all his will to come.
Now he will come when he has opportunity.
So Paul begins by writing first about Timothy.
Right when Timothy comes, see that you put him in the ease
among you, for he's doing the work of the Lord, as I am.
Timothy was young, He was faithful, but he was young.
We also see about Timothy in the book of Timothy, first Timothy,
that he was timid by temperament, which comes with
youth at times, right? He was still learning the weight
of ministry, but he was being guided by the great apostle Paul
in those things. Paul called him a son in the
Lord. So Paul's concern is deeply
pastoral for Timothy. See that you put him at ease.
The phrase there literally means
see that you cause him to be without fear.
All right. It's easy for a young gospel
worker, especially among the people he's not terribly
familiar with. Maybe he's heard some of the
stories about what's going on in the church at Corinth, and he
might be fearful. And so Paul writes, see that you
put him at ease. Timothy is coming as Paul's
delegates, right? He's sending him because he's
doing the work of the Lord, as Paul is doing.
Now, this reminds the Corinthians, and it ought to
remind us as we read this and we consider a man like Timothy that
authority and ministry doesn't depend on age or personality,
right? It depends on the Lord who calls
and equips. It depends on the gift of the
Lord and calling a man or equipping a man, but Timothy is
carrying the same gospel message and so he deserved the same
respect that they would give to Paul.
That's why Paul says so. Let no one despise him, right?
The Corinthians were known for arrogance.
We've seen that very clearly. They're known for status, right?
Or at least being status conscious and that they want to
make this, they want to elevate people of great status.
Timothy's Timothy's youth and gentle demeanor could have
invited their dismissal. Why is he sending Timothy?
Timothy's a young man, all right?
Timothy's timid. How's Timothy going to help us
all? Right.
So Timothy's youth and gentle demeanor could have invited this
to miss dismissal. But Paul insist this is a key
for us that true servants of Christ are to be honored, not
evaluated by worldly measures. Right now it's worth mentioning
this kind of as a side note that phrase.
So let no one despise him. This isn't the only time Paul's
uttered this phrase in reference to Timothy, right?
You might be familiar if you grew up in a youth group in the
early 2000s, there were a lot of ministries called 412 right?
First Timothy 412 says to Timothy, as Paul's writing to
him, Timothy, let no one despise you for your youth, but set the
believers an example in speech, in conduct and love, in faith
and impurity. And so I think that's worth
mentioning because Paul's not considering a man who is not
worthy of example and saying, hey, let no one despise him.
No, he's saying this man is he set the believers an example in
the way that he lives, but his very life and his speech, his
conduct, his love, his purity, right?
And so therefore do not despise him.
All right. Then Paul continues, help him on
his way in peace, that he may return to me.
So it's not just a travel note, right?
It's a command. And it's a command to care for
the worker of the gospel. We ought to, we ought to care
for workers of the gospel. Paul is telling them to send him
back refreshed, to send him back supplied, and to send him back
strengthened. Right.
Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me.
What's Paul hoping for when he returns to me?
He'll be strengthened, he'll be supplied, he'll be refreshed.
This is what the spirit of gospel servants looks like,
right? There's, there's three people
within the church that we ought to consider.
Three places, I guess, roles. Let's use roles.
There's three roles within the church we ought to consider as
we think about gospel workers. One would be those who sent,
right? Those who send have a command
from the Scriptures, even here very briefly, to be providers,
to offer provision. There ought to be provision from
those who send the gospel workers.
They ought to be able to send people in such a way that
they're refreshed, they're supplied, and they're
strengthened. Secondly, those who go right,
those who go, ought to go in humility.
They ought to go seeking to serve, not to be served.
They ought to go willing to give their life for the gospel that
has called them to do so. Now to go, being willing to lay
down all that they might demand rights to for the sake of the
gospel, right? So there's a humility and those
who go, but those who go ought to be refreshed, supplied, and
strengthened. And then the third role that we
see is that of hospitality. And those who receive such
people, when we receive gospel workers, we ought to exercise
hospitality, right? We ought to serve them while
they're here, strengthen them, supply them, refresh them while
they're here, right? And when those 3 roles work
together like that, the way that God has ordained for His church
to work, when those three things are happening, well, then
there's great unity among all who labor in the name of the
Lord, right? They're all striving together,
side by side for the gospel, though they might bear different
roles in that effort. Paul then, in verse 12, turns to
another servant. Now concerning our brother
Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other
brothers, but it was not at all his will to come.
He will come when he has opportunity.
Now what we know about Apollo's from Acts 18 is that he was a
gifted preacher. He was eloquent, he was mighty
in the Scriptures. If you'll remember way back
early in First Corinthians, the Corinthians once divided over
Paul and Apollo's. Some would say I follow Paul and
others would say I follow Apollo's.
And yet here Paul returns to this man in this letter, and he
commends Apollos as a brother, not a rival, right?
He's a brother to me. He's not a rival.
Right. We should notice also the
freedom and respect between them.
Paul strongly urged Apollos to go, but Apollos discerned in his
plan making right that it wasn't the right time for him, and Paul
accepted that. There's no control here.
There's no resentment here, just mutual trust under the lordship
of Christ. As these two men are laboring
for the gospel. So this message gives us a
snapshot of what Spirit filled ministry looks like.
The Spirit produces humility, not pride.
The Spirit produces cooperation, not competition.
The Spirit produces discernment, not domination.
All right, in gospel partnership, unity is not
uniformity. All right, say it real slow.
Unity is not uniformity. We can differ in timing, we can
differ in gifts, we can differ in direction and calling, we can
differ in roles, and yet we remain one in purpose.
All right, one in purpose. The faithful gospel servants
remember that the work belongs to Christ.
Some plant some water, but the Lord gives the increase.
Amen. So whether you lead a ministry,
whether you teach a class, whether you serve quietly behind
the scenes, there's humility and mutual respect that become marks
of spirit LED service. Right.
The church flourishes when we receive one another as fellow
laborers in the gospel and not as competitors.
All right? We're not competing against one
another, not at New Life Community Church and not at
other faithful churches in the area.
We're not competing with one another.
We're laboring for the same gospel, the same Lord.
All right, Christ is king over at all.
We want him to be magnified. So having shown us the spirit of
faithful service there, Timothy and Apollo's Paul now turns to
the strength and devotion that should mark every believer,
especially the men who lead the church.
He moves from describing servants to directly addressing
the congregation. Now these next verses really do
sound like a general's charge before battle, right?
They it. But it especially calls the men
of Corinth to wake up. To stand firm, to lead with
courage and love. All right, so #2 the example of
gospel devotion, verses 13 through 16.
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Let all that you do be done in love.
Now I urge you, brothers, you know that the household of
Staphanis were the first converts in Achaea, and that
they have devoted themselves to the service of the Saints.
Be subject to such as these and to every fellow worker and
laborer. So before Paul names Stefanus
here in this household, who are going to be examples for us of
faithful service, before he gets to that, he addresses the
congregation and he gives this fivefold charge that reads like
a battlefield order. Be watchful, stand firm in the
faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in
love. I want you to understand that
these imperatives are not random.
All right, Again, this is the breathed word of God.
These imperatives are a summons to spiritual manhood in a church
where too many men had abdicated their God-given
responsibilities, right? Corinthian men had tolerated
sin. They failed to protect purity.
Again, if you've been here for the series, these things will
ring a bell. They failed to model headship
and spiritual order, and they allow pride and confusion to
infect their worship services, right.
So Paul turns to them with this fatherly firmness, men step up,
lead, stand firm, show strength and love.
I'm going to walk through each command here #1 be watchful.
The first word means to stay awake or to alert.
To be alert. The church's leaders, the
church's men, had fallen asleep morally and spiritually.
And he's saying, be watchful, stay awake, be alert.
They've allowed sin to go unchecked.
They've allowed false ideas to circulate without correction.
Paul calls them to wake up. Why?
Well, one, to guard your families.
All right? As husbands and fathers, we've
been given this role of guardianship of our families,
all right? We are to protect them.
Two, Paul wants them to guard their church right, to protect
the church from the wolves that are seeking to creep in and
devour. And 3rd, he wants them to guard
their own hearts, right Guard their own hearts.
Be watchful. Guard your hearts.
Faithful men in the church are spiritual Watchmen.
They have to be. They keep an eye on doctrine.
They keep an eye on temptation. They keep an eye on the welfare
of those entrusted to them. And so gospel devotion begins
with spiritual vigilance. Its eyes open to danger, its
hearts alert to opportunity. All right, so we want to be
watchful men #2 stand firm in the faith.
Men who lead must be anchored in the truth.
Stand firm means plant your feet.
Hold the line right. Don't be so easily moved.
Corth was full Corinth as a place, Not just the church, but
Corinth as a place was full of the winds of opinion.
It was full of philosophical fashions.
It was full of pressures to compromise on the truth.
A devoted man doesn't drift with the culture.
He holds fast to the faith that's once delivered to the
Saints. Now, this doesn't mean that he
becomes stubborn over his own preferences.
No, no, no, no. He's convicted by the truth.
And so he's steadfast, right? There's a steadfastness because
of the conviction about the gospel, not a stubbornness over
his preferences. True strength is doctrinal
stability shaped by humility. It's true strength, doctrinal
stability that's shaped by the humility of the man.
So men, we want to stand firm in the faith #3 He just says it as
it ought to be said, act like men.
Now here Paul uses a Greek word that literally means show
yourself a man. Show yourself a man.
All right, Manhood is in manhood just as an idea, right?
Whether secular or religious doesn't matter.
But manhood as an idea is about doing hard things, right?
It's about doing that which is difficult.
It's to show yourself a man by doing that which presses against
you and then pressing back because it's difficult, right?
So, But this isn't a call to machismo or to aggression,
right? This isn't just some random, you
know, call of secular men telling men to go, you know,
dominate the world. This is a call to moral courage
and responsibility. It's a call to be godly men.
Throughout Scripture, when God's people are told to act like men,
it means that they are to face fear with faith.
They're to they're to stare down fear with a courageous faith, to
not be moved in the face of fear.
When God's people are told throughout the Scriptures to act
like men, they're being told to stand between danger and those
whom they love, those whom they've been called to care for.
When God's people are told to act like men, they're being told
to take initiative and obedience, to be the first ones
to obey the Lord, whatever it may cost.
So Paul is reclaiming biblical manhood inside a church that had
surrendered it. It had given way to the culture.
He he sang, brothers, stop being passive.
Protect the flock, lead your homes.
Be examples in holiness and courage.
When men embrace their God-given role, I want you to understand
that everyone around them flourishes.
This is always true in society when men do what men are called
to do. Women are cared for rather than
burdened. Children are guided rather than
neglected. The church is strengthened
rather than adrift. The culture at large flourishes.
So this is not a command to dominate in some ungodly way.
It's a command to take responsibility, to exercise
dominion in a way that God has commanded us to, and to subdue
creation in a way that would glorify the Lord.
It means that we are to serve and sacrifice as Christ did.
Christ was the perfect man who laid down his life for his
bride, and the men of God are called to be the same kind of
men #4 be strong. This imperative could also be
translated. Be strengthened.
Be strong, be strengthened. Paul isn't telling the men to
conjure up toughness from within to seek to find that person
within that can be strong, though.
He's pointing them to real strength, which is a dependence
on God. Men are called to be dependent
upon God. It's one of the most difficult
things for a man to do is to be dependent on anything, but
especially upon God. Our hearts are wayward.
We think that we can wrestle things down to the ground on our
own. We want to place ourselves in
the place of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We want to be the king where he's called king.
And so we must understand that real strength comes from
dependence on God. In Ephesians 610 Paul uses the
same idea where he says be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of his might, be strong in the Lord and in the strength
of his might. So we may rightly conclude then
that real masculinity is not self reliant bravado, but spirit
given strength, spirit given endurance.
Gospel devotion means drawing daily strength from the risen
Christ so that you can stand firm under pressure and
persevere in service. If you've done anything with
biblical manhood around here, as we've offered things through the
years, we developed this definition some years ago that I
think adequately says this. Here's what we say.
We say that biblical masculinity is bearing the image of God by
working and keeping all that God grants a man in Christ's
strength. Biblical masculinity is work.
Sorry, is bearing the image of God by working and keeping all
that God grants a man in Christ's strength.
So we'll recognize that He's the one who supplies.
He's the one who gives the role. He's the one who makes you
husbands and fathers and churchmen and employees or
employers, right? All of that comes down to us by
God. Those are things granted to us
by the hand of the Lord, and we're called by God just as Adam
was in Genesis 215. We're called to work and keep
that which he gives us, but we recognize that we live in a
fallen world and we have fallen natures.
And so no longer are we created by God in such a way that we can
carry this out pre fall without the the taintedness of sin.
Rather we have been marred by sin, we've been destroyed by it,
wrecked by it. And so we must carry out these
God-given responsibilities in the strength of Christ.
We must humble ourselves before him, brothers, We must find
strength in him. All right, now we have a
definition for biblical femininity also, in which we say
that it's bearing the image of God by nourishing and cherishing
all that God grants a woman in the strength of Christ.
So similar calls, but different roles in those things #5 let all
that you do be done in love. So Paul ends where he always
ends, with love. Without love, watchfulness turns
to suspicion, right? The watchman on the gate, the
man who's trying to do things in his own strength, the man who's
seeking to build something with his own hands, he begins to
become suspicious of others rather than exercising a real,
genuine care of them. Without love, firmness turns to
arrogance. That's one thing.
To be firm, to stand firm in the gospel, to stand firm and
biblical truth with biblical convictions, that's one thing.
But it's a totally different thing to be arrogant about it,
To not be teachable, all right. To not be willing to learn, to
not be willing to be instructed right, just to be arrogant and
arrogance. The Bible's very clear that
arrogance or pride comes before the before the fall.
Right. Without love, watchfulness turns
strength to pride. So true gospel manhood is always
governed by love, and men hear the word love.
And we might get a little odd about that, but I don't want you
to think like the notebook kind of love.
I don't want you to think ROM com kind of love.
I want you to think about the kind of love that protects, the
kind of love that provides, the kind of love that cultivates,
the kind of love that gives itself for others.
If you're married, you start with your wife.
If you're married with children, it goes to your children.
If you're a member of a church, you become a good churchman in
this way, right? Those are your ministries.
And God may grant you other things beyond that.
But those things we could say are true of every man who is a
member of the body of Christ, and he's devote himself to those
around him in the kind of love that protects, provides, and
lays itself down for others. How do we know this?
When we look to Christ, Christ is the man, right?
He. He's the great advocates.
He's the one who laid himself down.
He's the one who was courageous against all odds.
He was the one who was strong always.
There's not an ounce of weakness in Christ.
You can't read the Gospels and see any weakness in him.
He was unshakeable, He was gentle, He was self giving.
We could go on and on. So Paul's sequence is
deliberate. So I was saying a moment ago
about these commands. They are deliberate.
Mike Bradshaw says he did it deliberate, right?
Be alert, stand firm, be men, be strong, love well, right.
That's the anatomy of gospel devotion, the heart of a man
shaped by grace and ruled by love.
Now, these imperatives are not a list of personality traits,
brothers. They're the fruit of grace.
They they show us the believer who's been rescued by Christ is
the kind of man who becomes watchful, steadfast, courageous,
spirit, strong and loving. And right after giving this
charge, Paul points to another example, the household of
Stephanus. These are people who actually
embodied this kind of watchful, steadfast, courageous love and
everyday service to the Saints, Paul continues.
Now I urge you, brothers, you know that the household of
Stephanus were the first converts in Achaea, and they
have devoted themselves to the service of the Saints.
Be subject to such as these and to every fellow worker and
laborer. So Stephanus and his household
were among Paul's earliest converts in Corinth.
Having been changed by the gospel, right?
Having been transformed by this message and the belief in it,
they devoted themselves. The word means they appointed
themselves or they gave themselves continually to
serving the Saints. So this wasn't a church program
or an assigned role. It was a voluntary, joyful,
spirit driven ministry to the body.
All right. Paul urges the church be subject
to such as these. That's not merely an A nod to
formal submission and authority, but it's a recognition and the
respect for godly leadership among them.
He's teaching that spiritual influence is earned through
faithful service. It's not demanded through title,
right? It's earned through faithful
service, not demanded through title.
And so, in other words, we should follow men who serve like
Christ, not follow men who seek control all.
Right. Now, how do you know such men?
Look back at the list, all right.
See those kind of men? Stephanus and his household
embody the principle of gospel devotion.
Gospel doesn't just save us from sin, it saves us for service,
right? Ephesians 2 is this beautiful
chapter that goes from human total depravity to the wonderful
grace and loving mercy abounding in love.
It says of God a rich in love, rich in mercy that saves us and
tells us that we've been saved by grace through faith and that
the faith isn't of ourselves, is the gift of God so that we may
not boast. And then in 210 we get this
beautiful verse which says that we are his workmanship.
We are God's workmanship, created in Christ for good works
which God prepared beforehand. Now the beforehand is a nod to
the beginning of the world, which he addresses in Ephesians
1, before the foundation of the world.
So we can rightly say that God doesn't just save us from sin.
He does praise God, but he saves us for service.
Grace makes servants. Amen.
We were desperate and I had the opportunity to talk with a young
man this week who's seeking the Lord.
Really a beautiful thing. You guys be in prayer.
But we were talking about the difference between different
religions and some of the denominations even that he had
grown up in. And there are denominations even
of Christianity. But certainly different
religions do this where God is on the mountaintop.
And our role is to climb our way to the mountaintop to be with
God. We do it through good works.
All right, so this young man who's seeking the Lord had made
the statement about, you know, if God can save Peter for his
three denials, then surely he can save me for my ignorance,
right? He said I'm not as bad as
denying him, I believe, but I'm. And so just, and then some other
statements happened, but it was clear that he was raised
Catholic. So it was clear that this idea
of good works was beginning to stack up in his mind.
We need to recognize that we have this desire, this innate
desire to do good works to earn God's favor.
Right. I think the good works often are
motivated by pride. And so then when we become
Christians and we recognize that we've been saved by grace and
mercy, sometimes we think that we shouldn't worry about good
works, All right? We want to put those to the side
and we just kind of go on about our life.
But I want you to understand God has not save you.
You're not trying to climb up to God.
You're not being saved by climbing up to him.
No, you're you're saved because God has come down off the
mountaintop and rescued you. But he does save you for his
service. He he saves you and charges you
to go do good works. It's maybe never more clear than
when Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 verse 16 says, let your good
works shine before men, that they may see your Father in
heaven and glorify him. All right, So the good works are
not about seeing me and glorifying me or seeing you and
glorifying you, although we might encourage one another, as
we'll see in a moment. The good works are about
praising the one who's done the work in you that you would go do
such works. The good works are about seeing
the God behind them, right? Seeing that God saves filthy
wretches and calls them to his service.
And so we're grateful for that. That was a tangent, Alan.
You're not the only one. Every healthy church depends on
men and women like this do good works who become servants of the
Lord. Every healthy church is
dependent on men and women who are like that, believers who
quietly give themselves to the needs of others.
You know what I love about this? One of the things is Paula's
dignifying, ordinary faithfulness.
I spoke on this a little bit last week, but it bears
repeating that we get so caught up in if I'm not a missionary,
if I'm not a pastor, if I'm not a church leader, then maybe what
I'm doing doesn't really matter a whole lot.
It's just kind of ordinary, you know?
So we, we too are guilty of this, will stack up.
God's calls on people will say this one's greater than the
other. What happens is we become the
bad example in the parable of the talents, or we take our one
talent and we bury it in the dust because we think it's not
worth investing. But I want you to understand
that God calls you to ordinary acts of faithfulness that He
will then do extraordinary things with.
He calls you to mundane task of faithfulness, that He will then
work for majestic measures. He means for the ordinary to be
extraordinary, means for the mundane to be majestic.
All right. So as a, as a wife and a mother
stands over household chores, lamenting yet again these
clothes on the floor. I, I want you to be encouraged
that God has called you to care for your family in such ways
that that is strengthening for you, you for that.
Maybe you're working on homework with the kids.
Maybe, you know, you're, you're cooking up a good meal, you're
providing for your family, you're loving your, your husband
and your children well, right. In various ways.
There's a hundred tasks. He always run the risk of
mentioning examples because somebody's like, well, he didn't
mention this, you know, just take all the things that God
calls you to do in a given day. You might think they're
ordinary, but I want you to understand that God means to do
extraordinary things through those.
That's what Paul's doing here. He's elevating dignifying,
ordinary faithfulness for men and women and boys and girls.
To see that as I, as as a boy or girl goes to school, I'm like,
no, not another test, not more vocab words, not more logic.
All right Wells, all right, no more reading now that they see
it as a task from the Lord. Learn, Study my world.
Understand words so that you can read the scriptures and know who
I am. Find out things.
Be like kings in Proverbs 25. Be like kings who go and study
the world to find out who God is.
Ordinary faithfulness becomes extraordinary when the Spirit of
God is at work. And every healthy church needs
men and women and boys and girls like that.
And so this remains the call today.
The church needs men who are awake, who are anchored, who
courageous, spirit strong and loving.
Our homes need fathers who guard, guide and give, and
mothers who help them in those tasks.
The culture needs men who will not yield truth for comfort or
applause. When men lead with gospel
devotion, the whole body grows in health.
The fruit of it is women and children who are nourished and
not neglected. Paul calls men in Ephesians 5 to
nourish and cherish their wives. When men respond in this way in
faithfulness, their wives will be nourished and cherished.
Men calls fathers in Ephesians 6 to raise their children with the
discipline and instruction of the Lord.
When men give themselves to God in this kind of way, they'll
give themselves to the good work of raising their children with
the discipline and instruction of the Lord, and so their homes
flourish. When the Church as a whole
embraces these virtues, alertness, steadfastness,
courage, strength, love, it becomes a living testimony to
the grace of Christ. He's the true man who saves us.
He's the true man who sanctifies his people.
And so churches flourish when members devote themselves to his
service. Ministry isn't reserved merely
for pastors or staff or deacons. In Ephesians 411.
We see there in that passage that it's the calling of every
believer to be engaged in the work of the ministry.
Every believer. And so the household of
Stephanus models what it looks like when ordinary Christians
say this. My life belongs to Christ and to
his people. My life belongs to Christ and to
his people. And so you must ask yourself, am
I devoted to the service of the Saints?
Am I waiting to be asked to do something?
Jasper's back there. He's saying please don't wait to
be asked. All right, come volunteer.
Come tell me what your skills are, and we'll put you to work.
Gospel devotion doesn't wait for perfect conditions, right?
It simply responds to the love of Christ with willing hands and
an open heart. And so after Paul gives this
charge and he holds UPS the fanus in his household as
examples of devoted service, he ends the section on a tender
note. He mentions a few brothers who
had traveled from Corinth to visit him, men whose presence,
he says, have refreshed my spirits.
And so it's a fitting conclusion.
After calling the church to strength and the courage, Paul
reminds them that the gospel ministry also needs gentleness
and encouragement. You see, the church does not
thrive on commands alone. It flourishes when its people
refresh one another in the Lord #3 the encouragement of gospel
fellowship. Verses 17 and 18.
I rejoice at the coming of Stephanus and Fortunatus and
Acaicus, because they have made-up for your absence, for
they refreshed my spirit as well as yours.
Give recognition to such people. So Paul concludes this section
with deep affection. I rejoice at the coming of these
brothers. They made-up for your absence in
my life. They refreshed my spirit as well
as yours. Give recognition to such people.
You see, these men had travelled from Corinth to Ephesus, likely
carrying a letter or report from their church.
The presence brought Paul joy. It's good to see you, not just
because of the news they carried, but because of the
refreshment they provided. That word refreshed means to
cause to rest. It means to revive.
Their fellowship renewed Paul's spirit.
You may know this already, but ministry can be absolutely
exhausting, can be exhausting, and faithful servants need
faithful encouragers. Notice the beautiful reciprocity
here in Paul's words. They've refreshed my spirit as
well as yours. You see, true fellowship always
strengthens in both directions. Those who serve others are
themselves strengthened in their service, and they're
strengthening the ones they serve.
There's a shared encouragement in that.
Then Paul says give recognition to such people.
He's not promoting their flattery that they're so guilty
of already. He's not promoting their
favoritism that they're so guilty of already.
He's not saying be partial to such people.
No, he's saying give recognition to such people.
He's encouraging public gratitude.
The church should honor those who serve faithfully, not with
trophies, but with Thanksgiving and imitation.
We give thanks and we imitate those around us who serve
faithfully. You see, encouragement is not a
secondary ministry. Encouragement is a great gift of
God by His Spirit. And so the Spirit is in action
when encouragement is being shared.
If you remember, Barnabas who travelled with Paul or
ministered with Paul, travelled with Paul.
He was called a son of encouragement.
It's a reminder that gospel fellowship itself is a means of
grace. When we say means of grace,
typically we're talking about spiritual disciplines that
places in the the, the normal pathways that God administers
his grace to us. All right, so you can think
Bible reading, you're devoted to Bible reading.
You're devoted to a means of grace.
God is going to administer his grace to you through your Bible
reading. You can think prayer.
Right. As you communicate with the
Lord, as you commune with Him, you'll be refreshed by His
grace, you'll be strengthened in his work, so on and so forth.
You can take fellowship of the Saints.
It's a means of grace to show up and worship with the Saints.
This is why we've made strides as a church to devote the Lord's
Day to worship, to devote it to a time where we come together to
worship the Lord, and then the evenings we come together for
fellowship that strengthens. All right.
We want to set aside one day of the week, especially where we're
doing that just as the Lord commands us.
And so this fellowship strengthens and you see that and
Paul saying, give recognition to these people.
True, sorry. The Spirit uses the presence and
the prayers and the words of faithful Saints to refresh your
weary heart. And when your heart's not weary,
he's going to use you to refresh others and their time of
weariness. Until you may ask yourself, who
has refreshed my spirit lately? Maybe it's your spouse.
Maybe it was your children. Maybe there's someone in the
church. I would ask, have you thanked
them for it? Have you been that kind of
person to someone else? Have you thought about how I
might refresh this? This the soul of another.
You see, the church thrives when encouragement flows freely, when
members notice faithfulness, when they express gratitude for
it, and when they seek to lift the burdens of others.
This is how the Church thrives. So gospel fellowship is both
relational and missional, right? We we strengthen one another for
continued labor in the love of Christ.
So Paul closes the letter the way he has lived his life.
He's surrounded by gospel partners.
He's strengthened by grace. He's rejoicing in the
faithfulness of others. And from start to finish, the
book of First Corinthians has been a letter about grace
shaping ordinary believers into a unified serving people.
That's why we subtitled the Sermon or the the book Grace and
the Christian Life. And here at the end, what we see
is that we see what grace produces.
I guess we see men and women who serve humbly, who serve
courageously, and who strive to refresh others with gospel love.
That's what it means for us to say we serve together in the
gospel. Faithful gospel servants
strengthen the church through humble cooperation, devoted
service, and mutual encouragement.
We saw Timothy and Apollos today remind us that the gospel needs
humble servants who serve without pride.
We saw the men who were being encouraged in the church and
Stephanus as an example. Those things remind us that the
gospel needs devoted servants who give themselves to the work.
We saw Fortunatus and the Cacus. These men remind us that the
gospel needs encouraging servants who refresh weary
hearts. So this is what it looks like to
serve together in the gospel, all right.
It's a community where every member's gift contributes to the
mission of Christ, where every act of service points to the one
who came not to be served, but to serve.
And so, brothers and sisters, my encouragement to you as we come
to the end of the sermon today is this.
Let us be a church that receives one another with humility.
Let us receive one another with humility.
Let us be a church that serves one another with devotion.
And I'm devoted to Christ. I'm devoted to you.
Let us be the kind of church that refreshes one another with
mutual encouragement. I just want to tell you, you're
doing a good job as a husband and a father.
You're doing a good job as a wife and a mother.
The way you organize that event recently, I'm so great.
Thank you. The way you teach week in and
week out and Sunday School. Thank you.
The way you serve in the booth and nobody knows your name.
Thank you. I don't know yet.
Till something messes up, till the pop.
When the pop happens, everybody turns and looks right.
We're finding ways to encourage each other, right?
To refresh one another with encouragement.
I want to remind you that we do all of that for the glory of our
risen Lord. He's the one who's worthy of the
souls of men and women and boys and girls who love Him and are
devoted to him. He's the one who's worthy of
worship. Amen.
And so we do it for him. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Word in First
Corinthians 16. Today we ask, Lord, that You
would help us to be men and women and boys and girls who
were obedient to Your word. Lord, would you help us to be
humble, humble in our service to You, humble in our service to
one another? Would you help us to be devoted,
faithful, reliable, and our service to You and then our
service to one another? God, would you help us to have
encouraging hearts that we would not see it as a secondary
ministry? But one of the great privileges
of being a believer is to offer encouragement to other
believers. And so, Lord, let us utter words
of praise when it's good and right to do so.
And Father, may you work in this church continually to create Men
and women and boys and girls were devoted followers of Jesus
Christ who are growing in their love, their faith in Christ,
their love for others. That we might magnify and
glorify your name in the city and in this county and in the
state, and to wherever you may call us or call us to support
that same work. God, it's our great joy to be in
service to our King, to be called by him out of darkness,
to be called by him out of our sins, to be given a new heart
and right spirit in which we can walk by the Spirit of God no
longer by the flesh, to honor and magnify, glorify your great
name and all the earth. So God, would you help us to
glorify you and help us to enjoy you forever in the name of
Christ. I pray let me give you a moment
now there in your seat to to continue praying and seeking the
Lord how you see fit. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your grace and Your mercy, for the richness of Your Word.
We thank you for Christ and for your Spirit.
We recognize that in You and in your provisions every need of
ours is met, that you have so cared for us, so loved us, so
given yourself for us, that we cannot look at you and ascribe
you as unfaithful, ascribe to you unfaithfulness.
We cannot say that you are evil. We cannot say that you are
unkind or that you lack mercy. And so, Father, we worship you
today. We worship you because you are
merciful, You are gracious, you are kind, you are loving, you
are faithful. You're always good to every
generation, and we praise you for it.
It's in the name of Christ I pray.
Amen.