BALANCED REGARD
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 17, 2020 under 2020 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; May 17, 2020 from 1 Corinthians 16:10-12
Theme: The church should regard its various leaders with reverence toward the God who gave them.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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But over time, we have learned together to value the Bible’s ‘seemingly-ordinary’ portions. They are written and preserved in the Bible by the Holy Spirit for our good; and if we dig deeply enough, we find rich spiritual treasure in them.
Take this morning’s portion, for example. It’s found in 1 Corinthians 16:10-12. It contains Paul’s instructions to the church regarding some of the ministers and spiritual leaders that may be coming its way. He wrote:
And if Timothy comes, see that he may be with you without fear; for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do. Therefore let no one despise him. But send him on his journey in peace, that he may come to me; for I am waiting for him with the brethren. Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brethren, but he was quite unwilling to come at this time; however, he will come when he has a convenient time (vv. 10-12).
These may seem like instructions that don’t have much to do with us today. But they actually teach us some important lessons about how the church family should regard the spiritual leadership that God has given to it.
It may seem a bit self-serving for me—a preacher—to say that such a passage is valuable. But I sincerely believe it’s true. The local church is the Bride of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth. It is of immeasurable value to Him. Everything that concerns it is of great concern to Him. And the instructions that His word gives to us on how to care for it deserve our fullest attention.
Here, in this passage, Paul gives us an illustration of how to rightly regard the spiritual leadership that He gives to His precious church.
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Now; back when we began our study of 1 Corinthians 16—and of all of its seemingly-ordinary instructions—I pointed your attention to verses 13-14. We found that these two verses—right in the middle of this chapter—give us five exhortations that guide our conduct in the life of the church family. They are the five exhortations that make the ordinary matters of church life ‘extraordinary’. Paul wrote;
“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love” (vv. 13-14).
These five exhortations teach us that, as God’s people, we are to be watchful—ever alert to what God is doing so that we are effective in our prayers and in our priorities. We’re to stand-fast in the faith—holding on tightly to the truths of the gospel of Jesus, and not compromising on what the Bible teaches. We’re to be brave—that is, to have courage in our faithfulness to speak and live for our Lord in hostile and hard times. We’re to be strong—that is, to be characterized by endurance and patience in times of trial. And finally, we’re to make sure that we do all that we do in love—the self-sacrificing agape love for one another that the Lord Jesus had shown toward us on the cross.
If we keep faithful to these five exhortations—if we apply them to every area of our life together as a household of faith in Christ—then they turn ordinary church matters into extraordinary services of ministry to our Lord.
And that includes how church leadership is to be regarded.
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Now; the words of instruction that Paul gave in our passage this morning concerned two specific servants who impacted the church family in Corinth—a man named Timothy and another man named Apollos. And I have to tell you that having studied what the Bible tells us about these two men, I love them both. I look forward to meeting them in heaven. But you really couldn’t find two men who were more different from one another than they.
Let me tell you a little about them. One of them—the man named Apollos—was an astonishing man. He was a brilliant scholar and apologist for the Christian faith. He would have been something like the Jewish C.S. Lewis of the early history of the church.
We first read about him in Acts 18—back when Paul’s ministry to the Corinthians first began. Two of Paul’s dear friends—Aquila and his wife Priscilla—were Christians who were living in Corinth. They had been helping Paul in his ministry there. And in the course of various ministry activities, they ended up in the city of Ephesus and happened upon a man who was giving some lectures. Acts 18:24-25 tell us;
Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John (Acts 18:24-25).
Alexandria was the scholarly center of the world at that time. It was home to one of the greatest libraries in history. And this brilliant man Apollos—a Jewish man who was from Alexandria—was from there in Ephesus. He had apparently become acquainted with enough details about the gospel that he began going on a lecture circuit of some kind—accurately teaching the truths about the Lord Jesus but without really knowing Him. He only knew about it all from the teaching of John the Baptist. But what he knew was enough to motivate him to speak boldly and compellingly about the Jesus with whom he didn’t yet have a saving relationship.
And that’s when Aquila and Priscilla met up with him. Verses 26-28 go on to say;
So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 18:24-28).
Aquila and Priscilla explained the gospel to him more accurately; and he put an intelligent faith in Jesus. And from then on, he became a powerful force for the defense of the gospel.
Now; a man like Apollos would have been very appealing to the Corinthian Christians. They greatly valued impressive speakers and learned philosophers. And Apollos would certainly have been their kind of man. He would have fit in very well with the kind of ‘persuasive words of human wisdom’ that they loved—except that his wisdom was not merely ‘human’ but was in full accord with the word of God. They loved it when Apollos would come and preach; and whenever he traveled by in the course of his busy schedule, they wanted him to make sure to come to them.
But the other man in our passage was quite a bit different from Apollos. He was Timothy—not a particularly flashy speaker perhaps; nor a dynamic philosopher; but certainly a very faithful pastor and minister of the Lord. We first read about him in Acts 16. Paul—along with his missionary partner Silas—ran across Timothy in the course of his missionary journeys. We’re told;
Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily (Acts 16:1-5).
From then on, this young man Timothy became a beloved and valued co-worker with Paul. He was co-author of many of Paul’s New Testament letters; and Paul sent him as his representative to many churches. He was even the co-author with Paul of 2 Corinthians.
But Timothy didn’t appear to be the bold, dynamic, energetic, eloquent, popular speaker and esteemed, scholarly Christian philosopher that Apollos was. In fact, it’s very apparent that Timothy had doubts about himself at times. Paul had to exhort him and encourage him to be courageous in the Lord. At the beginning of his second letter to Timothy, Paul wrote to remind him of the story of his heritage in the faith; and said,
Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:6-7).
Timothy was, it seems, easily intimidated by the criticism—and perhaps even contempt—that people showed toward his youthfulness. And so, Paul wrote to him and said;
You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things (2 Timothy 2:1-7).
I admire Apollos greatly. But to tell you the truth, I identify more with Timothy. And because that’s so, I have found myself very often encouraged by the words of exhortation that Paul gave to him.
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Now; in our passage this morning, Paul is giving the Corinthian Christians some instructions about these two men. He was going to be sending Timothy to them; but they very clearly would rather have had Apollos. You could say that they wanted Apollos; but God knew that they actually needed Timothy.
The same kind of thing can happen to you and me, dear brothers and sisters, in our church life. It’s not that it’s wrong in any way for there to be high-profile, energetic, well-known preachers and teachers like Apollos. The church needs them. They do great things for the good of the church. They write books that encourage and instruct God’s people. But the church also needs the regular, simple, everyday, faithful servants like Timothy. The Lord has provided many more of them to His church than the other; and they too fill a vital role in its care.
And as this passage shows us—from Paul’s own example in this passage—the church should regard its various leaders with reverence toward the God who gave them; treating them as we should with an eye always to the call to be watchful, steadfast in the faith, brave, strong, and careful to do all that we do in love.
Look first at how we are to rightly regard …
1. THOSE LEADERS WHO—LIKE TIMOTHY—ARE HUMBLE.
First, when it comes to those humble servants of the Lord who don’t seem outwardly impressive or dynamic, we’re to make sure that we are careful—nevertheless—to count them as servants of Christ.
Paul had already put it in his plans to send Timothy out to the Corinthians. He said so way back in 1 Corinthians 4:17. He wrote that he himself wanted to come—like a good father—and give them the instructions that they needed; and wrote;
For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church (1 Corinthians 4:17).
But there were lots of sinful and divisive attitudes going on in the midst of the Corinthian church; and they might not have been inclined to welcome Timothy as Paul’s representative. They might have thought, “Who does this ‘kid’ think he is to teach us like Paul?” And so, Paul wrote in verse 10 of our passage, “And if Timothy comes, see that he may be with you without fear …” It wasn’t that Timothy necessarily had any reason to be afraid for his physical safety. But he certainly had reason to be afraid of the criticism, and the scowling looks, and the murmuring lips that may have come from many in the Corinthian church. Paul had to remind them not to give Timothy any reason to be afraid when he came; “for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do.”
We need to remember that the people who minister in our midst who may tend to be easily intimidated by other people’s disapproval, or easily wounded by other people’s criticism, are—nevertheless—ministering in the name of the Lord Jesus. And we must treat the Lord’s servants right.
We’re also to make sure that we don’t let anyone despise them. It’s not just that we must not despise them ourselves; but we must not let other people get away with doing so either. Paul told the Corinthians in verse 11 that Timothy was coming as his co-worker in the Lord’s cause: “Therefore let no one despise him.”
The word that Paul uses for “despise” is an interesting one. It involves the idea of exercising power or illegitimate authority over someone from out of disrespect for them. And in Timothy’s case, it seems that it was his youthfulness that would have tempted people to treat him that way. I love what Paul had to tell Timothy with regard to this. In 1 Timothy 4—in words that I have read over many times in my life as a pastor—he told him;
Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you (1 Timothy 4:12-16).
I suppose I don’t have to worry too much about anyone despising my youth anymore. (Glad that’s out of the way!) But I do want to be a man of clearly discernible character in Christ. And that’s what we should concentrate on in a minister of the Lord—not the number of years they have behind them, but the kind of earnest and devoted character they exhibit in Christ.
And finally, when it comes to such humble servants, we should provide all that is needed for their work. Paul told the Corinthians in verse 11, “But send him on his journey in peace, that he may come to me; for I am waiting for him with the brethren.” It may not have been that some of the Corinthians thought that much of Timothy; but Paul certainly did. Paul was dependent upon him—and so were “the brethren”; who were the other co-laborers working with Paul in the ministry toward the Corinthians. Therefore, it was not only right that the Corinthians regarded Timothy highly as a servant of the Lord, and held him in esteem for his godly character, but also that they supplied him with all that he needed in order to do his work in the Lord’s service.
This is always the right thing to do. As the apostle John put it in his third letter;
Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers, who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth (3 John 5-8).
That’s how we ought to treat the more humble ministers and spiritual leaders—the ‘Timothy’ types—that God gives us. We must not look at them on the basis of the criteria of this world. Rather, we should view them with a reverent fear of God—seeing them as Christ’s servants who are worthy of respect and who need our full support.
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Now; all of those things are also true also of the more dynamic and exciting ‘Apollos’ types that God sends us. And as I said earlier, God has given high-profile ministers to the church just as much as He has given the low profile ministers. Both are needed. But Paul goes on to give us some specific instructions on how to behave …
2. TOWARD THOSE WHO—LIKE APOLLOS—ARE ESTEEMED.
First of all, we should consider them only as brethren in Christ. Paul began his words in verse 12 by saying, “Now concerning our brother Apollos …” Just in the way that Paul worded that, he was reminding his readers that Apollos—as noteworthy a Christian as he may have been—was still not fundamentally above anyone else. He was only a ‘brother’ in Christ.
Paul had to stress this because of a particular problem that the Corinthians had. They were elevating one preacher over another; and were aligning themselves into special groups according to their favorite teacher. Some were saying, “I am of Paul;” and others were saying, “I am of Apollos.” In Chapter 3, Paul had to write;
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building (1 Corinthians 3:5-9).
We don’t treat the more ‘esteemed’ Christians among us rightly if we make them out to be something higher than what they actually are. They are only brothers or sisters; fellow followers of our one true Lord. They are frail human beings who serve God in vessels of clay. They need our prayers.
We should also learn to respect how the Lord leads their unique ministries. We see this—in an interesting way—in verse 12. It was apparent that the Corinthians really wanted Apollos to come and visit them; and Paul wrote, “I strongly urged him to come to you with the brethren, but he was quite unwilling to come at this time …” In other words, Paul had urged Apollos, and Apollos said no; and Paul respected that decision. The great apostle Paul didn’t exercise his authority and command Apollos to do as he wished; but rather, he respected the fact that the Lord was leading Apollos in wherever it was that He wanted Apollos to go.
Paul himself was the recipient of this kind of respect. Back at the beginning of his missionary work, he presented himself to the other apostles. In Galatians 2, he wrote;
when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised (Galatians 2:7-10).
It’s a temptation to criticize high-profile ministers because we don’t think they’re doing things the way we think they ought to do them. But we should remember that God often calls them to reach people that we couldn’t reach for the gospel—and in ways in which we couldn’t reach them. Paul displayed the reverent respect we ought to show such ministers for the way the Lord has led them in their unique ministries.
And finally, we should be patient with the demands of their time. The Corinthians wanted Apollos to come to minister to them. Well; most likely, a lot of other people did too. Paul said that Apollos—in spite of strong urging—was ‘quite unwilling to come at this time’. But Paul added, “however, he will come when he has a convenient time.” It’s not that he wouldn’t; but rather that he couldn’t right then—but one day would.
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So you see; this seemingly ‘ordinary’ passage has a great lesson to teach us about the care we ought to show, and the regard and respect we have, toward those who minister to us in the church. Some are upfront, and high-profile, and very esteemed. Some are humble, and behind-the-scenes, and need our encouragement along the way.
In closing, let me share two verses from Hebrews 13. In verse 7, we’re told;
Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct (Hebrews 13:7).
And in verses 17, we’re told;
Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you (v. 17).
If we will remember to be watchful, steadfast in the faith, brave, strong and always loving in Christ, then we will treat the leaders that God gives us in the church in the way that we should.
EA
