I.
INTRODUCTION.
A. A preacher
was walking along the
street and saw a crowd of boys surrounding a dog.
1. “What
are you doing with the dog?” kindly asked the minister.
2. The
boys replied: “Whoever tells the biggest lie he wins the dog.”
3. “Oh,
my, my, my,” exclaimed the preacher, “when I as a little boy like you I
never
told a lie.”
4. After
a moment’s silence, one of the little fellows said, “Here, you win the
dog.”
B. That
preacher likely thought too
much of himself, didn’t he?
1. Pride
has been a problem since man was placed on this earth.
a. Do you
recall the temptation Satan
gave Eve to get her to eat of the forbidden fruit?
- “God
knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like
God, knowing good and evil” (Gn 3:5).
- Is
it not true that we live in a fallen world partially because the woman
wanted
to be like God? Moses records that the woman saw that the fruit was
“desirable
for gaining wisdom” (v. 6).
b. When Moses
told Pharaoh to let the
Hebrews go, Pharaoh responded, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him
and let
Israel go? I do not know the LORD
and I will
not let Israel go” (Ex 5:2).
c. As
Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of his Babylonian palace, he
said, “Is
not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my
mighty power
and for the glory of my majesty?” (Dan 4:30). You know that because
Nebuchadnezzar said that, he had to live like a wild animal.
2. The
age in which we currently live is not very different, is it?
a. We
will remember the words of Mohammad Ali: “I am the greatest.”
b. How many
people live just like that?
- Perhaps
your employer does:
· Maybe because
you’re the underling he asks you to do things
he wouldn’t do in a million years.
· Maybe because
he’s the employer, he expects more honor and
privilege than should rightly be his.
- Perhaps
your spouse thinks he or she is the greatest:
· Maybe your
spouse won’t admit that he or she was wrong no
matter how obvious the wrong may be.
· Maybe because
your husband is the head of the household he
thinks that he can tell you what to do regardless of what you think or
what it
is; maybe your wife refuses to submit to you the way Jesus taught.
3. Regardless
of how we may see the problem of pride in our own day, Paul dealt with
a
congregation in Corinth which had serious pride problems.
a. In
the text we are studying this morning, Paul deals with the pride issue
head on.
b. He asks
them through great
rhetorical skill, “What’s Your Position?” He first discusses the
position of
the Corinthians and then he discusses the position of
the apostles.
II. THE
POSITION OF THE CORINTHIANS, v. 8.
A. Paul uses
great irony here.
1. In
fact, irony was a common rhetorical and literary device of the period.
2. Honestly,
one of the things which is so ironic is that Paul claims to be a fool
while the
Corinthians were wise, yet he uses a device well-educated people used
in the
ancient world.
3. This
entire passage drips with great, great irony.
B. Paul
writes, “Already you have all
you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that
without
us! How I wish that you really had become
kinds so that
we might be kings with you!”
1. With
irony, Paul declares that the Corinthians already had all they wanted.
What
does Paul mean that the Corinthians already had all they wanted?
a He
could mean that they had all the rhetoric and scholarlship they wanted.
- If
Paul does reference that, the irony is obvious, for the Corinthians
seem never
to have been able to get enough rhetoric and learning.
- In
fact, the Corinthians had written to Paul and asked him about many
questions: “Now
for the matters you wrote about” (7:1).
b. He could
also mean that the
Corinthians knew everything they wanted to know spiritually.
- Again,
the irony is obvious.
- The
Corinthians knew very little spiritually—they were divided over
preachers, they
boasted in adultery, they were not eating the Lord’s Supper together,
they were
misusing miraculous spiritual gifts, and they doubted the Resurrection.
2. Again,
Paul says, “Already you have become rich!” Again, what does Paul mean?
a. Paul
could reference their material wealth.
- As
we’ve said before, at the Lord’s Supper the rich refused to share with
the poor—11:20-22.
- We
know additionally that some of the Corinthians were well-to-do:
“Brothers,
think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise
by human
standards; not many were
influential; not many were of noble birth” (1:26); he’s clearly
indicating that
some of them were of noble birth.
b. Yet,
because Paul is far more
concerned with the spiritual in this context, it seems more likely that
Paul is
repeating what he had just said, but in a different
manner. In
other words, Paul is telling
the Corinthians, “You think you are so rich spiritually when you are
absolutely
destitute.”
c. Corinth
lay on the main route between East and West in the Roman Empire and
consequently the city became quite, quite prosperous. Corinthians were
quite
proud of
their wealth, and Paul may reference
that pride in declaring that they believe they have become rich
spiritually.
3. Paul
sarcastically declares, “You have become kings—and that without us! How
I wish
that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!”
a. Philosophers
claimed to be the only true kings, for they said that only they were of
noble
enough character to reign.
b. Paul is
likely sarcastically
asserting that the Corinthians claimed to have true wisdom, while Paul
himself
had little wisdom.
C. What
should we do with a text so
full of sarcasm?
1.
This text reminds me greatly of what Jesus said to the Laodiceans: Rev
3:17-18.
2. Are
we not much like the Corinthians and Laodiceans at times?
a. We
don’t pray like we should, because either consciously or
subconsciously, we
believe we can handle whatever comes our way.
b. We don’t
stop to thank God when he
is so very good to us because we think we have earned the good in our
lives.
c. We
don’t study Scripture, either in a Bible class or privately, because we
think
we know the Book.
d. We don’t
listen to the counsel of
the elders because we believe we have obtained so much spiritual
maturity we
don’t need someone over us in the Lord.
3. How
proud and boastful about our spiritual position are we?
III. THE
POSITION OF THE APOSTLES, vv. 9-13.
A. Paul says
that he feels as though
God has put the apostles at the end of the line like men condemned to
die, v.
9.
1. The
KJV reads differently than the NIV and does not mention the procession
in the
arena; the KJV reads: “For I think that God hath set forth us the
apostles
last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto
the
world, and to angels, and to men.”
2. The
KJV literally translates the words, while the NIV accurately does some
interpretation.
a. The
word for “set forth” in the KJV was a technical Greek term to refer to
lining
men up to lead them into the arena to face death.
b. The person
in charge of the arena
would line up the gladiators before they went in to face one another or
the
beasts.
c. There
was a great spectacle as these athletes or criminals were marched into
the
arena to face death.
d. Those at
the end of the line, as
Paul claimed he and the other apostles felt, were the most notorious
criminals
and they were always executed at the end of the
day.
3. Do
you see what Paul is attempting to tell the Corinthians?
a. “You
sit back and take things easy because you believe you have obtained all
there
is obtain spiritually, but we apostles are putting ourselves on the
line to
give you what
you need.”
b. In the
verses below this one, Paul
outlines what he did for the cause of Christ—“To this very hour we go
hungry
and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally
treated, we
are homeless. We work hard
with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are
persecuted, we endure
it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have
become
the scum of the earth” (vv. 11-13).
c. How
would we react if this were our way of life?
- What
if we had to go hungry one day for the cause of Christ?
· Granted, you
can look at me and tell that I wouldn’t be too
hip on that prospect. I’d say most of you wouldn’t care for going
hungry, either.
· Yet, what if
we were so consumed with going from one place
to another preaching the gospel that we didn’t have the time or money
to eat.
- What
if we didn’t have the money to buy the nice clothes we enjoy wearing
because we
were dependent on brethren and what we could bring in through making
tents?
d. This
passage ought to shake us to
our core and cause us to think seriously about our priorities.
- The
Corinthians wanted position: they wanted spiritual wealth and blessings
galore,
and they thought they had obtained everything they could ever want.
- Paul
and the apostles, on the other hand, were willing to lay down their
lives for
the cause of Christ.
e. In
which camp do we find ourselves: those who are proud in their position
they
have in Christ or those who are willing to do anything to serve Jesus?
- Do
our Bibles sit at home collecting dust because we know it, or are they
falling
apart because of the time we spend with open Bibles helping others
understand
God’s love?
- Do
our knees do just fine or have we about worn them out while deep in
supplication for others?
- Do
we get along just fine with our friends because we’ve never uttered a
word
about Jesus, or have we lost some friends because we refused to go
along with
sin?
f. Just
where are our priorities: are they in making this life as comfortable
as
possible, or are they in following Jesus regardless of the cost?
- Frederick
the Great won a strategic battle with comparative ease. When he was
asked the secret
of his success, he replied, “I had nine spies and one cook. The enemy
had nine
cooks and one spy.”
- Frederick
knew where his priorities needed to be. Do we know where our priorities
need to
be?
B. Where
are your priorities this morning? Do you need to come and make Jesus
your
priority?