WWUTT 1482 God Has Made Us Last of All (1 Corinthians 4:10-14)

The Apostles as Last of All and a Spectacle to the World

Boy, those apostles went through some really tough things in their earthly ministry, but it was not because God had forsaken them. They did this for the sake of Christ that we may know and believe in his name when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians 4, and I'll begin reading in verse nine. We'll go through verse 14. This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

For I think that God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men. We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are prudent in Christ.

We are weak, but you are strong. You are glorious, but we are without honor. To this present hour, we hunger and thirst and are poorly clothed and roughly treated and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands.

When we are reviled, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure. When we are slandered, we try to plead. We have become as the scum of the world, the grime of all things, even until now. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

And so in this correction that Paul is making of the Corinthians, that's what admonish means. It means to correct with goodwill. He is continuing a bit of biting sarcasm here, and this is not to shame them in the sense that Paul is not meaning to lord himself over them.

Look at how much better I am than you are, but he does want to bring them a sense of shame that they may repent of their pride, which is causing divisions among them. If they do not repent of this, it will destroy the church and reveal some of them as being unqualified.

We'll talk about that some more, because that comes up here even as we go through 1 Corinthians. So in verse nine, he says, I think that God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.

Now, the picture here, Paul is not really being sarcastic here, he's being quite serious, that the work and the mission that apostles do is unto their deaths. And as he's looking at this, if you were to be looking at this from the vantage point of an earthly person, because Paul has been doing that here in this letter, then those who are prisoners unto death, those who have been sentenced to die, they're considered the least, the lowest in a culture or in a society, even in a culture like Corinth.

You think of the Roman tradition of feeding prisoners to the lions, right? Capital punishment in Rome was public. They did that publicly because they wanted people to see, don't you dare go up against Rome.

When Jesus was crucified, that was a public crucifixion. He was even hung by a roadside. We typically think of him, of the cross being on Golgotha as like on a hill far away, because that's what we sing in the old hymn, on a hill far away stood the old rugged cross, right?

So it's on a hill off in the distance away from the public so that people wouldn't have to see the uncleanness of someone being put to death. That's not the way the Romans did it. Jesus was hung on a roadside along with the other two criminals that were on either side.

When you read about it in the gospel accounts, it says that people who walked by him shook their heads. They don't walk up to the hill to see this spectacle and then walk down, they're walking by on this road.

And when they see Jesus hung there, they wag their heads at him. And these people are considered lowest of the low. They are the least of citizens in the Roman empire. Those who would be sentenced unto death, who would be fed to the lions, that would become a spectacle to everybody who would be gathered there in an arena to see people punished in this way.

They made sport out of it. And so Paul says of himself, I think that God has exhibited us apostles last of all, exhibited, like we're being displayed in front of people, even in front of angels, as being the least in a culture or in a society.

Earlier in 1 Corinthians, back in chapter one, it says, God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen the things that are not so that he may abolish the things that are so that no flesh may boast before God.

That's what Paul has said previously here in 1 Corinthians. So taking that same sort of line of thinking, he says of himself and the other apostles and Apollos, including him in all of this, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men.

This term that he uses is last of all, is even in reference to those prisoners who would be brought out last in an arena, sentenced to death, fed to the lions, burned at the stake, whatever they might happen to be, whatever their sentence would be as capital punishment issued by the Roman government.

They're brought out last. So they're like the finale. They would be considered last of all. And that's what Paul is saying of himself here, that God has exhibited us. He's shown us to be last of all. And in the whole church, the apostles are last as men condemned to death, because we've become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men.

They stand as witnesses that the world is gonna hate the things that are of God. Those who are worldly are gonna hate God's people. They're even going to put them to death. But Paul has already given the reason for this, what God is doing through this.

And it is not as if God has forgotten them or that he's forsaken them. No, Paul says in verse 10, we are fools for the sake of Christ. If you really wanna be of Christ, you're not trying to puff yourself up or see yourself as being better than somebody else here in this world.

You would be willing to be a fool of Christ along with us. That's what Paul is saying to the Corinthians. But then look at what he says next. Oh, but you are prudent in Christ. Another word for this is you are wise in Christ.

So you are showing yourself to be better than other people because you have Christ. This is that sarcasm again, Paul is using to show them, to demonstrate to them what they sound like and how they are acting.

Paul says we are weak. And indeed, the apostles in the eyes of the world, they're considered weak. Look at who they worship. A carpenter from Nazareth who was put to death on a cross. There were people who mocked and derided Christians for that.

Your God is such a puny God. He is this Galilean, this poor man, this uneducated dude from Nazareth. That's who you say is God. And the people he created hung him on a cross. Are you kidding me? So yeah, Christians were derided because of their faith in Christ, the apostles especially.

But they went through the suffering that they did for the sake of the gospel to proclaim Christ. And Paul saying to the Corinthians, oh, but you say you're wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong.

You are glorious, but we are without honor. See the Corinthians expected to receive praise from men because of their worship of Christ. They expected Christ to make much of them. There were even preachers out there who were saying of Paul, see, he's been thrown in jail because he did something wrong.

Why are we not in jail? Because we haven't done anything wrong. Paul addressed this very thing that was going on that the Philippians had heard about. And they were filled with grief because they heard about some of these preachers who were saying such disparaging things of Paul.

So they gathered up money and they sent it as a gift to help Paul with his ministry while he was under house arrest in Rome. Paul responded to the Philippians gift with the letter that we have, that is the book of Philippians.

And Paul says, I'm in Philippians one, starting in verse 12. Now I want you to know brothers that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. So that my chains in Christ have become well-known throughout the whole Praetorian guard and to everyone else.

And that most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord because of my chains have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Some to be sure are preaching Christ even from envy and strife.

These were those competitive preachers out there trying to say, well, the reason why Paul has been arrested and thrown in jails because he's done something bad. The reason why all these apostles have these things being done to them is because they're not honoring God.

And so Paul is saying they mean to make things hard on me but some preach also from goodwill. Philippians 1, 16, the latter do it out of love knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

The former, those who are preaching from envy and strife they proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives thinking to cause me affliction in my chains. What then Paul says, only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in this I rejoice.

Yes, and I will rejoice. So there were some out there trying to be competitive with the way that they were preaching. Christ was content to be a fool for the cause of Christ because it was in, even in his chains there were others that were coming to know Christ and had courage to proclaim Christ because they see what Paul had been going through for the sake of the gospel.

If they had not seen an apostle being persecuted for his faith, then they likely would have believed like the rest of the preachers were preaching that if you are being thrown in prison for the sake of the gospel then apparently you're doing something wrong.

My friends, we see that going on right now. There are people who are proclaiming that even now that there are some preachers out there desiring to honor God and are still having church even though their governments are saying that they can't have church and they're getting arrested and they're getting thrown in jail.

And there are some preachers out there who are trying to afflict those pastors in their chains who are suffering for the sake of the gospel. And they're saying the reason why they got thrown in jail is because they did something wrong.

That's happening in Canada. We've seen that happen to some degree in the United States though I don't know of any pastors necessarily being arrested. There have been some who've been fined. If they have been arrested then it's not been as major a deal going on in the US as some of the things we've seen going on in Canada and all this in the context of COVID.

COVID's going on, there's a virus, it's scary. So stay home, don't go to church. Oh, but you can still go to public sporting events. You can still go to political rallies and things like that. Those things you can still do, you just can't go to church.

And there are some so-called preachers out there that are encouraging the same thing. We saw this happen last year. A guy like Ed Stetzer, for example, who was saying don't go to church but he was still going to political marches and encouraging Christians that they go to those political marches.

He wrote about it in a Christianity Today article. So they're afflicting pastors in their chains but still continuing on with public endeavors as if nothing unusual is going on. They would say that those pastors and preachers who are continuing to have church even against these public or government mandates that they are weak, that they are fools.

And indeed they are. They're fools for the sake of Christ. They are weak for the sake of Christ. They are without honor for the sake of Christ. But there are others who try to use the name of Christ to bolster themselves, to build themselves up.

Laboring With Their Own Hands and Blessing When Reviled

In verse 11, Paul says, "'To this present hour, we hunger and thirst. "'We are poorly clothed and roughly treated and homeless.'". And again, if the apostles had not gone through this and set this example that people who hate Christ are going to hate us, then whenever any Christian endured such things, whenever any Christian came into this kind of a thing, then they would believe that God was not with them because they're struggling so much.

I'm being persecuted for this. Apparently I'm doing something wrong. Those preachers over there who are not being persecuted, they said that if we get arrested or whatever, it must be because we're doing something wrong.

God is not really with us. And so since this is happening to me, that must be what's going on. I'm doing something wrong. So the apostles have gone through this. Jesus went through it. Paul says we share in the sufferings of Christ so that we would see by example, this is what's gonna happen to someone who is a follower of Jesus.

It's not in vain though. It's not all for nothing. As Paul said to the Philippians, the message of the gospel, encouragement in Christ is spreading because of what has happened to me. We are fools for the sake of Christ, Paul says to the Corinthians.

And as he said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 .12, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Paul says to this present hour, we hunger and thirst, we're poorly clothed, we're roughly treated, we're homeless. That's what's going on even now. There are apostles that are going through that for Christ.

And we labor working with our own hands, he says in verse 12, meaning we could be out there presenting something that we could get rich off of because that was what the philosophers were doing. And there were even some, we were proclaiming Christ for that very reason to make money off of it.

To become prosperous with it. The philosophers, they would come into a city and they would do their philosophy in the town square and they would captivate people. And then they would say, now come over here where I'm starting a school.

And if you pay this much money, you can join my school and you can learn all about this philosophy that I'm sharing with you. So that's how they would make their money. Then you have some guys who are even coming in to places like Corinth and they're claiming to be apostles.

We read about this more in 2 Corinthians where Paul confronts those super apostles. And so these guys, they even come dressed in flashy attire and you see how wealthy they are by the clothes that they wear.

So they've even made much more of themselves by the way that they preach the gospel. So they must be more favored apostles because look at how awesome they are and listen to how charismatic they sound.

Paul did not make money off of the gospel that he proclaimed. He said that he could have, and he had a right to do so. And he said in his instruction to Timothy that a worker is worthy of his wages. So in other words, you got a pastor or elder that's worthy of double honor, then you should pay that man for his wages.

You should give that to him. But the apostles desired to set an example as somebody would work with their own hands, not depending upon them to provide for their way of life, but showing them an example.

This is what he said to the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 3. So he decided to work with his own hands, to give them an example of a good hard worker, anybody else who would, for anybody else who would need to work in order to earn their bread and their living and support and provide for their family.

So Paul says, we work with our own hands. We're providing our own way. We're not a burden to any of you. Instead, we work and we labor to feed ourselves. And when we are reviled, we bless, Paul says. And that was counter-cultural.

It's counter-cultural even today. When somebody reviles you, you revile back. That's the way we respond in our culture. If you ever see anybody make fun of you, then you're supposed to respond in kind.

You can go anywhere on social media and see people acting that way in real time. But that's not the way that the apostles responded. When we're reviled, we bless. Bless how? By sharing the gospel. People revile us because we worship Christ.

And how do we respond? We say to them, you too, you need to repent of your sin. You need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that he died on a cross, that he rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish.

You'll be forgiven your sins and you will have everlasting life, the same resurrection that Christ has. That's how they bless. And he goes on to say, when we are persecuted, we endure. We don't just give up.

We don't just give up the mission. What's the point of doing this anymore? If we're just gonna get beaten for it, no, we endure and we keep on going. Giving an example. When we are slandered, we try to plead.

Paul's doing that even now. People have spoken ill of him and he's giving them an apologetic case that they may witness and understand what it means to be humble in Christ, not using Christ to elevate yourself, but because you are in Christ, you humble yourself.

You consider others' needs even ahead of your own. You are willing to suffer for the cause of Christ. We have become as the scum of the world, he says, the grime of all things, even until now. The Roman Empire doesn't consider us as being any better than the stuff that they stepped in this morning when they were going outside.

That's how we're considered among the people of this culture. And this goes back to something that Paul had said, I consider it a small thing that I may be examined by you. That was chapter four, verse three.

I don't consider myself to be examined by any human court. In fact, I don't even examine myself, he says. The one who examines me is the Lord. We live not unto men, we live unto God, Paul says. So it doesn't matter to me if the world thinks of me as being the scum on the bottom of their shoes.

We've done this for your sake. We've done this for the sake of Christ. Though we, in the eyes of the world, would be the grime of all things. Verse 14, he says, I do not write these things, again, to shame you, but to admonish you as my dearly beloved children, that you would humble yourselves, not thinking of yourselves more highly than you ought to think, but each person with right and with sober judgment.

None of us have come into this faith by anything that we have done. It is because God has shown us mercy. God has shown us grace, so that we might take that same mercy and that same grace and we would show it to one another.

We would show that it's by his doing we are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. The greatest, most humble example that we could ever set our eyes upon is Christ.

And in his humility, we have been saved. It's because Christ humbled himself, even to the point of death on a cross. It's because he did that, that we could have faith in Jesus Christ, be forgiven our sins and have everlasting life with God in glory.

We have his righteousness. We are being sanctified, we're being made holy. We have been redeemed so that as it is written, 1 Corinthians 1 31, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. So if you've even been convicted by some of these things that we have read today, that you would be admonished, corrected with goodwill as beloved children of God and live as his children in the world, shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation.

Our behavior to them may look unusual. We may look like fools in the eyes of the world, but we are the children of God. Let no one take that from you. Heavenly father, we thank you for this adoption that we've received by faith in Jesus Christ, that we would be called your children.

And I pray that we would be humble children of the father. We would be willing to suffer for Christ. And even though the world may hate us, that doesn't matter. We're willing to be fools for the cause of Christ.

When slandered, we plead. When we are reviled, we bless. When we're persecuted, we endure. We're willing to labor with our own hands, not saying, here's what you owe me. Here's what I deserve. No, we deserve nothing.

And yet we've been shown grace and kindness from God, our savior. And so help us to live with that grace and kindness in this world, as we hold out the gospel that others may hear of Christ and see and believe and so be saved.

It's in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen.

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