Well, the subject of our time in God's words
this morning is authority. Authority and our
response to authority, which is a trickier subject
than you might imagine. And maybe you've thought
about this, maybe you haven't. When the average
person out there in the world thinks of the term
authority, he or she likely thinks of someone
who has what? Power. Someone who has power. Someone
who makes decisions, someone who calls the shots,
somebody who's able to direct or command a group
of people below them to do whatever they say
to do. And so we naturally associate authority
with certain roles and positions in society,
in government, in the military, in the business
world, and to some extent in the church. There's
also another side of authority, a darker side.
And this comes as no surprise to those of us
who recognize that we live in a fallen world.
Authority is often abused. Isn't that true? There
are folks out there that somehow grab hold of
power and then they wield it for their own benefit.
They manipulate, they control others in the process
with no integrity, no accountability, really
just pure narcissism. And that's become so common
in our country over the past 20 years or so that
trust in our institutions has literally dropped
like a rock. And one of the sad consequences
of that is we're seeing that as a culture, we
no longer honor our leaders. We no longer respect
them. In fact, when we hear the term authority
or we think about somebody in power, we roll
our eyes and we get sarcastic and sometimes we
get angry and hostile. about those who are in
authority. But that's the fallen world we live
in, right? So we sort of understand that. What
about God's kingdom? Is it different? God, as
we know, has a different view of both authority
and how we should respond to it. In his kingdom,
we start with the foundational truth that he
is the ultimate source of all authority, right?
And he is the ultimate standard for authority
as well. Pontius Pilate found this out, right,
while interrogating Christ. He found out that
no human being has any power or any authority
apart from God permitting him or her to have
it for his purposes. And because God has laid
out the standard for authority in his word, we
would do well as believers to see it as a sacred
trust. If we have authority, it is a sacred trust
that should be exercised in a way that reflects
God's rule and God's justice and God's goodness.
In a practical sense, that means authority is
to be exercised not for ourselves, but for other
people. The proper response to authority is honor
and respect, and we have to get this right. And
we have this supreme example of this in the person
of Christ. Think about it for a second. Here's
Jesus, a perfect man, and not only that, he's
God incarnate, which means during his time, even
on the earth, in the flesh, he walks around with
all authority. All authority, he's God. And yet
with all that authority, what does he say to
his disciples? I have not come to be served,
but to serve and to give my life as a ransom
for many. Now, to the natural man's ear, that
just sounds crazy. The natural man says, hold
on a second. If you're an authority, people serve
you, not the other way around. But Jesus says
no. To his disciples, he made this clear. He
said, The rulers of the Gentiles out there in
the world, what do they do? They lord their power
over others. But among my followers, it's not
to be that way. It's not to be that way among
you. In fact, whoever wishes to become great
among you shall be your slave. And whoever wishes
to be first among you must serve you. And then
later, the Lord gives this great tangible picture
of what he meant. takes a water basin and he
takes a towel and he does the lowest form of
a slave. He washes the feet of those who he has
authority over. He has the authority, right?
And then he says to them, do you understand what
I've just done? And he explains. He says, you
call me teacher. You call me Lord and you're
right for so I am. In other words, yes, I'm your
authority. So if I, your Lord, washed your feet,
You ought to do what? Wash other people's feet.
So he affirms both ends of that principle. Yes,
I'm the authority, but still I've washed your
feet as those under my authority. How important
would that have been for the apostles? How important
would that have been, right? These are specially
chosen men, right? They're chosen to build the
foundation of the church. Some of them to actually
write the inspired words of scripture. How easy
would it have been for them to get puffed up
with pride? How easy. How easy would it have
been for them to use the authority that Jesus
had given them as apostles for their own benefit.
But as eyewitnesses to the life and the teaching
of Christ, they certainly knew better. Now, fast
forward into the church age, these same principles
of authority and response are still in effect
in the kingdom today. God has established offices
of authority in this church. There's two of them,
right? We have presbyteros or episkopos, and
we translate those as elders or overseers. And
then secondly, we have diakonos. We have deacons.
And that's it. There's just two offices in the
church. No matter how many times we create ecclesiastical
structures in our own wisdom, God has only given
us those two offices. That's it. But do they
have real authority in the church, elders and
deacons? They do. God calls certain individuals
into these offices to lead his church. He confirms
authority to them, but it's always under his
greater authority, right? No elder or pastor
is the head of the church. Only Christ has that
title and role. So those of us who serve as elders
here at Oak Hill, we are what we call under shepherds.
We serve at the beck and call of the good shepherd,
under shepherds. And what is the calling of a
church elder? Is it to command and direct and
control people? No, it's to serve those who are
in our care. We're the ones now we're supposed
to grab a water basin and a towel. And so what
do we do? We teach and we shepherd and we feed.
And we guide, and we care for, and we protect,
and we oversee, and we exhort, and encourage,
and comfort, and admonish, and if necessary,
lay down our lives for the sheep. Friends, that
is not how the world views authority. Right?
Jesus has turned everything upside down with
his example. But as elders in this church, we
understand that. We see it. This is God's way.
This is what we're called to do. as servants.
And elders are not the only ones, by the way,
who have a calling from God. You, the congregation,
also have a calling to respond to the under shepherds
in a biblical way. And that means both ends of
the spectrum, not to put us on a pedestal that
we don't deserve to be on, but also not to disrespect
your leaders. You're to show honor. You're to
give respect. You're to listen to our teaching
and counsel. Follow our voices as we lead. all
without grumbling and without a critical spirit.
And that's not always an easy thing to do. You
know why? Because church leaders aren't perfect.
Sometimes we miss the mark. We come up short.
And by the way, congregations are not perfect.
They often don't respond as they should. So it's
a delicate dance that we do in the church, isn't
it? It's a delicate dance that we live out together.
And it's a dance floor that has all kinds of
potholes in it. that we could stumble and hurt
ourselves if we don't pay close attention to
what God has said on this subject and get it
right. So let's see what Paul has to say about
this. Grab your Bibles and let's go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 4 and see what Paul has to say to the
Corinthians about this very subject of authority
and the congregation's response. 1 Corinthians
4, we're just going to cover five verses this
morning, verses 1 through 5. And it's important
before we just start reading that you understand
that what you're about to hear from Paul is very
case specific. It's very case specific to the
situation that he was facing in Corinth in the
first century. Remember this? What has he been
talking about for all three of the previous chapters?
This idea that the believers in this church were
lining up behind certain church leaders. And
they were putting some of them up on a pedestal,
heightening them as these are the best guys and
growing prideful. Yeah, I'm on that team. I'm
on team Jeff Steele. I'm on team Adam Sanchez,
whatever. They're putting them on a pedestal
and saying, look at the team I'm on. And then
by doing that in the process, downgrading other
church leaders and looking down upon other church
members because they've lined up under, I won't
give a name there. Right? And obviously this
was causing division in the church. And you see
in Paul's language in the first three chapters,
he's furious about this. So in these five verses
we're about to read, it's Paul's goal to set
the believers straight on how they should regard
their leaders. And this is what I want you, the
congregation, to hear this morning. How should
you regard your leaders? Fair warning, there's
some things in here that Paul says that may surprise
you, but we'll get to the bottom of it before
we're done this morning. Let's look at the text.
Verse one. Paul says, let a man regard us in
this manner. You ready? Regard us leaders in
this manner as servants of Christ and stewards
of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover,
it's required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.
But to me, it's a very small thing that I may
be examined by you or by any human court. In
fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am
conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am
not by this acquitted, but the one who examines
me is the Lord. Therefore, do not go on passing
judgment before the time, but wait until the
Lord comes who will bring both light to the things
hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives
of men's hearts, and then each man's praise will
come to him from God. Okay, we're going to work
our way through this because it's not a simple
passage. Think about this for a second. Examining
church leaders. Examining church leaders, passing
judgment on them. Have you ever done that before?
Every one of us has done this. Let's just have
a group counseling session here. We've all done
this, and we need to be careful. It seems that
we do this for a number of reasons. I'm going
to give you a bunch of reasons why we do this.
First of all, there's something about humanity.
We like to rank things. Have you noticed this?
This is better than that. That is better or more
interesting than this. We like top 10 lists.
We like bottom 10 lists. Best burger in Santa
Clarita. Worst intersection for traffic. Whatever
it is, right? We like to rank things. That's
number one. Second thing is, is we really like
spicy opinions. This is our culture today. We
like to share our spicy opinions and we like
to hear other spicy opinions. And it's easy to
do that. We can stand far off and we can critique
leaders, right? We can do it positively or we
can do it negatively. We just like spicy opinions.
Third, we always seem to think that we could
do a better job than the people in authority.
This is true of our jobs. It's true of the church.
We just think, look, I would do it this way or
I wouldn't do it that way. And we have strong
opinions about this. Even if we've never led
a thing in our lives, we are absolutely sure
we could do better than that guy, the person
in charge. It's our nature. And finally, fourth,
we like to do exactly what the Corinthians were
doing in Paul's day, choosing this guy over that
guy. Lining up behind certain people. That's
my guy. That preacher, that guy, he's the best
by far. Everybody else pales in comparison. And
we put them up on this pedestal, right? And we
turn servants of God into celebrities and idols.
And sometimes in the process by doing that, we
downgrade and we harshly critique other leaders
who don't live up to the standard of my guy.
Because every guy should be this because he's
the best. And we tend to do this. And what Paul
is saying in this passage is we all need to stop.
Just stop doing this. On one end of the spectrum,
stop elevating leaders beyond their calling.
Stop seeing them as infallible. Stop seeing them
as beyond question. Stop hanging on their every
word. Stop seeing them as the pastor of their
church. It's Jesus's church. It's not their church.
And that guy who you think is so great is no
greater than his fellow elders. So stop doing
that. On the other end of the spectrum, stop
dishonoring other leaders. Refuse to play the
gossip game or the ranking game. Don't make their
work in the church a burden and don't undermine
their authority in the body by your opinions.
Recall what Paul said of himself and his fellow
leaders back in chapter three. Remember, he said,
what is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants.
Servants, that's it. Servants through whom you
believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to
each one. In other words, don't elevate us. Everything
that we have accomplished is because God has
done a work in Corinth. He gave us the opportunity.
to come and share the gospel. You believe, but
not because of us, right? It was Christ who brought
you to saving faith through our feeble words,
so give him glory. We're nothing more than his
servants. Now, look at verse one. Paul comes
right back to this very same message. Look at
verse one. Let a man regard us or think of us
in this manner. First of all, as servants of
Christ. Now, this is another one of those places
in the New Testament where the original Greek
gives us a very important interpretation. Koine
Greek has a whole number of words that it uses
to describe various levels of servitude. Back
in chapter 3, when Paul talked about himself
and Apollos as servants, he uses the word diakonos.
That's the same word that we use in English for
deacon. In literal terms, it means somebody who
executes the commands of a superior, executes
the commands of his master. That's the first
word. There's oikites, second word, which refers
to a domestic servant, somebody who is blessed
to not be sweating out in the fields, but is
able to work in the master's household. Then
there's doulos, and some of you are familiar
with this word. This is somebody who is literally
owned by another person. This is a true slave
in every way. And then there's a fourth word.
And this is the word that Paul uses in this passage.
It's a unique word. It's a shocking word. It
refers to the lowest possible form of slavery,
even more so than a doulos. It's the word, there
we go, huperetes. And get this, it refers to
an under rower. An under rower. A man who labored
as a slave rower on the bottom level of what
we call a trireme. Okay, historical nerds. Historical
nerds. Ancient Greek and Roman triremes. These
were the naval warships of Paul's day. And they
had two or three levels of rowers, of oars, depending
on the size of the boat. Each level was filled
with slaves. Slaves who rowed in unison, propelling
the boat forward in the water. Obviously, this
was not a glamorous job. In fact, it was a brutal
life that was lived at the end of a whip. And
the conditions were awful. And it was dangerous,
too. If the enemy rammed your boat, and this
was the main way they sunk each other in naval
warfare in that day, they would ram each other.
If you got rammed, you're either on the side
of the boat that got hit, and you're probably
killed there, or on the other side of the boat,
you were just the first to drown. This is not
a great thing. So with that background information,
now imagine Paul is writing to a Greek audience
who fully understand the word that he's just
used. Imagine how shocking this would have been.
That Paul, an apostle, would speak of himself
in such low terms. But the point he's making
is this. Stop lining up behind any of us. Me,
Apollos, Peter, any of us. Think of us like this.
Think of us as slave rowers. That would have
been shocking. The other important thing to see
in this first statement is how Paul refers to
himself as a specific type of slave. What does
he write? I am a slave of Christ. Now, you may
not think that's important, but it is. Not a
slave to the believers in Corinth, but a slave
of Christ. And you might think, well, hold on
a second. I thought church leaders served the
congregation. Yes, we do. But the focus of our
service is always to Christ alone. And if we're
serving him well, guess what? We'll serve you
well. And that's a really important distinction.
How many times do church leaders think, I've
got to constantly serve the congregation, meet
all of their needs, and they end up compromising
because of the needs of the people. We put Christ
first. And if we serve him well, we serve you
well. Does that make sense? That's an important
distinction. Now, before we go forward. A clarification,
when Paul says to the congregation, you should
regard me as a lowly slave, know this now, that
does not invalidate his authority as an apostle.
This is part of that delicate dance, right? That
is still his calling, it is still his role, and
the congregation still must honor him as an apostle,
even as they try to view him as this lowly slave
ruler. That's the delicate dance. The church
leader does have authority from God, but his
life is to be marked by humility. He walks in
the footsteps of Christ, right? He walks in the
footstep of the one who's God incarnate, who
humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point
of death on a cross. That's the model for every
single church leader. That's the mark of humility.
And this is how Paul postured himself in all
of his letters. How many times does he say things
like, I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the least
of the apostles. I'm a slave rower, a galley
slave. This is what marks the greatest servants
in the kingdom of God. What did John the Baptist
say? Jesus must increase while I decrease. How
often do we see that today? How rare is it these
days to find that kind of humility among church
leaders? That's why Paul's laying this out. So
elders, deacons, as you hear this, ministry leaders,
hear this message. It's not just written to the
congregation. It's written to us as leaders.
That's how we're to posture ourselves. It's rare
to find these days. It's more common today to
see pastors and preachers and elders and worship
leaders doing what? Drawing attention to themselves,
to themselves, to their People actually say this,
my ministry. My ministry. Not God's ministry
that I've been stewarding, but my ministry. Right?
To their ministries. To the size of their churches.
To the popularity of their social media. And
sadly, we have congregations that don't discern
that that's not right. And what do they do? They
encourage it. They encourage that drawing attention
to their church leaders. They promote those guys.
Not Paul. He says, no. When it's all said and
done, let it be said that we were nothing more
than servants of Christ. When you look at my
life, what I want you to say is this. He pulled
his oar well. And that's it. And let this just
wash over you as you look at the nature of the
American church today. Church leaders, this is
the humility we need to have. We're slave rowers.
All right, let's look at the second characteristic
that Paul points to here. Let a man regard us
in this way, first as servants of Christ, and
second as stewards of the mysteries of God. Now,
what's a steward? A steward in the ancient world
was still a servant to a master, but a much higher
rank than that slave rower. Stewards in the Roman
world were responsible as managers. of a household
under the authority of their master. Managers
of a household under the authority of their master.
So to be a steward was a position of trust. A
Roman property owner would have, say, a farm
or a vineyard, and he would employ all kinds
of servants to work the land and run the business.
But his steward was the one who would handle
the oversight of the whole operation, including
managing the finances and assigning duties to
all the other servants. It's an important role.
So he was a slave in relation to his master,
but an overseer in relation to his fellow workers.
Now think about that in terms of being an elder
in a church. A slave in relation to his master,
but an overseer in relation to his fellow workers.
That is exactly what we're to be as elders. And
as stewards, apostles like... Paul and Apollos
had a certain authority. They could act on behalf
of their master, Jesus, but they're still slaves
to him, still his servants. And their focus was
not on pleasing all the people. It was on pleasing
the master because only to the master will we
give accountability someday, will we give an
answer to, only to the master. And what specifically
does Paul say we're supposed to be stewards of?
Paul says the mysteries of God. Now, what does
that mean? Well, it generally refers to Truths
that were sort of hidden in the shadows in the
Old Testament that have now become revealed to
us in the new. And of course, basically what
he's saying is that's the revelation of God's
one and only son, right? The redeemer and the
savior. You're charged with revealing the mysteries
about Christ, his person and his work. So as
good stewards, the job of the local church elder
team is to take those mysteries and just deliver
them to the other workers in the house. That's
our job. That means putting in the hard work
that we have to do to study and to pray and to
learn and to grow, but then just coming here
and delivering that word to the congregation.
I was thinking about this last night. I was like,
what practical thing could I compare this to?
And I thought of, I'm like an Uber Eats delivery
guy. That's my job. I didn't make the food. It
came from one greater than myself. My job is
to just bring it to you hot and to bring it to
you intact, right? I can't drop it or mess it
up, right? But it's not my food. I didn't make
it. I'm a delivery guy. Here you go. It's delicious.
Eat up. That's the job of a steward. Make sense?
I should have worn a shirt. It would have been
good. Okay, then look at verse 2. Here's what's
required of church leaders. In this case, moreover,
it's required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.
Look, guys, there is the standard for a steward.
Trustworthy. Listen, it's not, he didn't write,
you know, you gotta be really brilliant or really
creative. You gotta be charming, right? He didn't
say any of that. It's not about how big your
church is or how many books you've written, how
many followers you have on social media. The
standard is simple. The standard is faithfulness.
Trustworthiness. And this is hard to find these
days. A church leader that just does what the
master says to do. Trustworthy. Fulfill your
calling and the role I've given to you, Jesus
says. That's all I'm asking. Fulfill your role.
Do what I've told you. Don't cut corners. Be
consistent. Make sure the flock knows that they
can count on you. That's important. Make sure
the flock knows. they can count on you. Dispense
the mysteries of scripture, teach, shepherd,
oversee, and love the body. Ministry's not that
complex when you break it down like this. We've
made it bigger than we probably should have in
the American church. Now, let me point out something
else here. Yes, elders have a specifically called
role to play in the local church, but you should
know this, all Christians are stewards. Every
one of you in this audience, is a steward in
some capacity. Did you hear the call to worship
passage that Grant read earlier from 1 Peter
4? It says this, as each one has received a special
gift, each one is, everybody here, employed in
serving one another as good stewards of what?
Of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks
is to do it as one speaking the utterances of
God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is
serving by the strength which God supplies, so
that in all things God may be glorified through
Jesus Christ. And guys, especially here in the
church, we're all stewards of God's grace. What
kind of grace? The grace he poured out on you
when he gave you spiritual gifts. And we all
have them. The question is, are we stewarding
them well? Each of you is called to exercise
your talents and your gifts to serve the people
around you so that when that Bema seat judgment
comes that we talked about a few weeks ago, praise
will come from the Lord and they'll say, well
done. Well done, good and faithful steward. And
I have to tell you here at Oak Hill, we have
some really faithful servants, right? I know
I said last week, I'll say it again. I know I'm
preaching to the choir because you guys get it.
But some of us need to slow down enough to stop
and wonder, How do all these things happen in
our church? And who does them? Can I encourage
you to do this every once in a while? Stop and
slow down and say, you know, a lot of things
just magically happen around here. Like little
gremlins are setting things up. No, they're faithful
servants. On Sundays, who gets here at the crack
of dawn? Starts the setup process. And who is
closing things up long after you've either arrived
for lunch or gone home for your nap? Somebody's
closing things up. Who loads up all the stuff
that you see here and gets it packed in our shed?
Who creates all those slides that you see on
the screen? They're not gremlins. Who's in charge
of making sure the sound is correct? We walk
in and take it for granted, don't we? It sounds
great. AV's really working. Who arranges the
songs and coordinates all the musicians? Do you
think that's easy, what our band does every Sunday?
Who does that? Who schedules all the volunteers
each week that make this church run? Who plans
out the acorn lessons? Who made the coffee this
morning? And who brought the donuts? No, I just
showed up and there they were again. During the
week, who edits and uploads all the sermons and
puts them up on YouTube? Who manages church center?
Who posts the social media stuff? Who's overseeing
the accounting for the church and paying the
bills and tracking our finances? Who's managing
all the contracts we have as a church? And listen,
I could go on and on and on, but you get the
point, right? It's not magic. It's not gremlins.
These are faithful servants. They're not doing
the glamorous work of the kingdom. They're just
being faithful to what God has called them to.
And they're just as important as this guy who
stands up here and flaps his gums every Sunday.
Because without them, church doesn't happen.
The body doesn't function as it should. Everybody
matters here. It's essential work. Not glamorous,
but essential. They're volunteering their time
and their energy as good stewards of the manifold.
grace of God. So as a congregation, don't rank
them. Don't pass judgment on them. Just honor
their service to Christ and to his church. Amen?
So as a summary here, catch what Paul said thus
far. Church leaders, pastors and elders, we row
at the bottom of the boat and we propel the church
forward. That's our job. And then we oversee
God's household by leading the other servants
into faithful work for the benefit of our master.
It's a beautiful metaphor, is it not? It is.
Okay, good. I'm just checking. Are you tracking
with me? Okay. Now, when we come to verse 3,
this is where it gets controversial. He says,
but to me, it's a very small thing. It's of little
importance that I'm judged by you. Raise your
hand if that surprises you just a bit. Or by
any human court, he says. It's of very little
importance. And again, let me say this. This
is very case specific to the Corinthians in this
day. So make sure you know that. It's funny,
when you read through 1 Corinthians, and especially
you read into 2 Corinthians, you find that there
are believers in Corinth and in the surrounding
area who are questioning Paul's apostolic authority.
They're literally criticizing his work. How would
you like that on your tombstone? I question Paul.
But it happens, right? The language is very severe.
So it's as if Paul is saying here, look, I know
what you say about me. I know what you think
of my work, but your opinions, they're of little
importance to me. I'm not here to please you.
I'm not here to win your approval. Let any court
of human beings judge me. It is insignificant
compared to God's judgment of me. Think about
that. And this is the reality of life in the
ministry, which many of us here can personally
testify to. Criticism and second guessing, it
is just something that you learn to live with
in ministry life. I wish it weren't so, but that
is the reality. Anybody who's done ministry can
tell you, some folks are going to honor you and
appreciate you. Other folks are going to pass
judgment and downgrade you. And it's the product
of some people that are still immature in the
faith or spiritually unhealthy. refusing to really
follow what Scripture says. And Paul obviously
knew this, and he was compassionate. He understood
there's a lot of critics out there that need
to grow up. They need to mature in the faith.
They need to read the Scriptures. But he's pretty
honest about how difficult this is. In fact,
I'm going to read you a section from 2 Corinthians
6. Listen to the severity that Paul is wrestling
with. He says, So that the ministry will not
be discredited, but in everything, commanding
ourselves as servants, that's diakonos, servants
of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in
hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments,
in riots, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger.
Now raise your hand if you want to go into ministry.
I know some of you do. Be careful. Be wise, it's
not glamorous. Listen to Paul. Then he does say,
look, here's a list of the really beautiful things
about ministry. He says, in purity, in knowledge,
in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit,
in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the
power of God, by the weapons of righteousness
for the right hand and the left. And that is
also a part of the story of anybody in ministry.
There's some incredible joys to it. And then
in this third section, he goes on to describe
both ends of the spectrum. Look, he says this,
by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good
report, regarded as deceivers and yet true, as
unknown yet well known, as dying yet behold we
live, as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful
yet also rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich,
as having nothing yet possessing all. How beautiful
is that? How beautiful. That is the life of a
slave rower. And that is the life of a steward
in God's house. It can be very painful at times,
and it can be so joyful at other times. And week
after week, you battle and you grind and you
endure by the strength that God provides. And
if along the way people misjudge your character
or question your motives, all you can do is hand
that over to the Lord and say, It's not public
opinion that matters. It's what God thinks that
ultimately matters. And Paul's whole point in
these last three verses is simply this. The judgments
of all human beings are inherently flawed. Let
me say it again. The judgment of all of us as
human beings are inherently flawed. In fact,
look what he writes at the end of verse three.
He says, I don't even judge myself. Don't overanalyze
that apart from the context because in other
places in scripture, we're explicitly told, examine
yourself, right? What Paul's saying here, he's
making the bigger point. He says, like all human
beings, even I'm limited in my ability to judge
myself. This is true of everybody. I'm a sinner
with biases. I have blind spots. So I might not
see things as clearly as I should about me. And
so he writes in verse 4, look, I'm conscious
of nothing. I'm not aware of anything against
myself. So Paul's done enough self -examination
to say, look, I don't know anything glaring about
my life that's disqualifying. But then he writes,
look, yet I'm not acquitted by this either. Meaning,
even though I'm not personally aware of anything
glaring in my life, that doesn't mean that I'm
completely blameless before God. But this much
he knows for sure, end of verse four, the one
who examines me is the Lord. So he says, your
judgment of me, Corinthians, it's of little importance.
And my judgment of myself carries no weight either
when compared to the almighty judge, because
only the Lord knows the full story about me.
Do you realize God knows you better than you
know yourself? Only the Lord knows the full story
about who I am, what motivates me. How faithful
I am to his church. And in the end, his judgment
about me is all that's going to be decisive.
Therefore, now here's the big reason that he
says all this. Verse five, therefore, stop making
judgments. Look at verse five. Do not go on passing
judgment before the time, but wait until the
Lord comes. He will both bring to light the things
hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives
of men's hearts. And then, then each man's praise
will come to him from God. So this is the call
back to the Bama seat judgment, right? The judgment
of rewards. On that day, the Lord will judge
all of his servants, you, me, every believer
across the ages. And he will judge us in terms
of our faithfulness to the calling that he gave
us as stewards of his grace. Did we exercise
our gifts? Did we build the church? Did we serve
other people? But even more than that, what motivated
us to do that? What was the motive behind our
service? And for church leaders, those who presume
to teach and lead, we get an even stricter judgment
because of the temptation that we face as public
faces of the church. So Paul said to the Corinthians,
don't pass judgment. prematurely. Wait till the
Lord comes. Stop doing what you're doing right
now. Stop judging. You're standing in judgment
of those who are trying to lead you, but you're
not qualified to do so. So stop it. You can't
see the things that are hidden. You can't know
the motives of the men who are leading you. So
stop judging us. Don't put some on a pedestal
and don't downgrade others. As we said weeks
ago, the bamacy judgment, remember, it's not
about heaven or hell. It's about rewards, right?
There's going to be a testing. And then praise
will come our way. But it's funny, when I first
started reading this passage, I thought to myself,
you might expect Paul to say at the end of this,
at such a time, each man will get his rebuke
from God, right? For the things he messed up.
But how beautiful is this? He says, no, each
man's praise will come to him from God. Because
it's a judgment of rewards for believers. This
is not the time to throw our sin in our faces.
God says, no, this is a time of reward. What
a comfort that is, right? Praise from God is
waiting for us. And this was a rebuke to the
divisive Corinthians. Again, because in order
to exalt their favorite leader, they were downgrading
others. But Paul says, everybody here is gonna
get praise from God. All of your leaders who
belong to all of you, so stop picking one over
the other, they will all receive praise from
God on the day of the Bema Seed Judgment. Make
sense? It's a hard passage. But get the big idea
of what Paul's saying here. Okay, gotta wrap
up. For the sake of our kiddos. There we go.
I remember, Early in the life of Oak Hill, there
was a man in our body who was very critical of
our church, critical of me personally, critical
of our ministry philosophy that we'd established
at that time. And he had very strong preferences
on a whole bunch of issues. And he strongly suggested,
actually he demanded, that we change course on
a couple of things. And when we didn't heed his
advice, he began to get divisive. And so in order
to protect the church, there was a confrontation
between him and myself. And it became clear that
he was passing judgment on all kinds of things
without any real knowledge of what was happening
behind the scenes. He just didn't know. He didn't
understand because he hadn't asked the question,
why are we going in this direction? He just judged
from afar without true knowledge. It became clear
that he was not going to honor or follow our
leadership no matter what. No matter how much
I explained what we were trying to do, he wasn't
going to follow and he was never going to be
content at Oak Hill. So my advice was this. I
said to him, there's some things that are seared
in your brain in ministry. This is one of those
moments I said, you know what you should do?
You should find a local church who will send
you out as a church planter. Send you out and
take your ideas and your ministry philosophy
and put them to the test. See if anyone follows
you. See if anyone follows you. And may God bless
your efforts. If people follow you, I will praise
the Lord because the gospel will go out. But
if no one follows you, then at a minimum, God
will teach you something about unity and how
hard it is to lead people like yourself. That
was a formative moment in the history of our
church. But it had to be said. The PS on the
story doesn't matter. I'm not even going to share
it. But these are the things that can happen.
I remember I saw this quote once from Jerry Bridges,
this author. He says this, the sin of judgmentalism
is one of the most subtle of our respectable
sins because it's often practiced under the guise
of being zealous for what is right. Read that
carefully. Everybody has an opinion. And we assume
that we have all the information we need to formulate
that opinion. And of course we think our opinion
is what? It's right. Otherwise we wouldn't hold
it. And that's where our trouble begins. We start
equating our opinions with truth. Our preferences
with truth. And most of the time our opinions
are only half -baked. Me included. It's half
-baked. In the church, Putting leaders on a pedestal
or having a critical spirit towards them are
like cancer in a human body. If it's not put
down, it's going to be fatal to the body. So
it's incumbent upon us all to fight against those
tendencies I mentioned at the outset. Playing
the ranking game. Don't do it. Gossiping about
our opinions about this guy or that guy. Don't
do it. Thinking we know better. than those in
authority when we really don't know what's going
on. Stop doing that. Setting one leader against
another. Because as you elevate one, you're downgrading
the other. Stop doing it. By the way, does this
mean that we have to honor and respect leaders
to the point where they're beyond question? Absolutely
not. Absolutely not. If it's handled correctly,
a church member who is seeking true understanding,
who comes with a measure of grace and submission,
Every church leader will welcome that kind of
question. I know we do here at Oak Hill, so I
don't want to send that impression. By the way,
just as a critical spirit can be a cancer in
the body, so can a church leader who abuses the
trust that God has given him. A leader who exhibits
abusive or manipulative behavior, who seeks out
ministry opportunities for his own benefit, who
lords his authority over others, that man has
to be removed. He has to be removed from leadership
before he damages the body of Christ. So as I
said, there's all kinds of potholes on this issue,
and we need to be on guard against them. Friends,
we have got to get authority right. We've got
to get response to authority right on both sides
of the ledger. And listen, we're doing really
well at this at Oak Hill. Again, thank you. Thank
you for that. You understand it. You get it.
You're here with us. We're doing really well,
but we always have to stay alert. and stand guard
against these things that creep into the body.
Elders who humbly serve the body as stewards,
stewards of God's household. A congregation that
resists the temptation to pass judgment and honors
and respects its leaders in a balanced, healthy
way. When those two things are happening at the
same time, it is a beautiful thing to behold,
is it not? And you know why? Because that's how
God has designed his church. If we do it together,
simultaneously, We glorify God. Amen? Let's bow
our heads. Heavenly Father, I am grateful for
the sounds of our kids in the back of the room
and their parents and those helping out this
morning, all the ways that you've blessed this
church family with all of these beautiful families
in this body. Thank you for that, God. We praise
you for your word this morning. Thank you, God,
for calling. Some of us here in this church as
servants of yours, stewards of your house, God,
strengthen us for the tasks that you've called
us to. Give us a healthy, balanced perspective.
Thank you for the members of the congregation,
Lord, who are volunteering their time and energy,
who are exercising their gifts, Lord. Continue
to strengthen them for what you have in their
calling. And Lord, keep us from error in this
area of authority and response. Lord, protect
this body. For your glory and for our good we
pray. Amen.