May 23, 2004
by J. David Hoke
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After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia. 6 Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. 10 If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am. 11 No one, then, should refuse to accept him. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me. I am expecting him along with the brothers. 12 Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity. 13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 14 Do everything in love. 15 You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. I urge you, brothers, 16 to submit to such as these and to everyone who joins in the work, and labors at it. 17 I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. 18 For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition. 19 The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. 20 All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. 21 I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. 22 If anyone does not love the Lord—a curse be on him. Come, O Lord! 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 24 My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen. (1 Corinthians 16:5-24, NIV)Our lives were never meant to be lived in isolation. This should be apparent from the very fact that we were born into a family. It is a biological fact that it takes two people, a man and a woman, to each provide the necessary ingredients that when combined will eventually produce a newborn baby. This is the natural order of things. In other words, it is the way things are meant to be.
When we are brought into this world, we are helpless. And God designed it that we should have both a father and mother in the home to raise us, since there are two sexes with whom we must learn to identify. The fact that there are single-parent families is unfortunate. Unfortunately, that is the reality in some situations, and we should try to do everything we can to help those single parents try to raise their children, but that is not God’s design, and it is not the best situation for the children. The best situation is to have two loving parents, who love their children and one another.
In fact, marriage is put forth in the Scriptures as a symbol of the relationship between Christ and the church. God intends for us to live in community. He even lives in community. The Trinity is composed of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Jesus established a community to carry on his work of establishing the kingdom of God on earth–– it is called the church.
As the great apostle Paul ends this letter to the church in Corinth, he mentions a number of individuals who were his coworkers and to whom he wanted to give recognition. This, of course, was his common practice in ending all of his letters. Often, however, we are tempted to skip over this list of individuals, as if it were just a routine practice, and has no practical teaching value for us. But this is not true. As we will see, one of the most profound statements it makes to us as individuals is that we don’t live the Christian life individualistically. While each individual must make his or her own individual commitment to Christ, where then called to live out that commitment in the context of Christian community, the local church–– what I like to call the community of the King.
The title of this message is what I hope is the message that you take away from this text. Following faithful followers is the context in which God has chosen to bring us to maturity in Christ. True discipleship can only happen in this context. I firmly believe that a Christian can only grow to full Christian maturity in the context of the church. Only there can we learn some of the essential lessons that will enable us to deal with our selfish nature and to demonstrate unselfish love. Let’s attempt to unpack this text to discover some of the principles we can follow here.
Vision With Flexibility
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After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia. 6 Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. 10 If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am. 11 No one, then, should refuse to accept him. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me. I am expecting him along with the brothers. 12 Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity. (16:5-12)Paul is a great example of the man on a mission for God. He was certainly fully devoted to seeing the work of planting churches and establishing Christians as mature believers move forward as quickly as possible. He was a man who had a vision and knew that he did not have time to waste. If Jesus did not return soon, and Paul thought he might, then he knew his own days were limited. He tells us that we should make the most of every opportunity, that we should "redeem the time."
It is because of this that practical sections of Scripture such as the one before us are so important. They give us a glimpse into the practical way he made the decisions day to day. He knew he needed to come to Corinth and spend some needed ministry time with them. He tells them, "I will come to you." He knew he had plans to go through Macedonia, and he thought that this would provide an opportunity to pay them a visit. But notice how he qualifies what he says. He uses the word perhaps, indicating that there was some flexibility in what he might do. He did not want to make only a passing visit. He needed to spend some time with them. But he knew that his schedule was not his alone to make. He knew he could only do this if the Lord permits.
Do you see his vision? Paul was certainly a driven man. Rick Warren would probably say he was a purpose driven man. But he was a man who knew that he was serving God’s purposes, not his own, and so he needed to remain flexible to the leading of the Spirit as to the timing of what he was called to do. We need both vision and flexibility. We need to see that we are involved in something bigger than our own purposes. We need to understand that we don’t have time to waste, and so be about the Father’s business. But we need to do God’s work in God’s way and according to God’s time.
Notice also that he says that a great door for effective work has opened to me, and so he had decided to stay at Ephesus in order to take advantage of that opportunity. I find it interesting that he also adds the comment that there are many who oppose me. That should tell us that along with the opportunities we are praying that God would provide comes a certain opposition from those who do not want to see the work of God go forward. But I love the way Paul says it in such a matter-of-fact way. If we truly want to do the work of God, we should not be surprised when opposition comes.
He mentions Timothy, whom he was mentoring, as one who is carrying on the work of the Lord together with him and vouches for his integrity, instructing them to receive him well and then send him on his way in peace. He is expecting him to return along with the brothers, obviously other coworkers.
Then he turns his attention to Apollos, whom they knew as one who had ministered among them. Even though Paul had strongly urged him to go to see them, apparently Apollos was quite unwilling to drop everything and go and that time. In other words, he said no. Apparently, we do not have to say yes to everything people want us to do. Again, we see their flexibility.
Of course, some people can use this as an excuse to avoid doing something they just don’t want to do. I remember hearing people say that they would do certain things "when they felt led" to do them. If you have no vision, it certainly can and probably will become a convenient excuse to avoid involvement. But if you have a passion for God, he will probably have to hold you back rather than jumpstart you.
Faithfulness Without Compromise
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Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 14 Do everything in love. (16:13-14)Another important principle we see is faithfulness without compromise. Notice the five exhortations he gives in these two verses. We cannot afford to forget that we are in a war. I can’t help but think how we have become so fuzzy in a thinking after the terrorist attack of 9-11. When I listen to the newscasts and talk shows where people seem to have forgotten that we were intentionally attacked in such a way that the maximum damage could be inflicted on as many civilian women and children as possible in the World Trade Towers, and then begin to blame the President, or America itself, I am dumbfounded. How soon we forget that we have an enemy who hates us and wants to kill us. If we go down that road, make no mistake, he will kill us.
As Christians, Paul exhorts us to be on your guard. Never forget that we have a spiritual enemy, Satan, who is relentless, prowling about like a lion seeking whom he may devour. Don’t forget. Be vigilant. Stay awake. Additionally we are to stand firm in the faith. Dig in, and don’t let anything move you away from what you know to be true. Trust God whenever you don’t understand what he is doing. Remember his faithfulness in the past. He will certainly be faithful in the future.
Knowing that we are in a battle, we must be men and women of courage. It will take courage. Remember, courage does not mean the absence of fear. Courage is doing what you know you need to do in spite of fear. That is why we are told to be strong. This reminds me of the opening chapter of the book of Joshua. Over and over, in the first nine verses, God tells Joshua to be strong and of good courage. God knew what battles Joshua would face. He knew he would need all the strength and courage he could muster. That is why he emphasized it so much. And we need to be strong and exercise courage just as much today, as at any time in history. The church is under attack–– Christians are under attack as never before in modern history. Perhaps we are about to see a breakthrough, if we are on guard, stand firm, show courage and strength through our faith in Christ. Lord, make it so!
Recognize Our Interdependence
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You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. I urge you, brothers, 16 to submit to such as these and to everyone who joins in the work, and labors at it. 17 I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. 18 For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition. 19 The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. 20 All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. 21 I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. 22 If anyone does not love the Lord—a curse be on him. Come, O Lord! 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 24 My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen. (16:15-24)As Christians, we are called to work together in the common cause of sharing the message of Christ with the whole world. And passages like the one we are focusing on now serve to remind us that it takes more than a few talented individuals to get the job done, something we Americans need to be reminded of often. It is so easy for us to focus on the "superstars" of Christianity. In fact, this was one of the very problems they were experiencing in Corinth. People were taking sides, following their favorite "star" preacher. Some were "of Paul" while others were "of Apollos" and still others were "of Cephas (Peter)."
We are particularly susceptible to this star mentality in this country, and perhaps throughout the world. And in a certain sense we do need our heroes to look up to. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Even in Christianity, the bold faith and sacrifice of people like Paul and Peter, the early Christian martyrs, the Reformers, and even contemporary people like Billy Graham give us powerful and inspiring examples to emulate. But the work of the church is too great for any one individual, and there is no superstar with all the gifts and all the faith and everything else needed to do the job.
If we are to see what God can really do, there must be a recognition of our interdependence in the body of Christ. Notice the people he mentions in the remainder of this chapter. He is not merely mentioning people at random. He is pointing out those who have been part of the team that made the work possible. He mentions the household of Stephanas, who not only were the first converts in Achaia, but also devoted themselves to the service of the saints. These were people to emulate, to submit to, because they were not just people who were involved in the work when it was convenient, they labored at it.
When people like Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, it made Paul’s heart glad, because he knew they were there to encourage him, to supply what he needed. He said that they refreshed my spirit and yours. We need people like that in the church. Perhaps we need to be people like that. Is it any wonder that he would go on to say that such men deserve recognition? These are the true heroes, people who work behind the scenes to make sure what is lacking is supplied.
He concludes with greetings from the churches in the province of Asia. Remember, these are people, not institutions. Greetings also come from Aquila and Priscilla. They were a husband-and-wife team who had been used in many important ways. They knew the word well enough to instruct others and they opened their home as a place where the church could meet. When Paul mentions the church that meets at their house, we are reminded that the church did not have buildings in which to meet for many, many years. Christians with homes that had rooms large enough to accommodate a gathering became the place where a church would meet. Some had rooms, or open spaces, large enough to accommodate quite a large crowd.
Greetings come from all the brothers. He even tells us to greet one another with a holy kiss. I hope by now that you get the sense that we are not in this alone. Jesus died for us. He died to establish his church. And we are in this together.
Finally, Paul greets them himself by writing the closing lines with his own hand. He sends his love to all of them in Christ Jesus. He also gives you a sense of how important it is for us to love the Lord by pronouncing a curse on anyone who does not love the Lord. This is no game we’re playing. Paul has fought long and hard. All he can say is, "Come, O Lord!" which is the translation of the Aramaic phrase Maranatha. He was ready to meet his Lord. I pray that you are too.
So even in the closing of this letter, we are exhorted to follow faithful followers of Jesus Christ. There can be no higher calling for any human being than to be a faithful follower of Christ. And there can be no higher honor than to be one who is worthy to be followed by others seeking to follow Christ. Indeed, we should so live for Christ that we could say along with Paul, "Follow me, as I follow Christ."
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