Justified Fools For Christ-1 Series

JUSTIFIED FOOLS For CHRIST-1—1Corinthians 4:1-21

Attention:

In Carrabelle, FL, have you ever met someone who you would consider ‘a fool for fishing?’ ...Sport fishermen.

No matter what happens in that person’s life they will find a way to get on the water or to the beach or up the river with a rod & reel, pole, string, net, or trap!

Ladies, does your man stay on the bay? Does fishin’ ‘make his boat float?’ Can you ever go to the beach just to enjoy the sunrise or sunset or look for shells or porpoises, without taking the coolers, tackle boxes, buckets & assorted fishing gear? Does he spend more money on & time with his boat than with you?

Then get out there with him & learn to love fishing because your man is a Fool for Fishin’!

Paul admonished the Corinthian Church regarding his apostolic ministry.

The church must regard apostolic authority rightly...as fools for Christ!

How/When are Fools for Christ Justified?

Cautions regarding Fools for Christ.

1—Fools for Christ are justified thru their...

STEWARDSHIP(:1)

Explanation:(:1)

:1—“Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ & stewards of the mysteries of God.”

Paul & Sosthenes(1:1)(& possibly other apostles) had been lightly & thus wrongly regarded by the Corinthians.

Paul instructs them as to how they should be regarded.

“SERVANTS”

Apostles should be regarded as willing “servants of Christ.” As a Christian “servant,” one is an admitted ‘under-rower’ to Christ Jesus & has thus willfully made himself beneath or subordinate to Christ. The “servant” thus looks to & seeks direction from the One to whom he has subjected/subordinated himself.

To see the apostles as anything less than “servants of Christ” is to consign their word to equality with mine or yours or anybody else’s. However their word was & remains revelatory for all time regarding the birth of the church age! We are to merely reflect the apostle’s word(s).

“STEWARDS”

Apostles should be regarded as “stewards.” They are stewards “of the mysteries of God.” This one “consideration” in & of itself should have been enough to enlighten the Corinthian Christians to their own carnality(3:1-3) regarding the things of God in Christ.

Though the Corinthian Christians lived in a polytheistic culture, many if not most would also have been generally aware/familiar with the God of the Jews & their promised Messiah. This “stewardship of the mysteries of God” would have been to them an unfolding of the specifics of what had been presented only thru word & ‘type’ in promises for the future.

Col. 1:24-26—“I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, & fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages & from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.”

“MYSTERIES Of GOD”

God’s plan of salvation that formerly was incomplete but now is hinged/centered upon Christ Jesus in fullness. He left heaven’s glory taking on human flesh in the form of a bondservant...Declared God’s glory...Offered mankind the way, the truth & the life...Declared, offered & gave freedom from law & regulation, to a heart relationship. He died at the hands of religious zealots, yet willingly surrendered His spirit to the Father. He then rose resurrected the third day, declaring His triumph & thus ours. He ascended into heaven from whence He came, & sent the precious Holy Spirit to indwell any & all who would believe. Thru this, He birthed the church, thru those first disciples(of whom one was Paul()) empowering those He called by faith alone

Acts 20:26-27—“Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.”

1Cor. 15:3-11—“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, & that He was buried, & that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, & that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, & His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach & so you believed.