1 Cor No.40 Pauls Tribute

It was just before the Passover feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

The evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist.

After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus replied, you do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand. No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.

Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Then Lord, Simon Peter replied, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well. Jesus answered, a person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet.

His whole body is clean and you are clean, though not every one of you. For he knew who was going to betray him and that was why he said, not everyone was clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.

Do you understand what I have done for you? He asked them. You call me teacher and Lord and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Now may God add his blessing to that reading from his word. Now I'd be glad if you have your Bibles open again at Paul's first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 16. And I want to read to you from the 15th verse.

You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaea, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. I urge you brothers to submit to such as these, and to everyone who joins in the work and labors at it. I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you, for they refreshed my spirit, and yours also.

Such men deserve recognition. Amen. If I was to give a subtitle to my address this morning, I would opt for this.

Two necessary addictions. Two necessary addictions. Now you know that word addict.

We use it as descriptive, generally speaking, of a lamentable situation. One thinks in terms of the poor soul who's hooked onto drugs and cannot control his or her own desires. We think of the wretched alcoholic with the problems that that poor man or woman has, or the person who finds it very difficult to give up smoking.

But addiction does not necessarily have an unpleasant connotation. There are certain addictions which, instead of being lamentable, are laudable. For example, the man like Praying Hyde, who is given to the noble ministry of intercession, well, he certainly illustrates an addiction which is praiseworthy.

One thinks of a man who is concerned for the advance of the gospel. Take a great character from church history, George Whitefield, a man who was always preaching about Jesus, a man who could hardly stop himself declaring the good news of salvation. Well, I argue that's a very good addiction.

So although in common usage that word tends to have only an unpleasant connotation, it is not necessarily the case. There are certain addictions which ought to be cultivated within our Christian lives. But you say, why are you mentioning this? There is no reference to addiction in these particular verses.

Well, your observation would be inaccurate if one was studying the exact language, particularly within the 15th verse. For one comes across a man whose name is Stephanas, and we are told of him and his family circle that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. Those of you who work from the authorized version of the Bible will immediately recognize where the term addiction comes in, because we read these are people who have addicted themselves to the service of the saints.

So there is one example of a very praiseworthy addiction, a very laudable habit. But the word occurs again in a slightly different context, though it's related to what I've just brought to your attention. Here the apostle continues in his final comments to these Corinthians, and he's speaking of the household of Stephanas, and he goes on, I urge you brothers to submit to such as these, and to everyone who joins in the work and labors at it.

Now that term submit is a derivative in the original of that previous word translated devoted or addiction in the NIV or AV, depending on what Bible you have with you this morning. So here is the apostle, and he has the concept of addiction very much at the forefront of his mind. First of all, he's referring it, and it's easy to grasp, to Stephanas, a man representative of those who are committed to the work of the Lord.

They are addicted to his work. And then he uses it, and he surprises us by so doing. In this context, he's speaking to the Corinthians, and he says, look, you have Stephanas, and Achaicacus, and Fortunatus, and doubtless others who are your leaders in God at Corinth.

Submit, addict yourself to them. Allow the ministries that they exercise among you to rise to their full potential as you recognize that they are God's servants granted to the church in Corinth. So you see the excuse for my subtitle.

Not only am I speaking to you on Paul's tribute as he addresses three very important members of the church at Corinth, Stephanas, and Fortunatus, and Achaicacus, but we have also here the concept of two necessary addictions. A man who is addicted to the ministry, and a congregation who is addicted to a leadership. Now I would argue, as you will see in a moment or two, that that latter comment, the addiction, the submission of a congregation, of a group of Christians to a leadership, is a very important and often neglected principle in the days of the 20th century church.

But that would be to anticipate what I want to share with you. Let's go back to the idea of Stephanas, and the men who are with him. You recall, just to place the whole thing in the context of what Paul is saying, the illustrious apostle is concluding his magnificent epistle to the Corinthians, in which he has touched on so many very controversial issues, and we're rather glad that the church at Corinth had difficulties so that Paul could address himself to them, and therefore we have within scripture a means whereby we can come and read the inspired teaching of Paul on certain divisive issues.

But towards the end of his letter, as is always the case, he makes personal allusion to several people. For example, here in the 10th verse, he's speaking of Timothy. Timothy, a timid man, who's coming to Corinth, and Paul is exhorting that the Corinthians receive him and accept what he has to say, and help him in his ministry before he comes back to the apostle Paul.

And then in the 12th verse, he refers to the articulate Apollos, this man who has had such an outstanding ministry in Corinth itself. And you will see that when Paul refers to Apollos, there's no sense of rivalry, there's a sense of equality, of brotherly love, as Paul says, how he has tried to encourage Apollos to return to the Corinthian church, but the time is believed by Apollos not to be right at that moment. But then, more importantly for us, he comes to this trio, whose names I've recalled to you on two or three occasions already.

And he says of these men who left Corinth to seek an audience with Paul at Ephesus, one of them was an example of the others in this respect. He was addicted to the ministry of the saints. He devoted himself and his household to the service of other Christians, a most laudable addiction.

Now, what do we know of this man Stephanas? Well, not very little, and yet there's a good deal that we can work out. We are told that he was among the first of the converts in Achaea. Now, Paul had previously been in Athens, and there were those who had responded for Athens is in Achaea to his ministry.

But it would seem that here he's signaling out Stephanas, because not only he, but his wife, his family, his servants, his whole household, committed their lives to Jesus Christ. And it would seem that they became the church in embryo, that little nucleus of Christians, which was to become a large community as the gospel was broadcasted from Stephanas's household to the rest of the society in that Greek city of Corinth. What is more, we know of Stephanas, that he is one of the few men that the apostle Paul actually baptized.

He tells us, for example, at the beginning of the letter in the first chapter, that he didn't get involved, Paul didn't get involved too much in the ministry of baptism. And yet he adds a corrective in the 16th verse, when he says, yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.

Now, the picture is beginning to emerge. Here is this leading Christian, and he opens his heart and his household, follow his example to the gospel of Christ. And it would seem that they are key figures in the work of the kingdom in Corinth.

Key to the extent that when Paul describes his ministry, he uses a very, very rare word in the original language in the New Testament. He says of this man, he addicted himself to the service of the saints, a laudable addiction. Now let's stop there, because this isn't a lesson in ancient history or even church history that I'm bringing to you.

I'm arguing this, that if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are endeavoring in some way to serve him, if you were singing these hymns with an ounce of sincerity, then you know something, or you should desire to know something of what it is to be addicted to the ministry of the saints. Let's say this, as far as Stephanas was concerned, it was no easy ministry. If you read into Corinthians or read back into Corinthians, you remember the lifestyle of those Corinthians.

Paul earlier on tabulates the backgrounds from which these brothers and sisters emerged. Some of you were homosexuals. Some of you were temple prostitutes.

Some of you were given over to all the warpedness, all the warped type of living that there is within paganism. And here is Stephanas, and he opens his heart and his home to these people unlovely, when first of all they come in, and he embraces them. And the very ministry as it continues, not just a month at a time, but for a long period, as I shall show you, that very ministry, as he is so faithful, begins to signal this brother out as a leader amongst that Christian community.

How do we know he's a leader? Not because he says so, but because of the function in which he engages. In the New Testament, function is always much more important than labels. The labels follow the function.

Sometimes in the 20th century, we've got it other way round. The labels are given, and we hope that he, her, will slot into the category, the function of those labels. No way.

In the New Testament, says the apostle, particularly as he's dealing with the ministries of the Spirit, it's God who energizes, who gives a man, a woman, a particular ministry. You see them function in that capacity, and then you put the label on them. And for Stephanas, there's one of the most remarkable labels in the whole of the New Testament.

He's an addict. An addict in the service of Jesus Christ, as he ministers to the brothers. And notice that this addiction is not just a short-lived thing.

Rather, we are told, and here I'm in the 16th verse, that Stephanas, along with Fortunatus and Achaicus, were representative of those who join in the work in which the apostle also is involved, and they labor at it. Once again, you can't get that into the English language. Not exactly.

You imagine a person who's working at the very frontier of their energy. Who, in other words, is working flat out. There's no more they can do because they haven't got any more energy left.

They're at that point. Now, says Paul, when he's referring to this man who's addicted in the ministry of Christ, and to his two colleagues, that describes him. It was not just a flash in the pan.

They hadn't been to some revival meeting, and suddenly on the emotion of that particular occasion, made a deep commitment that lasts for a month, or maybe a year. This has been tested by the years. Here is this man who's addicted in the service of God, and he's working at the very frontier, as I put it, of his capacity.

He's doing the most that he can in the service of God. And as he does so, then not because he's asking for it, but because it becomes obvious to a spectator like the apostle, he emerges in the power of the Holy Spirit as a leader. You see, leadership is not something that you apply for.

Leadership is something that becomes part and parcel of you, as you develop gifts that the Spirit has given. That is why you can never become a professional minister. It is impossible to go to college, or seminary, or what have you, and to learn certain talents within the service of Jesus Christ.

These talents are not worked up, they are bestowed. And here is Stephanus, and he's addicted to this ministry, and God is blessing him as he labors amongst that most unlikely spot for a Christian church to emerge in strength. He labors in Corinth.

You see, he's an addict, and addiction is something that's basic to the life of the apostle Paul. You see, addiction is contagious very often, is it not? Again, in the unhealthy aspect, the addict very often addicts another. But that's looking at it negatively.

Let's look at it positively, freshly, as Scripture does. Here is the apostle Paul, and he gives us little insights into his life as he writes this glorious epistle to the Corinthians. And in the ninth chapter, what is he telling us? Well, he's telling us about what fires him in the service of the Lord.

Why is it that he lives at the level he does live? Why does he expend the energy that he invests in the kingdom? Well, as I say, he tells us in this ninth chapter, he says, for example, in the 12th verse, the latter part, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. And again, in the 16th verse, woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. And then those remarkable words in the 20th, when he speaks of his own versatility and agility in gospel proclamation, to the Jew I become like a Jew, to win the Jews.

And then he says to those not having the law, the Gentiles, verse 21, I become like one not having the law. Verse 22, to the weak, I become like a weak man. And he summarizes the whole of his piece of the piece of argument in saying, I have become all things to all men, so that by all possible means, I might save some.

I do all this for the sake of the gospel. Now I ask you, logically, how do you describe such a man? I say he's an addict. Why is Stephanus as he is? Well, he's come into contact with Paul, and there's something of Paul that is a reproduction of the very character of our Lord Jesus, and Stephanus wants this.

And by the indwelling spirit, what he desires shall come to the top. And as it comes to the top, Stephanus involuntarily becomes a leader. And Paul recognizes his leadership when he speaks of this man who is addicted to the work of the gospel.

I could give you so many illustrations of this in the New Testament, but you can work it out for yourself. But the crunch really comes. Don't get moved just by the rapidity with which those words were leaving my mouth.

I'm not concerned just to extol Stephanus in front of you, let alone extol the apostle Paul. Here is a test for you, for me. To what extent are you addicted to the gospel of Christ? You say, well, that's too strong preaching, but it's no stronger than Jesus put it.

Jesus said that unless a man was prepared to lose his life, he couldn't really enter into the kingdom. And what he meant by that was leaving his grim and his tragic grip on things that would bind him to the earth and renounce all that and recognize that there were greater dimensions of life possible here on this earth. There were greater things to live for than the mere acquisition of wealth and prestige.

So Jesus was asking men and women to become addicts to what he had to say, as he was an addict to the will of the Father. I cannot to do my will, but your will. You remember that prophetic statement, anticipating the ministry of our blessed Lord.

Well, I say to you, the apostle Paul, not only in reference to Stephanus, but in autobiography, in the first letter to the Corinthians, he makes the confessions of a gospel addict, the confessions of a gospel addict. And I ask you, do you know anything about, do you know anything about this addiction? But there's a second aspect to my message this morning and to the burden that lies heavy on my heart. You see, not only was this man applauded, but when the apostle writes back and sends this letter that we're now, we've been working through for 40 odd weeks, when he sends it back to Corinth, he does so with Stephanus and Fortunatus and Achaicus.

And as they bring this letter to the Corinthians, Paul is saying to the readers, look, these men are classic examples of the leadership that God has placed there in authority in Corinth. Addict yourself to that leadership, submit to it. Now, all right, taken at face value, that seems a very dangerous comment, to addict yourself to a man.

Well, I'll come back and I'll show you how there are certain provisos that are inbuilt into Paul's advice, which makes it extremely important and acceptable for us in the 20th century as it was in the days of the first century. But let me put a question to you, again, to try and get the whole of this point into perspective. What would you say was basically wrong with the church in Corinth? Now, I think that the problems of the church in Corinth are, generally speaking, exaggerated by commentators.

Sometimes the theological likes to grind on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. It seems to me that this church was quite outstanding in certain areas and received specific accolades, congratulatory comments by the apostle. But there were areas in which they were an abysmal failure.

Now, why did they fail in certain aspects? Well, let me suggest you that it was in the area of discipline. You see, they had come into the church, they had come from a pagan background with all its permissiveness, and they brought this libertine spirit with them into the church. We can do everything, even more so now because we're in Jesus, and the law of Christ Jesus has set us free.

But we're absolutely boundless in our freedom, and all that amounts to one word. And what word is that? Anarchy. You remember the last verse, is it, of the book of Judges in the Old Testament? It tells us of the great problems that affected the tribes as they went back into the promised land.

The problem was one of anarchy. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, and you can't run a society like that, can you? You can't run a society in England, even a secular society, unless we have our law and our administrators and those who have authority. So thank God for our mayor and for the council and for the police and for parliament and trade union officials and management at a larger level.

You've got to have some sort of authority or else there is anarchy, and that applies also in the church. So there is, in built into a local church, an authority that God deposits within the personalities of certain men, and in some contexts within the province of certain women, and they are gifted by God. They become his particular emissaries, his particular spokesmen, his particular directors within a church.

And at Corinth, these men were not recognized. That's the reason why there were disputes, you remember. One believer taking another believer to a secular law court.

Were there no authoritative men in the church who could deal with this? Here were the women, and they were creating problems. They were so noisy. It was Corinth, the temple practices reproduced in the Christian church, and Paul says, no, that is no good.

You must recognize your leaders. Here they were coming to the Lord's table, if you please, preceded by their agape, their love feast, and there was no order. There was anarchy.

And because of the anarchy in several areas of the church, Paul realized that the very witness at Corinth was in jeopardy. And so he says to these dear, immature Corinthian Christians, look, your leadership is there, Stephanus. You see it in this man, not because he's wearing a label, but because of the life that he lives.

Now accept his government and that of these other men. Addict yourself to it. That word addiction, if I can again dig back into the Greek, it's got the idea of coming under the order that someone will establish.

Coming under the order that someone will establish. Here's another example. The apostle Paul, it's, we're in Acts chapter 14.

He's gone around the Roman world. No, he hasn't. He's gone around and he has established churches.

You remember that first missionary enterprise, the most thrilling story that is there to be read in the Acts of the Apostles. Now, what does he do on the return leg of the journey? Well, you discover that he appoints elders and deacons in every church. Why? Well, because a church functions with its leadership.

And so the apostle is concerned to preserve order within the church. And he establishes these elders, these deacons. And you discover throughout the whole of the New Testament that when reference is made to church order, we are told to accept within certain provisos, the leadership that has emerged and its directives.

What are those provisos? Well, no man has a right to lord it over another man's faith. Dip into the second chapter just for a moment, will you? Here is Paul in the, sorry, the second epistle. Here is Paul at the end of the first chapter and he's referring to the fact that he intends on some future date to come to Corinth and to make some more correctives.

And yet even Paul with his apostolic authority makes this qualification, verse 24, not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy. Paul will come as an admonisher. He will come as an encourager.

He will not come as a tyrant. He will not come as a dictator. He will come in with the authority and also with the gentleness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that should be found within any leader whose desirous of helping a local church fellowship along. Let's go on a little further and you discover in the fourth chapter that the apostle is also making reference to leadership. And in the second verse he says, we have renounced secret and shameful ways.

We do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. A leader will never pervert the doctrines of grace. He will never manipulate the gospel of salvation to suit his own ends.

Go on into the sixth chapter and the third verse. We put no stumbling block in anyone's path. Here again the apostle is setting down certain provisos.

Check my life. I do not want to lord it over you. I will not in any way manipulate the gospel just so that it suits my own personal ends.

And in no way will I prevent or obscure anyone from making pace, from making progress in their spiritual life. You see, the leadership can be tested. And there are more tests that come later on in Corinthians, but those three examples will do just for the just for the moment.

What is the apostle doing? He is setting down the necessity of the Corinthian church recognizing a God-given leadership. And provided these men, three of whom have been named, exercise their ministries with regard to these restrictions, then they are to be followed. Why? Well, otherwise Corinthianism, the anarchy, the disorder will continue.

Now, Paul does not only make this comment here. You find other writers doing exactly the same. You take, for instance, the writer of the Hebrew epistle.

And in the last chapter of the epistle that he pens, he says in the 17th verse, obey your leaders. I believe that's exactly the same word as in Corinthians. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.

They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. You get a similar sort of comment in Peter when he writes in the second chapter of his first epistle and the 13th verse, speaking generally as well as specifically of society and of the church, submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men.

So let's go back to our starting point and draw certain conclusions together in my last three or four minutes. Here I say in 1 Corinthians 16, perhaps disguised, for you have to read it in depth to see the point, but when you locate it you discover that it was worth digging deep, is reference to two types of addiction. Here is a man who is addicted to the gospel.

Here is a man who is addicted to ministering to the needs of brothers and sisters who are in the church of Jesus Christ. And here ideally is a church that's addicted to, submissive to, the God-given authority that the Lord has granted to it. Now I argue this way, that both these addictions are not only interesting, they are absolutely necessary.

And so I'm personal. To what degree, now forget the person sitting alongside you, and forget the age group that you might find yourself in, the background from which you come. Let's just make this one assumption, that you belong to Jesus Christ, he's your Lord and Savior.

To what degree my friend, are you addicted to the ministry of the gospel, to the helping of the saints? You see, within evangelicalism we can so easily cop out, come along to the tab on a Sunday morning, or a similar constituted church, and listen to the gospel and sing three or four hymns, one of which might move you, or maybe a lot, and then you go back home, and that's it. That is not following Jesus Christ, not in the way that the New Testament describes it. That is not the addiction to which Stephanas finds himself submitting.

This is not the addiction of the apostle Paul. Our concern should be to use our home, to use our bank balance, to use our time, to use our friendliness in the service of Jesus, as we minister to others. And I want to ask you the question, to what extent are you doing this? You see, ministry is a multi-faceted sort of thing.

People refer to me as the minister of the tabernacle. I've warred against that term for 13 years, because I am not the minister of the tabernacle. I have one ministry within the tabernacle.

It's a multi-sided ministry. The lady who will come and help us with the communion preparation, the person who will get hold of the church prayer diary, and go through a list, and think, I don't know that person, I don't know the other person, I don't know that one, get on the telephone, or make some contact by letter, and say, will you come along and have a cup of coffee with me, and let's get to know one another, is operating in the name of the Lord Jesus, and is moving into an addiction, as far as fellowship is concerned. There are so many computations.

Do I have to belittle you to believe that you can't work it out yourself? Oh, let's come clean, my friends, sometimes. We hide under an evangelical front. I've got the doctrine.

I'll tell you, you'll not be judged just by what the doctrine you believe. You'll be judged by the life that has been stimulated through the belief in that doctrine, for living without, a doctrine without living is absolutely sounding brass and a clanging gong. There's no substance to it.

And then I want to ask you on the other front, what about submission to a leadership? A God-given leadership. Test the leadership, first of all. Test it scripturally.

Are there those who are trying to lord it over me? Those who are trying to be tyrannical? Those who are perverting the gospel? Those who are working for their own ends? Are the men, are the women involved in a large measure controlled by the New Testament and by the agape love of the Lord Jesus Christ? If my answers are positive in this area, then that is a leadership, tested by the scriptures, to which I submit. Well, how do you submit to a leadership in a church? My elders, I think, would tell you that I try to submit my ministry to them. I am not the pope of this church.

I am one of the leaders. And we share together last Friday evening, three hours or so, a great amount of it taken in prayer, working out church policy, endeavouring to correct ourselves where correction is necessary, personally, submitting to one another. And the deacons and the pastoral leaders and so on and so forth.

I say to you, as ordinary, if I dare use that term, as valuable members of our church fellowship here, to what extent are you accepting the directives of the leadership that is given? Because unless you are prepared to do this, it seems to me you are falling foul of what the apostle here has in mind when he is writing to the Corinthians. He does not want this church in anarchy. He wants it structured and orderly.

Not the structure of the clinic with everything in its right place and everything cold and frigid. No. He wants the structure of the Holy Spirit.

He wants the ministries of the Spirit. But he wants order within the spontaneity. He wants a sense of God within the disciplines of the ministry that God has given that church.

And so he congratulates Stephanas, the man who is addicted to the gospel of Christ and the service of the saints. And he commends him and those like him to the church and says, be addicted. Allow these people within the tests that have been put down to lead you and direct you in your church life.

My final comment. Here is the almighty apostle, the end of that 10th chapter of 1 Corinthians. And he says in the 31st verse, whatever you do, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

That's addiction made absolute. Whatever you do, wherever you're in church attendance, whatever you're engaged in during this next week, recognizing there's no distinction between the spiritual and the secular, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. I believe God is calling the fellowship at the tab to these twin addictions.

And may we see the benefits of such laudable addiction worked out in our fellowship for Jesus sake. Amen. Father, we expose our total personalities to the serum of your spirit.

And we would ask for a mighty injection of something of the love and the discipline, the courage and the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we see Him as our greatest example, and Calvary and the Resurrection as the greatest of twin challenges. And we ask that neath the shadow of the cross and the glory of the Resurrection morn, we might live out our short earthly lives before you, addicted to the service of the saints and to the advance of the message, and addicted in submission to one another and the working out of your purposes amongst us as a community.

And now may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit continue with us and until that great and glorious day when Jesus Christ returns or calls us from this life to be with Him. Amen.