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- Jesus demonstrated that like in the Old Testament when God fed the people with quail and manna that he could still take care of the physical needs of his people. This time with fish and bread.
- Even though God expects us to work for our own food and provide for ourselves… when that fails he is there for us.
God sometimes uses his people to take care of the physical needs of his people, i.e. the daily ministration in Acts 6.
- Even the disciples doubted Jesus ability to feed the people. They wanted to send them away.
Satan had more faith than the disciples. He knew that Jesus could turn rocks into bread.
- Jesus can provide for all the needs of his people. He can make peace between us and God, he can cure our illnesses, he can feed us and he can protect us from Satan.
The first six chapters of 1 Corinthians identify three cases of rampant sin going on within the congregation; Jealousy and strife in regards to following religious teachers, Sexual impropriety and Christians going to court with each other before Pagan judges.
It’s a big problem because the unity among Christians is the primary evidence to the deity of Jesus Christ (John 17). The church is supposed to be a shining beacon of righteousness to attract the spiritually sick of the world. The Corinthians were failing.
Paul admonishes (1 Cor. 4:14) them for these sins. Let’s look at his method as concerning the sin of their “Jealousy and strife”.
- Paul identifies the sin… “I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas, I follow Christ”
- He identifies the preposterousness of the sin… “Is Christ divided?”
- He reminds them of their lowly station in life when they were called to be Christians and asks them how they became so smart as to elevate themselves over each other.
- He absolves himself of guilt, recounting how he presented the Gospel message to them.
- He assigns guilt to two groups of people; The Corinthian Christians because they were perpetual spiritual infants, i.e. not growing in the word (3:1-3) and those teachers who he left behind to help them develop (3:12-14).
- He identifies for them the full extent of their sin… they had judged Paul, an Apostle of God, to be inferior to their other teachers. (4:3)
- Finally he charges them not to “boast in men” but to “boast in the Lord”.
The Corinthian Christians had made a horrible mess of things. They thought they were spiritual giants but were instead spiritual infants. Paul was not ready to pull their spiritual lifeline. He knew the proper medicine for their illness was admonishment. Let’s not fail to admonish and do so in an effective manner. Otherwise a spiritual sickness, untreated, may lead to a spiritual death.
Every once in a while when I’m stopped at a traffic light I’ll see a cattle trailer stuffed with cattle headed for Sam Kane’s slaughter plant and it makes me a little sad because…. I know where they’ve been and I know where they’re headed.
Prior to my occupation as a Veterinarian I did part time ranch work. We would put out feed, move cattle around to different pastures, etc. About twice a year we would gather the cattle on horseback and separate out the ones to go back on pasture and crowd the others on to cattle trucks to go to slaughter.
Of course I’ve had the occasion to work in slaughter houses as well and seen these gentle creatures pushed through chutes and a bullet or “captive bolt” put into their brains and seen their processed carcasses end up in deathly quiet freezer lockers. These cattle factories of death are stream lined and efficient.
It sort of reminds me of what happened to Jesus… that kind and gentle soul who walked the countryside of Judea and touched the lives of everyone he interacted with until the Jewish leaders decided his time was up and gathered him out of the Garden of Gethsemane and delivered him to the Roman death factory.
Just like the workers in a cattle slaughter house the Roman soldiers had developed an institutionalized art and method for the killing of people. It started with a process of shaming and physical abuse until the victim was half dead and the driving of iron nails through the hands and feet fixing the poor creature to a timbered cross. All in a day’s work for Roman soldiers. They were stream lined and efficient.
Of course their purpose was not only to administer the death penalty but to do it in such a horrible manner that it would stun the observers into submissiveness.
When I see cattle trucks loaded with cattle I’m saddened because I know what awaits these gentle creatures and when I take the Lord’s Supper I’m reminded of the Roman death factory that brutalized and killed my gentle friend and savior Jesus.
One of the reasons Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper was so that we (Christians) could collectively remember him. For the last 47 years of my life, with few exceptions, I have done that every Sunday. It’s sad but… it’s good for me. If you have been neglecting the Lord’s Supper or just taking it casually it’s time to correct that. We all need Christ’s sacrifice and we all need to remember it by taking of the Lord’s Supper.
The Apostle Paul had a trump card he could play. He was a Roman citizen by birth and as such could not be arbitrarily bound up or scourged or treated with brutality like those who were not citizens.
What’s interesting to me is that Paul didn’t always play his trump card. Of course he did in Acts 22 when the Roman Tribune, Claudius Lysias, was about to have him “scourged”. But in Acts 16 he didn’t. He allowed himself stripped of his clothes, beaten with rods, thrown into prison and bound in the “stocks”. All he had to do to prevent all of that was to say the simple words… “I’m a Roman citizen”.
So on one occasion he played his trump card and on another occasion he did not. I wonder why?
Let me suggest this, in Acts 16, Paul needed to be beat up and imprisoned so the Philippian Jailor and his family could be saved. He gave up his rights as a Roman citizen and allowed himself to be brutally beaten so he could save a man and his family.
In Acts 22 he had another mission that required him to use his rights as a Roman citizen. His mission was to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ to the Roman Caesar and a simple Jew could not do that. Only a Roman citizen could.
Sometimes it’s good to use our rights but at other times we need to give them up and the determining factor in that decision making process is which choice advances the cause of Christ? Choose wisely.
I don’t know when my mom started getting old but one day I noticed her moving slower and being quieter and just kind of being content being in the back ground and that’s not my mom. Since that time I find myself thinking about her all the time and dreading the day that I won’t have her anymore. I guess that realization has caused some changes in me. I find myself calling her a lot more. I found out she talked on the phone to her sister every day so I decided what’s important to mom is also important to me so now one of my routines is to call aunt Missie on a regular basis and visit with her. I’ve learned a lot about my mom from her sister.
Aunt Missie told me the other day that mom was the smartest of the three siblings. When I told mom that she said no aunt Missie is the smartest… they love each other. I feel sorry for which ever one lives the longest. There is no joy in being the last one alive.
The other day Mom was down visiting and after supper she was in the kitchen helping clean up and my oldest grandchild (5 years old in a month) went in to the kitchen and told her “grandma, come play with us … we hardly ever get to see you”. Then on the way home Victoria asked my son and his wife where my mom lived and could she maybe come to Corpus Christi and live with them. I can’t tell you how much I love my granddaughter for making my mother feel so loved.
I am who I am today because my mother is who she is and I know that fact well. There will be a day when she’s gone and I can’t see her anymore or talk to her or share things with her but until that day comes I’m going to make the rest of her days as special as I can. Thanks Mom for everything.
There’s an old joke I love to tell about what the smallest sin in the Bible is. It falls flat on people with superficial Bible knowledge so I usually like to tell it to those who seem to have an in depth knowledge of the Bible… Preachers and church goers and such-like. Oh yeah, the punch line? “Flea fornication”… that is small, very small.
The reality is that the sin of fornication is huge in the Bible. It is constantly spoken against… much more than murder for instance. The reason? Because it is so prevalent in all generations of people.
Sexual intercourse is, of course, a very pleasurable activity. However, it has its greatest pleasure when it is set aside as a special thing, an intimacy that is reserved for a very special person… a spouse.
For some people sexual intercourse is like shaking hands… they’ll shake hands with anyone and it becomes so common that it loses its true value. It even has different names to make it sound better like “we’re together” and a “trial marriage”. You can call it whatever you want to. God calls it fornication and punishes people for it.
Let fleas fornicate… the rest of us should flee from it.
As Christians we are in a gigantic Chess game playing for the souls of others. When we are trying to help some lost individual who reaches out to us and along the course of the “game” they respond with anger or rejection we are all too ready to give up and think… game over I did my best and they rejected my pearls of wisdom they are pigs and I’m a true son of God.
When the reality is that Satan has blocked our “Pawn” with a “Castle” and the game is still on and we still have numerous plays and still have the most powerful player on the board… the “Queen”.
In the battle for lost souls don’t be defeated by rejection, insults or perceived slights. Those are Satan’s weapons and against a seasoned warrior for Christ are weak… unless we make them bigger than they are. We’re in a big Chess game with Satan. Make a move. Just because Satan takes your pawn doesn’t mean the game is over.
