WHO AM I IN GOD’S MINISTRY?
BIBLE PASSAGE: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:26-31; 1 SAMUEL 3: 12-13,18
Picture taken from Google
Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of
Solomon’s Wisdom FB page
Lesson
ideas taken from: https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons
JUNE 06, 2021
MEMORY VERSE
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1 CORINTHIANS 1:26
INTRODUCTION:
Aren’t you thankful that you,
at this present time, you are involved in the ministry? Or you see it a
responsibility and becomes a burden? Does God owe us for doing this? I remember
the time I was planning to resign in my present work and to be in full time
ministry; I remember the verse that touched my heart. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where
I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father
honour (John 12:26). It’s been 30
years of God’s guidance in my life and ministry. Not all of us are involved in
the ministry. Some of us would say, “I am not fit in the ministry”. The time you are added in the body of Christ,
you are member of the body. For as the body is one, and hath many members,
and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is
Christ. God added you not for doing nothing;
you have a purpose, “But now
hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say,
Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the
body? (1 Cor.12:12-15). So you see, every
members of the body are important in God’s vineyard.
Let’s try to count and reminisce the years we
have in the ministry. “How long have you been in the ministry?” (wait for
responses). Sometimes a long time Christians have tendency to be out of focus
because they already knew the system, process on how the ministry goes. Then
they become insensitive to God’s correction and guidance. If you come to a point that you’ve started to
count your accomplishments, beware! Remember don’t count the years of staying
in the ministry but instead count the years God’s been faithful to you.
LESSON OUTLINE:
1. I AM FOOL AND WEAK (1 CORINTHIANS
1:26)
For ye see
your calling, brethren, how that not
many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble, are
called:
Let’s try to reflect on who we are. Paul reminds the
Corinthians who they were—not wise, not mighty, not noble. See or consider your calling–not many wise,
not many mighty, not many noble. Here’s who you were–you were foolish, you were
weak, you were base/despised.
Am I fool or weak? We can say, YES!
We can only become valuable because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Does it mean, God
doesn’t call rich people? It doesn’t mean that way. Even if
you were smart or rich or powerful, God saved you in spite of that, not because
of that. There is nothing in you that was appealing to God. And even now, what
makes you appealing to God is only Jesus. His righteousness in you is what
makes you acceptable to God.
When Paul
says “not many”, he is saying
something. He is implying that there were a few wise, rich, powerful Christians
in Corinth. He does sometimes save the rich. “It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than [what?] for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of God.”
God chose to do His work
through people who were, from the human point of view, the most unpromising. So
when Paul says, “Consider your calling,” he wants you to remember that nothing commends you
to God. You were not called for what God knew of you. Ephesians 2:8 to 9, “For by grace
you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Then in 2 Timothy 1:9, “God has saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all
eternity.” God’s Word is clear, again
and again. He saved us despite us, not because of us. Not as a result of works.
Not as a result of who you are, but according to His own purpose and grace.
Last Sunday, we tried to compare
our lives before and we can say that we are truly transformed and blessed by
GOD.
2. WHATEVER MY POSITION AND INTELLECT,
GOD CHOSE ME (1 COR. 1:27-28)
27 But God hath
chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
28 And base things
of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
When we do evaluation in
choosing the right player in baseball, whom do you choose? We will choose
players who can hit and throw a ball, right? We will go after the strong
players. We won’t choose the weak but in God’s vineyard, God chooses the
opposite. Consider the calling of the disciples. Most of them are fishermen,
others are into business, merchant and one disciple was in the family of tax
gatherer. Most of them had not something to do in the society; they were not
noble. They were ordinary people but God chose them.
“But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the
wise;” Most of the wise think the cross is pure foolishness. They think
that all their questions must be answered to their satisfaction. The strong
think they are powerful enough without God. They are content with what this
world offers them. The noble thinks its degrading to hope in a crucified,
criminalized God.
Revelation 3:17,
“You say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’
and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and
naked.” Now I don’t know how you think of yourself. Maybe you consider
yourself foolish, weak, wretched and miserable. Now that we are already
Christians, we can say before that we are foolish at some point that we don’t
know the truth. We’re weak because we can’t fight the enemy. Bible says,
“Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” We’re wretched
because our hope is in the things that we can see. We’re miserable because we
were doomed to hell and no direction of life.
However, you think of yourself, no matter what others think of you,
whatever your position and intellect, God chose you despite who you are and for
a particular purpose. We see it in the text. Verse 27, “God chose the
foolish to confound (shame) the wise.” Verse 27, “God chose the weak to confound
(shame) the strong.” Verse 28, “God chose those who are despised (nothing)
to nullify those who are something.”
Aren’t we thankful?
3. I HAVE NOTHING TO BOAST (1 COR. 1:29)
That no flesh should glory in his presence.
Sometimes when God
starts to work in our life, we begin to think that we are wonderful. You see
yourself have accomplished so many things.
God
looks down from Heaven and says, “I made the universe, and you can’t stop the
common cold. I can get stuff done without you. I don’t need you to be on my
team, but I’ll choose you for my team
because I love you.” And so God chooses a rich person and a bunch of poor
people, and sometimes a smart person and often a simple person. And they’re
young and old, black, white, brown, homeowners, renters and homeless–God
chooses all kinds of people.
But
here’s how He describes them in verse 28, “The base things of the world and
the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not.” It’s summed up in
the description of verse 28, the nothings. Nothings–those who are regarded as
if they do not exist. Feeling built up? God is there for your self-esteem.” God has
chosen you, the things that are not–literally, those without being. The
nothings.
In
Paul’s time, who you were was very important. To the Greeks, to be called a
nothing–to lack being was the worst insult. Paul wants you to realize who you
are before God. You are nothing. There’s nothing that commends you to God. But
you see why He did this, right? He says it over and over in verse 27 to 28–to
shut the mouth of the world.
He will use fools like me
to shame the wise. He will use weak people like you to shame the strong. He
will use the low and despised to shame the powerful. Verse 28, “So that no
man may boast before God.” The wise man has nothing more to boast about
than the fool. The socially hot has nothing more to boast about than the
socially awkward. No one can boast.
Most of us want to brag. We want to boast of what we’ve done. We all
want others to respect and appreciate us. We may show it in weird ways–in
marriage, in families, in school, in work, on Facebook, everywhere. But a right
view of yourself will shut down all such boasting.
Isaiah 10:15,
“Is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it? Is the saw to
exalt itself over the one who wields it?”
Isaiah 29:16,
“You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the
clay, that what is made would say to its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or what
is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” Such
boasting is more than just foolish. Boasting in yourself is hated by God.
Later
in Isaiah, God says this. Isaiah 42:8,
“I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another.”
When you boast, you are taking God’s glory as praise for yourself. We make much
of degrees, jobs, possessions, skills, beauty, friends and networking. God
needs none of this and thinks little of it.
Consider this–according to God, the greatest man who ever lived, apart
from Jesus, was John the Baptist. He had no formal education, no training in a trade or profession, no
money, no military rank, no political position, no social pedigree, no
prestige, no impressive appearance or oratory. And Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, among those born
of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).
This
man fit none of the world’s standards but all of God’s. We often value the
wrong things. We want to grow, we want to achieve, we want to have something to
boast about. After all, what did John
the Baptist say & do? John 3:30, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” This
is the life statement of the greatest man who ever lived–more of Jesus and less
of us is what we’re to be about.
Boasting in ourselves is the exact opposite of that. When you brag, when
you tell others of something great you did, when you long for the approval of
people, when you’re tempted to compare yourself to others, when you are looking
at your friend’s account on Facebook, or how many liked your picture–when you
think you’re hot, know that you will appear before God and have nothing to
boast about. Why did God choose you then? He
chose you, the nothing, so that the great things He does through you will be
attributable to God and not man.
Verses 30 & 31 say, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” Here is the whole point of the
passage. The reason why you are nothing . . . the reason why God chose
you . . . the reason why no man can boast. It is not that we should be silent.
It is so that we boast in the Lord, and not ourselves. This is the most urgent
command of everything Paul says here–boast in the Lord. The only thing you have worth boasting in is God.
CONLUSION:
1 Timothy 1:12
says, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he
counted me faithful, putting me into the
ministry;” Always remember that God has a power to put you in the ministry
and also, He has power to take you down. Let’s read 1 Samuel 3:12, “In that day I will perform against Eli all things
which I have spoken concerning his house: when
I begin, I will also make an end.” Sad to say that when God put you in the ministry,
you ended up not so well.
(The next explanations taken from http://www.prca.org/sermons/1samuel2.27-36.html)
Eli was of the
priestly house of Aaron (I Samuel 2: 27,28). According to I Chronicles 24:1 Aaron had four sons- Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar,
and Ithamar. Nadab and Abihu were killed by the Lord for their offering of
strange fire on God's altar. Numbers 3:4 and Leviticus 10 record
this incident which occurred in the wilderness of Sinai. Nadab and Abihu were
cut off to such a degree that they had no offspring that survived. The line of
the priesthood of Aaron was continued through his other two sons, Eleazar and
Ithamar.
After the death
of Aaron the high priestly office was filled by Eleazar, but later was
transferred, for a reason not revealed, to the house of Ithamar. Eli was a
descendant of Ithamar. I Chronicles 24:4 records that there were 16 sons of Eleazar
and 8 sons of Ithamar. The line of Eleazar continued through Zadok, the
faithful priest, unbroken till the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ,
according to prophecy, was not a priest after the order of Aaron, but rather a
priest after the order of Melchizedek, testifying of Christ's eternal
priesthood. God preserved only one line faithful through the generations.
Our text
conveys the reason why the line of Ithamar was cut off. "I will cut of
thine arm, and the arm of thy Father's house" (I Samuel 2:31). God's anger
is expressed toward both Eli's household and his descendants, as well as
against the whole of his father's household, all Ithamar's seed. There is
scriptural ground for understanding Eli's father's house as going all the way
back to Ithamar, and including all the descendants of Ithamar.
The house of
Ithamar was considerably smaller than that of Eleazar. The curse of God was
operative throughout the seed of Ithamar. Eli's cousins were in active service
in Shiloh and later at Nob. Both of these groups were also involved in
disobedience to God and experienced God's judgment. Bible history records the
house of Eli and Ithamar being cut off completely. I Samuel 4 records
that Eli's two sons were killed in battle. After Eli's death the Philistines
came to Shiloh and murdered the priests, all descendants of Ithamar serving
under Eli, who was the high priest. Psalm 78 speaks of
this massacre in verse 60 and 64: "So that he forsook the tabernacle of
Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men. . . Their priests fell by the
sword; and their widows made no lamentation." Ahitub, the brother of
Ichabod, son of Phinehas is read of in I Samuel 14:3.
The next
slaughter was by Saul in his frenzy after David had been given the show bread
by priest Ahimelech, Eli's great-grandson, in Nob (I Samuel 21, 22). Saul was
furious and he commands the high priest and his colleagues to answer to the
charge of conspiracy against the king. Doeg the Edomite killed 85 of the
priests, then went to Nob and killed everything that breathed. Only one
escaped, Abiathar, who went with David. But later on when David was old this
Abiathar and his son Ahimelech supported Adonijah who wanted to be king, and
Solomon thrust Abiathar out. We read at that time in I Kings 2:27 -
"So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD that he
might fulfil the word of the Lord which he spake concerning the house of Eli in
Shiloh."
The priesthood
of Shiloh was an unfaithful priesthood. It would seem quite remarkable if only
Eli's sons were involved in wickedness. The other priests were involved in the
same corruption and they were unwilling to condemn the two priests. The
priesthood of Ithamar was permitting the priests to do with Israel's sacrifices
as they pleased. The curse of God upon Eli, therefore, was also on his father's
house, the house of Ithamar, and involved the entire house being cut off from
the position of high priest and priest in Israel.
We read here
God's word concerning this disobedience: "The man of thine, whom I shall
not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve
thine heart" (I Samuel 2: 33). Those who
would be allowed to live would be a disgrace and source of continual grief.
They would plead to be priests merely in order to be fed (verse 36). Their
heart would be motivated by selfishness, and not at all by love for God. Eli
would be the last of the faithful priesthood from Ithamar. There would be no
organized priesthood again after Eli, and certainly not after the slaying of
the priests at Nob. Eli's house was cut off.
1 Samuel
3: 13,18 say, “For I have
told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he
knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing
from him. And he said, It is the Lord: let
him do what seemeth him good.” Eli’s
house was cut off in the ministry and this might be a reminder of every one of
us that God has power to put you in the ministry and also has the power to take
you down. Eli’s priesthood ministry ended up not so well because his sons made
themselves vile and Eli restrained them not. Another reminder in verse 1, “And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before
Eli. And the word of the Lord was
precious in those days; there was no open vision.” Because of sin,
God didn’t give His word to the priest for so long. What this lesson implies to
me? In the ministry, it’s not how smart, how talented, how educated you are.
God looks at the heart! Eli and his house had tragic end and this lesson might
give us the goal to achieve what is written in Matthew 25: 21. It says, “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and
faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee
ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”
