Should We Brag About Our Favorite Teachers?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Pastor John, we as humans like to share things.
00:00:06.960 | We're wired to share and rejoice in great things,
00:00:09.520 | but what would you say to someone
00:00:10.860 | who has a favorite Bible teacher
00:00:12.440 | and they love to boast and brag
00:00:13.860 | about that certain Bible teacher?
00:00:15.440 | What would you say to someone who has this tendency?
00:00:17.640 | - 1 Corinthians 3, 21 to 23,
00:00:21.120 | stopped me dead in my tracks or alive in my tracks.
00:00:25.040 | Again, as I was meditating the other day,
00:00:28.700 | it's simply staggering.
00:00:30.400 | I mean, I don't think, well, there may be,
00:00:33.920 | but I can't think of another passage of the Bible
00:00:38.300 | concerning the standing or the position
00:00:41.840 | or the wealth or the privilege of the children of God
00:00:46.840 | in the universe than this one.
00:00:50.600 | But before I read it, let me set the stage
00:00:53.840 | that I was reading it in.
00:00:56.440 | I know and am reminded every time I read
00:00:59.460 | through 1 Corinthians, which I am again right now,
00:01:02.180 | that what got this book started was that the church
00:01:06.300 | was being divided by boasting in their favorite teachers.
00:01:11.300 | Chapter one, verse 12, I follow Paul, I follow Apollos,
00:01:16.220 | I follow Cephas, I follow Christ,
00:01:18.980 | I'm better than all you jerks
00:01:20.900 | who only look at human teachers.
00:01:24.100 | And Paul spends the first four chapters at least
00:01:28.780 | working against this boasting, this pride that he sees
00:01:32.700 | in these factions that are breaking out.
00:01:35.420 | And he gives numerous arguments.
00:01:38.220 | For example, chapter three, verse six,
00:01:40.660 | I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
00:01:45.660 | So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything
00:01:49.460 | but only God who gives the growth.
00:01:50.900 | So why are you picking up on Apollos and Paul
00:01:54.060 | and exalting us and yourselves in us
00:01:58.180 | when God is the one who's giving the growth?
00:02:00.580 | And if we have any fruitfulness or effectiveness
00:02:03.720 | that's different from the other,
00:02:05.860 | then it's owing to God and not to us.
00:02:08.540 | So that's the kind of argument he's giving here
00:02:11.140 | in these chapters.
00:02:12.740 | And then the most amazing argument of all,
00:02:15.940 | the one that stopped me in my tracks,
00:02:18.700 | was chapter 321, where he says,
00:02:21.700 | let no one boast in men for all things are yours.
00:02:26.700 | I mean, just ponder that argument.
00:02:30.020 | And then he fills it out.
00:02:31.420 | Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas,
00:02:34.740 | so you know he's relating to that issue again,
00:02:37.340 | or the world or life or death or the present or the future,
00:02:40.860 | all are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's.
00:02:45.860 | So Paul must have felt that the reason,
00:02:51.180 | one of the reasons at least, that we boast in men,
00:02:54.420 | that we grab ahold of our favorite teacher
00:02:58.380 | and have a vicarious self-exaltation in his primacy,
00:03:03.380 | one of the reasons we do that sort of thing
00:03:07.860 | is because we have a needy ego
00:03:11.060 | that's trying to shore up its significance,
00:03:14.020 | shore up its power, its shrewdness, its intelligence,
00:03:17.740 | some kind of lack we feel in our significance.
00:03:22.740 | And Paul is saying, look,
00:03:25.700 | consider for a moment who you are.
00:03:31.000 | The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
00:03:34.780 | that we are the children of God.
00:03:36.800 | And if children, then heirs, heirs of God.
00:03:41.060 | And what does God own?
00:03:42.300 | Everything.
00:03:44.220 | And so why would you boast in men
00:03:47.420 | when all things are yours?
00:03:50.460 | So it's a paradoxical kind of argument
00:03:54.360 | because you might think if a person starts to think
00:03:58.060 | that they're the child of God
00:03:59.620 | and that they're coming into the possession
00:04:02.880 | of the whole world as their rightful inheritance,
00:04:06.580 | that they would be proud and therefore boast.
00:04:09.300 | And he said, no, it doesn't have that effect.
00:04:12.300 | It removes the need to boast among men.
00:04:15.500 | And in fact, it produces humility and servanthood.
00:04:20.420 | All things are yours.
00:04:21.700 | The world is yours.
00:04:22.700 | Life and death are yours.
00:04:24.020 | Everything is yours.
00:04:25.060 | And what does it do?
00:04:26.100 | Chapter three, verse five.
00:04:27.460 | What is Paul?
00:04:28.300 | What is Paul's?
00:04:29.260 | Servants through whom you believe.
00:04:32.500 | In other words, the life we can live, Tony,
00:04:37.100 | that I see in this verse is an utter, amazed,
00:04:41.500 | peaceful, confident life
00:04:44.140 | that everything in the universe is coming to us.
00:04:47.700 | It's coming very soon, soon for John Piper.
00:04:51.120 | So let's join Jesus as servants of all.
00:04:55.740 | No boasting in man, trusting Jesus,
00:04:59.500 | savoring our reward that's coming, serving all.
00:05:03.740 | It's just an incredible way to live.
00:05:06.580 | - Yes, it is.
00:05:07.420 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:05:08.240 | And thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:05:09.260 | Email your questions to us
00:05:10.500 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:05:12.620 | Visit us online at desiringgod.org
00:05:14.740 | to find thousands of books, articles, sermons,
00:05:16.700 | and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.
00:05:19.620 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:05:20.460 | Thanks for listening.
00:05:21.460 | (upbeat music)
00:05:24.040 | (upbeat music)
00:05:26.620 | [BLANK_AUDIO]