Let's just read to verse 13. This is God's word. For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we entreat. We have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. That's how we read from God's word. Chapter four is about Christian leaders. We saw verses one to five, Christian leaders are faithful servants of Christ who have authority. Verses six through eight, that Christian leaders who fit the scriptural standard of leaders are examples who deserve to be followed but not to be placed on a pedestal. And now we turn to verses nine to 13, which shows us that Christian leaders who suffer mistreatment respond like Jesus responded. This chapter, in fact, the whole letter is one of contrasts. In the first three chapters, Paul would contrast wisdom with foolishness. And now he's contrasting how leaders are viewed by the world compared with how they're viewed by God. So the way I've set up the sermon outline, as you'll look in your bulletin, is how they are viewed by the world. In the train of the crucified Christ, here's how Christian leaders are viewed by the world. Number one, like a public show that is repulsive, yet somehow riveting. Verse nine. Secondly, the world views Christian leaders as dishonorable. not honored yet not left alone, actively dishonored, verse 10. And thirdly, how does the world view Christian leaders as those who must be openly vilified, reviled, and mistreated, verses 11 through 13. So first, like a public show, a repulsive public show yet somehow riveting, we'll read verse nine again. For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world. to angels and to men. If you look back at verse eight, you'll notice that Paul and his train of thinking was going from verse eight to verse nine, and he had just got done writing to the Christians in Corinth how the Christians saw themselves. They saw themselves, as verse eight says, as rich, filled, and ruling. Let me read verse eight. Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. Without us you have become kings, and would that you did reign so that we might share the rule with you. He's telling them how their thoughts are ridiculous, that they thought of themselves as rich, they thought of themselves as ruling like kings and filled, they have everything they want. In contrast, Paul now begins to present how he views himself, how he views an apostle, therefore how he views a Christian. He saw himself as the opposite. Instead of rich, poor. Instead of filled, emptied. Instead of ruling, last of all, powerless, on display for the world, for angels and to men to watch him be humiliated. Verse nine is Paul's rather creative way to show what apostles are like. What are apostles like? Paul's illustration here in verse nine is that apostles are like men sentenced to die while spectators watch for entertainment. Apostles are like men sentenced to die while spectators watch for entertainment. You know he's writing to the ancient city of Corinth, and that's within the Roman Empire days. And so this conjures up for them, even as it does for us, the Roman games, the Roman coliseums. In the ancient Roman world, they had stadiums, but they were not for calm, subdued sports. As rough as you think rugby is, or hockey, or boxing, They're subdued sports. The Romans had theaters, but they weren't for harmless plays. The Greeks had harmless plays when they would pretend they were stabbing someone. The Romans were actually stabbing people. The Romans' giant coliseums were built for and used for true brutality. That's what he's conjuring up here. The Romans would make a big show of first bringing in professional gladiators, the real battle-hardened men. Then they would bring in the Roman criminals and prisoners, prisoners of war. Perhaps they had conquered a country and they brought the prisoners of war home. They would be filing in next, and all would gather to the center of the giant arena, the ring of death. One gladiator would be chosen, one criminal would be chosen, and the two would commence fighting in the middle of the arena and continue fighting until one of them was dead. What does it have to do with Paul? What does it have to do with our study of Christian leaders in the fourth chapter here? The last one to enter the Colosseum were the people about to be killed, the prisoners of war, the criminals. Today's victim, today's scum, to borrow a word from verse 13. Who was it today? Look, says Paul, it's me. It's me, Paul, way from the stadium seats. Hi, it's me, Paul, I've arrived in the stadium last of all. He says, this is what an apostle is like. God has exhibited us apostles last of all, the last ones to enter the stadium, so you know they're in trouble. They're the ones who are to be today's show, today's victim, those to be killed today. Like men sentenced to death, he writes in verse nine. Paul says God was showing Paul, God was showing the apostles their place as a spectacle, a spectacle to the world. The language I'm using in my first point is it's repulsive, yet somehow riveting. You can't look away, it's a spectacle. You probably shouldn't be looking, but you can't look away, that sort of event. This is an event for the world to watch. In addition, the event had even the attention of the angels of God. angels watching in horror, humans gazing in glee. Paul wrote this because Paul was revealing something about how Christian leaders were treated and how they can be expect to be treated. And since we already know how Christ himself was treated, it really ought to be no surprise to us to read how Paul is saying that apostles will be treated. They beat Jesus. This full-on beat him up until, as you know from other messages, the legal height that they were allowed, 39 lashes, not 40. You could press charges with 40. They beat him as much as was legally allowed, and then they started the process of nailing him to the cruel Roman cross, hoisting him up on it until he did, in fact, pass. And lastly, They buried Jesus. So the apostles are those who are set apart, sent out by Jesus Christ to be his testimony, his witnesses to the world. What would they do to the apostles of Jesus? Answer, not much different than what they did to Jesus. These words, as we read and study just the first verse here, verse nine, already take us to the sufferings of Christ in our minds. So with all this, Paul now made a significant point about Christian leaders. It seems to Paul, he says, or I think, he writes, that God has put Paul and the other apostles on display, like men sentenced to die in arena while the world watches. What was it like to be an apostle in the ancient church in Corinth? It was like that savage arena. After the apostles preached Christ crucified, they themselves relived that cross experience that they preached. Because the city of Corinth was no more welcoming to the Christian message than our culture is today. In prior days, the Greeks had put on plays and performed stories in theater about conflicts and deaths with meaning, but just a show. The Greek plays had given way to the Roman Colosseum in which it wasn't pretend theater or actors. The Roman fights were real fights resulting in actual deaths where men literally fought to the death for an audience. And this is what we are to focus on as the experience of an apostle. The way the world looks at an apostle is he's only worth the entertainment of being killed while we watch. Was it like to be an apostle? You could say unwelcome in this world. Those who bring a message from Christ, a message from heaven, but it's not wanted. So if he's found, an apostle is found faithful, faithfully preaching Christ, it was a gruesomely difficult task at times. So the soft and easy message that the church in Corinth had begun to believe about itself in verse eight. We're rich, we've arrived, heaven is here, we're kings. All the errors that they were believing in verse eight were the promises of riches and power of the world. We're not to put our hopes in that, writes Paul. Rather, the hard and convicting message of Christ promises to us public embarrassment and even death for holding to the testimony of Christ and Him crucified to this world. It's how the world views the apostles. It's how the world views Christian leaders. It's how the world views Christians. It's our lot. It's instructive. It's important to keep this in mind. Secondly, how does the world view apostles? Point two, dishonorable. The world views apostles as dishonorable, therefore Christian leaders down to today as not honored. If only they'd leave us alone. But we're more than just to be ignored. We're not left alone. We're actively dishonored. Let me read verse 10. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. Here, Paul states three contrasts between true apostles of Christ and the false teachers of the ancient world of Corinth. Back to the topic of wisdom, which he had covered for three chapters, he says, we are fools, You are wise in Christ. If you're adopting the world's mentality, then you have to be seen as people who have something to contribute, seen as wise in Christ. But we, we're content to be fools, be seen as fools by the world. They don't want anything to do with any of our messages. His second category is weakness versus strength. He says, we are weak. We understand ourselves to be weak, that the world sees us as weak. That's how we're labeled. But you, you would like the city of Corinth to see you as strong, that the church community is very strong. This is what you're aiming at. And his third category is we are held in disrepute, that the world looks at us as not acceptable. but you are held in honor. Somehow you've gotten into the good graces of the people to be in the city of Corinth, the powers that be. You're held in honor among them. What a contrast between what the believers in Corinth were thinking and desiring and what Paul understood the calling of an apostle to be. calling of a Christian, the calling of one to follow a crucified Savior and what that is to be in relationship to the world. So we're back to our top question. What is a Christian leader? It's one who's willing to look like a fool instead of wise. It's one who's willing to look weak instead of looking strong. It's one who's willing to be held in disrepute by the world instead of being held in honor. by the world. Some say differently. Some have a different view than the Bible's view of Christian leadership. Some will say a leader is one who has followers. You're not a leader unless someone's following you, they'll say, right? The more followers, the better the leader. And so they say we only need to look at the numbers, look at the results, look at the production. How many followers does he have? We literally ask that on social media. How many followers? Is that what demonstrates for Christ and for Christians and for the apostles of Christ, a mature and obedient leader or follower? No. It's a different view here than what the world has. There's yet another view out there in the world. Other people say we ought not to even ask the question, what is a leader? These are people who don't want to evaluate at all. They don't want to judge at all. They don't want to take stock of anything. Conversely, there's yet more people who disagree and want to evaluate everything and render a complete verdict on every detail of the lives and words of every leader and evaluate all of it. When a Christian church begins to go in that direction, it becomes harsh and lacks mercy to overlook people's failings. But the error on the other side is accepting everyone as is. and overlooking any sin at all, even harmful actions and words that do harm the church. Again, going back to chapter 3, 17, where he's building on, if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy and you are that temple. So it can't be that we just overlook everything and it can't be that we nitpick everything. Paul has this biblical balance. So again, I ask, what's a church leader? What's a Christian leader? We have to come back to the Bible to not go beyond what is written as he wrote back in verse six. And the answer comes in words like grace. We don't earn or achieve the status of good anything. Everything that we have has come to us as a gift. He's been talking about that in this paragraph, the previous paragraph. The gospel of grace is that we accomplish nothing of eternal value apart from God empowering us and Him guiding us. If He empowers us, we can do permanent things for Him. Eternal value. It's built on grace. Grace means God gives us salvation in the first place. He gives us the gift of loving him, loving others. All ministry is built on grace. But secondly, what he's bringing out here with his whole Roman Colosseum idea is suffering, affliction for Christian leaders and for Christian followers. How Christians deal with suffering is very revealing. Too often, Christians fail to grasp that suffering and affliction are an expected and normal part of the Christian life. Forgetful Christians get reminded by watching the suffering in the everyday walk of their leaders. They see their leaders suffer, and they see how their leaders deal with that suffering, and they're reminded of the walk of Christ and the walk of the Christian. Suffering is inevitable. Suffering is essential. In fact, we learn many of the most significant lessons of our Christian walk through the times of suffering. Jesus himself had to suffer. The apostles had to suffer. Let's get used to the idea of all of us suffering. Suffering precedes glory. We're not yet in heaven. Another aspect of this is the relationship to the world that he's been talking about. We could call it persecution. How reluctant we are to accept that another indispensable part of the walk of a Christian is that we receive open criticism from the world, severe forms of pushback from the world for what we believe. We're called to stand, stand on scripture, stand on true doctrine, stand boldly, stand wisely for God's truth, and then accept whatever circumstances result. whatever consequences come. We happen to live in a society that speaks out very strongly against what it calls discrimination. Discrimination directed to certain groups. There's plenty who will stand up for women, for African Americans, for immigrants, for children, for people of Jewish descent, and for people with these letters. LGBTQ. There's lots of people who will stand up for folks in those groups, but what you'll find more and more is that in our society, discrimination against Christians, discrimination against Christian leaders, and railing against the ethical views of Christian churches seems to be fully acceptable in our society. So what's our response? Paul's talking about our response. It seems to me, says Paul, that God has put us on display. As those who are sentenced to death, we're going to be pummeled with it, perhaps even unto death. And that's our place. That's our calling. How does the world view us? Dishonorable, not honored, not left alone, actively dishonored. And that brings us to our third point, verses 11, 12, and 13. Let me read. To the present hour, we hunger and thirst. We're poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like. the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. Here in verse 11, Paul lists in rapid succession what it has meant for him to be an apostle these last 20 years. Here's some words, hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed, people beat him up, constantly on the move, nowhere to call home. And in verse 12, laboring and working a side job with his own hands. And Paul's whole point in making this list is taking up the calling of bringing the word of God to the Gentiles had caused Paul a lot of suffering. He had uncertainty. He had vulnerability. He often was made to feel like a fool and to experience weakness and was dishonored often and often publicly. And for Paul, it wasn't over yet. Verse 11, he says, to the present hour. It's still going on for Paul, even as he's writing this. Paul had been consistent and faithful in his task as an apostle. Here, Paul's describing how much the calling had cost him. Over in the second letter of the Corinthians, he'll circle back to this same topic, and in chapter six of 2 Corinthians, he writes further that he was beaten, imprisoned, endured riots, sleepless nights, hunger, afflictions, hardships, calamities, treated as an imposter, treated as a person being punished, possessing nothing, and ultimately dying. Paul's ministry of being a Christian leader, being an apostle was a time of suffering. Too often we use the word tent maker missionary and we kind of especially exalt missionaries, I suppose there's good in that, but when we say tent maker missionary, I think we glamorize Paul's job. Let me just quickly remind you, yeah, a tent maker, but a tent maker in the ancient world? You know, tents were made of leather, and I guess I need to remind us that fresh animal hides are where leather comes from, and when it's fresh, it doesn't smell that great. and it's exhausting work. On top of that, he did this at night, basically the night shift as we would call it, so that he could offer the gospel free of charge during the day. The people in that culture despised physical labor, so there was also this social shaming dynamic. Oh, he must not be much of a professor because he also has to work with his hands, can you imagine? That sort of idea in the culture in Corinth. But he did make leather tents with his own hands for a paycheck so that he could eat. Paul underwent a catalog of sufferings that we already said, and on top of that, he worked the night shift, he had a hard, stinky job, and was socially shamed for it. Paul walked the path of suffering, the path of Christ, the Latin via dolorosa, the pathway of suffering. It's like a repeat of Christ's own sufferings. It ought to be that way. He's following Christ. He's an apostle of Christ, sent out by Jesus. Whenever Paul opened his mouth to preach, it's like a replay of suffering. His preaching even received boos and heckles. Look at Paul as an example of how Christians are to respond to mistreatment. How did Paul respond? To the suffering, to the boos, to the heckling, in a Christ-like way. Well, what was that? He spells it out here in verse six. We could summarize by saying kindness. Verse 12, we labor, working with our own hands, we've covered, moving on. Verse 12 says, when reviled, we bless. We bless. You bless people who revile you? Paul tells us that there were occasions when he and the other apostles were reviled by the crowds. And Paul and the apostles didn't say, Well, if that's the way you're gonna be, then I withdraw the gospel, and you all can receive whatever God's gonna give you. which I think a lot of us, if we're honest, might be tempted to say to a crowd that's yelling at you, reviling you for trying to bring them the gospel and all this other suffering in order to do so as an apostolic missionary. But what we read here is significant in verse 12, that Paul and the apostles responded with a blessing to a reviling crowd. And when Paul and the other apostles were persecuted, the response was to put up with it, to endure is the word used here. And in any instance in which an apostle was slandered or vilified, he retorted with what? Gentleness, peacemaking words. He said we entreat here in verse 13. Apostles of Christ had become followers of Christ himself. They're looking more and more like Jesus. In fact, later as Peter writes it out, 1 Peter 2, 21 to 22 says this, to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. An example of what? Specifically mentioned there is suffering. Christ suffered for you, leaving you as an example. An example of suffering is Jesus himself. Another example of suffering is Paul. Other examples of suffering, all the apostles, and the apostles, like Jesus, did no complaining. The apostles never lied to get out of being reviled. The apostles never shouted back at their persecutors. Rather, the apostles patiently and silently submitted to the mistreatment with a contented spirit. They made no threats, no expressions of rage and hatred. Who does that sound like? When Christ Jesus was mistreated, what was his response? Peter goes on to say in the next verse from where I just read, 1 Peter 2, now to verse 23, When Christ was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly, 1 Peter 2, 23. And we get proof of that by Luke and Luke 23, 34, even from the cross. While on the cross, Jesus prayed, Father, Forgive them. A lot of us might have prayed for lightning bolts. This is really incredible. Father, forgive them while he's nailed to the tree. That's our path. Did Paul know the viewpoint of those who mistreated Paul? Oh yeah, he spelled it out pretty clearly here. He knew exactly how they viewed him. Our text today here in verse 13, Paul answered, we have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. If we had a reporter here from the Wall Street Journal, what might they say if they said anything in their article about this worship service? We understand how the world views us. Paul understood how the world viewed him, right? Scum of the world, refuse, what are these words? If you scrape the bottom of your barn boots after you've worked a good couple hours in the barn, whatever you scrape off your boots, that's this word scum. We have become and are still like the scum of the world. The filth that you scrape off of something. The things that you sweep up when you sweep up the barn floor, that's this next word refuse, the refuse of all things. Paul understood it clearly. What does it mean? It means that Paul is a missionary whose message was not welcome. When he preached to Jews, the Jews didn't want to hear what Paul had to say. He preached to Gentiles, the Gentiles didn't hear what Paul had to say. If he preached to the Romans, he was unwelcome. If he preached to the Corinthians, he was unwelcome. It's only by God's grace that some people responded and a church was formed by Christ in Corinth. In these last 2,000 years, as this set of verses we've just studied has been in the Bible, and the Bible is always the best-selling book, and missionaries read it, go around the world to proclaim this message. In these last 2,000 years of building the church and sending missionaries out, the sufferings and rejection of pioneering missionaries sound a lot like this. You could read about it. Helpful to read church history. It's helpful to read missionary efforts. Missionaries so often have undergone personal losses, bypassed many creature comforts in order to bring the news of spiritual life to those spiritually dead. And in the case of Corinth, Paul was the initial missionary. the first one to arrive at Corinth on God's call and bring them the gospel. He came to people who were already committed to this world's wisdom, people who looked at him as we've just described. You look like scum to me, if they'd be honest and say it out loud. They have no interest in what he has to say. They thought that they were kings, verse eight. They believed that they had reached a good place without the Apostle Paul. And this was even after some had been impacted by the gospel message. They believed that they had reached a good place without him. They were on top of the world. Paul's on the bottom of the world. He's the lowest, most afflicted of persons. Where are we? I mean, we've presented this, we've studied the passage, we're wrapping it up. Where are we? What are we willing to endure for Christ? What are we called to do as Christians and even Christian leaders? When Paul the Apostle suffered so much for Christ, Paul considered his place as a Christian leader was the cause of him receiving ridicule, hatred, verbal abuse, physical abuse, to use terms we use today, with the possibility of death. That's a pretty high commitment. That's a pretty rough audience. That's a difficult pathway. We so often glamorize the apostles and serving Christ and being a missionary. It's very glorious, it's important work. But we're being asked by God to understand the relationship to the world and the train of the crucified Christ. Here's how Christian leaders are viewed by the world, like a public show, as repulsive, somehow riveting, dishonored, not left alone, actively dishonored, those who must be openly vilified, reviled, and mistreated. So my conclusion is this. To be a Christian leader is a calling to be humble like Christ, to be willing to be considered a fool for our service to Christ, which is, in fact, wisdom. But you get treated like a fool. To recognize our weakness and so to rely on Christ and His strength. Think of it this way, if you look back over the 2000 years, if you look around the world, just in your lifetime, have you noticed that countries that have persecution, countries that have hardships, areas of poverty and corruption, have an increase in church involvement and membership? While countries that are surrounded by financial ease and comfort tend to forget the history of the Christian church, the demands of Christ on our lives. And put it this way, if it's not too blunt to say it, rich, comfortable Christians tend to lose their love of Christ. Christ himself endured affliction and reproach. The apostles of Christ endured affliction and reproach. What must Christian leaders and Christians themselves be willing to do? endure affliction and reproach. Let's pray. Father, humble us, meet us.