Christ Methodist Church Memphis
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Christ Methodist Church Memphis
The Role of Spiritual Mothers and Fathers
What if being a spiritual parent mattered more than being a persuasive guide? Discover why Paul says the kingdom is about power—not talk—and how your life might be the example someone else needs.
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In this message from 1 Corinthians 4:14–21, Pastor Josh Landon explores Paul’s role as a spiritual father to the Corinthian church. He contrasts guides with godly parents, critiques hollow eloquence, and highlights that real kingdom power is found in transformed lives—not talk. The call is clear: imitate Christ, invest in others, and reconnect to the power of the Holy Spirit.
[0:17] Today, we will continue in our study through the book of 1 Corinthians.
[0:21] Please turn with me in your Bibles to chapter 4. We'll be reading verses 14 through 21, which says, I do not write these things to you to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power. Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness? This is the Word of God for the people of God.
[1:19] Well, good morning and welcome to Church Church. It is so good to be with you here. My name is Josh Landon, and I have the honor and the privilege of serving as our executive pastor here at Christ Methodist Church in Memphis. I want to thank Amber and Perry and the choir and Dr. Smedley for leading us in worship thus far. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what we do not know, teach us. And Lord, what we do not have, give us.
[1:46] And God, what we are not, make us. For your son's sake. Amen. This section that Amber just read is the end of chapter four. Of course, those chapters are kind of later divisions that we've put into the Bible. But Paul is, it is marking the end of a section of his writing. And so it is a natural break here at the end of chapter four. But this is ending the section on divisions and dissensions. How the church is sort of splitting up there in Corinth. And how they're beginning to sink. In the immediate prior section that Pastor Paul taught on two weeks ago, by the way, Pastor Paul is in Africa and he is on his way back, I believe. I don't know his exact itinerary, but if he's not on his way back, he'll be back soon and be with us again in the office this week and then here in the pulpit next week. But the passage that we taught on two weeks ago, Paul ends it with some sarcasm. You remember, he's kind of biting. He's kind of mean there. He's talking about the servants and the stewards of God's mysteries. That's what we're supposed to be and living a life that looks like Christ, living a life that to the world looks foolish, but that is the way of the cross. And that's what God is calling us to. And so here at the end of chapter four, he pulls back a little bit and he changes his tone because what is important is not just what he says, but how he says it and why he says it.
[3:15] And so he changes his tone. And he says in chapter 14, or verse 14, I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
[3:36] You don't have many guides. Your version may say you don't have many teachers, or you do have many teachers, but you only have one father. I think back to my own teachers. I think about Ms. Voles. She was my kindergarten teacher. My kindergarten class had 52 kids in it. I don't know what happened. We had a big room. We had one teacher. We had four aides. So there were five adults in the room. But Ms. Voles told me about letters and numbers. And in third grade, I went to Ms. Souther's class. And Ms. Souther taught me about multiplication and state capitals. Is Springfield, not Chicago, and Harrisburg, not Philadelphia. I never missed Oklahoma or Indiana. I always got those right, 100% on those two. And then we had Ms. Boggs for algebra and Ms. Owens for chemistry and Ms. Harper for literature. Dozens of teachers, but only one set of parents.
[4:36] Those teachers taught me about the education process. They followed the curriculum, but my parents taught me about loving Jesus, about trusting in God, loving others, about let's pray about it, how to read Scripture, how to rely on God. And so Paul's language here changes a little bit. He goes from tutors and guardians to fathers and parents. This is the church that Paul founded. You can read that in Acts 18. He stayed there a year and a half or more. He is the one that first brought them news about Christ. And in that interim, since he was there and found it and left, others have come and gone. But he has this special relationship with them.
[5:23] And like our earthly parents, it's different than other people who might have some sort of authority in our lives. So your teachers, they may have shamed you when you messed up your multiplication tables or your state capitals or your algebraic or chemistry equations, When you didn't turn in your homework or you didn't work to your potential.
[5:48] But your parents hopefully speak to you in love and with authority. When Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica, he says this, For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. You see, good and loving fathers, they will correct. They will rebuke, and they will retrain. But what they're concerned about is the long-term vitality, and not always what's happening immediately in the moment. Paul says to that church in Thessalonica, walking in the manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. Paul here is saying, with gentleness.
[6:44] Come back. Be better. You've listened to me before, so listen to me again. Hopefully being your spiritual father, these words I have have some weight to them. And so I'm telling you, you're going down the wrong path. You're doing the wrong thing. And there's another way available. See, he had earned that right to speak to them with gentleness, but with firmness, directly. You see, too often we approach others with attitudes that are like these guys right here. Do you know who that is? There we go. You know Statler? Waldorf from the Muppets Statler and Waldorf are always Up in a box, They're criticizing. They're critiquing. They're not encouraging you to do better. They're not telling you what they want you to see. They're not giving you hope for the way it's supposed to be. They're just striking down. This is horrible. This is bad. You're wrong. You're going to amount to nothing.
[8:01] What Paul is being here is not a critic, but more like a coach, saying this is the right way to do it. This is how I want you to do it. This is what God wants you to do. And not only is this what God wants you to do, but this is what God is empowering you to do. So do it. Last week, as you flipped through the bulletin, you would have seen some letters, and some portraits of former pastors here, people who were guardians and instructors, and maybe even to some of us fathers in the faith. And we do honor them, not in flattery, but in thankfulness for their pointing us to Christ, because that's all that matters. Paul has already said this himself directly in the chapter before this, in chapter 3. He says, so then no more boasting about human leaders. Everything is yours, whether Paul or Paulus or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future, it's all yours and you're of Christ and Christ is God. Our leaders are as important. They are important to the degree to which they point us to Christ and to God.
[9:15] Later on in this book, he says it even more explicitly. He says, follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.
[9:27] It's all about pointing to our savior and to our lord in verse 16 he continues i urge you then be imitators of me that's why i sent you timothy my beloved and fearful child in the lord to remind you of my ways in christ as i teach them everywhere in every church if you go back to the beginning of this book, in the very first chapter and in the first paragraph after the greeting, Paul is talking about this cliquish behavior that has come into the church. And everything through chapter 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 is about these divisions where people are separating. He says it's driving you apart and it's sinking this church. Everything else is about what's led to those divisions or come out of those divisions, The causes or the effects of that bad behavior This church was breaking up and splitting Because they had preferences for eloquent and smooth talkers.
[10:30] At the expense of the gospel of Christ. The church was being infiltrated by the world's ways. And when I first opened this book, preaching, I think at the 11 o'clock service a couple of months ago, the church is meant to be a ship floating in the waters of the world, impervious and resistant to that water getting in, because when that water gets in, the ship begins to sink. When worldliness comes into the church The church begins to sink, And so Paul says Stop this Don't go about the world's ways Imitate me because I'm imitating Christ What you heard and saw me do That's what I want you to do, He makes this point Right before what we preached on a couple of weeks ago What this life looks like is what Christ's life looked like. That we're going to reflect Christ's life so clearly that we can say, if you're doing what I'm doing, then you're doing what Christ is doing because I'm doing what Christ is doing. And it doesn't make sense to the world because the world likes that polish and that flash and that eloquence and that articulation. The world likes building better and bigger barns for your excess.
[11:58] But the son of man did not even have a place to lay his head at night.
[12:04] These Corinthians were not imitating Christ. These Corinthians were not looking at the cross, which is to be their measuring stick. And so our first question is, does our life look like Christ? Does your life look like Christ's own life? Does our common life together look like what Christ prayed for us to be? You see, Paul is telling them these things because he does have that authority in their lives. He says you can change You should change You know who I am I lived there among you For a year and a half Maybe even two years, You see we in America We have Kind of a natural built in resistance To authority sometimes, This week we're going to celebrate July 4th Right Our independence, when we struck out against George III in Parliament because they were abusing their authority in our lives. But authority is not the same as authoritarianism. When I was in psych 101 class in undergrad, I remember my professor was talking about this. He said, you want to raise your children as an authority, but not an authoritarian. Authoritarian is a dictator who rules with an iron fist who says, because I said so.
[13:30] The authority leads with soft power And leads out of love, This idea of power and authority is different Power is the ability to make somebody do something But legitimacy is the idea that they're giving you the right to do it When those two meet, then we have authority.
[13:52] John Stott said, spiritual authority Doesn't reside in position or speech but in the authenticity of a life lived in Christ. That's the authority that Paul speaks with when he calls them to follow him. And so he has sent Timothy, his close assistant, to remind them of what they've said. This is Timothy, who we hear in another book later on, received his faith from his mother and from his grandmother. You see, Paul has not spent his time just building churches, but he's also building up people.
[14:28] He's investing in others. He's creating apprentices in the faith, if you will. Here's a picture of a blacksmith shop.
[14:40] The old blacksmith is working in the foreground, and then you have the young apprentice in the back. This is the model for guilds and for craftsmen and tradesmen. The apprentice is brand new. And when he had understood ideas, he became a journeyman, but not yet putting it into practice all on his own. And later on, with more training, with more attention, he became a master craftsman. Now able to go out on his own and not just do what he's been taught, not just do what he's learned, but now he's able to teach others as well. That was Paul's model, and that should be our model too, to be illustrators of Christ's character, to be imitators of God's example, to share our lives with others, to invest in them, and then set them out to go do the same for others. When Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, he said, Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us. So do you live a life that you want to be imitated? Do you live a life where you can say, yes, do follow me? Where you can show your family or your friends or whomever.
[16:08] What your life looks like Be open and honest to them.
[16:14] My sons are taking taekwondo And they have lessons twice a week And their instructor, He's quite elderly I don't want to give a number I don't want to offend you guys on what I consider elderly But suffice it to say.
[16:33] He probably remembers when Kennedy was assassinated, at least. Maybe more. And he's teaching the class, but he's not doing it by himself. He has other younger guys whom he has taught who are also teaching others. He's bringing them along. He's giving them the space to instruct the younger students, my sons, in this martial art, raising them all up together, multiplying his impact. We see this in all sorts of media. You might remember Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi and Daniel, or Harry Potter and Dumbledore. It's not just instructing people in knowledge, but in a way of living, in a way of being. And so we here have opportunities to go deeper in our faith. We here have opportunities to share it with others and to become their spiritual followers if we will allow ourselves to do it.
[17:39] Paul continues on. He says, some of you are arrogant as though I weren't coming to you, but I'll come to you soon if the Lord wills it and I'll find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but power. This church at Corinth, they were ready for a reset. A refocus A reboot They had been relying on Their own preferences, They had been relying on living their fashionable lives Living it up in that Greek-Roman society Arrogant as though they didn't need The power of God in their lives As long as they looked good doing it.
[18:21] Paul says, no. You're focusing on the wrong thing. This isn't about speech. It's not about human wisdom. It's not about articulate and persuasive words. It's not about polish and worldly appeal. What it's about is the power of God. That's what this kingdom is. That's what the gospel is. And Paul says, if you don't have that power, then you don't have anything. Because the power is God's ability to save us. That's how he opens up Romans. Romans 1.16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. God's ability to save us from our sin and from ourselves and from our putting little idols in his place on the throne of our lives. That's God's power. Paul says, talk is cheap.
[19:21] Everybody can be a keyboard warrior putting comments on articles or social media or whatever. When you find out what somebody really has and what somebody really is, is when they demonstrate God's power in their lives.
[19:37] That transformed life, not clever speech, is when true faith is revealed. So show me what your life looks like show me what god's done for you who were you then and who are you now that's been the call of the methodist since day one you'll recall that that methodism didn't begin as a church we weren't a denomination we were within another group we were a renewal movement for people whose faith had become dead whose spiritual lives had grown stale who needed God's power in their lives again.
[20:18] John Wesley says, if we don't have that, then we don't have anything. This is a quote from a letter late in his life and late in his ministry. I'm sure you've seen it a hundred times before. But he says, I'm not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist in Europe or in America. But I'm afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect.
[20:42] Having the form of religion without the power. And this is undoubtedly the case. Unless they hold fast to both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they set out. Friends, what we are praying for here is for God to reignite our faith again. When Pastor Paul was preaching, he says this often. He says, where there is much prayer, there's much power. And where there's little prayer, there's little power. Why do we have a prayer room going right now? There are people interceding for you right now, just outside those doors. Why do we have prayer summits? To pray for God, to move in our spirits, to move in our church. Why do we have prayer meetings? To connect with God, to connect with His power. We're no longer just going through the motions. We're taking our spiritual lives seriously because we say that it matters. It matters for us, and it matters for the world. We have to connect our faith to the source of the power, which is God in the Holy Spirit.
[21:54] When I was growing up, my grandparents had an old flashlight that looked like this. It was big. Okay, I don't know what happened to that picture, but it's zoomed in. You can see it there they had a flashlight that looked like that and it was powerfully bright when it worked, but it was connected to one of those gigantic batteries honestly still make them anymore those batteries even 40 years ago were kind of hard to come across they weren't exactly common not every store would have them.
[22:29] Without those batteries, it was just a hunk of metal, a bulb, and some wires with a lot of potential. There's a lot of possibility, but no power. Some of our churches are that way. Maybe you feel like your life is that way, that you're not at your potential because you're disconnected from power. Just as Paul sent Timothy to remind him of his teaching. And just as the message last week to the church at Ephesus, I want to remind you. I want to call you back to, I want you to remember your first love. Remember how God caught your attention. Remember how he convinced you that you needed saving, and not only that you needed it, but that he could provide it. Remember how he called you to a life of repentance. Remember how he promised to and forgave your sins. He set your life on a new path.
[23:34] That's available when you're connected to the power.
[23:39] N.T. Wright says the same thing here. He says, the kingdom of God is not a matter of eloquence, but the energy of transformed lives. Has your life been transformed? Do you need it to be today? Because you have a choice. You can keep on relying on your own strength. You can keep on trying your hardest. You can keep on doing your best and knowing that you're falling short.
[24:07] Or you can accept God's grace. You can accept His offer. For forgiveness, for reconciliation, for peace in this life, and peace in the world to come.
[24:21] You have that choice. And so Paul ends here, he says, well, what do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love with a spirit of gentleness? Paul is giving them the option, how do you want me to come back to you? I've heard that this is going on in your church, and I'm telling you, you should correct it. And I'm coming back to you soon. So when I come back, am I going to hear that you've continued on in your worldly ways or that you've come back to Christ? You get to decide how this ends for you, whether you want it to go well or whether you want to be punished. He is acting as their father Building up this church Giving them a decision to make And a response to provide And it's the same for us here today.
[25:15] Do you want to go about life as usual, keeping on with the status quo, or do you want to live a life that looks like Christ's? Do you want to step out and leave behind the worldly ways? Remember here that in this early church, they didn't live in an era of Christendom. They didn't live where Christianity was the norm. They lived in a hedonistic culture, Las Vegas on steroids, if you will. And so their lives would have stood out like a sore thumb.
[25:47] No one had seen people live like Christians To care for the weak and the poor And the fatherless and the widowed, No one had seen people pool their resources And take care of those among them who had material needs No one had said, I will have less so that you can have more, I will sacrifice so that you can gain, Now our culture doesn't look like this now But it seems like it's heading that way And so we have the opportunity all the more To have a faithful witness for Christ A life that looks like his A life that looks like his cross, Because that's what we agreed to in our vows We mentioned this last week We reaffirmed our vows In our book of Doctrines and Discipline It says all members of the church Are called into loving accountability with each other, This is our common life together, When you become a Christian When you become a member of this church, You are agreeing To allow others to speak to you in love To hold you accountable in love To speak over you in love And you're agreeing to do that for others, Quickly, our language says this Do you promise to keep God's holy will and commandments in your life?
[27:11] We join your brothers and sisters around the world to do all in your power to fulfill our mission. We do all in your power to strengthen our ministries through prayers and presents and gifts and service and witness.
[27:26] This is what we've agreed to, and these are vows. And from my opinion, a vow is a vow. These are just as strong as marriage vows. They are not to be entered into lightly. Our spiritual fathers and mothers Our spiritual parents Call us to this life And they hold us accountable for it, Not in chastisement Not in admonishment But in love And in our wider church And in our culture We've lost this sense of community Of watching over each other, But by God's grace He will provide it again And we can reclaim it, That's the spirit in which Those goals that were introduced last week Were given to you, Summarized, they look like this You can find the actual language on our website, But summarized, it says That we will have daily worship That as believers We will pray and we will read scripture On our own daily, We are called to ongoing And intentional discipleship Lifting up others Investing in them for their good, for the good of the church, and for the good of the world. We'll participate in small groups. We'll serve in ministry.
[28:45] And at the time and the place of God's choosing, He will send us out to plant churches around the world and maybe down the street. But it starts with your own commitment to your membership vows. We like to think of this maybe as a buffet Well I'll do this one and I'll do that one But those are not for me Let me encourage you Reframe that in your mind Think of this As a five course meal, Advancing through the Through the goals As God calls us And these are big goals, But I don't think anybody Wants us to set small goals Because.
[29:31] We are able to do this because God says that we're able to do this. We're able to do this because we're connected to that battery, to the power that propels our lives and that fuels our lives. We're able to do this because this is God's will for the big church, capital C, and for this congregation church, lowercase c. So the gospel this morning is that Christ Will transform your life By the power of the Holy Spirit Into something that you will encourage people To imitate.
[30:06] Our call here is to be changed And then to be change agents, We have this opportunity To be spiritual fathers and mothers to others, to emerging generations, and to people our own age who don't yet know Christ. There was a point in your life when you did not know Christ. There was a point in your life when you were a lost sinner, and it may have been very early and you might not remember it, but there was a point in your life where somebody told you about God and told you about his love for you in Christ and told you about the power of the Holy Spirit to change your life. And hopefully That has made all the difference That is what we are being called to To be for other people So do you want to be that person for others? Do you want this church to be that church For the city of Memphis And for the world? Do you want to be a people who can say to others Imitate us As we imitate Christ.
[31:07] By God's will he will do it when J.D. Wall is writing about this passage.
[31:14] He says it's kind of like writing a check.
[31:20] Giving this ability to somebody else. Can we cover the check? Well, we're not the ones signing the check. It's the Holy Spirit who will cover the check. It's the Holy Spirit who will make sure that this happens. Our question is, is do we even want to pull a checkbook out of our pocket to begin with? Do we want to make this investment in our lives and in the church and in the community and in the world? Paul says, yes, it is worth it. It is good to be the spiritual fathers and mothers of other people. It is good to lead them to Christ. It is good for you to have your own life imitate Christ's because it brings glory to God in the process. So I say, come Holy Spirit, revive us again, help us to be those spiritual fathers and mothers as you remake your image in us. Let's pray.
[32:25] Heavenly Father, out of your great love for us.
[32:31] Out of your great love for us, show us who you would want us to be. Lord, out of your great love for us, show us those places, where we have been changed from glory into glory. Show us those places, Lord, that you have redeemed.
[32:51] And out of your great love, show us those places where we Have yet to surrender something to you, God, stir us up Lord, help us To find meaning in our lives Not in ourselves or in the things that the world offers, Lord, But in our life, in you And our common life together As we share Christ God, let it be so and let it be all for your glory In the name of your son, Jesus, we pray Amen.