Pastor Edgar Mayer; Living Grace Community Lutheran Church; Message on 1 Corinthians 4:8-21; Date: 1 June 08

For more sermons and other writings check out pastor’s homepage: http://www.geocities.com/mayeredgar

Fathers

The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth – 1 Corinthians 4:15 – I read from the Bible: “Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” This is a strange verse because we no longer seem to use that kind of language. What does it mean that the apostle Paul became and was a spiritual father to the Christians in Corinth and how was this different from their ten thousand guardians in Christ – other instructors and leaders in the church?

Five weeks ago at the Father’s Heart weekend (25-27 April 2008) Pastor Peter Steicke began talking about spiritual fathers and his teaching was confirmed when at the closing session one of our former members – Jeff Folker – broke down and wept. He pointed to our youth intern – Jaron Wilson – and said that all of his life he wanted what had just happened to Jaron.

We had been praying for people and Jaron had been seconded to Pastor Peter Steicke. His job was to catch people if they fell under the power of the Holy Spirit but there were so many people that Peter soon instructed Jaron in praying for people himself and Jaron then practiced what he had seen – with wonderful outcomes – a few people overcome with the Holy Spirit – a few prophetic words and pictures even.

Jeff said – with tears in his eyes: “That’s what I had wanted all of my life. I wanted to become a pastor but didn’t want to go to seminary. I wanted another pastor to take me under his wings and mentor me in the ministry.” At the same Father’s Heart weekend another local pastor reported that when the issue of spiritual fathers came up at a conference in the Philippines, there were hundreds and hundreds of men openly weeping for their lack of fathers. They were a fatherless generation.

Todd Bentley – the healing evangelist that was at the Gold Coast a few months ago and whom God is now using in a growing revival in Florida (just google “Florida revival”), he has the following heroes list: Jesus!, Paul the Apostle, true Spiritual Fathers (anyone who can be a true Father), … When Todd was five, his dad divorced from his mum and moved away and even before this separation his dad had never been a true father to him. Todd’s dad did drugs and drank – a lot – he was an alcoholic – and later told his twelve-year-old son: “If you want to smoke a joint, do it with me.” That wasn’t the behaviour of a true spiritual father whom Todd needed at that time to avoid the downward spiral of addiction, crime and jail.

Finally, two weeks ago I visited Mitchel White – the blind man who used to come to Living Grace over Christmas – he also grew up fatherless but he told me that Erwin and Elaine Bruggemann are dad and mum to him. That’s what he calls them: “Dad” and “Mum”. And I took notice of that. There is a longing – a deep longing – probably in all of us – for true fathers and mothers – true spiritual fathers and mothers. [We don’t always like to rebel but crave love.] The apostle Paul spelled out something precious – 1 Corinthians 4:15: “ … I became your father through the gospel.”

What makes a father? What’s the difference between a true father and other carers – as Paul himself said – 1 Corinthians 4:15: “Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.”

There may be many guardians in your life – ten thousand even – carers and instructors and leaders in the church but they are not the same as a father because a father – a true father – loves us on a far deeper level. He is not simply taking us through a church program or teaching session but accepts a greater responsibility – takes an interest in all of us – what we know, what we do, what we feel, how we cope, whom we trust, what we watch, … – 24/7 – which far exceeds the scheduled hours of any other guardians.

Do we know that this is what we are aching for and do we know that this is what God wants us to have and become: spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers? Paul said that he became the father of the Corinthians through the gospel which is the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Fatherhood happened because Paul was the one that reached them first with the father-love of God. And this is how it can happen to us. Imagine: You take someone to church and they become brandnew Christians. You’ve just become a father or it is you that has just become a son or a daughter.

Back to Paul. Paul, who had become a spiritual father, he was commissioned by God to be a representative of our one true spiritual father: God himself. He was simply to pass on the fathering love of God himself. When Jesus taught us to pray, he encouraged us to say – Matthew 6:9: “Our Father in heaven … “ God is our Father (!) and no matter whether our birth-fathers and mothers – or spiritual fathers and mothers – let us down – and people will always let us down at some point because no sinner is perfect (even the apostle Paul), God will never let us down. He is the perfect Father in heaven. Jesus reasoned with us in the Bible, saying – Luke 11:11-13: “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? … If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts [original: Holy Spirit] to those who ask him!”

How much more will the Father in heaven give you everything! In the act of salvation he made us his children whom he loves. Hear what the Bible says – Galatians 3:22-4:7: “ . the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner to sin … we were held prisoners by the law [because the law condemned our sin] … But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons [and daughters]. Because you are sons [and daughters], God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a prisoner [original: a slave] but a son [a daughter]; and since you are a son [a daughter], God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 3:26: “You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

So much is contained in these few verses and we won’t have time to unravel everything but the father-heart of God becomes clear. We used to be lost. We used to be prisoners to sin – condemned by our sinful deeds – unworthy of holy love – but God – the Father – made us his children – sons and daughters – by giving up his other special son – his only begotten Son – Jesus Christ – whom he sacrificed for the forgiveness of our sins, so that – as we put our faith in him – we would experience true father-love and gain our heavenly father’s rich inheritance. I quote the key verse again: “Because you are sons [and daughters], God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a prisoner [original: a slave] but a son [a daughter]; and since you are a son [a daughter], God has made you also an heir.”

Do you and I long for that? The Spirit of God in our hearts crying out: “Abba, Father” which means: “Daddy, dear Father God.” Do we experience prayer like that? “Daddy, dear Father God.” We cannot seem to cope with life but God is there and we know him as “Daddy, dear Father God.”

You and I – we can have that kind of relationship with God today. He is your Father. He redeemed you. The Bible makes the same promise again in Romans 8:15-17 – I read: “ . you did not receive a spirit … [of] fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship [of daughtership]. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ … “

God is “Abba” – the Father in heaven – the one true father but now we come back to what the apostle Paul said – 1 Corinthians 4:15: “ … I became your father through the gospel.” Somehow – and this is important for us as a church (any church) – the fatherhood of God gets communicated by mature Christians who are becoming fathers and mothers to others – new converts and newer Christians. You may become a father to someone else or you may be in need – and we all are to some extent – of finding a spiritual father or mother for yourself. [Bad communication => breakdown in God-knowledge.]

Do we have spiritual fathers and mothers among us? Yes. First of all – and this may be obvious – in a Christian family it is the birth-father and the birth-mother that are meant to function also as spiritual parents. All of us know that children learn the most from their parents and that is how God designed it. I read from the Bible – Deuteronomy 6:6-9: “These commandments … are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up … “ No other guardian or church instructor has that much access to a child. No one else but a birth-parent is with the child at home, walks with the child along the road (or has conversations with the child in the car), is there when the child lies down and gets up.

Some parents – they didn’t go to church – but they used to bring me their children for confirmation classes, saying: “I want my child to learn about God so that he or she can make up their own mind about Jesus.” And I thought: “How can I compete with you as the parent? If God is not important to you and you are the father, how can one hour of teaching by a stranger make a difference in your child’s life. He or she will always learn most from you – copy you – unless – of course – God intervenes in a mighty way.”

This brings us to how spiritual fathering and mothering actually works. Paul gave these instructions – 1 Corinthians 15:15-16: “ … I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.” “I urge you to imitate me.” Paul knew that learning comes by imitation – copying – doing what we see someone else doing. Any parent knows that children watch everything you do and you cannot fool them. There is a scary truth in the saying: “You teach what you know but you reproduce who you are.” “You teach what you know but you reproduce who you are.”

For instance, you may say that with God there is mercy and peace and that he is what is most important in life but then your son – your daughter – is watching what you get really excited about, watch the anxiety in your life, watches your prayer life and learns from that and you end up reproducing who you are.

Who are we then? Do we walk the talk?

Jack and Trisha Frost: Our children were hiding in their rooms with hearts full of fear and concern just an hour before the weekly girl’s meeting Trisha was to lead in our church. She was overwhelmed with tears and negative emotions focused at me from all the strife around our home and the never-ending anxiety we lived with from trying to get our needs for love and acceptance met through ministry. It was 1984, and we were just passing 30 years of age. We had been born again less than five years. We were straight out of Bible school and totally unprepared and unqualified to pastor the small holiness church in Conway, South Carolina. Right at that moment, while my wife was telling me through her pain what I was full of for not being sensitive to her needs, a light rap was heard on our front door. Peering through the window, we saw a little old lady patiently waiting to be received.

Trisha and I looked at each other for a sign of recognition, but there was none. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Trisha opened the door asking, “May I help you?” The frail, gray-haired lady in her 70’s responded, “Perhaps you can! My Father had me go for a drive and as I passed by this house, He said that there was someone inside who needed me to pray with them!”

Without even asking permission, she reached out and took our hands in hers and started talking to her Father just as if He were present, and His hands joined with ours. She asked Him to express His tender comfort, love, and grace to us. In the midst of our shock, Trisha and I suspiciously glanced at one another, each thinking we were set up for this by the other. Soon, we both realized that neither knew this very strange but peaceful and gentle woman. For ten minutes, standing just inside the doorway, she talked with her Father about our needs, just as if she had been in our home during the previous weeks of turmoil and strife. The manifest presence of God’s love began melting our questioning, stubborn hearts and relieved our fears and tension as tears of comfort and peace began to freely flow down our cheeks.

Then as quickly as she had entered into our lives, she said “Amen!” and hurriedly turned, got in her car, and drove away. She did not even leave us her name. With the anxiety now turned to a serene calm, Trisha lovingly looked into my eyes and said, “God sends angels your way sometimes!” For several days our home was filled with peace, but we soon drifted back into the strife, anxiety, and fear.

It looked as if we would not last six months as pastors before we would destroy each other, our children, and those few at our little church who were hardened enough to endure the angry edge in my preaching. Then one evening, the phone rang during the supper hour. As I answered, I recognized the voice of the angel that God had sent our way weeks before: “Our Father has told my husband and I that if we do not help you, you will not last much longer. He has brought you to this town to be a light and to heal and restore the brokenhearted. Through you, He will create a feast upon which all this community shall feed. But first, you must be fed! We have a banquet prepared in your honor. Here are the directions to our house... You and your wife, be here tomorrow at noon and stay until 2:00 PM.” She abruptly hung up without even giving her name.

More out of curiosity than anything else, Trisha and I found ourselves the next day driving down the dirt road that led to an old, dilapidated home with a yard in much need of work. As this fragile little lady welcomed us into her home, she introduced herself as Grandma Causey, and then said, “This is my husband, D.B., or Dearly Beloved, as I call him.” He was a gentle, quiet, and unassuming elderly man. She led us into a dining room cluttered with Bibles and Christian books where we saw the dinner table set with saltine crackers, cold rice, Spam, and a glass of cold water. D.B. blessed the feast and we dove into one of the most satisfying meals we had ever eaten. Grandma Causey began telling of how much they had been fasting and praying for us in the past few weeks. Father had told them of the many things they were to share with us about His ways. It did not take long for Trisha and me to realize that the “banquet” prepared for us was not the Spam and rice, but the most intimate mysteries of the Father’s Kingdom of love, joy, and peace.

During the next two hours, Trisha and I often glanced at one another, stunned and speechless as we felt like we had entered into Father’s house – a place secured in love, acceptance, affirmation, and comfort. Neither of us had ever felt so safe and at home. This couple wanted nothing from us but to impart a lifetime of intimate experiences and the relationship they had shared in the Father’s presence.

Precisely at 2:00 PM, Grandma said, “It is time for you to leave. We have other children coming soon. When the Father gives us a word for you, we will call and tell you when to come again.” Then they both laid their hands upon us and blessed us, calling forth God’s presence upon our lives, marriage, and ministry. With tears welling up in our eyes and many unanswered questions in our hearts, we were quickly ushered out the door and soon on our way home, quietly contemplating the ramifications of what had just occurred.

For the next 20 months, two or three times a week for an hour or two at a time, we found ourselves at what we began to affectionately call “Grandma’s house.” We would sit at the feet of D.B. and Grandma, feasting upon the mysteries of intimacy with God. At times, we pleaded with them to teach us of the gifts of the Spirit, but they would always tenderly respond with, “You need to know God’s ways before you know His acts!” Their home became the Father’s house to us. Weekly, we were admonished, encouraged, loved, affirmed, edified, and blessed before we were sent on our way. It became the safest and most comforting place we had ever known as we were fathered and mothered by two aged and often infirmed saints.

This was spiritual fathering. Before they came into our lives, we were like spiritual orphans, fighting and striving to find significance and identity through pastoring a church of orphans. The Father saw our need: “I will not leave you as orphans, but I will come to you” (John 14:18). He came to us in the form of two uncomely, impoverished, and humbled saints – but as they entered into our lives, we had to be willing to lower our walls of skepticism, doubt, and fear of being used or manipulated and be willing to receive them as a spiritual mother and father in our lives.

Within months of opening our hearts to them, our little holiness church began to experience many new salvations and tripled in size in a year and a half. Each Sunday, we simply fed the people from the banquet table that was set for us at Grandma’s house. We never would have survived another year in ministry without them. For the first time in our marriage, we had a safe place to open up our pain. How would we ever have become a fruitful spiritual father and mother to others if we had not first been a son and daughter to someone else?

The day came in 1986 when they called and said, “Father has given us a very special word for you. Please come at noon tomorrow.” We were so excited at what the Father had for us, but we had learned before at Grandma’s house that God’s word does not always come in the form we would like. This was one of those times, as Grandma said, “No longer do we call you our children; we now call you our friends! You have matured, and there are others more in need than you that we must care for. It is time for our children to become parents themselves. We will not be calling you to return. God will send others to take you into different dimensions in God’s ways.” They blessed us and sent us on our way as if a mother had pushed her young out of the nest to fly for the first time on their own.

Many times, we sought to return as needy children, but they would only receive us as friends. They knew the time must come for all children to learn to trust the heavenly Father to meet their deepest needs for love and affirmation. They were right, though it was scary at first. Soon, the Father sent others in our town, Pastors Phillip and Lynn Miles, to help nurture and lead us into other areas of the Kingdom we had not known before. Even now as we write about it, we are overwhelmed with tears of thanksgiving and gratitude for D.B. and Grandma. For several years now they have been promoted to glory. But in 1989, as their strength was fading, they called us and said, “Father has revealed that we are to pass our mantle on to you!” By phone, they blessed us and prayed that their vision and anointing for spiritual fathering would be imparted to us. They passed on their inheritance to us …

Grandma Pausey and D.B. reproduced what they were. The pastor and his wife – with children – would not have survived marriage, the ministry and the complications of life if there had not been an elderly couple who were prepared to father and mother them. Like with Jesus and the disciples a lot happened around the table at meal times – for 20 months, two or three times a week. Fathering takes time. There was an impartation of a lifetime of intimate experiences with the Father in heaven. There was prayer and fasting. This was not done with a mere church program but real parenting.

Grandma and D.B. contended for the pastor and his wife – their life in God – a contending – a ceaseless labouring – which the apostle Paul even compared to birthing pains, sharing his own experience in Galatians 4:19: “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” That’s spiritual fathering and mothering.

But then as any father and mother knows and works towards: Children mature, grow up, move out and become parents themselves. And they leave with an inheritance: everything of God that has been reproduced in them. Everything what you know and experience in God, you can pass on to your children and spiritual children.

The apostle Paul had already produced another father whom he sent ahead of himself to the Corinthians. I read again from the same Bible passage – 1 Corinthians 4:15-17: “ … I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my [spiritual] son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.” Timothy – as Paul’s spiritual son – had already gained a spiritual inheritance from Paul and was therefore able to be in his stead a father to others – the Corinthians – reminding them of Paul’s way of life in Christ Jesus – reproducing in them again what God had formed in Paul.

I come to a close. If you already know that God is your Father and if you already experience him – through the Holy Spirit – as Abba, dear Father God, then please consider whether you do not want to take on spiritual fathering and mothering. Seek out someone in our church – in your circle of acquaintances – that needs spiritual fathers and mothers and then commit to be there for him or her as much as they need you. [You may use our small groups for that … ] Invite them for a meal – maybe on a regular basis – who knows whether it will be for 20 months or more – create a safe place for them – not simply to teach them what you know – but reproduce what you are: how to live all of life in God.

Our church cannot work in any other way. Neither programs nor staff can take the place of the spiritual fathers and mothers in our congregation and the more we have of them, the more we can grow – without massive administration.

Then – and this is where some of us may be at – if you examine yourselves and realize that you do not yet know God intimately as a Father, then please, feel free to take the initiative and seek out a spiritual father in our midst. Go up to someone and say: “I want what you have. Teach me with your life.” May the spiritual inheritance of this church multiply until we possess all of the promises of God in our midst. May we all call him – experience him as: “Abba, dear Father God.” Amen.

1 Corinthians 4:18-21: The whole issue of discipline exercised by a spiritual father. Cf. Hebrews 12.

Matthew 23:9: Spiritual father is not a title of honour but is a way of being in service to God and others.