A More Excellent Way - Joel Schrock

Good morning. I also want to welcome everyone here, and

it's good to have Uncle John up here again today,

so welcome here for a few days. Also take the

opportunity to thank the youth and sponsors for hospitality last

night was appreciated. Many years ago, two thousand or so,

there was a man. And we could say all kinds

of things about this man. We could say he was brave,

we could say he was self sufficient, we could say

he was proud, we could say he was foolhardy. We

don't know a lot about this man. But whatever the case,

this man, this Jew, dared to walk the road from

Jerusalem to Jericho on his own. And assuming he was

a native of the area, likely at least one of

those places, he would have known the dangers of the road.

The bandits, the robbers, the thieves had no regard for

human comfort or life or possessions. But he traveled the

road anyways. And we don't know why. I don't think

maybe there was a you know, maybe he just wanted

to go to Jericho. Maybe there was a family emergency.

We don't know the reasons. But whatever the case, along

the way, some robbers jumped out and attacked him and

not only did they take everything he had, they left

him wounded by the side of the road, Luke says.

And Luke was a doctor, so he paid attention to

medical things, and he says the man was half dead.

So whatever the case, it was not a good picture.

Don't know if this man was with it enough to

see who was coming or not, but assuming he was,

he must have been thankful that after a while he

sees a man coming and it was a priest. This

was a religious leader, one of his religious leaders. And

what a mercy that must have felt, like, surely this man,

this priest coming, would stop by and care for this

suffering man by the side of the road. But not

only did this priest pass on the other side of

the road, he didn't even look at the man, probably

out of the corner of his eye. And so hope

beginning to fade. But then here came a levite. And

this is someone that was called, as I understand, to

perform acts of service and worship on behalf of other men.

Surely this man would stop and help. Now doesn't make

him any better. I don't think the levite at least

looked at the man. But then, for whatever reason, took

the other side of the road, and away he went. Now,

these men, these religious leaders, we don't know their story either.

We don't know if they were in a hurry. We

don't know if they were on their way to perform

some act of service or worship. We don't know if

they were late. We don't know all these things. Whatever

the case, they likely had a good excuse, but not

a very good reason. But we know they didn't help.

Now was pointed out that if Jesus were just making

a point here, Jesus telling the story about the religious rulers,

which he did that various times, the next man you

would expect to come along may be a fellow Jew,

a fellow somebody this man could relate to. But if

this man was with it enough to notice, his heart

must have sank at who was coming next. The man

that was coming next was one of those half breed Jews.

He was worse than the gentiles, didn't want anything to

do with him, with each other. He was a Samaritan.

And you know, he may have thought the man coming

would just be plenty happy to see him suffer. He

might even add to it on the way by. But

as the Samaritan man came along, and he had every

reason not to like the man in the ditch. When

he saw him and the wounds and the suffering, he

had compassion. And he didn't just run to the next

town and tell the sheriff there that there's something going

on up there. He didn't calling an ambulance. He stopped

and took his own oil and wine, poured him in

the wounds for cleansing and to soothe the wounds. He

bandaged the man up, put him on his own donkey,

and took him to an inn. Now we don't know.

I don't know exactly, but it's it's thought that the

amount of money he gave was perhaps enough for two

or three weeks of care. He said, take care of

this man, and if there's more that's owed when I

come back, I'll cover. So this man who was not

related the Samaritan man, who was not related to the

man on the side of the road, he was not

part of the same group in any measurable way, at

least I didn't want to claim they were. He had

no reason, he had no connection other than humanity. Really,

he had compassion on this man. And what word, there's

different words. We could think of But what do we

call that? What compassions won't Over fifteen hundred years later,

a man by the name of Dirk Willems was living

a faithful life for God. Now he was part of

the early Anabaptist movement, and being an Anabaptist in that

place and time was punishable by death, especially if you

were a leader like he was. Now a thief catcher

of all things was sent out to capture Dirk and

bring him back for trial. But Dirk took off himself.

He took off running, and it was a cold time

of the year, as the story goes, frost on the ground,

an ice was just beginning to form over the waterways,

and Dirk ran across some body of water. I'm not

sure what it was he made it across. Sounds like

not all that easily, actually, but he made it. And

the thief catcher coming after him didn't broke through the

ice apparently, and was struggling. Now, this was Dirk's chance

to escape, and he could have thought, you know, it's

just a little bit like the Egyptians getting swallowed up

in the sea. I'm gonna get out of here. But Dirk,

who loved God and his fellow men turned around and

helped that man. I don't know how all that happened.

Sounds pretty treacherous, and they both could have ended up

under the ice, but he was able to get the

man out, and the thief catcher wanted to let him go,

but as I understand the story, his commander was close

enough to holler at him to remember his oath, and

he needed to bring Dirk back for trial. So Dirk

was caught and brought back, and the end of the

end of the earthly story for Dirk is that he

was burned at the stake. So what do we call

an act so unselfish? Is this? This morning? I would

like to in a way continue on with with what

I've been speaking about, but not directly the last few

times here. So the last few messages I've had have

I've had to do with the Holy Spirit, and and

this message will not be that specifically, However, I do

believe it's a continuation, and I think you'll see why.

So just for context, I'd like to very briefly recap

some of what we've talked about before, and some of

this has been recapped a few times, so I'll try

to be brief but who is the Holy Spirit? Believe

it is the third part of the Trinity, Holy entirely God,

alongside the Father and the Son. And I believe we

see this in the Bible, from Genesis through the New Testament.

I'm not going to give references for these as I

go through this brief summary. So how do we receive

the Holy Spirit? Who is the promise of the Father?

The Father promise? We hear him, believe, we repent and

are baptized, and we ask some of the things that

we looked at? And what does it look like to

be filled with the Holy Spirit? And this was some

of these verses were read in Sunday School. We will

exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. I believe it's fruit

and not individual fruits. If we dwell in the Father

and the Holy Spirit dwells in us, the natural fruit

that will grow out of our lives will look like love, joy, peace,

long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. What about

the gifts of the spirit spiritual gifts? I believe as

we live a life of repentance, the fruit of the

Spirit will grow from our lives. And as we live

a life following Christ, we will individually manifest gifts of

the spirit, and the reasons given by Paul or for

the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry,

and for the edifying of the body of those are

the reasons for the gifts. And our main scripture focus

last time was One Corinthians twelve. So I'd like to

look at the last verse of one Corinthians twelve. And

this is after explaining spiritual gifts and discussing the body

of Christ being similar to a physical body. Going to

read that now, One Corinthians twelve, verse thirty one says,

but covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet show I

unto you a more excellent way. So someone helped me here.

What is more excellent than specific spiritual gifts anybody putting

them to work? And what does that look like? Verse

Corinthians thirteen. And yet I show you a more excellent way?

And one Corinthians thirteen we call what chapter love chapter?

So could also say it's a chapter of the more

excellent way, and that is the title of the message

this morning, a more excellent way. So I will read

first Corinthians thirteen. It's not that long of a chapter

going to read the entire chapter thirteen verses, starting in

verse one. Though I speak, and I'd like you just

to think about this as we read through. What this

is following well a chapter it's following about the Body

of Christ and gifts the spirit. Verse one. Though I

speak with the tongues of men in a angels, and

have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or

a tinkling symbol. And though I have the gift of

prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though

I have all faith so that I could remove mountains,

and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I

bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though

I give my body to be burned, and have not charity,

it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long and is kind.

Charity envieth not charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is

not easily provoked. Thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity,

but rejoiceth in the truth. Beareth all things, believeth all things,

hopeth all things, endureth, all things charity never faileth. Whether

there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues,

they shall cease. Whether there will be knowledge, it shall

vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy

in part. But when that which is perfect is come,

then that which is in part shall be down away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child,

I understood as a child, I thought as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass darkly, but then

face to face. Now I know in part, But then

shall I know even as also I am known? And

now bide to faith, Hope, charity, these three, But the

greatest of these is charity. Now, as we looked at

last time, in the gifts of the spirit, there are,

I believe we've seen in people, we've read in history, gifts,

powerful God given gifts that are exercised. We talked about

George Mueller and the faith that he had and the

amount of children he was able to take care of

with with without ever asking for money, and we can

while that can be encouraging, it can also be kind

of dis maybe discouraging. It's like, yeah, I don't know

that I'll ever be that. You know, where do I fit?

What are what's well? You know, all of the small, medium,

and large gifts came from somewhere that George Mueller used.

And the baker brought bread, the milkman brought milk, the

neighbor brought five pounds. Maybe they had the gift of giving,

and God used those little things in big ways. But

I don't think I think that chapter thirteen ever quite struck

me like it did after studying chapter twelve. I think so,

at least for me, I've tended to look at them

kind of separately. You know, Chapter twelve, you have the

Body of Christ, talks about spiritual gifts. Chapter thirteen talks

about love. But it's a continuation, it's a better way.

There's a transition from twelve to thirteen, more excellent way.

That is the Corinthian Christians, it seems it's history would

say that they were enamored with spiritual gifts. They were

intrigued with them, they were enamored with them, they wanted them,

especially speaking in tongues. And if you look at the

way Paul starts off chapter thirteen, Paul has a message

for them, and it looks to me like he's saying, listen, Corinthians.

Even if I could speak in all the tongues, unknown

tongues of men, of heavenly beings, the way angels communicate,

if I could speak that way, if I'm lacking in love,

I'm an empty vessel making loud, obnoxious noises. That's the

way he begins to address this here in chapter thirteen,

next verse two, Paul addresses multiple gifts that he talked

about in chapter twelve. Looks like and though I have

the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,

and though I have all faith, so that I could

remove mountains and have not charity, I'm nothing now, assuming

that he really meant all those would be significant gifts.

We have prophecy, understand all mysteries like that would be

wisdom beyond Solomon, all knowledge, all faith, so I could

remove mountains. There's four listed there, and sort of the

extreme version of them. Maybe we could say, but he says,

you know, if I had the gift of prophecy, if

I could speak truth into or about the future, if

I could understand all the mysteries, all the knowledge, move

mountains with faith you know, we would we would somebody

that could do that, like would would have maybe an

important place or position, you'd think, But he says, if

love is lacking, if you do not have charity, even

if I could do all of those things, I am

nothing nothing, So that's not very much. And then Paul

moves on in verse three to the gift we could

say of extreme giving. He says, and though I bestow

all my goods to feed the poor, and though I

give my body to be burned and have not charity,

it profiteth me nothing. So imagine if someone sold everything

they had and gave all the money to the poor,

however advisable or not advisable, we would say that is

that would be significant commitment and it'd get our attention.

Or if someone gave their life for another says give

my body to be burned, and it's hard to imagine

that happening without love. But he says, if the tremendous

amount of giving that that would you be required, there

would be astronomic right. But if done without love, there's

no profit to the one giving. So what is this love?

The charity that is so foundational and so important that

it eclipses any and all of the gifts mentioned in

chapter twelve. Well, in the Bible and the New Testament,

we have multiple kinds of love mentioned. And I'm sure

you've all heard this, probably multiple times, but for a

little review, even though I've heard it multiple times, they

don't know how to say them all. But uh, Philia,

this is as I understand it. This is the love

of friendship. It's you know, you think of a best

friend or a group of friends, or maybe a brotherhood.

There's affection, there's loyalty, there's companionship, there's love, and it's yeah,

the friend the love of friends and brotherhoods. And it's

considered to some buy some to be maybe the strongest

bond as possible outside of God. You know, you can

have really strong bands of brothers that know nothing of God.

And there's a there's a bond, a friendship, a loyalty, companionship.

There that is one love. Another one is storage or

s t o r ge this love because I understand

it is love of family. You ever heard the saying

that blood runs thicker than the water. What does that mean? Well,

I think it could mean if your brother has his

back against the wall, no matter how much he annoys you,

you'll probably help him out. This love is a close love,

of deep rooted affection. There's nothing like a brother, nothing

like a sister. Sometimes seems like you can't live with them,

but you certainly can't live without them. It's a love

that runs deeper than a surface friendship. And it's often

a frank and honest love. And there's the love of

there's arrows, And this is the love of romance. It's

the warm, fuzzy feelings that stumped even the wisest man Solomon,

when he marveled at the way of a man with

a maid. It's a love of passion, beauty of love

all right. Now, there's another one that that's given in

some kind of a u Some people coun't, some people don't.

And this is the love filo timo. It's a love

of honor and hospitality. It's maybe not so much of

a deep love, but more of a one of duty,

a love for the good of humanity around us, the

love that welcomes strangers. But the fourth major one that's

considered in the New Testament is a gopy love. And

this love is we could say, the love of the

greatest order. This love is unconditional. It's not like you

do something and all love you, or you love me,

or you be lovely and all love you. Okay, there's

no strings attached. It is focused on the needs of others,

not on the desires of our self. And this kind

of love could be considered divine love, because well, it

certainly isn't natural anyways. It's a love of sacrifice. It's

a love that goes beyond reason and logic. It's a choice,

not a feeling. It's the choice to get up in

the morning and do the right thing, no matter how

you feel. I believe it can be as simple as

and certainly these other loves are intertwined, right, It can

maybe be as simple as packing lunches for school when

you're overwhelmed and exhausted and you don't feel any warm

fuzzies that you know two Dirk Williams pulling his persecutor

out of the ice, or to the Samaritan man helping

his enemy, or at least someone who they're generally not

neighborly too, with his own time and resources. It's a

love of choice, not a love of feeling. And I believe,

like I said that often these overlap, but the love

in one Corinthians thirteen. Is this a gopy love? Now?

Another way we could think of First Corinthians thirteen, maybe

is that this is a definition for a gopy love.

I wonder what it is. We'll look at First Corinthians thirteen.

By my count, there's about there's about sixteen ways that

it's described here, some positive, some negative. So let's look

at this. Let's look at what this love is that

I guess according to Paul, Eclipses, his creator is eclipses,

any and all of the spiritual gifts, at least if

you have them without this, it's nothing. So charity suffereth long.

Love is patient, not only Now love is listed in

the list of the fruit of the spirit, and so

is long suffering. Suffers long, it's patient. Charity is kind.

Now this is a really simple concept, but it's powerful.

Love is kind. If we act in love, we will

be kind. We'll treat those around us with the oil

of kindness. Charity envieth not so here we have a

list of negatives of what it is not like if

you have this, that's not love. Love does not envy.

So if we envy our brother or sister, if we

do not have peace because of something they are, something

they do, something they have that we don't. Are we loving?

Are we? I think the answer is no. There Maybe

the opposite of envy is rejoice with them that do rejoice.

Charity vaunteth not itself. Love does not boast. Love thinks

of others, not in an envious way. Right, we just

went over that one. Envious not. But if you are

talking or thinking proud things about yourself, you're not loving others.

You might be loving yourself a little bit too much,

but that's not really love, at least not this kind

of love. Charity is not puffed up. So love is

not proud. And we could say, well, that goes pretty

well with boasting. But the imagery of being puffed up

is pretty good. You know. You could think of a

toad or a puffer fish that kind of blows up

to larger than they actually are. You know, they're small creatures,

have the ability to present themselves as something they are not,

but maybe a better one sort of this proud, puffed up.

Look you ever see a rooster his chest puffed out,

strutting around the yard, right, m that's not love if

you look like that. Charity doth not behave itself unseemly.

What does that mean, well, love. One thing I think

it means is love does not conduct itself in a

dishonorable way, nor does it dishonor others by its actions.

Charity seeketh not her own. Love is not self seeking,

and this goes This goes along with love being humble,

not proud, and it also confirms that love is a

positive focus on others. Jordan Peterson says that there is

no difference between thinking about yourself and being miserable. So

that's not scripture, but I'll repeat it. There's no difference

between thinking about yourself and being miserable. And one thing

we know that it isn't it isn't love. Charity thinketh

no evil. Love does not keep track of wrongs, at

least not against us. Jesus said you should forgive seventy

times seven, and I believe that's a figure of speech. Four.

Do not keep track of wrongs that people have committed

against you. Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity. Love does not

delight in evil. Chapter five of First Corinthians, Paul chastises

them because not only was their terrible sin in the church,

but they were spiritually proud, they had some pride in

their liberty in Christ. It seem like love does not

delight in evil. Allowing someone to sin because we love

them is not love. Not this kind for sure rejoiceth

h Charity rejoiceth in truth, so not iniquity. But it

does rejoice in truth. So love rejoices in truth. Which

is interesting because we can easily separate love and truth,

and we can be the most vicious truth tellers without love,

or we can be soft lovy people that have a

hard time speaking truth or appreciating truth. But Paul says

that true love, a gopy love, love that thinks about

others and not ourselves, rejoices in truth. Love and truth

do fit together, and it rejoice, it rejoices in truth.

It's not it's not like this. This real tension here

looks like charity beareth all things. Van Ivy says love

always protects. Now, I don't know what all this means. Certainly,

you know, criminals and sinners don't need us to cover

up and protect them from the results of what they've done.

But maybe we could think about it like this, when

someone does us wrong, or we think they've done us wrong.

How quick are we to feel the need to clear

our own name, perhaps at the expense of smearing theirs.

If we are following a gopy love, we will be

more concerned about that person than we are about our

own feelings. And this is much harder to do in

real life than it is to say charity, believeth all things.

Now love we could say always trusts. Again, I don't

think this means that we believe everything. We're here, everything

we read. Some things are not only wrong, they're hateful.

The leadst places we don't want to go. A certain

God would never want us to go. But when it

has to do with us and viewing our brothers and sisters,

do we trust them or do we hold back because

we can't handle being vulnerable. We don't know for certain

that they have our best interest in mind, so we

protect ourselves to make sure we don't get hurt. This,

I believe, is not the way of a gopy love.

Love is a scary thing because it's a vulnerable thing,

and love gives us many opportunities to get hurt. Love

gives us many opportunities to be burned. Love believe with

all things, charity, hope with all things. So love is hopeful.

It hopes. Love looks out for the good of others

with a hopeful eye toward the future. This hope, again,

is not some willing neely like I hope it doesn't

rain on my picnic, which it probably would today. This

is a confidence, an active participation in looking for the

best in others and in situations. This is confidence in

God's plan and anticipation for the future. Again, I believe

it's an active, not a passive hope. It's the hope

of love. Charity endureth all things. Love always perseveres through

thick and thin. Love is there in health or in sickness,

for rich or for poor. Love endures, Charity never faileth.

Love never fails. Paul talks again about the failings and

shortcomings in this world of even spiritual gifts. Our knowledge

is partial, it's not complete. Prophecies are not complete, and

even they will fail or, as the NIV says, they

will cease, they'll stop. If you had the gift of

speaking truth about the future, what good will that do

you in heaven in eternity, where there's no time but love,

So there will be a time. Prophecies will cease. Love

never fails. Love is eternal. The gift of tongues will

be stilled. If you did have the gift of speaking

in unknown tongues men and angels, what value will that

have in heaven where we will understand fully? But love

will continue on, never failing, throughout all eternity. The little

knowledge that we do have will vanish away and become unimportant.

If you think of everything, all information in the entire world,

how many of you think you know one percent of that,

like one thing out of every hundred. Like I don't

think any of us would be that boastful that knowledge.

Even if we did attain that. What good will that

little bit of knowledge do us? When we stand in

the presence of the one who knows all, how important

will we be? But love lives on. Love never Fails's

true love will not cease, will not be stilled, will

not vanish away. It's not a partial revelation like some

of these other things. It is and always will be.

Verse ten then says, but when that which is perfect

is come, then that which is in part shall be

done away. Now I'm not going to spend a lot

of time on this. I'll just point out here that

people's interpretations of that which is perfect ranges from the

revelation of the New Testament to perfection in heaven, and

this is used by some to argue that spiritual gifts

are not needed at all. As I understand now that

the revelation of the New Testaments complete, and I think

there's some merit to think about there. But I do

believe that we will continue to see spiritual gifts in

those full of the Holy Spirit and following Jesus in

humility and obedience. But I think what's being pointed out

here is we can see the short term need and

benefits of spiritual gifts while we are here and see

in part but in heaven, in the presence of God

in eternity, not time. The spiritual gifts that people were

tempted to be proud of, the speaking in tongues that

the Corinthians long for. Let's say, well, the need for

that will be passed, that we of no use, they

shall be done away Verses eleven and twelve. When I

was a child, I spake as a child, I understood

as a child, I thought as a child. But when

I became a man, I put away childish things for

now we see through a glass darkly, but then face

to face. Now I know in part, and then shall

I know even as also I am known? And these

are interesting versus, sort of poetic. I have kind of

a ring to him, and probably a lot of us

learned them at a young age and didn't really comprehend

what was being said. There's a time in life that

is appropriate and good to understand things as a child.

As you get older, you understand more, you have more decernment,

you speak in a different way, and that's the progression

of life, and it's good. I believe Paul uses this

to illustrate spiritual gifts. They are for a time, they

are good, but the gifts of the spirit are not forever.

So do not over emphasize them at the expense of

true love, which is forever. And as I understand that

Corinth was one of the Verse twelve there about the

mirror or the glass darkly, Corinth was one of the

maybe the best place to get a mirror in the day,

but it's not a mirror like you have at home, Okay.

As I understand that these mirrors were made of brass,

and they were polished, and Corinthians did a great job

at polishing brass from what I understand, But no matter

how good they were, they were never completely accurate. The

color wasn't quite right. There are little distortions. It's different

than face to face. The clarity, the color, lack of distortion,

and when we see Jesus in his fullness face to face,

the need for these gifts of the spirit, when we

see darkly will vanish away, and imagery that I get

here to imagine this is not with a mirror, but

the part about seeing in part and then fully. So

imagine you're out in the mountains in a dark night.

There's no artificial light, and there's no moon, but you

have a flashlight, so there's some artificial light, and that

helps you to see the way. You know. You could

see obstacles, They might be distorted, you might have shadows

that are longer than the objects. But you can use

it to see the path. You can use it to

show others the way. You could have one hundred people

all with flashlights out there helping each other out. You

could set up a camp, you could have a good time.

You could even maybe go hiking. You could get an

idea of your surroundings. The scenery. But no matter how

many flashlights you have, you will only be seeing in part.

And maybe we could think about the flashlights as gifts

of the spirit. They're for a time, they're important, even

they are needed in a time. But in the morning,

when the sun comes up, when you can see fully,

when you can see face to face, you have no

more need for your flashlight. I think this could be

a picture of the glory of being in the presence

of Jesus when all is perfect. And the last verse

here verse thirteen, Now abideth, So these are important. Now abideth, faith, hope, charity,

these three. But the greatest of these is charity. And

I think we'll see again why here, So think of,

you know, some of the gifts of the spirit that

might be tempting to want to focus in on or

want to have or exhibit, you know, maybe prophecy or

miracles or some sort of something that looks like power.

That's not what's listed here. These are not the most

important things. And I don't want to minimize the value

of gifts of the spirit. But I believe that Paul

is saying that the pursuit of the Christian should be faith, hope,

and charity. These are the priority, and without them, any

of the gifts are meaningless. But even in this elite group,

we could say love comes out on top. Again, think

of when we see Jesus face to face. Will we

need faith at that point? What will we be hoping

in at that point? Or think of it this way?

Does God have faith? Is God? Faith? Does God hope?

Is God hope? I don't believe so. As important as

they are, Love is the greatest God. Not only loves

God is love, and because of that, love is eternal.

And in closing, I'll give an I'll give a really

familiar example of that. What I believe is that God

be love from God, and that is John three point sixteen.

For God so love the world that he gave his

only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not

perish but have everlasting life. So God gave us the

perfect example of sacrificial love. And here I think in

one Corinthians thirteen we have an expanded definition of sacrificial love.

So the challenge for us is to follow in God's

footsteps in love. God bless you