1 Cor. 3: 5-23 Building the
Lord's Church
Intro:
In 1 Cor. Ch. 3 Paul paints a 3-fold
picture of the Church & what it is to accomplish V.1-5 The Church is a family & the goal is maturity.
A) (1 Cor. 3:5-9a). The church
is a field and the goal is quantity fruit
9b-
23 The church is a building and the
goal is stability
C) The church in Corinth
resembled none of these things it wasn’t stable - it wasn’t fruitful and it
wasn’t mature
1) Last week Paul….. spiritual - but can’t because of carnal -
act like babies.
D) THE REASON - The problem
Paul has been addressing all along - the people were focused on Human leaders
instead of Jesus
1) Human philosophies &
wisdom instead of God’s word.
The cure for division is
turning away from self and setting our eyes on the one God whom we all glorify.
When our attention is focused on our Lord, as it always should be, there will
be no time and no occasion for division. When our attention is on Him it cannot
be on ourselves or on human leaders or human factions.
Our days are few, and are
far better spent in doing good, than in
disputing over matters which are, at best, of minor importance. The old
schoolmen did a world of mischief by their incessant discussion of subjects of
no practical importance; and our Churches suffer much from petty wars over
abstruse points and unimportant questions. After everything has been said that
can be said, neither party is any the wiser, and therefore the discussion no
more promotes knowledge than love, and it is foolish to sow in so barren a field.
Questions upon points wherein Scripture is silent; upon mysteries which belong
to God alone; upon prophecies of doubtful interpretation; and upon mere modes
of observing human ceremonials, are all foolish, and wise men avoid them. Our
business is neither to ask nor answer foolish questions, but to avoid them
altogether; and if we observe the apostle's precept (Titus 3:8) to be careful
to maintain good works, we shall find ourselves far too much occupied with
profitable business to take much interest in unworthy, contentious, and
needless strivings. SPURGEON
Here in 1 Cor. 3 Paul gives
us a blue print of what the Church is to be about & how it is to be built
& what happens to those who don’t follow instructions
V. 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom
you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
A) Paul & Apollos were
simply instruments in the hands of God - tools for His use & not the source
of salvation
B) Paul had reminded them
earlier, (1:13). he had not died for
them and they were not baptized in his name.
1) The word ministers It is not
the same word often translated “servant, slave, or bond–servant”
C) Paul uses a different word
that simply meant a menial worker of any sort, free or slave.
1) It was often used of a table
waiter or what we would now call a busboy.
D) Paul was saying in effect, “No one builds a movement around a waiter or
busboy, or erects monuments to them.
1) If an artist is to be
honored, you do not make a statue of his brush or his palette
Paul
was saying Apollos and I are just paint
brushes / instruments / waiters or
busboys whom the Lord used as servants to bring you food.
The world honors and tries
to immortalize great men because men are the highest thing it knows. The world
cannot see beyond itself.
A) But Christians know God—the
Creator, the Sustainer, the Savior, the Lord of the universe, and the Source of
all things. He alone is worthy of honor.
B) Paul wanted nothing to do w/
this type of mentality - he continues v.6
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but
God who gives the increase.
Here Paul begins by using
the analogy of the field - illustrating 2 main points
A) 1st - There is diversity in Christian service - Paul planted
- Apollos watered -
B) They both played a part in
the farming process of the Church in Corinth.
1) Paul started the Church
& planted the seed of God’s word in their hearts - Paul left and Apollos
came & Watered the seed.
C) Both played an important
part -
1) You plant seeds - bring
person to Church - I water - / they go talk to someone else - Harvest. ( All 3
played important & equal part )
D) But the 2nd thing
to see - bottom line - God gave the increase!
1) The instrument is really
nothing - it is God who causes growth
E) Paul says Apollos & I are nothing - not anything - It is God !
GAYLE IRWIN - GET THE BALL
TO DAVE ( We won)
1) When we realize that there
is no Competition just cooperation - God what do you want to do!
F) Partnering w/ Greg O in
Hungary - Conf. & Church plant - nationals
1) Teach 75% - then let the
nationals - GOD THING
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will
receive his own reward according to his own labor.9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field,
A) All of God’s workers are one
in Him, and to Him all glory should go
Hodge
For we are Laborers together w/ God This is at once the reason why
ministers are
one, and why they are to be rewarded according to their
labors. They are
one because they are all co-workers with God in the same
great
enterprise; and they are to be rewarded according to their labor,
because that is
the rule according to which laborers are rewarded.
B) The rewarder is
God - we have the tendency to reward here
1) Quick to judge
ministries by size - someone is not a good teacher because their church is
small - not necessarily true.
C) God gives the increase! God adds & subtracts
D) God rewards on the basis of labor, not success or results.
1) A missionary may work
faithfully for 40 yrs. and see only a handful of converts. Another may work far
fewer yrs. & see far more converts.
E) Jeremiah was one of God’s
most faithful and dedicated prophets, yet he saw little result of his ministry.
1) He was ridiculed,
persecuted, and generally rejected along with the message he preached.
F) Jonah, on the other hand,
was petty and unwilling, yet through him God won the entire city of Nineveh in
one brief campaign.
1) Our usefulness and
effectiveness are purely by God’s grace
G) God is going to reward for
faithfulness & motives
At this point Paul moves on
to the analogy of Building a building. V.9b
you are God's building. 10
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master
builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one
take heed how he builds on it.
Paul calls himself here
"the wise master builder," and the word for master builder, is the word from
which we get our word "architect."
A) But he really uses this word
in a different sense than we use the word "architect" today.
B) To us an architect is the
man who thinks up the building. He conceptualizes it; he designs it; he sees it
in his mind's eye;
1) he plans it, and programs
it, and draws the designs for it.
C) Now In that sense, God is
the architect of the church of course . The Lord Jesus said, "I will build my church," {Matt
16:18}.
1) He has conceived it; he has
designed it; he has planned its structure; he has programmed its activities,
D) The term I think we would
use to describe what Paul speaks of here is "a general contractor." Paul is a master contractor.
The next thing Paul does
here is lay out the ingredients essential for building the Church. Where Begin
- most essential ? Foundation
V.11 11 For no other foundation can
anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
A) Foundation of any Church
must be Jesus Christ
B) One of the fundamental
problems with Roman Catholicism is that it is built on the foundation of the
Papacy, rather than on Jesus Christ.
1) Popes word stands above
God’s word
C) The Anglican Church had
similar problems The parliament of 1532-1536 declared Henry VIII ‘Supreme Head
on earth of the Church of England’.
In more recent times the
People have attempted to build the Church on such things as signs &
wonders.
A) New winds - new experiences
B) Very popular today is the
model of building the church on public
opinion. There is a Church is Chicago - Willow Creek - THE MODEL CHURCH.
1) Started - by going around in
their area & taking a pole w/ people and asking them what they wanted in a
Church
C) Answers - Relevancy - ( talk
about things that I am interested in marriage - love life - business - etc. )
1) Short sermons / Drama &
creative Arts / etc.
D) So in this Church each week
- go and it is a big production in fact every Monday the whole staff gets together
watches a video of the service
1) Run through each aspect of
it to critique it.
E) There is a drama - special
music & the Pastor or speaker might do a 5 wk series entitled money sex
& power. ( Hook )
1) 5th week share
the gospel.
F) Youth Program is similar -
1000 kids each week - enter the auditorium & what is blaring over the loud
speakers the latest secular song.
1) Appeal to them - socially -
be relevant
E) One of these Churches - here
in Calf. Walk in theme song to a sitcom or a beer commercial.
1) Trying to build on the
foundation of public opinion.
Paul said there is only one
foundation we can build upon & that is Jesus Christ!
A) Supremacy of Christ and the
authority of His word.
Next Paul considers the
building materials v. 12 12 Now if anyone builds on this
foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it,
because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of
what sort it is.
A) The materials listed here
are in contrast to one another - important to note the context here - Human
Wisdom & God’s wisdom
B) The thing to notice right
away about these materials is the first group Imperishable & the 2nd
group is perishable.
C) What do these
elements represent? Gold silver & precious were used in the
adorning ancient temples,
1) they
appropriately used as the symbols of pure doctrine - that which stands the test !
C) Gold silver & precious
stones are that which corresponds w/ the truth - Jesus Christ & Him crucified
1) Sought to know
nothing among you ……
c)
Gold
and silver and costly stones are permanent; they are abiding; they never fail;
they do not slip off the foundation;
1)they are in line with the nature of the
foundation.
D) God has given us basically three things with which to build His
church. 1st The Word
1) 2nd
The Holy Spirit - His Power/
manifest His Love
3rd Prayer
The
other three, of course, are exactly the opposite. They are highly combustible
material -- wood and hay and straw ( Stubble is )
Wood, hay, and
stubble are the perishable materials out of which ordinary houses were built,
but not temples.
A) Wood can make an impressive structure, but when it is
beset by fire it does not last very long.
B) Wind can blow it down, fire
can burn it, attacks using metal implements against it can cut it and destroy
it, so a wood building is not very enduring.
C) Wood Hay & stubble
represent mans wisdom & ingenuity in all its forms
When
Paul wrote to the church at Colossi he saw them severely threatened by three
things that were coming into the Church in their worship together:
1.One was formalism. They were going
through ceremonies and rituals in a set way as though that was what God was
after and not the change of heart that these things represented. That
formalistic pattern of worship is a destructive thing to the life of the church that God is seeking to build.
2.The second thing was emotionalism. Many
of the Colossians were caught up in a kind of a mystical experience. They were
talking about these things and they had forsaken, therefore, clinging to the
Head of the body, which is Jesus himself. That was destroying the church, as it
does in many places today.
3.And the third thing was an asceticism, a
legalistic spirit that was taking pride in its dedicated heart and its
willingness to give up so many things, to go in for fasting and beating the
body, and not touching certain things. They were glorying in that fact. The apostle saw the church being
threatened, choked and sabotaged by these kinds of practices.
D) Today we have sum of those
same problems plus / leaders trying to build on Philosophy - Pop Psychology /
managerial techniques - ( clients )
1) IBM TRAINING
Paul declares there is a day
of Judgment coming when each ones work will be manifest to see of which kind it
is - declared by fire!
a.
Church leaders will one day answer to God for how they built HIS church.
b.
Those who followed God’s plan will be rewarded. Those who did it according to
human wisdom, be it their own or someone else’s will suffer loss
1) Let not many become teachers
- stricter judgment
C) Often wonder what is going
to be like for some of these pastors who pastor the “ seeker sensitive church “
1) Taught them
about marriage / better love life /
better in Business / but you never taught them about me .
D) To know me & walk w/ me !
Repent from sin - Sin ( bad things )
1) What about the person who
goes to hell - because they weren’t there the week that the gospel was preached
14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will
receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer
loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
A) He will be saved - because
his salvation was based on his faith in Jesus Christ - but everything else -
was the flesh - human wisdom.
16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the
Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God
will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
Heavy
Warning to those who destroy God’s Church !
Hodges
The apostle justifies the representation
given above of the responsibility
of ministers.
The unfaithful builders deserve to be thus punished, because
they are engaged
in the erection of no ordinary building. They are not
raising up a
house for themselves, to be constructed of what materials and
on whatever plan
may suit their taste. They are building the temple of
God. This truth
the Corinthians seem to have forgotten, for they regarded
their teachers as
men allowed to preach their own speculations, and valued
them according
to their proficiency in “the wisdom of words.”
The temple of God is Holy
sacred & cannot be violated
v.18
18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise
in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is
written, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness";
20 and again, "The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that
they are futile."
.
Paul
ends this chapter By presenting a solution to the problem of the disunity among
them .
. Typical of Paul, the solution to the problem is found in correct
thinking. To gain and maintain unity in the church, we must have the proper
view of ourselves, of others, of our possessions, and of our Possessor.
Much
division in the church would be eliminated if individuals were not so impressed
with their own wisdom.
A) A person who thinks that he
is wise in this age—that is, wise in contemporary human wisdom—does nothing but
deceive himself.
Pride
is always at the heart of human wisdom, the
wisdom of this world, which is
foolishness before God.
It is difficult to teach a person
who thinks he knows everything
B) Paul says If anyone among you seems to be wise in this
age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
H. Let him renounce his own wisdom in order
that he may receive the wisdom of God. We must be empty in order to be filled.
We must renounce our own righteousness, in order to be clothed in the
righteousness of Christ. We must renounce our own strength, in order to be made
strong. We must renounce our own wisdom, in order to be truly wise.
The first step in a Christian’s becoming truly wise
is to recognize that his own human wisdom is foolishness, a reflection of the
wisdom of this world, which is
foolishness before God.
The church must create an atmosphere in which the
Word of God is honored and submitted to, in which human opinion is never used
to judge or qualify revelation.
As far as the things of God are concerned,
Christians must be totally under the teaching of Scripture and the illumination
of the Holy Spirit.
Where
the Word of God is not set up as the supreme authority, division is inevitable..
When the truth of Scripture is not the sole
authority, men’s varied opinions become the authority.[1]
Eventually
God will trip up those who oppose His Word. He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness.
Like
Haman, they hang on their own gallows (Esther 7:7–10). Their cunning plans turn
to condemn them as God catches them in their own trap. He knows the reasoning of the wise, that they are useless.[2]
2nd
The Proper View of Leaders
21 Therefore let no one boast in men
To glory in any person or thing is to
trust in him or it as the ground of
confidence, or
as the source of honor or blessedness. It is to regard
ourselves as
blessed because of our relation to it. Thus men are said to
glory in the
Lord, or in the cross; because God, or Christ as crucified, is
regarded as the
ground of confidence and the source of blessedness.
3rd
Right view of
Possessions - So blessed - Word - insight into Gods Plan.
For all things are
yours: 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death,
or things present or things to come; all are yours
4th Need to remember who we belong to ! 23 And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's