1 Corinthians 3:1–22 - Why You Can't Follow Personalities

1 Corinthians  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Paul addresses how divisions caused by love of various personalities within the Church are nothing more than signs of spiritual infancy. He reveals why this is so absurd, and then demonstrates that only Christ should be getting praise in the Church.

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Introduction

Opening Illustration: A Personality Driven Culture

We live increasingly in a personality driven culture. Celebrities, from Hollywood to Washington DC, from Silicon Valley to the Church Pulpit, have learned to use social media as a launching pad for their brand, for their personality. So much of cultural conversation at a national and local level is driven by comments made by one personality over another. We find our person, and we think ‘that person’ is doing it right. It’s the perfect mix of tone and wisdom. And then the regular common folk secretly aspire to be more like so and so. In one of the more profound tweets I ever read, someone said, “I just realized that navigating social media is the closest thing to hell we may ever get. Every voice crying out, “Worship me! Worship me!

Contextual

Today I preach a sermon that is very personal for me. Paul in this section of 1 Corinthians is addressing various divisions in the Church, divisions that were rooted in the personalities of various leaders in the Church. You may recall from the very first sermon in this series, he brought divisions in the Church.
1 Corinthians 1:11-13 “11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”
And we talked about how difficult it has been over the past few years to lead through all the cultural division. I felt like, and still do, that for every position I took (even if the position was “I don’t know,”) 1/3 of the Church would praise, 1/3 of the Church would be upset with me but live with it, and 1/3 of the Church would leave out the back door. That’s not intended to throw a pity party for me or anyone else in leadership, it’s intended to say Paul is writing to us today. Today Paul begins a two chapter direct Pastoral response on division in the Church. Today we’ll address three perspectives: the Cause of Division, The Danger of Division, and the Remedy for Division.

The Cause of Division

First, the Cause of Division (verses 1-9). The cause of division is that there is an over-emphasis on the personalities of various leaders in the Church (1-9)
1 Corinthians 3:1-9 “1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.”

Infants in Christ

He begins with quite cutting words. He writes to an entire Church and says, “You’re behaving like infants.” Verse 2—I want dig deep into theology and shape you’re hearts into mature followers of Christ, but you’re hung up on the most infantile issues. You’re arguing and creating cliques and divisions about who is the better Pastor, which personality of which pastor is the best.

Illustration: Pastors Like Athletes in a Sports Draft

Your treating Pastors like athletes that can be ranked and traded in a sports draft. Athletes, you rank them: Quickness, Agility, Strength, coordination, etc. It’s like we’ve created a Pastoral Draft where you’re pitting pastor against pastor, spiritual leader against spiritual leader. They’re being ranked on: What conferences do they speak at? How many Twitter followers do they have? Paul says, “Are you out of your mind. This is absolute spiritual infancy.

I planted, Apollos Watered

He says, neither me nor Apollos are of anything important. Each of us did our work that was assigned. Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered.” What he means is that Paul planted the Church, there was no Church, then Paul came and preached and built up a Church. Then he left in the hands of Apollos, and Apollos kept feeding the Church and watering it. And you’re ranking me and Apollos against each other? No, No, No. God is the only one who gives the growth.

He Who Plants & He Who Waters (9)

He clarifies in verse 9 by saying, “It’s not the work that each spiritual leader does is not important. Each laborer has a reward for what they do with their time on this Earth. But if you think a Church is going to be built and sustained and grow on a personality, you’re thinking like a child.

Make This Personal: Me

I want to make this uncomfortably personal for a moment. And I think I can do this, because we’re a Church. I going to make it really uncomfortable, but I think in doing so, we might permit God to reveal some idols in this Church and perhaps lay much stronger groundwork for the future. I think I can do this, because I don’t believe this Church is full of spiritual infants. Increasingly I am nervous that this Church is heavily built on my personality, not entirely… but its a thing. And its a dangerous thing. The causes of it are understandable. Let me give you two.

1 Church Shopping

In Paul’s day there was only one Church in the city of Colossae where he was writing to. But today, there are a thousand churches in Chicago. And so one of the things that has happened, when people join a Church they can shop around, listen to the sermons online, visit and get a sense for the room, for the vibe. None of these things are necessarily wrong. But what can happen, is that people join the Church primarily for the personality of the Pastor. And this can create a vicious cycle of unhealth.

2 Controversial Topics

Secondly, there are very real issues in culture to confront. And different pastors do it differently. Churches have to make decisions, “Do I sign the bold statement that says the federal government can never tell us to shut our churches down again.” Churches have to make a decision, “Do I publicly talk about Abortion in this country.” Churches have to make a decision, “What language and ideas are useful for the conversation on race, and what language and ideas are heretical on the conversation on race.” That’s a snapshot, there’s a lot more. Here’s what is so challenging. I believe Pastors must take very bold positions on these things, and I’ve done that. Now I believe this is what all Pastors should be doing. But the danger here is that potentially your love of this Church is less about the community, and more about your love of my style. In other words, you’re here simply because of me. That’s dangerous.
To borrow from the words of the Apostle Paul. Kensen planted. I watered. But God gives the growth.

The Danger of Division

The Cause of Division is that there is an over-emphasis on the personalities of various leaders in the Church (1-9). Now, the Danger of Division is that we fail to realize that every member of God's Church are co-laborers building together. (10-17)
1 Corinthians 3:10-17 “10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

The Grace God Gave Me

He begins with this phrase, “According to the grace God gave me.” The idea here is that every follower of Christ, has been given grace by God, a particular grace to labor in God’s kingdom in a particular way. For Paul, he was assigned the work, by God of being an Apostle, being one of the few men in history assigned the work of laying a foundation for the entire for generations to build off of. But the idea here is that just like Paul, just like Apollos, you and me, and every other Christian are in the exact same position. We’ve all simply received grace, in the form of responsibilities in the Kingdom of God, from Jesus.

The Foundation is Christ (11)

Everyone is building on the same foundation. The foundation is Jesus Christ and His Word. If anybody is trying to build on a different foundation, they’re not part of the Church, even if they call themselves a Christian. This is a challenge to us to evaluate our lives, our motivations, our time, our investments, and ask whether or not you are building your life, the direction of your life on the right foundation. Jesus is not a tack on, he is the foundation.

Each Person’s Work Will Be Tested (12-15)

He goes on to say that each Christian’s work will be tested through fire. The image here is of a fire sweeping through a house and only those things made of pure gold surviving. Remember we’re discussing the danger of division. And Paul is getting very personal, and looking at each of our motivations and how we construct our lives. And he’s’ saying, “You are going to stand in a judgment before God and the danger here is connected to your reward in heaven.” What does that mean?

Rewards in Heaven

I don’t quite fully understand how rewards in heaven are going to work. But this passage as well as others seem to indicate two things. Number 1, our salvation has absolutely nothing to do with our works at all. Whether or not we are in the Kingdom of God has everything to do with our faith in Jesus and His work on the cross paying the penalty for our sins. In other words, you can’t yourself on the foundation of Christ, only God does that, that’s why its a work of grace. Number 2, what we spend our days doing as Christians will have eternal consequence. Some people, apparently, will get into heaven like one escaping the flames of a fire. Just about everything they invested their time and their efforts into in this life will be burned up at hte judgment, and by grace upon grace they’ll get into heaven because God granted them a mustard seed of faith. Others, will have spent their time and their on this Earth building the Kingdom. And there will be some form of reward in heaven. Specifically what that is, I can’t wait to find out. But I know this, that’s a motivaiton to make sure I’m building correctly, utilizing my time correctly. so the danger of sowing division, of playing politics in the Church, is that you end up building with hay and straw, and you get no reward eternally.

You Are God’s Temple

But there’s more. He’s talked about the Church being a Building, but now he ups the stakes, and he says you are a temple. Verses 16-17
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 “16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
Here’s the real danger. When we permit division in the Church, especially this type of division it obscures what the Church is. The Church is the place on Earth where the true God dwells. In the Old Testament, the presence of God was found in a temple in Jerusalem. But when Jesus died, and gained victory over death through His Resurrection, he built a new temple. We’re not waiting for another temple to be built, the new temple is the poeple of God, in whom the Spirit of God dwells. Therefore, when we bring personalities and partisanship and celebrating any man into the temple, we are missing it entirely! The purpose of a temple is to bring glory to one man, the God-man Jesus Christ. The real danger of division in the Church, is that we rob God of his glory.

The Remedy for Division

So what is the remedy. Part 3. The Remedy for Division: Boast in no man, but Christ alone (18-23)
1 Corinthians 3:18-23 “18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”
How do we get past political divisions in the Church, personality leadership in the Church. We root it out by prayerfully reminding each other, that there is only one man to whom boasting belongs. In the Kingdom of God, within the Church, any boasting in any other person besides Christ is forbidden. Any manipulation to gain popularity points will fall, why? Because verse 19, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” The remedy is that we have to work tirelessly in the Church to make sure no one person, even me, becomes the basis of our strength. Christ is the basis of our strength. And if the Lord called me away tomorrow, would this Church continue to thrive? Oh I pray so. And if the answer is no, then we have built this thing the wrong way. John the Baptist prayed, “Less of me and more of you Jesus.”

Application: Let No One Boast in Men

Paul closes with our application. He says
1 Corinthians 3:21 “21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,”
What do we take away, we have to relentlessly root out the boasting of men and women within the Church. We have to relentlessly root out the boasting of ourselves in our life and in the Church. Social Media can be a good tool, but it also can be a tool for self-exaltation. And its all the time weighing in on us. A healthy Church celebrates the work of Christ among us. It is far more than a single personality. Christ gets all the glory.
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