1 Corinthians 3:9-17 - God's Cosmic Building Project
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
If you have your Bibles let me invite you to open with me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
If your joining us for the first time this morning let me provide a little context.
Paul is writing to the church that he planted in the city of Corinth.
All is not well in that church.
The church is divided.
At least one of the reasons for the division is that members have rallied behind their favorite leaders….
More specifically church leaders that embody Corinthian values of power, strength, and rhetoric.
They love the leaders that impress.
They love the leaders that speak like the philosophers of Corinth…,
and they are allowing their preferences and their pride and their wrongly placed allegiances to stir up quarrels and jealousy.
For the remainder of chapter 3, Paul wants to readjust their perspective of the church, church leadership, and the church’s mission.
We will begin by reading our passage from last week, verses 1-4…, and then we will focus our attention on verses 5-9.
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.
Lets Pray
What then is Apollos?
What is Paul?
Its a rhetorical devise Paul uses here.
He asks the question in such a way that assumes the reader has a misconception about the nature of what Apollos and Paul really are.
The Corinthians have misunderstood what a church leader is.
They have understood their leaders to be owners of the church to whom they pledge allegiance to.
They have focused on the leaders as the primary and distinguishing mark of the success of a church.
They have so closely identified with their favorite leaders that they say things like, “I belong to Paul” or “I belong to Apollos”
We were introduced to this issue in chapter 1.
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?
Paul’s already commented on the absurdity of pledging allegiance to particular leaders above Christ himself.
Now Paul aims to really define what a church leader really is…, and truly what any and every Christian really is.
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
Truth #1 We are God’s Servants
Truth #1 We are God’s Servants
Apollos and Paul, as amazing as they were in their leadership and ministry within the first century churches… were not the main characters of the movement.
They were simply servants of the main character.
They were simply servants of God himself.
Lets look at the word servants first.
To be a servant in the house is not to be the master of the house,
but it is to follow the master’s instructions for the business of the household.
as we will see later in the paragraph…, The kind of servant that Paul references in this analogy is more particularly the kind of servant who works a field that is not his own.
He does not own the field that he works,
Rather he labors according to the wishes of the one who owns the field… AND he works for the wages his master has promised.
He does not have the authority to do a different task other than that which his master gave him…
And he does not have the authority to plant whatever he wants however he wants in the master’s field.
He is a servant under the owner.
Paul, therefore, emphasizes neither I, nor Apollos are the owners of the church.
Verse 9 comes back to form a kind of inclusio to his argument… repeating again in different words that he is just a servant.
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Here the analogy fills out with more clarity.
Paul understands the Corinthian church to be God’s field.
They are the field in which Paul and Apollos labored…, but they are not Paul and Apollos’ field.
Paul and Apollos rather, are fellow workers, under the authority of the owner… God himself.
Brothers and sisters, this is what Paul and Apollos were called to be…
And this is what you are and I are called to be.
We are servants under the authority of a good master.… a good king… a good ruler of all the universe.
The concept of servanthood ministry flows out of the teaching and ministry of Jesus himself.
Jesus’ disciples often argued about who would be the greatest among them…,
but Jesus’ constant reminder was that their goal in ministry would not be that they achieve great status, but rather that they humble themselves in the service of their God.
42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus is actually the master…, but he became a servant to save his people and to teach his people what it looks like to be a servant of the master.
Now, Let me pause and ask this…
What does your relationship to God look like…
Do your prayers reflect a humble disposition where you offer yourself in service to God?
Or do your prayers most often reflect a prideful disposition where you are demanding God to better serve you?
Would others see your ministry in the church as one where you are always actively seeking ways to serve others?
Or would others see your presence in the church as one where you are always content to have every one else serve you?
Is our church family the place where you the consumer are primarily fed… or is our church family a group of people that you the servant give yourself to.
this is our calling brothers and sisters…
We are not in charge… we are not co-owners of St. Rose Community Church…., we are not masters of our own lives…, we are servants of God. …
This is true of me, our elders, our deacons, and all of our members. We are servants of God and God’s church.
and this is an incredible thing.
Truth #2 We Are Servants Through Whom God Works
Truth #2 We Are Servants Through Whom God Works
To be a servant is a bad thing for us only if we have a bad master.
But we don’t have a bad master.
We have a master who loved us to death.
We have a master who has lavished infinite grace upon us.
We have a master who empowers, equips, and invites us to participate in the most significant work in the world.
We have a master invites us to enjoy his harvest.
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
Paul is not disparaging the work that Paul and Apollos got to participate in.
The city of Corinth was a pagan city full of idol worshipping people who were on their way to an eternal hell without the good news of Jesus Christ.
Paul landed in Corinth with the gospel.
He proclaimed the gospel.
People came to faith in Jesus.
And the church in Corinth was born.
Apollos became the primary teacher in Corinth… and he was shepherding God’s people to believe more and more in the gospel that they had come to know.
Paul and Apollos were used by God to make an eternally significant difference in the world and in individual’s lives.
Do you realize that there are Corinthians in heaven right now…, because God used the obedience, faithfulness, and boldness of Paul to get the message of Jesus to people who did not believe.
Right now Corinthians are resting in the eternal joy of the presence of their savior because of the work God did through Paul and through Apollos.
We are not JUST servants of God.
WE GET to be servants of God.
We GET to participate in a mission more important than our retirement plan, and more important than our career goals, and more important than our bucket lists…
We GET to participate in the gospel farming where the harvest is people
people who receive eternal life
people who join together in local churches
people who will continue the mission of God with us and long after us.
Praise God that he invites us to become servants through whom he works to bring people to faith in the saving message of Jesus.
Truth #2 We Are Servants Through Whom God Works
But obviously, not all of us are servants in exactly the same kind of way in God’s field.
1 Corinthians 3:5–7 (ESV)
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.
Focus in on that phrase “as the Lord assigned to each.”
Truth #3 As Servants, Our Assignment is from God
Truth #3 As Servants, Our Assignment is from God
There is a lot to do in God’s field.
There is a lot do do in the mission of God.
The mission is always making disciples of all nations.
The mission is always reaching our family, and friends, and co-workers, and neighbors with the good news of Jesus.
It’s always teaching others all that Jesus commanded us.
It’s always a church planting and church strengthening mission.
But our role in that mission is a role that God assigns to us.
He is sovereign over our location.
He is sovereign over the way in which he has uniquely gifted us.
He is sovereign over the opportunities that have or have not been given to us.
He is sovereign over the circumstances he has brought us through and is bringing us through.
He is sovereign over your presence in this room this morning.
As we will see later emphasized in 1 Corinthians, the beauty of the local church is their unified diversity.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
God has made you uniquely you, and he has gifted you in a particular way that will open up particular doors for discipling others and serving the mission of the local church.
Paul was a church planter.
He was a pioneer church planter who went into particular cities and situations where there was no gospel preaching church and he shared the gospel and he established a church and he then handed that church off to someone else.
From what we can tell, Apollos on the other hand was a very good teacher. He spoke well.
Apollos stayed to equip the Corinthians, while Paul moved on to the next place to plant a church once again.
Was Paul better than Apollos? No
Was Apollos better than Paul? No.
They were both servants living in obedience to the assignment God had given them.
Have you ever stopped to consider in a spirit of humility and surrender… “What is my assignment?”
Not everyone in this room is called to be a long term missionary to the hardest to reach people in other countries…, but would it be wise to assume that no one in this room has been assigned such a ministry?
Not everyone in this room is called to sell their home and move with a church planting team to a neighborhood or city with little gospel access…., but would it biblical to assume that no one is?
Not everyone is called to serve as an elder
Not everyone is called to serve as a deacon
Not everyone is called to foster care and adoption
Not everyone is called to be teachers or preachers
Not everyone is called to serve our church in facility maintenance and upkeep…
but is no one assigned to these things?
Paul and Apollos certainly had ministry assignments that they understood to be from the Lord and they poured themselves out for those assignments.
Do you understand your assignment? Do you know what it is?
and how do you even determine what your assignment is?
From the testimony of Scripture it would seem that we get clarity over our ministry assignments when we see a crossover of multiple affirmations:
Look for God to put an aspiration in your heart - a desire or an ambition to serve him in a particular way.
Look for other Spirit-filled Christians to affirm that aspiration in your heart. The Spirit won’t lead you in a direction that he doesn’t confirm in other Spirit-filled people.
Look for God-ordained opportunity that you can step into. Watch for needs that you can fill. Watch for doors that are open.
And along the way do not forget that you are not the master of the ministry or the master of your life.
By his great grace, the Lord give us our assignments… and we humbly put our lives on the table before him and we live our lives according to this prayer that Jesus modeled for us…. “Not my will, but yours be done.”
And all along the way… we get after it.
We get to work.
There are a lot about our individual assignments that we all have in common.
There are a lot of things that we all know we are all called to do no matter what.
We preach Christ-crucified.
We share the word of the cross
we pray
we read
we serve the local church
We give our time and our talents and our money for the gospel to be displayed in our local church.
We love people
we listen
we share joys
we bear burdens
we fulfill all the one another commands.
we are hospitable.
We use our homes as a base of operations for ministry not our own self-indulging complacency.
Even when our specific assignment is unclear…, the nature of Christian ministry and faithfulness is not ambiguous.
Do not wait around doing nothing, because you are awaiting some big mystical assignment to plant a church on the other side of the world.
Get to work as a servant in the field that you are in.
This moment. This ministry. These people is your assignment in this moment. So humble yourself before the Lord and pray that he would work through you And would lead you to better understand your assignment.
And as you get after it…, do so with joy and with a peace, that the ministry is not about you, nor are the results up to you.
Truth #4 As Servants, We Trust the Results to God.
Truth #4 As Servants, We Trust the Results to God.
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.
Paul often embraces the analogy that Jesus first used to describe the Christian ministry.
Hear Jesus’ words:
26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Christian ministry is very much like farming.
We plant the seeds of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Planting is hard work.
By the sweat of our brow through back breaking work and long hours, we till the ground.
We spread the seeds of Gospel truth.
We spread the fertilizer.
We keep the weeds at bay as best we can.
But the one thing we cannot do is cause the sun to shine or cause the rain to fall.
God does that.
God brings the rain.
Thus God gives the growth.
God gives the grace, he gets the glory.
We do not trust our ability, power, or persuasiveness to produce soul salving faith in someone else.
We do not trust in anyone’s charisma, gifting, ingenuity, or wisdom to grow God’s church.
St. Rose Community Church… i don’t know if you realize this or not but our church is growing.
We are baptizing people regularly.
We are adding church members regularly.
We are quickly running out of space in this room..
God is actively doing miracles in this place in the lives of individuals and it is God’s doing.
It is not my doing.
It is not Drew’s doing.
It is not Stephen or Ray’s doing.
It is not the doing of any hotshot individual.
God is working through the servants in this room who are simply walking in faithfullness to their assignments.
It is one of my greatest personal fears that I and our church would ever catch the Corinthian disease of man-centeredness Rather than God-centered ness.
This is Paul’s primary concern. That the Corinthian church be God-centered… not man-centered.
4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
As Servants, We Trust the Results to God.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate and even enjoy the fruit of our labor through which God works.
This brings us to our last truth and the last verse I want you to take note of.
Truth #5 As Servants, We Receive Rewards from our God
Truth #5 As Servants, We Receive Rewards from our God
8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
We trust the results to God.
We are just servants
God is the one working through us…
But God does reward our Labor.
There is joy to be had, a harvest to be gathered, rewards to be received for laboring in the assignment God has placed us.
I believe that Paul has in mind here both wages in this life and in the life to come.
Paul got to witness a church come into being from nothing.
He got to baptize new believers in Jesus Christ.
He got to see miracle salvations take place.
He got to enjoy relationships with spiritual brothers, and sisters.
He got to enjoy using the gifts the Lord had bestowed upon him as he taught the gospel and saw people’s eyes light up with truth for the very first time.
But more than that, Paul looks forward to an eternity where we will only ever enjoy the fruit of our labors, and never the punishments for our failures.
Without Jesus none of our labor secures any reward.
Without Jesus any labor in good deeds is to the glory of ourselves, and thus is condemnable before God For all eternity.
We owed God a great debt. We owed God the price of our sin, the eternal death our sin deserved.
BUT GOD paid that debt through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Through faith in Jesus we are not only forgiven of all our sins and promised eternal life…, we are invited into a work, a labor, a mission to make disciples of all nations…, and we are invited to enjoy rewards for our labor both here and now and forevermore.
We do not earn our salvation by our ministry labor, but that does not mean that their are not blessings on blessings in a living and dying for the cause of Christ among the nations.
As Servants we Rejoice in the Rewards from our Master both now and forever more.
This is a concept we will explore even more next week in the following paragraph, but for now, simply sit on the goodness of a God who gives us rewards, though he is actually the one who gives the growth.
The fact that God rewards his children, though he does not need his children to do anything for him Is simply a testimony to his eternal graciousness.
He doesn’t need our labor.
He doesn’t need our work.
He doesn’t need our ministry to accomplish what he wants to accomplish..
Yet he blesses and rewards faithful servants.
We Are God’s Servants
We Are Servants Through Whom God Works
As Servants, Our Assignment is from God
As Servants, We Trust God with the Results
As Servants, We Receive Rewards from our God
Let me close with a few questions for you to meditate upon:
Are You a Servant of God and His Church?
Would you be characterized as a weekly consumer of spiritual goods in this church?
Or would you be characterized as a servant for the spiritual good of others in this church?
2. What is Your Ministry Assignment?
What are the obvious ministry assignments God has called you to?
What might be some more particular ministry assignments God could be leading you to pursue?
3. Are You Trusting the God who gives the growth?
4. Are You Recognizing and Rejoicing In God’s Rewards for His Servants?
Lets give glory to God who gives the growth.