A Church Worthy of The Foundation

Glory be to thee, O Father everlasting, who didst send thine only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Glory be to thee O Jesus Christ, who hast brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Glory be to thee O holy Spirit, who dost quicken us together with Christ, and dost shed abroad his love in our hearts. Come to us now thou blessed Father, son, and Holy Spirit; blessed be thy glorious name now and forevermore.

†OPENING HYMN OF PRAISE #244

“A Might Fortress is Our God”

BEFORE CONFESSION

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. (Isa. 55:7)

†CORPORATE CONFESSION OF SIN / ASSURANCE OF PARDON

based on I Tim. 1:15; I Pet. 2:24

Minister: O that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.

Congregation: Restore us, we pray, through the coming of our Lord Jesus, in whom we place our hope and trust. Amen.

Minister: Sing aloud, O people of God, rejoice and exult with all your heart! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies.

Congregation: The Lord our God is in our midst. A warrior who gives victory! He will rejoice over us with gladness. He will renew us in his love. He will exult over us with singing.

Minister: Know that your sins are forgiven and be at peace.

Congregation: Thanks be to God!

CONTINUAL READING OF SCRIPTURE Romans 15:1-21

Craig Hoffer, Elder

THE OFFERING OF TITHES AND OUR GIFTS

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYERS

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

†PSALM OF PREPARATION #149A

“Give Praise to the Lord”

SERMON 1 Corinthians 3:1-15, “A Church Worthy of The Foundation”

ILLUMINATION

Teach us thy ways, O Lord, we ah walk in thy truth. Unite our hearts to fear thy name. Amen

Sermon Text:

1 Corinthians 1:1–15 (ESV) — 1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 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? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.

AFTER SCRIPTURE

Every word of God is perfect, let his people bless his Holy name.

Intro:

Have you ever seen one of those home renovation shows where they go into a beautiful old home with wonderful architecture but when you get to the kitchen where mistakes were made on the flooring. You know how this story goes. They begin to pry up one layer of yellow laminate from the 80’s only to reveal the pink laminate from the 70’s and they keep going down until they reach the immaculate quarter sawn oak flooring of the original house.

Not only was the trendy flooring tacky but it is of a quality that cannot last.

It’s a massive shame to build upon such worth with cheap and disposable materials.

And in the same way, Paul is instructing the Corinthians that they must get back to the oak.

What they are trying to build upon the foundation is worldly, trendy, expedient, and self-sufficient, and it isn’t worthy of the foundation.

He’s got his pry bar ready, and the yellow Corinthian laminate is coming up.

Outline:

(vv.1-4) Milk, Not Solid Food

(vv.5-7) I Planted, Apollos Watered, But God Gave The Growth

(vv.8-15) A Church Worthy of The Foundation

Milk, Not Solid Food

1 Corinthians 3:1–4 (ESV) — 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?

As we read last week, Paul contrasted people who think in the ways of the world and its wisdom as what he calls the “natural” man opposed to those whose wisdom was from God–what he calls the “spiritual” man.

Remember, the “natural” man isn’t merely someone who cannot understand the cross intellectually, but rather, they see the cross as weak or foolish (1 Cor. 1:18). And more than merely not being able to perceive by the intellect, their hearts and affections are so devoted to self or to this world, that the cross looks repulsive, not attractive. They are people who navigate through the world under the guiding principles of the flesh, not the Spirit.

And this is how the Corinthians are acting.

There were to mature and grow in holiness, being transformed by the renewing of their minds, not to remain shallow, weak, and worldly.

Here’s his example: Here’s the vinyl laminate on the flooring: “ 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?” (1 Cor. 3:3-4).

In this verse, Paul highlights the old human, or natural, way of thinking. There was jealousy and strife–division among the congregation as to whose camp they belonged to, Paul or Apollos? They had the unity of Father, Son, and Spirit, and the unity among believers, and they allowed the sin of partiality and greed of envy and jealousy and ambition, the way the world navigates through the world, to be how they navigate life in the church. This cannot be so.

He does call them brothers, and I do believe they they were Christians, but he says that he has to deal with them like people of the flesh.

There is a danger of infantile Christians. It is a huge difference between someone who is childish and someone who is childlike.

A childish Christian is glad to accept the gospel and be cleansed of their guilt and sin. That is a good deal for them. But they are not permitted to stop there and cease to grow. We must mortify the flesh, we must take every thought captive, and we must present your bodies as a living sacrifice. In short, an authenticating sign of our salvation is our growth.

“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3, ESV)

We do not progress in the Christian life by reverting back to self-reliance, self-preservation, and sin.

But a childlike Christian is someone who isn’t growing in self-sufficiency, but rather, is someone who is humbly becoming more and more dependent on the Lord. This is likely someone whose prayer life is robust as they recognize their needs and God’s riches.

Summary/Reflection:

I Planted, Apollos Watered, But God Gave The Growth

1 Corinthians 3:5–9 (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. 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.

Again we are reminded about the specific divisions among the Corinthians. Chloe’s people reported that the Corinthians were fawning over their leaders and that factions had broken out among them: there was the Paul faction, the Apollos, The Cephas (Peter), and the Christ followers.

But Paul makes the point here not by saying “who” is Paul and Apollos, but “what” is Paul and Apollos. He’s not evaluating himself or his credentials; he is saying that I am only a tool–I am a servant (διάκονος). I may have brought you the plate and Apollos may have topped off your waters, but we are mere waiters–the whole point of being in the restaurant is to partake of the meal made by, and in, Christ.

I planted, sure. Apollos watered, and God bless Him. But this is God’s garden, and there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. He will prune his garden, throwing out the branches that don’t bear fruit because He loves us and will not allow us to worship at the altar of an idols in addition to Himself.

To look away from Christ in an attempt to graduate or advance through associations is to lay another layer of laminate flooring.

The great Reformation doctrine of Solus Chrustus – Christ’s supremacy over apostles, popes, saints, preachers, etc.

Luther’s theology of the cross vs. the theology of glory

Summary/Reflection:

A Church Worthy of The Foundation

1 Corinthians 3:10–15 (ESV) — 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.

We must be a church worthy of the foundation.

Take care how he builds upon it...

There is no other foundation. It is Christ alone

gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest

Example of Paul building upon the foundation in Colossae:

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.” (Colossians 1:28–2:5, ESV)

What happened in Laodicea? Revelation three gives us insight:

“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”” (Revelation 3:15–22, ESV)

They presumed to be rich, not realizing that they were pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. They were self-sufficient, not dependent.

Here’s another example from the church at Ephesus:

“I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:3–5, ESV)

There are two dynamics here that I want us to pay attention to: 1) What are we building upon this foundation, and 2) what is the reward for our labor?

What Are We Building With?

Paul uses the imagery of building materials. He said that he had laid the right foundation, that of Christ, and they whatever they built and attached to that foundation must be worthy of it. A day of judgment will come and there are some materials that hold up: gold, silver, precious stones. And there are materials that will be burnt up: wood, hay, straw.

Illustration: Jesus says in Matthew 7 ““Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” vs. the foolish man who disregards God’s words, building instead upon the sand.

Are there churches that build large ministries using the wisdom of this world? (personalities, lights/sounds, music, philosophy, buildings/budgets, etc.)

Will they stand the rest of time and fire or will they be burnt up? We must be a church worthy of the foundation

We have not and cannot graduate beyond Christ. Calling us to follow Him, we must build as He built – Devoted to prayer, pursuing the broken and the lost, glorifying the Father, declaring the cross, taking up our own cross, in all of our ways acknowledge (show) Him.

Rewards:

The Reward is people: “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.” (1 Thessalonians 2:19–20, ESV)

“Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 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.” (1 Corinthians 3:12–13, ESV)

The reward is a congregation that withstood the trial.

Likewise, it is to suffer loss when the ministry that we worked on burns away. Where are the Corinthians?

The work that we are laboring for is people - eternal souls. Our reward, at least in part, will be to rejoice with them in heaven. But if our work (ministry/people) is burned up, would that not be a loss in heaven, even “though he himself will be saved”?

This text is where the doctrine of purgatory comes from, but what in view here is not the refining of believers, but the testing of ministries.

Applications/Conclusion:

What might it look like for us to build well? Put beautifully and concisely in Col. 2, Paul says,

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:12–17, ESV)

By the mercies of God, let us be a church worthy of its foundation. Careful to build with the wisdom of God, not man. Strong by the strength that he supplies, not our own. Preaching of the cross and observing its power.

†HYMN OF RESPONSE #446

“Be Thou My Vision”

The Ministry of the Lord’s Supper

Minister: Lift up your hearts!

Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.

Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise!

The Words of Institution Mark 14:22-25

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

Confession of Faith Belgic Confession, Article 35

Minister: This is a table for people of faith. Without faith, we cannot receive Christ here. Let’s confess what we believe about this meal.

Congregation: We believe and confess that our Savior Jesus Christ has ordained and instituted the sacrament of the Holy Supper to nourish and sustain those who are already born again and ingrafted into his family: his church.

This banquet is a spiritual table at which Christ communicates himself to us with all his benefits. At that table he makes us enjoy himself as much as the merits of his suffering and death, as he nourishes, strengthens, and comforts our poor, desolate souls by the eating of his flesh, and relieves and renews them by the drinking of his blood.

With humility and reverence, we receive the holy sacrament in the gathering of God's people, as we engage together, with thanksgiving, in a holy remembrance of the death of Christ our Savior, and as we thus confess our faith and Christian religion. By the use of this holy sacrament we are moved to a fervent love of God and our neighbors.

Distribution of the Elements

Hymn Amazing Grace! # 433

Sharing of the Lord’s Supper

Prayer

†OUR RESPONSE #248 “All Creatures of Our God and King”

Let all things their Creator bless,

and worship him in humbleness,

O praise him, alleluia!

Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,

and praise the Spirit, three in one,

O praise him, O praise him,

alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

†BENEDICTION: GOD’S BLESSING FOR HIS PEOPLE

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of God’s son, Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit remain with you always. — Phil. 4:7

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