Give God the Glory

Introduction

Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts, chapter 18. We're going to get to 1 Corinthians 3 in just a minute, but before we do that, I want to help you understand a little bit more about one of these, what I call, Cotton-Eyed Joe characters in the Bible. A Cotton-Eyed Joe character is one that leaves you wondering, “Where did he come from? Where did he go?” Because he's only mentioned so briefly that you don't really feel like you had a chance to get to know him. Apollos is one of these guys. There are only a handful of verses that mention him in Acts, 1 Corinthians, and Titus.

In matters of Christianity, Apollos was instructed by Paul’s friends. After Paul stayed with Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth, they moved to Ephesus, and that is where Apollos found them when he arrived there in Acts 18:24. They eventually took Apollos into their home for a time and taught him the things that they had learned from Paul. And maybe while Apollos was with them, he learned about their ministry in Corinth with Paul. That may explain why Apollos had a desire to go to Achaia (where Corinth was) in Acts 18:27. He already knew of the struggles there.

Acts 18:24 also says that Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria. Alexandria was a significant Egyptian city well-known for its massive library and for its heavy emphasis on Greek philosophy. This means that Apollos likely had a background steeped in exactly the kind of Greek philosophy that Paul has been addressing in these first few chapters of Corinthians. Some critics believe that this background and influence may be partly to blame for why the Corinthian church was so enamored with Greek philosophy. They argue that Apollos led the Corinthians astray.

However, Greek philosophy was a major part of the Corinthian culture, so it did not necessarily come from Apollos himself. In fact, we learn from 1 Corinthians 16 that Apollos was with Paul in Ephesus when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. By this time, they had obviously met, and Paul knew exactly what kind of man Apollos was. They had probably talked extensively about the Corinthian problems before Paul composed this letter to the church. So rather than stir up the controversy in Corinth, it is more likely that Apollos would have collaborated with Paul on these chapters. 1 Corinthians implies that Paul and Apollos stood together against Greek philosophy, and the other reference to Apollos in Titus 3 helps us understand that the two of them enjoyed a long ministry partnership.

And on top of that, 1 Corinthians 16:12 gives us a glimpse into Apollos’ relationship to Corinth. It says, “Now concerning Apollos our brother, I encouraged him greatly to come to you with the brothers, and it was not at all his desire to come now, but he will come when he has opportunity.” Can you imagine what it would have been like for the Corinthians to hear that read out loud? You know, maybe some of those Apollosites were listening to Paul's letter and thinking to themselves, “That's nice, Paul. But let's wait to see what Apollos has to say.” But guess what? Lo and behold, Apollos doesn't want anything to do with them! He is no longer interested in showing his face to the Corinthians. Surely that would have been a stinging blow to those who boasted, They were of Apollos.

Now, Paul does not explain why Apollos didn't want to visit Corinth. But, in light of the controversy, it seems safe to infer that Apollos was making a point. He would lend no support to those divisive men in Corinth. Instead, his actions conveyed a strong message that what Paul wrote was correct and that it was the final word on the matter.

Proposition

So go ahead and turn with me to 1 Corinthians 3:5-9, were Paul addresses this controversy head on. And as you well know by now, these first four chapters are focused on resolving the division in Corinth. That is nothing new. But what I want you to notice is that chapters 1-2 were focused on the gospel, while chapters 3-4 are focused on church leadership. We have moved from the message to the messengers. So keep that in mind, and let’s start in verse 5,

5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Join me in prayer as I ask the Lord to give us insight from His Word.

Pray

Tonight, you might be surprised to learn that we are going to be addressing the issue of idolatry. Paul never mentions the words idol or idolatry in our text. However, his exhortations to the Corinthians imply that this was their heart problem. Their hearts were growing more fond of men than they were of God.

The Corinthian factions were organized around giving glory to men, but that is dangerous and wicked. Instead, Paul provides three reasons why we should give God the glory. God is the one who appoints, grows, and rewards each of His servants. If it were not for God, there would be no leaders, no growth, and no rewards for the church. Everything comes from God. And as a result, we should pledge allegiance only to our Master and never to His servants.

God Appoints Each One

The first reason to give God the glory is that God appoints each one. God is the one who gives abilities and opportunities. Look at me at verse 5 where it says,

5 What then is Apollos and what is Paul?

These rhetorical questions are directly related to the question he posed in verse 4 where he asked the Corinthians, “What are you? Are you not mere men?” Paul continues that argument in verse 5, saying, “What are we? Are we also not mere men?” But then Paul takes it a step further when he answers his own question saying,

Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one.

Not only are he and Apollos mere men, but also they are only servants at that! They are not kings; they are not princes; they are not nobles. They are lowly servants. Just like Jesus who came to serve and to give His life.

But notice the preposition that Paul uses when he describes the way in which the Corinthians believed. He says that they believed through Paul and Apollos as the Lord’s servants. This distinction is super important because it implies that the Corinthians were acting as if they had believed not through Paul and Apollos, but in them.

He implies that the Corinthians were guilty of idolatrous pride. Just like the unbelievers Paul wrote about later in Romans 1:25, the Corinthians “were exchanging the truth of God for a lie and worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” Their problem was the same as what Paul talked about in Romans 1:21, “For even though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks. But they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened.” The Corinthian church was letting these preachers become larger than life and eclipse their view of God. As a result, they were in danger of cult-like apostasy.

The same dangers may ensnare you today. It is not wrong for you to rejoice in the blessings that godly, capable leaders provide for the Church. You should rejoice in these things. The blessings are good. However, if you think or speak in a way that gives the men the exclusive credit for their ministry, then you’ve crossed a line. Now you are in sin because you have forgotten God. He is the One who gave them that ability and opportunity in the first place.

So test yourselves and to see whether you have been faithful in this regard. Ask yourself the questions, “Have I taken the time to pray and give God the glory? Have I given thanks to God for what He is doing through them?” Decide whether you will be the one leper who returns to say thank you, or among the other nine who forgot Jesus.

If you talk to this leader, tell them that you praise God for what He is doing through them. If you talk to other people about the leader, tell them how you see the Lord working through that person’s labors. We should never speak in a way that gives man the credit for spiritual accomplishments. Otherwise, we're living a lie and profaning our Lord.

Consider how Paul spoke in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

So the first reason we must give God the glory is that He appoints each one.

God Grows Each One

The next reason is that God grows each one. Follow along as I read verse 6,

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.

Stop for a minute and just imagine what a harvest would be like if God did not give the growth. One commentator says it would be like planting pebbles. And that’s not very productive, is it! God supplies seed, dirt, and water.

And the beauty of this process can be seen in the Greek verb tenses in verse 6. Planting is aorist, Watering is aorist, but growing is imperfective. In English that means photo, photo, video. All we find here is a Polaroid of each farmer followed by a feature-length film recording all the marvelous sanctification that God brings about singlehandedly.

Have you ever thought about how a seed grows? It's an amazing process and scientists are still struggling to understand it. Seeds are embryonic plants that need to wake up. That requires air, water, and warmth. Water activates seed enzymes which build up, increasing pressure until the seed coat just cracks open. Then gravity pulls the roots down, and little baby leaves—called cotyledons—sprout upward in pursuit of light and to begin the process of photosynthesis. And this is just the beginning. Crops involve roots, stems, leaves, and heads. They take months to grow, and each one of these pieces has many smaller units. God is like a master craftsman.

And the same is true of your spiritual life. Do you realize you're only at church with your leaders for a fraction of the week? God is the One using all the rest of your life to grow you spiritually. Do you see how God is the primary One working in you? While men have various tasks, God’s role is far more significant. Listen to verse 7,

So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

It's like Genesis 1, where God's word causes everything to grow. In ministry, God does so much that men are nearly worthless in comparison. All Paul and Apollos did is get things ready. They're like the everyday staff who set up the equipment for the Olympic athletes. We give gold medals to superstar Olympians, not the staff guys! Even though the staff set up the equipment, it wasn’t their achievement. They doesn’t deserve the glory.

This is the same way Jesus told us to think in Luke 17:10, “In this way, you also, when you do all the things which are commanded of you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’”

We need to give God the glory when we speak about spiritual growth. We are responsible to praise Him for what He is doing in our lives. We are responsible to tell other people about what He's doing in our lives, and we should ask them what He's doing in their life as well. And if they don’t see it, then maybe we need to help them figure it out. We should rejoice together that God cares for us intimately and that He is working all things together for our good. He knows the details of our lives, and He is the One using all of those situations and circumstances to grow us.

But not only does God grow each one, He also rewards each one. And this is our final point.

God Rewards Each One

Look with me at verse 8, where Paul begins by saying,

Now he who plants and he who waters are one,

Now, there are a few different ways we could interpret this phrase. Commentators like to ask, “We are one what?” It's as if Paul didn't finish his sentence. But I think the best answer here is that both servants have one purpose. They are working together for the same harvest. And so this concept of unity implies that it would be absurd for the planter and the waterer to work in the same field but against one another. They're not playing King of the Hill.

We should take a chapter from the same book. All the ministries of our church are owned by God. Everything each of you does individually is His as well. You know, it's not important whether you are of kids or the welcome team or music or media. Nor are you to pull back from one another because your gifts or abilities are different. We all need each other. And the key to this unity is to remember the size of the field. The task before us is enormous.

How do we know that God is not some cosmic communist? Look at the second half of verse 8 where it says,

But each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

You are going to be rewarded according to your labor. Paul does not tell you exactly what your reward is going to be, whether that is possessions, status, praise, or otherwise, but you can trust that it'll be good. After all, it's a reward, not a punishment. And in fact, it is better to know Who will give you the reward than it is to know what the reward will be. Scripture says our Father gives good gifts, and that you will receive many time more in return for your labor.

We can also see here that ministry is not about results. You know, it's not about numbers, conversions, or baptisms. You can thank God when you see these blessings, but our calling is to faithfulness, it is to hard work. Jeremiah the prophet languished under rejection, but his reward will be great. Many missionaries and pastors will be rewarded greatly In heaven, even though their ministries on earth did not seem to yield much fruit. It is true at the same time, though, that many have no success because of absent giftedness, knowledge, holiness, or favor. Some, like Adam, are cursed to labor by the sweat of their brow because they are not suited for their job. But many of us should find great hope in a reward that's based on effort and not on results. We work hard and leave the rest up to God.

So “therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

And again, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”

Paul closes this section in verse 9 with the pithy explanation,

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Here we find the introduction of a second metaphor. We've already talked about the field, and next week Jack will continue with a discussion of the building in the following verses. But we have to wonder why Paul uses two metaphors. Well, for one thing, Isaiah 5 intertwines the same metaphors to describe God's tender care for Israel. And it's also true that the Old Testament often links the themes of garden and temple together, like paradise. But this is also a practical matter. When a farmer bought a plot of land, he would plow his field. While plowing, he would remove all the rocks. Afterward, he’d build things with the rocks, like his house or fence. That's one reason why you prepare your field first and afterward build your house. So there is a logical progression from harvest to house.

But consider the thrust of this conclusion. Paul states that church leaders are all God's fellow workers. He means that they are owned by God, just like the congregation, as the field and the building, is also owned by God. In the Greek, Paul uses what are called emphatic, possessive genitives. It literally reads, “Of God, we are fellow workers. Of God, you are a field. Of God, a building.” The clear implication is that God owns everything. It is all “of Him.” This inverts the earlier statements that some were “of Paul” and others “of Apollos.” Now it is, “Of God, we all are.” Now everyone is lumped into the same plantation. Servants, field, and building alike. We are all owned by the Most High God. He alone deserves all the praise for what we accomplish. He owns all the profits. So give God the glory.

Conclusion

So when you are tempted to fanboy or fangirl over some great person in the church, remember that apart from God they would have no ministry, no fruit, and no reward. They are nothing on their own, and neither are you. But when we labor for the Lord, then He will appoint, grow, and reward each one of us. What a blessing! This is why we give God the glory by being careful acknowledge His work in and through the ministries of every Christian.

Pray with me now, and then we’ll break up into discussion groups.

Postlude

So there you have it. What have we learned tonight? Well, we've seen that it is sinful to idolize certain leaders by forgetting to attribute their work to the Lord. And there are three important reasons why we should never get caught propping up a preacher’s pedestal.

First, because God has appointed every man in ministry to the role that he has. Each man has a different role. They all work together. But none of them attained to that position through their own strength, ability, or worthiness. God gave them their abilities and opportunities.

In addition, nothing that a man in ministry ever does can cause spiritual growth. God may cause the spiritual growth by using their labor, but men do not get any credit for the salvation or sanctification of souls. They have simply done what has been required of them in Scripture.

And then thirdly, we saw that we should not idolize individuals because it's not up to us to decide who is going to get a larger or smaller reward. In fact, rather than be concerned about how well or how poorly each of those men is doing, we should instead pay attention to the fact that we too will be rewarded on the basis of our labor for the Lord. So, we’d better get to work!

And when we understand that from beginning to end, God is the one who appoints, He is the one who grows, and He is the one who rewards each one, then it ought to be immediately obvious—it ought to just smack us in the face—that nobody deserves to get the glory except the Lord and Savior of us all. And as a result, we must determine in our hearts that we will give God the glory. Please pray with me now, and let's do that together.