What's Your Role?

Introduction:

We’ve all seen children fighting over the simplest things.

They may fight over a toy

They want to be the first to push the elevator button on vacation.

They want to get to drive the golf cart before the others.

They want to be the one to push the buggy in the store.

We’ve also seen adults doing some of the same types of childish things.

Childishness knows no age limit.

Such was the case with many within the church of Corinth.

They were tribal and were aligning themselves behind human leaders, perhaps the ones who had led them to Christ, like people get behind a favorite sports team

They were fighting over the spiritual gifts and who had more of them or who was superior to the others

Paul had to speak to them as children like a father rebukes his unruly children.

Paul had to dumb things down for them because they were too busy fighting each other than growing deeper in their knowledge and understanding of the faith.

They did not understand their role in the church and the kingdom of God.

I wonder if I have said anything this morning so far that might have struck a chord with you. Perhaps you see in yourself some of these same things that Paul is having to address.

What is our role in the body? What should we be doing with our lives as Christians who claim that we follow Jesus.

This morning, we are going to look into this question. Turn with me to 1 Cor. 3 as we seek the answers in the Scriptures.

1 Corinthians 3 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? 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. 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. 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.

Pray

1. We Must Have the Right Perspective (vv.5-9)

We are all servants who must play our part.

The Corinthians did not know how they ought to think about each other.

They were still living with a worldly mind. In the world there are important people and non-important people. Their are people of power and people who have nothing.

They were translating these ideas into the Church.

Perhaps our motto should be: “Different roles for different souls”

Not every apostle was called to the same area to share the gospel

Not every apostle performed the same works

Barnabas was an encourager - we don’t have any miracles reported for him

Paul performed many miracles and was a lead teacher

Some men served as deacons and elders in the local church

Some women served to help plant the church - i.e. Lydia

Some women served among the body and helped their husbands - Saphira

Some roles were not ever named, yet all of them were important to God and the growth of the church

God gives the growth

No true Christian can ever take credit for the work that God does

We use our gifts, but they fall flat without the Lord doing the work through it

Illustration: Greatest electric guitar and amp, but without power, it barely makes a sound

We serve God not man

We don’t perform our roles for ourselves or for credit

We all serve one Master and Lord

We are working with God to accomplish the building up of His Church

Application:

Do you know what your role is in the church?

Are you trusting God to use you rather than your own abilities?

Do you seek to serve the church and Christ rather than make a name for yourself?

2. We Must Build on the Right Foundation (vv.10-15)

Christ is the Only Foundation We Can Build On

Paul knew that he had planted the church and laid the foundation of the gospel. Others had come along, like Apollos, and were building on that foundation.

Any true church will be built in the same manner. If it is a true church, it will be built on the foundation of the gospel. It may have a number of pastor’s and leaders come along, but they must build on that same foundation of the gospel.

Some people try to build a church that the community will love. Others build one that will be fun and attractive to the crowds. Others want it to just be encouraging and never talk about the hard stuff.

We plan our churches around what people want instead of building them on the foundation of Christ. Then we wonder why they cannot stand and close down.

There is only one foundation that we can build upon and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We Must Build With Care

Paul now speaks of the accounting that each worker must give to God one day.

This is not purgatory and has nothing to do with our sins. Our sins have already been judged at the cross.

Notice that Paul says that all will escape and the ones who have everything burned up will escape as through fire. This is, again, is not speaking of losing your salvation, but of having nothing to show for your work for the Lord if you are not careful in how you build.

Application

Everyone is a builder if you are a Christian.

We all are building with either perishable things described as wood, hay, and straw, or they will build with durable works like gold, silver, and precious stones.

The one who builds with the perishable things will have nothing left on the day of judgment, but if you build with durable things, then your works will only be better like gold, silver, and precious stones that are purified by fire.

Warning

Some people are more like the servant in the parable Jesus told that don’t do anything with what God has given them.

For some of you, you may feel like you don’t really care now as long as you get into heaven, but then when we appear before the Lord, we will not want to appear empty handed.

3. We Must Practice the Right Way of Living (vv.16-22)

You Are the Temple, So Take Care

The “you” here in this verse is referring to the collective church and not just the individual, but Paul refers to the individual as the temple in 1 Cor. 6:19.

You have the Spirit of God dwelling within you, so you should live holy lives

We are a temple to God, and God warns that anyone that destroys the church will be destroyed by God.

How would an awareness of this warning change how we behave towards one another in the church?

God doesn’t just want us to build up the church, but to also remember that we ourselves are part of the church. Therefore we, too, must be growing in our faith.

You Are Not to Deceive Yourselves

Be humble and don’t think of yourselves more highly than you should.

Pride is what led to the fall of Satan, and it is also what will lead to the fall of any believer or church.

Walk in Heavenly Wisdom as Opposed to the Wisdom of the World

We will often life lives that are contrary to the rest of the world’s wisdom as Christians. God doesn’t do things the same way as the world.

In order to come to faith in Christ, we have to humble ourselves and come through faith and not rely on human wisdom.

You Are Not to Glorify Man Rather than God

Paul says that he and Apollos both belong to the church and not the other way around. Also the church belongs to Christ and Christ to God.

Conclusion

It is easy to get overwhelmed with such a great task that needs to be accomplished if we are going to see the gospel shared to the ends of the earth and the church built up and established in every place.

We can look at the task like a 1,000 piece puzzle and easily get overwhelmed, wondering how we will ever accomplish it.

There must be a strategy. It starts with assessing the situation and having the right perspective.

We separate out the end pieces and get certain colors and patterns grouped together. We start with the edges and then work on other areas following the master picture on the box.

It certainly will go faster if we have a friend to help us work of the puzzle and we will enjoy the company as we work together. If our eyes get tired, we can take a break and let them go for a while.

In the end, we work together towards the common goal of finishing the puzzle.

The same can be said of the church. God is using all of us with our strengths and weaknesses to build His church. We work under His power and giftedness.

Here’s the wonderful news about all of this: we cannot fail! God has promised that He will accomplish what He’s called us to.

However, part of this task means sharing the gospel with those who have not heard the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Are there some here whom God has brought to this place on this morning to hear the gospel so that you might be saved and join Him in this work?

Paul did not set out to seek after God.

God sought Him.

God had work for Him to do.

Perhaps there is another Paul here this morning that God is calling. Will you obey, or will you continue to kick against the goads?