Made To Be More
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
What would you do if you had a billion dollars, no strings attached?
You’d pay off debt
Be charitable with it
Take a vacation or buy some new toys
Quit your job
Would you ever go to Wal-Mart again? I know it’s hard to avoid it here in Wally-World, but surely you’d upgrade some of your shopping habits - maybe Whole Foods or even a private chef?
Would you ever fly economy class again? Would you take the bus to get around town? Would you go to McDonald’s when you could go to Hugo’s?
When you have that much, why would you settle for less when you could have something so much better?
Connect
Connect
That’s not just a question for the billionaires. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we’ve recieved something that’s worth even more - we’ve recieved the Holy Spirit!
And so we have:
We have eternal life
An inheritance waiting for us in heaven
And in the meantime we have the Spirit helping and guiding us right here and now so that in the church we get to experience a taste of heaven
With the Spirit you don’t have to settle for what this life has to offer. You have something so much better.
Text Connection
Text Connection
But even though the Spirit offers us so much more in life, we’re often content to stay right where we’re at - like billionaires living in a van down by the river.
This is the problem that Paul is facing in 1 Corinthians 3. Despite all of the Spiritual riches provided by God, the Corinthians were content to stay right where they were at. So we’re going to look at this chapter and see all the potential that God has for us, and that our spiritual development is never ‘good enough.’
Spiritual People of the Flesh
Spiritual People of the Flesh
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?
Paul addresses the Corinthians as walking contradictions.
They were saints who belonged to God’s church
They had recieved the Holy Spirit through baptism
They had been taught by the Spirit through the apostles
All of this should have added up to a spiritual person - someone who lives in step with the Spirit of God.
But Paul couldn’t talk to them as spiritual people.
Instead they were people of the flesh, infants who refused to grow up. They had heard the gospel, recieved the Spirit and been joined to God’s people, and that’s where it pretty much ended. Paul was ready to give them solid food but they were still stuck on milk.
A spiritual person is someone who lives life by the Holy Spirit - think of someone who fits the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. A person of the flesh, though, is described in verse 3-4.
They’re jealous - It’s the same word translated as zeal in other passages. But the only people they’re passionate about are themselves and their needs
They’re full of strife - rivalry against one another. Anytime someone else is praised or preeminent all that’s thought is how we can steal it away from them
So the Corinthians are living paradoxes - people of the Spirit living only in the flesh.
Denying the Spirit
Denying the Spirit
There is such a thing as an unspiritual Christian.
The Corinthians belonged to God, which meant they had the Spirit. You can’t be a Christian without the Spirit.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
And with the Spirit we are supposed to be a new creation. Just as God’s Spirit took a formless and empty world and made it good in Genesis 1, he takes people who have no shape to their lives and are empty of purpose and fills them with the Spirit. He makes us good - he makes us what we were made to be.
But as the Spirit continues to shape us into something good, we can fight back.
In 1 Thess 5:19 we can quench the Spirit and deny it’s powerful working in our lives.
Ephesians 4:30 says we can grieve the Spirit by attacking our family in Christ.
We can resist the Spirit according to Acts 7:51 by refusing to listen to his teaching.
And in Hebrews 10:29 we can outrage the Spirit by turning our back on him and counting the grace of God as nothing.
And that’s what so many of the Corinthians were doing. Rather than being carried along by the Spirit they were moved entirely by their self-interest.
Made To Be More
Made To Be More
So Paul says it’s time to grow up. And it’s important to understand what we’re to grow up into. When we hear about a mature Christian we might have a picture of someone who’s well-studied in scripture; someone who’s established in the faith; someone you know is going to be here Sunday and Wednesday.
Maturity is not having understood the minor prophets and having strong opinions on Revelation. If infancy is jealousy and strife then maturity are their opposites - love that shows itself through service. Or to put it simply, maturity is to be like Christ.
The irony is that the Corinthians are fighting for more - more prominence, more power, more prestige - but we only become more by becoming less.
Less concerned about our pride
Less willing to be noticed and praised
Less interested in what we get out this
Because in the bible less of me means more of Jesus.
If we miss out on being like Jesus it’s because we’ve settled for being, what Paul calls, ‘merely human.’
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
Being human isn’t a bad thing - but we were made to be so much more. To be only human is to remove God from our self-equation.
To be merely human is to have no more purpose than to eat enough to live another day, only to one day be lost to the endless march of time, distracting ourselves with doomscrolling to avoid any deeper reflection on how meaningless life is when not only you, but the entire universe will simply fade away into a cold and eternal darkness.
To be merely human is to be not much more than an animal.
That’s not good enough. But it’s what most people will settle for.
We were made to be like God, filled with his Spirit, having Christ live in us and through us. And in the end, even when we die we will live again with him forever.
Looking Higher
Looking Higher
The reason the Corinthians were being merely human is because that’s who they were focused on. We become what we worship and the Corinthians were worshipping mere humans.
So Paul works to set our sights higher and see what mere humans are in relation to God.
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.
The divisions of the church were do to an unfortunate attachment to their favorite teachers.
Some would have been attached to Paul as the founder of the church
Others would have preferred Peter as one of Jesus’s original disciples
And others still would have enjoyed listening to Apollos with his refined speaking
What’s more is they would attach themselves to these teachers in order to elevate themselves.
So, Paul gives some thoughts that help us understand that when we’re boating in ‘mere humans,’ we’re boasting in so little.
First, Paul says he and Apollos - the ones these Christians were clinging to, honoring, promoting over and against any other teacher - Paul and Apollos were just servants.
When I worked at the Ritz-Carlton I was surrounded by luxury and people who traveled the world in luxury. And they assumed I did as well. “Oh, have you been to the Ritz in Barcelona or Berlin?” Lady, I just work here! I am not some refined luxury traveler who jets across the world to check in on how the other properties are doing. I live in Tucson AZ, with two roommates and make $12 an hour!
Paul and Apollos were just some guys that God put on the job. The power didn’t come from them. They weren’t the ones writing all the theology. It came from the Spirit. Paul says in Philippians that everything I was apart from God was a bunch of garbage.
Which brings us to Paul’s second point: they aren’t the ones responsible for growth. By carrying out their jobs they were answering to the one who was really in charge. You’re of Paul? Who cares? What can Paul do? Only what God assigns him.
Everything that the Corinthians were…
Redeemed
Sanctified
Saved
… was owed to God. Paul and Apollos were just the guys God hired to do the work. They planted and watered - but the actual miracle of growth, of life, was God’s doing alone.
So rather than pitting Apollos and Paul against each other the Corinthians are reminded that the two are one - dedicated to the same goal which is ultimately overseen and directed by God.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
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Connect
This Is God’s Work
This Is God’s Work
Everything we do here belongs to God - not just the field but the growth itself. As much as we try to sharpen our evangelistic skills (which is something to keep in mind) we need to remember that all we can do is tell people the good news. We can’t make them repent and believe in the gospel.
It’s liberating when we understand how much we can’t do. You take your failures a lot les personally. You read about Jesus and Paul’s attitudes in preaching and they were sad and upset when rejected. They hated to lose any person. But they never got sad about themselves or their own efforts.
If the crowds rejected God that was on them.
A Cure For Division
A Cure For Division
And also understand that Paul’s large concern in the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians is to overcome division in the church.
The division was “I’m more spiritual, more effective, more useful, more anything than you are!” Paul reminds them that the only reason we are more than ourselves is because God has made us more. But he never makes us more than each other. Whatever role we serve in the church is just as crucial as any other. And every role is working towards the same purpose - the glorification of God.
Whenever we boast about ourselves over and against someone else, we’re pitting God against himself. None of us is more than a servant and all of us serve the same God.
Take Care How You Build
Take Care How You Build
From here Paul moves from his and Apollos’s roles to the Corinthians themselves.
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.
When Paul taught the Corinthians he laid the foundation - Jesus was sent by the Father, crucified for our sins, and sends the Spirit. And after laying the foundation it was left to the Corinthians to continue the work of building on that foundation.
The problem is they were doing a real poor job of it.
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.
Paul’s overarching point is that the quality of the structure needs to match the foundation it was built on. He lists six different materials that we can use to build but there are really only two categories - the perishable or imperishable. There are only two outcomes with our work - it survives or is burned.
We need to build well because the day is coming when what we’ve built is going to be tested by fire and its quality exposed.
There’s things said here that are often misinterpreted. Roman Catholics got the idea of purgatory from this passage, claiming that before we get into heaven we need to be purified by fire. Others have assumed that if we don’t work hard enough or do enough good deeds that we’ll go to hell.
First notice that what is tested, burned, and ultimately survives or is destroyed is the work - not the one who built it.
Second, notice that in verse 15 even if your work is burned up, you’ll still be saved.
Here’s the point Paul’s making: the world, its wisdom, and its ruler were all doomed to perish. But that’s what was guiding the Corinthians building plan. They should have been like Bezalel, who in Exodus was filled with the Spirit of God and built the tabernacle. They were supposed to build up the temple of God but were content with a leaky shack.
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Each of us has something to contribute to the building efforts in this church - nobody is exempt. Are we taking care for how we build, or is it good enough?
Some might read this and think “Well, if I’m saved I’m saved! No need to worry about what I’m building.” But when Paul says you’ll be saved through fire, he’s saying you’ll barely be saved.
Do we want to barely scrape by with each paycheck?
Do we want our marriage to barely survive, to have barely any love?
Do we want to have barely any friends?
Do we want God to barely have anything to do with us?
It’s the same point that Paul has been making throughout chapter 3 - the Corinthians are settling for less in their building efforts
They could live life by the Spirit - but settled for being merely human.
They could have found their self-value in belonging to God - but they settled for God’s servants.
They could have a temple full of gold and silver - but they’ll settle for a house of sticks.
We can have so much from God - but we’ll settle for just barely getting by.
I’ll pray enough to say that I do
I’ll read enough to recognize a few verses
I’ll stay in attend enough not worry people about my dedication
I’ll love enough only to not be considered hateful
I’ll live my life so people know I’m a Christian - but just barely
We build with sticks when God has given us the supplies to build a mansion.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
Don’t you know what you were meant to be? What you are right now?
Don’t you know that people should meet God when they’re with all of us?
Don’t you know this is supposed be something like heaven on earth?
And don’t you know what’s at stake? If we choose to build poorly, we’ll miss out one something but can still rest assured that God will take us home. But if we work on tearing God’s temple apart then he’s going to destroy you.
We read the Corinthian letters and note how messed up they are:
Celebrating sexual immorality
Going to prostitutes
Suing each other in court
Hanging around pagan temples and celebration
Excluding other Christians from the Lord’s Supper
We rightfully hammer away at these sins but so often overlook the problem that Paul spends the vast majority of his time dealing with in this letter - division!
We need to look at division the same way God does.
It’s rejecting someone Christ died for
It’s sneering at someone made in God’s image
It’s telling God I love you but hate your kids
God is working to unite all people together in his body, to save as many as are willing to turn to him and be saved. When it comes to should God is always wanting more, and never settling for less.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Paul’s thoughts in 18-23 sum up everything we’ve been talking about:
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.
Don’t deceive yourself into thinking that what the world has a better idea of what you ought to be. Let the Spirit make you into something good.
Don’t deceive yourself into thinking that your answers and value are to be found in men.
The Corinthians were saying that they belonged to these apostles - Paul, Apollos, or Cephas. Paul says they’re servants who belong to the church and everything from life to death, in the present or future, is in service to God’s ultimate purpose of saving his people for the sake of his glorious name.
Invitation
Invitation
God has given everything to save you. Don’t settle for less.
Embrace the Spirit
Build well
If you’re ready to be more…
