Sermon Tone Analysis

The Imperfect Church – 6

The Growing Church

Introduction

Talent competitions have dominated the TV landscape for the last several years.

From American Idol to America’s Got Talent, Britain’s Got Talent, X-Factor, and The Voice, we have been introduced to some of the most talented singers, dancers, and comedians in the world.

We have also been introduced to some who are maybe not as gifted [video clip – auditions].

People couldn’t get enough of these terrible performances, especially when they were first coming out.

We ate up the awkwardness and felt their embarrassment.

And we laughed a lot.

On top of their humor, there is a great sadness about these auditions.

For many of these performers, this was apparently the very first time they ever heard they were not good singers.

How is that possible?

Did no one love them enough to tell them the brutal truth?

You cannot sing!

In the name of being polite or in a false understanding of love, we can sometimes ignore what really needs to be said.

TS – The Apostle Paul does not share that issue.

He cares so very much about the Church that he boldly speaks truth, even when it hurts.

In so doing, he will show us what we need to care about in the church, and why it is worthy of our concern.

- Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people.

I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger.

And you still aren’t ready, 3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature.

You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other.

Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature?

Aren’t you living like people of the world? 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?

5 After all, who is Apollos?

Who is Paul?

We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News.

Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.

6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.

7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering.

What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.

8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose.

And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.

9 For we are both God’s workers.

And you are God’s field.

You are God’s building.

10 Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder.

Now others are building on it.

But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.

11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.

12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.

13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done.

The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.

14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.

15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss.

The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple.

For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

TS – In chapter 1 Paul brought up their sin of division, then went off a bit on the topic of wisdom and foolishness so they could come to some sense of humility.

Now, having established those truths about the cross, true wisdom, and the Spirit, he will now circle back and come right at this issue of division again and apply all of this new information to it.

In this text, Paul gives us 4 Areas we should give our Concern and Attention to in the Church:

1. THE MATURITY OF THE CHURCH

I grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons.

My lazy Saturday mornings were filled with the adventures of Mighty Mouse, Voltron, Transformers, and Bugs Bunny.

One of my favorite cartoon characters is Baby Huey [pic – Baby Huey].

Baby Huey had the appearance of being grown up, with the size and strength of a sumo wrestler, but had the naiveté and ignorance of a baby.

This deadly combination of idiocy and strength caused much mayhem It was all so funny.

What I did not know, and did not expect, as I grew up and started serving in churches, is that Baby Huey is a part of every church.

In every church there is a demographic of people who have the appearance of maturity and the ignorance of an infant.

There are always those who look mature, sometimes even sound mature, but their beliefs and their behavior betray their ignorance.

No church is immune from this unfortunate reality, including Corinth.

This is the demographic of people he is talking to here in these first few verses.

Those who look mature, sound mature, certainly think they are mature, but who are actually everything but mature.

v. 1-3 - Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people.

I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger.

And you still aren’t ready, 3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature.

You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other.

Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature?

Aren’t you living like people of the world?

Right before this in chapter 2 he introduced the difference between someone who is spiritual and someone who is unspiritual.

As I said last week, he doesn’t mean the same thing as we do today when he says ‘spiritual.’ Today a spiritual person is someone who claims to maybe believe in God, does yoga, watches Ghost Hunters, but doesn’t go to church anywhere (spiritual, but not religious).

Paul means it as someone who possesses the Holy Spirit.

It is the Greek word pneumatikos, someone filled by and powered by the Spirit.

Like a pneumatic drill that is powered by air, a spiritual person is powered by the Spirit.

The Corinthians are NOT that.

He said “I have to speak to you like you are a baby, like someone who isn’t even a believer.”

He had to feed them milk because they weren’t ready for solid food.

They were too immature to handle it.

But here is Paul’s area of concern, end of v. 3 – “…and you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature.”

They aren’t growing.

They were immature back then, and they are still immature now.

It’s ok to start out ignorant, we all do.

But to stay in ignorance is ignorant.

They are “still controlled by their sinful nature.”

That phrase is a translation of a single Greek word…sarkikos.

It comes from sarx, the word for flesh.

The key is the “ikos” ending of the word.

That implies “defined by, powered by.”

While they should be pneumatIKOS, they are sarkIKOS.

Instead of being powered by the Spirit, they are powered by the flesh.

They claim to be Christians but they aren’t living like it.

This is a harsh, yet healthy dose of reality for those who think they are spiritually elite.

He says, “You aren’t even spiritual, much less spiritually elite.”

This deserves, this demands our attention.

We must concern ourselves with the maturity of the church.

Those who look like, sound like, and act like Christians, but who do not live like Christians are always a source of destruction in a church.

So, how can you grow up in your faith?

The language we use around here is Take Steps.

What steps could/should you take to move on to greater levels of maturity?

2. THE LEADERS OF THE CHURCH