Understanding Gospel Ministry
Notes
Transcript
Intro: Let’s begin with a simple question: What do you think the biggest threat against the church today is?
-Is it political division?
-How about shallow or false teaching?
-Maybe the threat of the culture, encroaching secular—progressivism?
-Or could it be the lack of evangelism?
**I’d suggest that immaturity stands as the biggest threat of the church.
—Widespread immaturity was the major problem in Corinth.
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
**And this letter is written so that instead of immaturity breaking the church, God’s people would break through.
How to get “unstuck”
We get unstuck by looking at
—One foundation, one reminder, and one warning.
—One foundation (11)
—One foundation (11)
Now v10-15 have been both misunderstood and controversial.
But it’s simplifies and and makes sense if we see v10-15 are not addressing all people, but targeting gospel ministers.
—Paul planted the church. He did it with pure motives of preaching Christ.
—As he left, other leaders came and built. They could build two ways
1. Useful materials (gold, silver, precious stones)=sincere Christ-centered service marked by love and humility
2. Useless material (wood, hay, straw)=service marked by arrogance; selfish, prideful, ego-driven
Apply: The reality is, many are often attracted to #2. The human heart was just as infatuated with celebrity in the 1st cen as today.
It’s still common for people to love the “big-name” ministers.
But God always knows the heart—and all hearts will be exposed one day.
—Finally, this sections speaks to the priority of the Cross.
Look back at 2:2
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Apply: In other words, the most important thing is to get Jesus Christ right.
Gospel: Have you gotten Jesus Christ right?
Jesus did not come to lead a revolution, or usher some new social justice movement…he came to die so that sinners can be forgiven and given eternal life
Do you know him? Does the cross mean something to you?
Is the cross your only hope?
—One reminder (16)
—One reminder (16)
I don’t know what I would do without reminders on my IPhone. I’m reminded constantly about appointments, tasks, even bills that need paid.
I also find that spiritually I need constant reminders. I can get off track—distracted.
The conversation now shifts to “you” —away from gospel ministers now to the church specifically
Now we get a clearer picture of the building analogy
(v16)—You are the temple—speaking to believers.
What does this mean? What’s behind the analogy?
The temple is the place God’s presence dwells.
The temple is a holy place
God’s presence and holiness
The reminder is simple enough to grasp:
—We are the presence of God here on this earth.
--And he expects us to be a holy people.
Apply: It’s easy for us to forget God’s highest priority for our lives. We may think his priority is to keep us relatively healthy, and comfortable. Find a job we really like; have a little nest-egg together.
No, actually his highest priority is for us to be his holy presence on earth.
Apply: Christian friends, if you forgotten your purpose is to reflect God’s presence thorough a life of holiness?
How serious is the pursuit of holiness in your life?
Q: Is my life threatening the temple’s holiness? Do I have patterns of hiding sin, living hypocritically?
Some may need this one reminder
but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
—One warning (18)
—One warning (18)
Finally, we get a warning at the close.
Immature people require a lot of warnings.
The warning v18—let no one deceive himself.
The warning is about falling into the trap of wanting “the wisdom of this age” above all else.
—The way this is done today is putting all of us into little “tribes”
E.G.
—Conservative, liberal; right, left, center, progressive;
Often the tribe has some leader’s name attached to it.
Once inside of tribe, we are tempted to find an all-consuming identity exalts the wisdom of the tribe and leader above all.
Question: Where is the cross in that!!
That word “deceive” is a pretty strong word—it speaks of seduction, being cheated, tricked, swindled.
The word in the original is the same that is used to describe what Eve’s deception in the NT.
The same word appears once again near the end of 2 Cor.
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Conclusion:
So how do we heed the warning;?
how dow we avoid the deception?
**We return to a sincere and pure devotion to Christ..... that is centered on the cross.
Apply: Let me end with a final question and appeal:
How cross-centered is your faith today? Is the cross your all-consuming center, or have you traded it for some other “wisdom”
If you’ve lost sight of the cross, then return today.
May God move us to be sincere and purely devoted cross-centered people today.