1 Corinthians 3:1-23 | "Do You Not Know?"
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· 2,931 viewsSunday, May 30, 2021. 1 Corinthians 3:1-23 | “Do You Not Know?” There is no good reason for the church of Jesus Christ to be ignorant about what God has made known. Yet, the church in Corinth was just that - ignorant. The apostle does not hold back in his rebuke. He calls the saints what they are: “fleshly” and “infants” and even names their sin. Perhaps they might grow up and rid themselves of the destruction their division is causing, before it is too late!?
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I. Reading of Scripture
I. Reading of Scripture
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.
This is God’s Word, Amen.
[ Title Slide ]
1 Corinthians 3:1-23 “Do You Not Know?”
1 Corinthians 3:1-23 “Do You Not Know?”
[ Title Slide ]
A. Introduction to Theme
A. Introduction to Theme
“Do you not know?”
This is the question lifted from verse 16 in this text, and it is a very revealing question about the ignorance of the church in Corinth.
“Do you not know?”
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
“Do you not know?”
Is that more of a question? A frustration? Or a lament?
“Do you not know?” (???????? question tone)
“Do you not know?” (!#$^@*&^%@! frustration tone)
“Do you not know?” (!!!!!!!!!!! lament tone)
Perhaps it is all three - a question, a frustration and a lament!?
What this statement highlights for us is clear, and it summarizes this whole chapter — there was an ignorance among the church in Corinth.
There is no good reason for the church of Jesus Christ to be ignorant - to be uninformed, or to lack knowledge about the basic things concerning who we are, and whose we are, and what God is doing among us.
Why? Because God has revealed these things to us!
For the church to remain ignorant about what God has revealed and graciously provided for by His indwelling Holy Spirit is sin.
There are some things that have not been revealed to us and that are not ours to know. For example, Jesus’ disciples came to him after his resurrection, before he was taken up into Heaven.
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Some things do not belong for us to know.
29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Some things are not given for us to know, but what is given is revealed that we might know and obey. God gives us what we need to know so that we might be empowered to be witnesses for Jesus in all the earth! So that we might do what God wants us to do with what we know from God.
Sin stops up our ears, and covers up our eyes so that we do not know what God has given us to know.
And this is what the enemy wants! To keep us from hearing God’s revelation. If the enemy keeps us from hearing God’s revelation, then he has kept us from obeying.
God has graciously revealed Himself to us, in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and has given to His Holy Spirit that we might have knowledge of Him - not ignorance.
This text in 1 Corinthians is not speaking about individuals being ignorant. This text is speaking about a shared ignorance. A collective ignorance. The church, the body of Christ at Corinth, is ignorant, and it was hindering their empowered obedience and witness.
But lest we think that this ignorance is limited only to the church at Corinth, may we all remember that God did not preserve His inspired word so that we might hear it today, because the church in Corinth was the last ignorant church!
This text presents ignorance in four divisions:
They did not know how to be godly people. (3:1-4)
They did not know how God’s church is served. (3:5-9)
They did not know how God’s church is built. (3:10-15)
They did not know that God’s Spirit dwells in them. (3:16-17)
III. Exposition
III. Exposition
First,
A. They did not know how to be godly people. (3:1-4)
A. They did not know how to be godly people. (3:1-4)
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
Notice that word “brothers.”
Do not mistake their ignorance to mean that they are not part of God’s family. They are! They are the church. They are the saints. God is their Father!
We need to understand this if we are going to hear this as Southside Baptist Church. This is a word not for outsiders to the faith, but to those in the faith.
We need to hear this not as a word for other congregations but for us, for Southside Baptist Church, who are gathered in this time and place.
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
Already in a previous chapter, the apostle has addressed two groups of people: those who are being saved, and those who are perishing.
Now, he is addressing only one group, those who are being saved, you — church!
And he says there are two types of people who are being saved - two types of people in the church: spiritual people, and fleshly people.
We could say “spiritual saints” and “fleshly saints.”
The “fleshly saints” are “infants in Christ.” The “fleshly saints” are focused only upon their own basic, physical desires (LN). “Feed me…play with me...clean me…put me to bed.”
Practically and sadly, in the church that sounds something like this: “Marry me, elevate me, entertain me, bury me.”
You are in Christ, but you are a baby.
So the apostle could not impart to them the secret and hidden wisdom of God that has been revealed in Jesus Christ. He could not challenge them. Instead, he had to adapt his teaching and instruction to a diet that they could consume.
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
That is a haunting statement. “Even now you are not yet ready.”
“Dad - can I learn how to drive?” No my daughter, you are only 5. You are not yet ready.
“Dad - can I drink coffee with you?” No my son, you are only 4. You are not yet ready.”
I have started putting milk in a coffee mug so my son could enjoy drinking coffee with me. I have my mug of coffee, and he has his mug of milk. One morning, I asked him “How do you like your coffee? He said: “White and Cold!”
They are not ready for these things! But the apostle in 1 Corinthians is not writing to 4 and 5 year olds, and he is not writing about driving cars and drinking coffee.
He is writing to brothers who — notice the text in verse 2 — were not ready, and are not yet ready.
These brothers have had their milk, and they are still drinking it. The apostle cannot move on to more substantial food for them.
Why?
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?
The problem is not with their appetite. The problem is with their behavior. They are behaving as unregenerate people (LGNT). They are behaving as sinners. They are behaving in a way that is no different from the people outside the gathering of the saints!
Notice the language - you are STILL of the flesh.
And here is what that means -
there is jealousy and strife.
Jealousy is resentment. Envy (LN). I want to be like that person. I want to be like that leader.
Strife is the conflict and discord that results from jealous rivalries (LN).
Let’s be clear about what the apostle is calling out: This is division in the church of God!
Notice where that jealousy and strife is located, the two words that appear in the text immediately after jealousy and strife: AMONG YOU! (lit.) “In you.”
It does not matter if 75% of our church is spiritual and godly. If only 25% of our church is fleshly, then there is jealousy and strife among us, and in us and we are divided.
It does not matter if 95% of our church is spiritual and godly. If only 5% of our church is fleshly, then there is jealousy and strife among us, and in us and we are divided.
It does not matter if 99% of our church is spiritual and godly. If only 1% of our church is fleshly, then there is jealousy and strife among us, and in us and we are divided.
You say - “Well Pastor, we are a Baptist church. A Congregational church. 75% in agreement is pretty good! To which I say - you are right, but it is not biblical.”
What was the appeal of Chapter 1?
10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
Is CHRIST divided???
The Bible does not have room for a congregational church voting. The Bible only knows a congregational church agreeing, and affirming, 100% united, the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Southside Baptist Church - we need to think biblically, about how we operate as a church. Not by what we know by way of experience and tradition, with committees and votes that model the government and institutions around us, but by what we should know and perhaps, have not yet been ready for, as revealed in God’s Word.
The experience and tradition of this church has led to multiple schisms and divisions over the years, has it not? Let’s not repeat the same problems of our past. Could it be that all who are gathered with this church now, in this day, are ready? Ready for solid food?
If you will continue to be patient with me, I will show you a more excellent way. Not behaving in a human way. Not behaving in a fleshly way. I will show you, from God’s word — God’s way! Do you not know what that is?
Together, we will flourish as the spiritual people that God has made us to be.
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
We gather every Lord’s Day around the revealed word of God to renew and transform our minds into the mind of Christ.
Do you remember the old bracelets that say “What would Jesus do?”
How can we say “I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos” and behave so humanely when we are thinking about Christ and his cross?
The church did not know how to be godly people.
And in part this is because they had not been taught! But not because there there wasn’t someone to teach them, there was! They had not been taught because they had not purged the sin of jealousy and envy from among them. And until they did, they could still only be fed milk to drink.
Imagine what a divided church with jealousy and envy among them would do with the secret and hidden wisdom of God!? It would misuse and abuse what is godly for fleshly gain and lead to their destruction.
If we want to grow in our knowledge of God, this scripture teaches us that we must be one, in agreement.
We must be a spiritual people, to receive spiritual things. And while, we are spiritual because that is what God has made of us — we must also ACT spiritual with our attitudes and behavior - every one of us as one united body!
They did not know how to be godly people. (3:1-4)
B. They did not know how God’s church is served. (3:5-9)
B. They did not know how God’s church is served. (3:5-9)
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
Highlight that word “servants.” It is the word [ διάκονοι ]. These men were not “deacons” in the narrow sense, of the office of Deacon in the church, but these men were deacons in the broader sense - the kind of deacons we all are in Christ. They were servants of Christ.
They do what the Lord bids them to do. Which means the emphasis on their work is not themselves, but on their master, their Lord!
Notice in verse 5 — “as the Lord assigned to each.” (Lit.) “as the Lord gave.”
This is the Lord’s work, and the Lord’s doing.
In verse 6, the apostle Paul says:
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
Who gave the growth?
God gave the growth.
Paul planted. Who gave the growth?
God gave the growth.
Apollos watered. Who gave the growth?
God gave the growth.
All we can do, as servants of God, is plant seed and water it. That is it!
Every year, come budget time, a church is tempted to “evaluate the pastor” and determine what he should be paid.
And every year, that conversation goes the same way. “We’ll pay the pastor more if our church grows.” So how did the church grow?
Questions are asked: How many families were added? How many children have attended? How many salvations were recorded? How many baptisms were numbered? How did the annual receipts of tithes and offerings grow?
I say this to point out from this text — Do not make that mistake, and evaluate your pastor on church growth! For what you do not realize when you do that, is that you are not judging your pastor - but you are judging God to your own peril! Because your pastor does not give growth. God gives the growth.
So you are judging God on how many families he gave. You are judging God on how many salvations he wrought. You are judging God on how many baptisms he gave. You are judging God on how many children were attending. You are judging God on how many dollars were received. And the church wonders why they are not growing!
Do you not know?
Almost every year, the pastor is not worthy of double honor for managing the household of God well, for planting the seed, for proclaiming the word, for watering the seed, for modeling the faith, for stewarding well - and almost every year, the pastor is paid based on results that belong only to God!
And the church does not grow. Because you do not know!
If we live by God’s Word, if we act in obedience to God’s Word, then God will bring immeasurable growth.
Do you not know?
The worker works hard, but the worker is nothing because God is the one who gives the growth.
When you look outside, what do you see? You see trees, but not the person that planted them or watered them. You see grass, but not the person that cuts it and fertilizes it. You only see the result - and the results you see reflect the person that made them grow - who is GOD! (adapted from GCM)
As G.Campbell Morgan illustrates it, the Corinthians were forming committees around the planters and waterers! “I follow the planter. I follow the waterer.” (GCM).
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.
Do you know how you are supposed to evaluate a minister of God’s Word? Never by his results. But always by his labor.
The wages are based on the labor.
Paul says —
9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
This is how God’s church is served.
Not by men making much of themselves.
God’s church is served by men who make much of God.=
The emphasis in each of these phrases is God.
We are GOD’s fellow workers. In other words, the planter and the waterer work together and belong to God.
You are GOD’s field.
GOD’s building.
It is all about GOD!
Make this church about us, or about any other thing, and we have missed the mark and will be ruined. Make this church about God, and we will experience the growth that only God gives.
They did not know how to be godly people.
They did not know how God’s church is served.
C. They did not know how God’s church is built. (3:10-15)
C. They did not know how God’s church is built. (3:10-15)
It is built on a foundation which is Jesus Christ!
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.
You might underline that command: “Let each one take care how he builds upon it.”
This is a command for each one of us as individuals in this body of Christ - this building up of the body. And each one of us is doing just that - we are builders.
There are no exceptions. You are not part of the church to be entertained, or to consume teaching or music or prayers. Each one of us are part of this church to build up the body of Christ. Each one of us have spiritual gifts that this church needs! Each one of us must build carefully, upon the foundation that has been laid.
11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
In other words, we are not laying again a foundation. The foundation has already been laid - and that foundation is Jesus.
We are building - building upon the foundation of Jesus!
Practically, we must look at what we are building upon.
Some churches think they are built upon a charter, a Constitution, Bylaws . . . those things are not the foundation. Those things build upon the foundation, and they must be carefully built.
Most of them are written based on guides from lawyers and businessmen, but not many are written by pastors trained in God’s Word, and it shows!
Everything we build must point us to the foundation - Jesus Christ, and His Word.
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.
A day of judgment is coming - and it will be a day of fire.
In which what we have built, will either withstand the fire, or will be consumed.
Gold, silver, precious stones are very slow burning materials. They withstand the flame.
Wood, hay straw are quick burning materials. They burn in a flash and are consumed!
This text speaks not only to the quality of materials being used, as the foundation is built upon, but also the speed of construction.
You can make a house with wood, hay and straw in a day.
But to build something with gold, silver, and precious stones - that takes time.
One has to mine for those materials. One has to fashion them with a skilled worker. One has to add them to the foundation carefully. This takes time!
Jesus said:
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Listen to how the Jews responded:
20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
They did not know.
They did not know Jesus was speaking about his body. But notice how long it took for them to build this temple. Forty-six years.
The original temple took about 7 years.
These are years in building with precious stones and materials.
Why do we expect churches to grow overnight?
The growth God gives is often the result of faithful, consistent labor on the right foundation.
William Carey, missionary to India, saw his first convert not in the first year, second year, third year, fourth year . . .but in the seventh year of his work!
That is the kind of work that is built with the best materials on the right foundation.
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.
In the day of judgment, the day of fire, I pray that I don’t walk out just by myself - saved by the grace of God through fire. I pray that that I pass through the fire with something else to show for my life. I pray that my life’s work and ministry has built something that survives.
And Church - each one of you has something you are building too. You do not have to be a pastor to build on the foundation. If God’s Spirit dwells within you, you are a builder! What will last the test of the fire in the Day’s last judgment?
Don’t be a church member that keeps your name on the role and attends only so that you can be buried in a glorious building. You may pass through the fire by the grace of God, but you’ll have nothing else to show for your life.
Be the church member that God’s Word is revealing, and will continue to reveal in this letter. The kind that is actively involved in God’s work of building up His Church!
They did not know how to be godly people.
They did not know how God’s church is served.
They did not know how God’s church is built.
D. They did not know that God’s Spirit dwells in them. (3:16-17)
D. They did not know that God’s Spirit dwells in them. (3:16-17)
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Do not misunderstand this verse by thinking of it individually. In this context, this verse is not saying that each one of us has God’s Spirit dwelling within us. That is true - but that is not what this verse is saying.
This verse is speaking “to the church.”
The church - as a body. United in Christ. You, CHURCH, are God’s temple, and God’s Spirit dwells in you. Do you not know this, church?
And yet you are jealous. Envious. Following these leaders as if they are the ones giving the grace and the blessing and they aren’t!
And you continue on as babies in Christ. Fleshly people. Carnal people.
So hear this warning!
17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
This is a frightening verse! And this should make all of us who hear very uncomfortable about any division.
Because division destroys.
And if anyone among us seeks to destroy us as a body, they are destroying God’s church which is God’s temple. And God will meet out to that person the same type of destruction they are inflicting. God will destroy him.
Be warned! Be cautious! God loves His Church and God will win the day.
What did God do with Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts 5? This couple lied to the apostles, they lied to the church, they lied to God. They tested the Holy Spirit together in their heart. And what did God do? God killed them.
They fell down and breathed their last.
And great fear came upon all who heard of it.
God will protect His church!
So the apostle brings this text to this conclusion:
IV. Conclusion (3:18-23)
IV. Conclusion (3:18-23)
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.
A. Gospel Proclamation
A. Gospel Proclamation
This is the Gospel Proclamation!
“All things are yours — in Christ. Every spiritual blessing is yours. Every victory is yours. Because you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”
This is who you are!
sin/cross & burial
sin/cross & burial
So put to death the sin that is among you.
Just as Christ died for sin once and for all and buried it in the grave.
righteousness/resurrection & new life
righteousness/resurrection & new life
Live with the newness of life because of Christ’s resurrection. Not the life you once knew, but the life you now know, as children of God, witnesses of God!
judgment/return & kingdom
judgment/return & kingdom
And be a builder in the work that God is overseeing. The work of building His Church. Jesus said:
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
The Prophet Isaiah spoke these words:
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
This is what God empowers us to do by His Holy Spirit, as we wait and work, building on Christ as the foundation, united for His glory, until that coming Day!
Now you know!