Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Opening Illustration: A Personality Driven Culture

We live increasingly in a personality driven culture.

Celebrities, from Hollywood to Washington DC, from Silicon Valley to the Church Pulpit, have learned to use social media as a launching pad for their brand, for their personality.

So much of cultural conversation at a national and local level is driven by comments made by one personality over another.

We find our person, and we think ‘that person’ is doing it right.

It’s the perfect mix of tone and wisdom.

And then the regular common folk secretly aspire to be more like so and so.

In one of the more profound tweets I ever read, someone said, “I just realized that navigating social media is the closest thing to hell we may ever get.

Every voice crying out, “Worship me!

Worship me!”

Contextual

Today I preach a sermon that is very personal for me.

Paul in this section of 1 Corinthians is addressing various divisions in the Church, divisions that were rooted in the personalities of various leaders in the Church.

You may recall from the very first sermon in this series, he brought divisions in the Church.

1 Corinthians 1:11-13 “11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”

13 Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?

Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”

And we talked about how difficult it has been over the past few years to lead through all the cultural division.

I felt like, and still do, that for every position I took (even if the position was “I don’t know,”) 1/3 of the Church would praise, 1/3 of the Church would be upset with me but live with it, and 1/3 of the Church would leave out the back door.

That’s not intended to throw a pity party for me or anyone else in leadership, it’s intended to say Paul is writing to us today.

Today Paul begins a two chapter direct Pastoral response on division in the Church.

Today we’ll address three perspectives: the Cause of Division, The Danger of Division, and the Remedy for Division.

The Cause of Division

First, the Cause of Division (verses 1-9).

The cause of division is that there is an over-emphasis on the personalities of various leaders in the Church (1-9)

1 Corinthians 3:1-9 “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.”

Infants in Christ

He begins with quite cutting words.

He writes to an entire Church and says, “You’re behaving like infants.”

Verse 2—I want dig deep into theology and shape you’re hearts into mature followers of Christ, but you’re hung up on the most infantile issues.

You’re arguing and creating cliques and divisions about who is the better Pastor, which personality of which pastor is the best.

Illustration: Pastors Like Athletes in a Sports Draft

Your treating Pastors like athletes that can be ranked and traded in a sports draft.

Athletes, you rank them: Quickness, Agility, Strength, coordination, etc. It’s like we’ve created a Pastoral Draft where you’re pitting pastor against pastor, spiritual leader against spiritual leader.

They’re being ranked on: What conferences do they speak at?

How many Twitter followers do they have?

Paul says, “Are you out of your mind.

This is absolute spiritual infancy.

I planted, Apollos Watered

He says, neither me nor Apollos are of anything important.

Each of us did our work that was assigned.

Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered.”

What he means is that Paul planted the Church, there was no Church, then Paul came and preached and built up a Church.

Then he left in the hands of Apollos, and Apollos kept feeding the Church and watering it.

And you’re ranking me and Apollos against each other?

No, No, No. God is the only one who gives the growth.

He Who Plants & He Who Waters (9)

He clarifies in verse 9 by saying, “It’s not the work that each spiritual leader does is not important.

Each laborer has a reward for what they do with their time on this Earth.

But if you think a Church is going to be built and sustained and grow on a personality, you’re thinking like a child.”

Make This Personal: Me

I want to make this uncomfortably personal for a moment.

And I think I can do this, because we’re a Church.

I going to make it really uncomfortable, but I think in doing so, we might permit God to reveal some idols in this Church and perhaps lay much stronger groundwork for the future.

I think I can do this, because I don’t believe this Church is full of spiritual infants.

Increasingly I am nervous that this Church is heavily built on my personality, not entirely… but its a thing.

And its a dangerous thing.

The causes of it are understandable.

Let me give you two.

1 Church Shopping

In Paul’s day there was only one Church in the city of Colossae where he was writing to.

But today, there are a thousand churches in Chicago.

And so one of the things that has happened, when people join a Church they can shop around, listen to the sermons online, visit and get a sense for the room, for the vibe.

None of these things are necessarily wrong.

But what can happen, is that people join the Church primarily for the personality of the Pastor.

And this can create a vicious cycle of unhealth.

2 Controversial Topics

Secondly, there are very real issues in culture to confront.

And different pastors do it differently.

Churches have to make decisions, “Do I sign the bold statement that says the federal government can never tell us to shut our churches down again.”

Churches have to make a decision, “Do I publicly talk about Abortion in this country.”

Churches have to make a decision, “What language and ideas are useful for the conversation on race, and what language and ideas are heretical on the conversation on race.”

That’s a snapshot, there’s a lot more.

Here’s what is so challenging.

I believe Pastors must take very bold positions on these things, and I’ve done that.

Now I believe this is what all Pastors should be doing.

But the danger here is that potentially your love of this Church is less about the community, and more about your love of my style.

In other words, you’re here simply because of me.

That’s dangerous.

To borrow from the words of the Apostle Paul.

Kensen planted.

I watered.

But God gives the growth.

The Danger of Division

The Cause of Division is that there is an over-emphasis on the personalities of various leaders in the Church (1-9).

Now, the Danger of Division is that we fail to realize that every member of God's Church are co-laborers building together.

(10-17)

1 Corinthians 3:10-17 “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.