The Church: Mature
1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Read 1 Corinthians 3
1 Corinthians 3 (ESV)
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?
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.
ILLUST - Status-seeking
someone using another’s car for music video
(1-4)
“people of the flesh” = not the same as ‘natural’ in
1 cor 2:14 “14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
‘natural’ = unsaved
‘people of flesh’ = carnal (Christians)
In what was was the church at Corinth immature?
Not because they were having a popularity contest. It was because they were causing division in the church by promoting one leader over another in order to raise their own personal status within the church.
Church at Corinth was filled with people who were filled with the culture.
(How many of you are wearing something that is influenced by something or someone outside of the church? What aspects of the culture around us (good or bad) did you bring in with you?)
Corinth was not an autocratic society
Corinth was a meritocracy — Status was everything.
Same is true in our society today. Status is everything.
There are many different steps for us in pursuing our own status - relational, political, economical, educational.
These steps have many different styles and shapes - large house, emblem on a car, tag on clothes, letters after a name, numbers in a bank account, virtual friends in social media, or maybe just that intangible thing we call fame.
ILLUST - there are plenty of stupid ways to become famous. Some people will even do stupid things if it means chasing status.
Conspicuous Consumption
The use of products and services that are known to be expensive to signal that you are wealthy. For example, renting an expensive sports car for the weekend to post photos of yourself on social media.
Conspicuous Conservation
The use of products and services that you perceive as environmentally friendly and socially responsible out of a desire to signal that you are a good person.
Promotion
Promoting causes out of a desire to promote yourself. Authority & Influence
Seeking authority and influence out of a desire to be perceived as powerful.
Social Media
Social media behavior such as friending people you have no interest in communicating with just to inflate numbers such as a friend count.
Name Dropping
Finding excuses to mention the names of well known people or institutions with which you have some type of association.
Communication
Bragging or using vocabulary to demonstrate your status as opposed to a desire to communicate meaning. For example, a banker who uses obscure investment banking terms they know a conversation partner will not understand out of a desire to impress them with their professional status.
Countersignaling
Signaling negative things about yourself to suggest that you are stronger than those who seek status. For example, an entrepreneur who brags that they dropped out of a prestigious university out of a desire to convey confidence, independence and strength.
The problems with seeking our own status:
Creates anxiety - Am I enough? What do others think of me?
Stirs division - Oftentimes, though, the steps of increasing status are generally accomplished by stepping on or over someone else (i.e. comparison).
Leads to emptiness - attempting to achieve our own status is our way of becoming like God - trying to be our own Saviour. Completely anti-gospel.
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
i.e., acting in a human way and not spiritual?
Three Keys to Find Freedom From Chasing Status
Three Keys to Find Freedom From Chasing Status
(5-9)
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,
Foundational to these
Paul understands himself to be neither better nor worse than Apollos because they are not chasing their own status, they are operating our of their assignments given to them by God.
Receive your assignment from God.
Receive your assignment from God.
If Paul understood the value of a church leader to be in the ability to preach, Paul would have a lower status than Apollos. If church leaders were made popular by number of churches planted, Paul would be more famous than Apollos (perhaps this was the argument).
Paul says this is foolish because he is not looking to achieve his status; instead, he receives his assignment from God.
He and Apollos are servants.
I have always said success as a church leader is not found in butts, budgets, or buildings; it is found in faithfulness. Faithfulness in the assignment from God.
(each will receive his wages according to his labor - not success from his labor)
Our culture’s economy says status is based on success; God’s economy says success is based on faithfulness.
This is true for you as well.
You are here for a purpose greater than yourself.
Why are you here? Why do you exist?
Make money - it will disappear
Make your life better? Achieve some status or goal?
How sad. Think about how quickly it disappears.
James 1:10–11 (ESV)
10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
Don’t sell yourself short! You are here for something much bigger!
It is for God’s glory - to play a key role in God’s plan of salvation on earth.
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. . . You are God’s field
(first of three metaphors Paul will use to make his point)
The point is that success does not depend on those who preach, but on God. Against the Corinthians’ boasting in their own consequence, Paul argues that every worker is equally insignificant before God. Against their touting one person over another, he argues that every worker is equally indispensable. Against their self-satisfied complacency, Paul argues that each worker will be held accountable to God.
Garland, D. E. (2003). 1 Corinthians (p. 112). Baker Academic.
ILLUST - I don’t thank the tool for the work it does.
(9-15)
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.
ILLUST - lego building.
You are like this brick.
A brick by itself is only good to serve as a device of pain when you step on it. IT has a purpose to be used with other bricks (how annoying to try to build a lego and can’t find one brick!) (Come up and take a brick?)
Reorder your achievements in light of eternity.
Reorder your achievements in light of eternity.
(16-17)
(18-23)