The Rev. M. Anthony Seel, Jr.
St. Andrew’s Church
February 13, 2011
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
“Real-Life Discipleship”
New faces are popping up weekly at children’s play groups and on neighborhood park benches, although not in the weather we’re having today! These new faces carefully watch the activity on the swing sets and climbing gyms. Quite often these faces need a shave or sport a mustache or beard. It looks like stay-at-home dads (SAHD) are here to stay.
Gone are the days when a child’s birth meant that a mother would quit her job or drastically reduce her hours at work. Although stay-at-home dads are still a minority, parents increasingly view an SAHD as an attractive option. More and more men are diving into the world of diapers, play dates and car pools. Increasingly, fathers are sharing the joys and frustrations of caring for a young, often needy life.
The Apostle Paul had a bit of the SAHD mojo working in his life. God had used Paul to birth and nurture churches in four provinces of the Roman Empire. As Anglican missionary Roland Allen wrote in the 1920s,
Before AD 47 there were no churches in these provinces, in AD 57 St. Paul
could speak as if his work there was done… [Missionary Methods, p. 3]
Paul visited the city of Corinth in Greece, in the Roman province of Achaia, on his second missionary journey. He stayed there eighteen months. Three of four years later, Paul writes to his spiritual children in Corinth because he had received reports about problems in the church there. Paul writes to exhort the church in Corinth to grow up! He is disappointed that they aren’t moving forward toward spiritual maturity. In our second lesson Paul says,
v. 1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
As their spiritual father in Christ, his heart is broken. Why haven’t they grown in their Christian faith? He’d like to address them as spiritually mature Christians, but he realizes that their behavior shows that they are still infants in Christ. Many of the Corinthian Christians are what are sometimes called today “carnal Christians.” If you’ve completed session three of Knowing God Personally you know what I mean.
Carnal means, of the flesh, worldly. Chili con carne is chili with meat. The incarnation is God in the person of Jesus taking on human flesh. A carnal Christian is one who has received Christ but who is still controlled by carnal passions. These carnal passions could be fear, jealousy, guilt, worry, unbelief, disobedience to God, a critical spirit, a poor prayer life, or no desire to study the Bible or read the Bible devotionally.
Paul continues,
vv. 2-3 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 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?
Jealousy and strife in the Corinthian church are evidence that there is little spiritual maturity
there. God wants churches to be unified in the faith and Spirit of Christ. In verse four, Paul
exposes one of the problems in the Corinthian church.
v. 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human?
As Paul explains,
vv. 5-6 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
Paul and Apollos, servants of God, worked in the church in Corinth as God led each of them to
do so. Paul was used by God to plant the church and Apollos nurtured the church that God had
planted through Paul’s ministry.
One of the axioms of ordained ministry is don’t be the person who follows a long-term pastor.
Whether you realize it or not, Fr. Dan Barker had one of the toughest challenges in pastoral
ministry. Following a founding rector who had served St. Andrew’s for twenty-seven years is
extremely difficult work.
When we were moving into the rectory twelve-plus years ago, Fr. Dan came by to welcome us. He said to me that he had worked as my interim pastor. I told him that I thought that nine years is a pretty long interim. I suspect that for much of those nine years Fr. Dan wondered whether he would ever be able to step out of the shadow of Fr. Kilmer Sites.
Can you imagine what it was like for Apollos to follow Paul? The church in Corinth was founded by the greatest apostle that the church had ever produced. Some Corinthians never shifted their allegiance from Paul to Apollos. Paul says,
v. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
Paul and Apollos both served God and the work in Corinth didn’t belong to either of them. Paul
recognized that it was all God’s work.
vv. 8-9 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Those of us in full-time ministry realize that our reward for our work comes from God. Every
one of us, whether we are pastors or not, will one day stand before Christ and have to give an
account of what we have done with the life God has given us.
James says,
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. James 3:1
It is said that if you can do anything other than pastoral ministry, do it! Pastoral ministry can be
daunting, but then, so can a lot of different vocations. The difference is that pastors will be
judged with a higher standard by God. God loves His Church and He doesn’t want anyone
messing it up, especially pastors.
All of us are responsible to God for His Church. As Paul says, together we are God’s field, God’s
building. As part of God’s field, are you fruitful?
Jesus says in John, chapter 15,
v. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. “
What kind of fruit is Jesus speaking about? There is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Are the fruit of the Spirit growing in your life?
Secondly, there is the fruitful harvest of godly service. Paul speaks about his own work as
“fruitful labor” (Philippians 1:22). Paul is clear in his epistles to the churches in Rome, Ephesus
and Corinth that every Christian is empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve in the church and
world – 1 Corinthians 12 is one of the places where Paul mentions spiritual gifts.
God made us to be fruitful. He wants us to grow in the fruit of the Spirit – this is character
development. We are to grow to be more and more like Jesus. God wants us to be fruitful in
godly service. Are you serving God in the church and in the world?
This brings me to the diagram on the front of your bulletin. It is from Real-Life Discipleship, a
book by Jim Putnam, founder of Real Life Ministries in Idaho. [Note: the diagram is on page 77]
You can see the colored rim of the circle progresses from dead to born again to infant to child to
young adult to parent. Inside the rim of the circle are short descriptions. Jim Putnam calls this
diagram the stages of spiritual growth wheel.
The New Testament says that before Christ is our Savior we are dead in our sins. Jesus said that when we receive Him as Savior and Lord we are born again, born from above, given new life. It’s important that we know where we (and others) are in the spiritual growth process. Jim Putnam says, “listen for a ‘phrase from the stage.’ ” [p.45]
Those who are spiritually dead say things like,
“There are many ways to God.” “I don’t believe in God.” [p. 80]
The Bible is just a bunch of lies.
“There is no hell because God is a God of love.”
“I have been a good person, so I know I will be okay.” [ibid.]
Listen for a phrase from the stage.
A spiritual infant might say,
“I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.”
“I gave my life to Jesus and I go to church, but I don’t need to be close to other people.”
“I don’t have time to be in relationship with another Christian.” [pp. 92-93]
Listen for a phrase from the stage.
A spiritual child might say,
“I love my small group; don’t add any more people to it.”
“My church isn’t taking care of my needs.”
I didn’t like the sermon today; I wish Fr. Tony or Fr. Jeff could preach like Charles Stanley or Chuck Swindoll.
“I didn’t like the music today – if only they did it like…” New Life or Trinity Memorial.
“I’m not being fed in my church, so I am going to a church that meets my needs better.”
[quotes from pp. 106-107]
Listen for the phrase from the stage.
A spiritual young adult might say,
“I love my small group, but there are others who need a group like this. I think I could lead a group with a little help.”
“In my devotions, I came across something I have a question about.”
“I am ready to make disciples, and I will let you know if I need help.”
I noticed that we don’t have a visitation team for shut-ins. Is that something I could do?
[quotes from p. 127]
Listen for the phrase from the stage.
A spiritual parent might say,
“A guy at work asked me to explain the Bible to him. Pray for me.”
“I have a person in my small group who is passionate about working with children. Can you have the children’s ministry people call me.”
I realized discipleship happens at home, too. Will you hold me accountable to spend time discipling my kids?”
[p. 143]
Several of us are planning to go on a mission trip and I have given each person a different responsibility. Where do you think we should go?
Did you hear the differences between the stages? For example, it’s it sad that an adult who’s been active in church for years wouldn’t understand that spiritual adulthood means that we have learned to feed ourselves spiritually?
The Apostle Paul was a spiritual stay-at-home dad for the church in Corinth for just eighteen months. When he left them after that short time, Apollos took over. Three or four years after his time in Corinth, Paul expected the Christians there to be spiritually mature.
Where are you in your spiritual maturity? Did you hear a phrase from a stage that you identified with? Today, I’ve just touched the surface; we’ll go into more depth on subsequent Sundays. I’ll close with three questions.
First, where are you spiritually?
Second, where do you believe God wants you to be?
Third, how can we at St. Andrew’s help?
