Sermon Brief
Date Written: February 28, 2014
Date Preached: March 02, 2014
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: A Series from 1 Corinthians
Sermon Title: We are a TEAM - Stay Humble
Sermon Text: 1 Cor 3:1-9 [ESV]
Introduction:
So far in our journey through this letter from Paul to the church in Corinth we have learned that it was a fellowship that was struggling with many things, mainly they had strayed from the directness and simplicity of the Gospel message.
Paul’s letter is one that takes them to task for their straying BUT it also a letter that reaffirms their faith and their walk in Christ! Paul calls them ‘brothers and sisters in Christ’ and Paul lifts them up with his words of encouragement…
We find that Paul uses the term ‘we’ in regards to serving Christ which meant that Paul had NOT abandoned them… that Paul believed they were still a fellowship that could serve God in a productive manner!
How often do we look down on those in the faith who have struggled and have fallen to temptation or to the message of this world? How often have we written off someone we know in the church because they just were not living like we thought they should or because they strayed or stumbled in their walk?
We must look at the example here by Paul and we must act accordingly as LEADERS in the church and as a church fellowship as well. I know that as I studied this passage of Scripture I was highly convicted on what I have thought about and how I have acted toward several of you here in this very room…
For that I want to repent right now… I want to beg YOUR forgiveness as well as God’s forgiveness!
You see when we judge in such a way, we destroy the unity of a fellowship! When we judge in such a way it reveals our own immaturity of faith! Jesus was PERFECT and we find Him constantly encouraging and lifting up those who followed Him… He did not berate them or tear them down… he would admonish them when needed but he would do so in a loving manner!
This is what I see Paul doing here in 1 Corinthians! Many see this as a letter filled with anger, but what I see is love, what I see is a heart that cares for his fellow brothers and sisters!
Like Jesus, Paul led by example and thru love…and it is my desire that I lead this church in the same manner…and that we ALL treat each other with the love that is shown in THIS letter from Paul to his brothers and sisters in Corinth!
Turn with me now and I want us to look at the 1st 9 verses of Ch3 and see just how Paul led in a time such as this! Read all 9 verses here…
1But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3for 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? 4For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
We find Paul taking the Corinthians to task about their pettiness and spiritually infantile behavior. He paints a rather bleak picture about what WAS the situation, but Paul does NOT do this to grind them into the dust, but to spur them to repent and seek to live as they have been called to live by God. When I look at these 9 verses I see Paul writing about the immaturity of the believers in Corinth… Paul desired to:
1. Reveals their immaturity
2. Rebukes their immaturity
3. Recasts their immaturity in another direction… toward MATURITY
Let’s look at v1-3 and see how Paul reveals the immaturity of the believers in Corinth:
Immature Faith Revealed … v1-3
1But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3for 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?
Now in the last sentence of Chapter 2, we find Paul writing that as believers “‘we’ have the mind of Christ.” Paul I want us to notice like I mentioned in my introduction that he was being inclusive of this fellowship in Corinth.
He did not want to throw them out…throw them away: First because he loved them as a parent loves their children, but also because Christ had saved them…and when Christ saves… that salvation is assured and eternal!
BUT…
Even saved believers stumble and fall…
Even saved believers fall prey to the enemy and his attacks… Even saved believers can succumb to the temptations of this world.
So after Paul INCLUDES them in the fellowship of Christ and tells them they had the mind of Christ, he inserts a pivotal transition here… he says BUT…
In this transitional point Paul interjects BUT… Paul confirms to them that “…even though you ARE saved!”
“…even though you have access to the Spirit of God!”
“…even though you have the Mind of Christ”
He says even though you have all these things… you are still immature and NOT serving as God desires! You are lacking maturity in your walk!
Paul verbally admonishes them by saying that they were immature when he was there with them…now this is NOT entirely an unexpected statement because new believers are RARELY if ever mature believers.
MANY believers who receive Christ take time to build up their walk in Christ before they are able to walk on their own in this world! When we are spiritual babies we are immature in our faith, and Paul acknowledges this to them…I can almost hear him when he is writing this letter… “when you were babes in Christ you were immature…and I did not expect anything more from you at that time other than to seek to grow!”
AND here Paul is pointing out that when they came to faith in Christ that they were NOT ready for mature teaching. He uses a food metaphor here… babies drink milk, adults eat meat!
He tells them that he could not give the ‘meat’ of the Gospel and about serving God because you could not have handled it… BUT now you are still NOT ready! This is because you are immature in your faith… immature in your walk… immature in your belief!
But NOW this was several years later…and I am sure that Paul was very disappointed that this congregation had not matured in their faith…
I am sure when Paul heard the news from the house of Chloe and the other brothers in Corinth that it was highly depressing for the Apostle. I am also sure than when Paul response to this news… THIS LETTER reached the Corinthian fellowship I am sure it was depressing to them as well…
Basically what Paul is saying here in v.1-3 is that these believers who SHOULD be walking on their own by now… who should be mature believers by now… he was saying that they were acting like spiritual children when they should be growing into mature believers!
People, spiritual immaturity is the bane of ANY congregation!! I want to also point out that spiritual immaturity has NOTHING to do with how long you have been saved!
Because I have met some who have just been saved who have begun to mature at a very fast rate… and I have known some who profess a relationship with Christ that spans decades and they don’t exhibit any maturity in their walk.
People we must become a fellowship of MATURE believers if God is going to use us to reach and make an impact on this community.
But preacher what do you mean? Who is immature? How can you say we are immature believers? Preacher walked the aisle when I was 10 and have served for 40 yrs or more… how can you say I’m immature!
FIRST of all I am not pointing fingers at any one person… I will use my OWN spiritual immaturity to illustrate what I KNOW is rampant among most churches today! First lets establish what it means to be spiritually immature…
Well to be spiritually immature means that you don’t keep the main thing the main thing… Spiritually immature people dwell on things that are not essential OR are immaterial when it comes to service in the Kingdom…
I want to tell you that some of the most ‘religious’ and ‘church oriented’ people I have ever known…were spiritually immature because their focus was on the wrong thing… the wrong things mattered more to them than what God desired.
Paul sees this in the lives of these believers and he points it out in these 1st 3 verses, but next he rebukes them for their spiritually immature ways by giving an example with this rebuke!
Immature Faith Rebuked … v4
4For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
The example Paul gives here is the example of division within the church based on the leaders… “I follow Paul… I follow Apollos…” Paul wants them to know that following Christ is the directive from God… not Paul or Apollos!
Paul says here that for those of you who are confused and misguided and misdirected by the leadership of your church… are you not acting merely human?
This was NOT Paul saying that I know you are human and will fall prey to temptation from time to time… OR Paul saying that I know you are human and our enemy will overwhelm us from time to time…
NO this was Paul saying that their human understanding… their human desires… their human longings… their human pet peeves… their human wisdom… all of this would lead them astray!
In other words Paul is saying to the church in Corinth: “Hey guys, I know you are saved thru the grace of Christ, but SERIOUSLY… are you going to continue to act this way? Are you going to continue to mire yourself down in the human effort of reaching God? Are you going to rely on your own humanity and human reasoning? What Paul was getting at was that when believers act like this… they fail!
Paul understood this and he wanted them to see it too… he wanted them to know that this petty taking of sides between ministers was driving a wedge into their fellowship… a wedge of human emotion, human reasoning and human wisdom!
This ‘wedge’ was stealing the witness of the fellowship and all the believers within the fellowship… and their Gospel witness was being replaced by human traits & relying upon human deliverance!
What Paul was saying to the church in Corinth and what we today can take from what Paul says…is that division among believers… division within a fellowship is NEVER EVER a good thing! This is because division leads to pettiness and pettiness leads to legalism and legalism leads to destruction!
Let me ask you this: Have YOU ever had these kind of petty immature thoughts in your heart? I know that this is an offensive question to ask… BUT I believe that it is something spiritual that is holding our church back from making the impact Christ wants to make! We are doing the physical things… it has to be something spiritual!
So let me ask you…to what spiritual pettiness or immaturities are you willing to confess today? R U willing to say that you have not been in sync with God and his plans because you have been stubborn in one or more areas of your life? Is it that you have not been willing to submit or surrender to God’s plan & purpose!
Where does your spiritual immaturity show? Let me confess mine to hopefully allow you to see your own… I find myself being very judgmental of those who profess faith in Christ but the fruit in their lives and the actions of their lives seem to be contrary to being a believer… judgmental and condescending!
I constantly struggle with what I describe as carnal Christianity… this is where a person professes faith in Christ but then they live their lives as close to the world as they can…
Instead of separating themselves from the world and the sin that once bound them… they cling to it and feel they can have it both ways… that they can live their lives the way THEY want to live and still be considered to be “in Christ!”
In my heart, I want to judge them and ‘cast them out’ because I believe that they are a terrible witness to the world; that they hurt the witness of our fellowship and they are a millstone around the neck of any congregation…I just want to get rid of them…
BUT… what God has shown me is that as close to Him as I may think that I walk, I too am sinful and that my judgment of these people is NOT spiritually mature!
God has revealed to me that true spiritual maturity does not judge or condemn or cast out… but instead it makes the choice to come alongside of believers who are struggling, failing and falling! True spiritual maturity does not condemn these believers but lifts them up and try to help them to see the right path and the right choices!
So I have confessed it to you and before God that one area of my spiritual immaturity is that I have a tendency to be a spiritually judgmental person… and that is just ONE area where my spiritual walk could stand some maturing in the faith! So my question this morning is, “How about you? Are you ready to confess the spiritual immaturity in your life?
These believers had begun to try to set themselves apart by who they were following… Paul, Apollos or whomever… and now MANY of them had started to listen to a message that strayed away from the Gospel that God had brought to them thru Paul.
Today we have MANY believers (those who profess faith in Christ) who do the same thing!
Well I listen to Charles Stanley…
Well I listen to John MacArthur…
Well I listen to the recorded sermons of Charles Spurgeon…
How many believers do you know that separate themselves by who they listen to as preachers or who they ‘follow’ as a leader? All of those I listed are great teachers and wonderful preachers. All of these men are faithful servants of God… the point Paul is making here is that our focus of service is skewed.
That skewed focus is also evident in the church where we find many believers wanting to change the message of the gospel because it doesn’t fit what the world is telling them…
We have those in the church who know what the Bible says, they hear what the Bible teaches, but yet they want to listen to the message that the world is bringing their way!
We know that the Bible tells us that we should not ‘murder’ but there are those in the church who believe that a woman’s reproductive ‘choice’ is her to make and ending a pregnancy is NOT a bad thing… none of you may think that but it is prevalent in the church today!
We know that the Bible specifically speaks to marriage being between one man and one woman and yet our society is screaming at Christianity today telling us that we are outdated and we need to evolve to accept same sex marriages…and many who profess Christ as Savior are willing to give an ear to this heretical message!
What messages are you listening to? Do you allow the message of the world to invade your spiritual maturation? Where do YOU fall short? Where is YOUR spiritual immaturity?
Most people who profess Christ as Savior struggle with simple, common things like:
Reading the Bible… true Bible study where you are hiding God’s word in your heart so you won’t sin against Him… When it comes to reading the Bible, I am going to meddle here… what about when we focus in on a particular translation of the Bible… KJV only or NASB only…or whatever translation you may think is THE Bible!
I will say that there are some translations you should avoid but there is no ONE translation that is perfect or worthy to be ‘followed’… God’s word will NOT return void!
Prayer daily… true fervent prayer seeking God’s will not just seeking God’s provision or blessing…How often do you pray for God to bless YOUR plan instead of praying for God to help you to submit to His?
Sharing your faith… more than just being a Christian and living well but I mean actually opening your mouth and speaking to someone about their spiritual condition and sharing Jesus with them!
How often have you walked away when you knew you were supposed to speak to someone about Jesus? How often have you made excuses to God for ignoring His calling to share your faith? How often have you tried to convince yourself that evangelism is just not your gift and that you serve God in ‘other’ areas?
Forgiveness…I am speaking of TRUE forgiveness… many of us say we forgive, but then we hold things in, hold grudges against those who have hurt us. We must learn to forgive and allow God’s grace to permeate our lives!
Judgment… I am speaking about spiritual condescension here, where we look down on the sinner... where we see the sinner as NOT worthy of God.
Usually it is because of the sinner’s position, if they are a banker, lost and coming to our church then we probably will just have pity on them and pray for them… but if it is the prostitute that shows up off the street… if it is the homeless man who walks up in the greatest of need… we have a tendency to look down on them and many of us just want them to go away!
Submission… What I mean here is submission to God’s plan and order of things. How often have you bucked God’s plan in your life? How often have you found yourself wanting to tell your pastor or any of God’s called minister/pastor/teachers how to do what God has called THEM to do? “Well preacher if I were you I’d do it this way…or I feel you should do it this way….”
So? Where are you? Can you identify your spiritual immaturity? I may not have listed it just now, but I know that the Holy Spirit is putting before you right this very moment! He is letting you know where you fall short in your spiritual walk! He is letting you know what you should be doing to become more spiritually mature!
Paul is calling for these believers to leave their spiritual immaturity behind and in the next few verses we find Paul ‘recasting’ their immaturity into a life of spiritual MATURITY…
Immature Faith Recast … v5-9
5What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
In v5 Paul asks the question ‘what is Paul or Apollos?’ OR you could translate it also as ‘who is Paul or Apollos’? In other words what would make you ‘follow’ them? What makes them special?
Paul quickly clarifies the point he is driving at… Paul and Apollos are nothing more than God’s instruments… Instruments used by God to bring these people to Him! How often do we find ourselves assigning WAAY too much importance to a person?
I am the pastor… God has called me to lead and direct you as a fellowship… but I am NOT one to be exalted! Jesus is the head of the church and I follow Him. As church members you don’t follow me… you follow Christ as I do!
We are all called to be ministers of the gospel, but God has set an order to things and the pastor has been set up to lead a flock of believers. Hebrews calls on the members of the church to follow those appointed over them…
This does NOT mean the pastor is infallible… he is NOT! What this means is that the pastor is going to be held to a higher standard (according to James) than the layperson, and that God has called the pastor with a special additional calling to serve Him!
But at the end of the day, the pastor is nothing more than an instrument used by God to reach others to bring them TO Christ! Paul acknowledges this in v6 where he says:
6I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
Paul understood his place and his role in the kingdom… he was like a shovel or a plow to the farmer! He was like the farmer who takes the seed and plants the seed and waters the seed… he can do all that but the growth… the new life comes from God!
People God is the initiator of life and the only ONE from whom life will spring. We can serve Him all day long but we will NEVER bring about new life in a person! We are but an instrument in His hands!
Then in v7 Paul says:
7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
Paul says, it does not matter who you are in the kingdom… only God can and will bring growth! Our self importance and thinking that what we want or desire actually means something to God is a sign of tremendous spiritual immaturity! If what you want or seek does not add to the kingdom, it is only taking away from the kingdom.
So Paul is telling them to NOT get too consumed with their own wisdom or with their own petty desires… He says:
8He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
We are going to receive our reward for our service…and that reward is going to be based in part on what we do FOR him, not what we demand from Him. Paul says we will receive according to our labor… our labor FOR Christ!
A spiritually mature believers is NOT focused on themselves but on the work… A spiritually mature believers is NOT seeking acknowledgment or accolades here but knows they are coming… A spiritually mature believer understands their place in God’s economy…we are those who do the work!
A spiritually mature believer understands that their lives are a field for God to plant, nurture and cultivate… A spiritually mature believer understands that their lives are like a building that God is making… His choice of materials… his choice of design… his choice in when and where this building is built.
When we come to spiritual maturity we begin to understand what Paul was speaking about here in these few verses.
Give invitation here…
