Corinthians Series (Part Four)
Text: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Well we’re back in Corinthians today, and we’ve moved into chapter three of this great book by the Apostle Paul. And just to quickly summarize what we’ve seen so far… you’ll remember that Corinth is a trade city. Paul was sent there after his time in Athens, and he opened this letter by reminding the Corinthians that because they were in Christ, they were called to be saints and called to live in fellowship with Jesus and with one another… then he got into explaining to them the wisdom and power of God through the cross of Jesus Christ, and we spent two Sundays talking about that.
So now we’re in chapter three… And today we’re going to be looking at verses 1 – 9. So please take your Bibles, and open them up to 1 Corinthians 3, and follow along as I read the text (READ TEXT).
Now I don’t know if you caught that or not, but in this short little passage of Scripture Paul uses three metaphors there. The first one is when Paul calls these believers in Corinth – “Infants who still need milk because they’re not ready for solid food.”
The second and third metaphors are in verses 5-9 where he says that the church is God’s field, and God’s building. I don’t know that I’ll get to all three of those today, but I’ll do my best.
So first off – Paul calls these Christians in Corinth infants. Now that’s saying what it sounds like. Paul is calling them a bunch of babies. He really is! He says to them, “Guys I can’t go on and teach you the more in-depth stuff because you’re acting like a bunch of babies!” And let’s be honest – they really were. There was jealousy and strife among them, and they were acting more like the world than the church. Now let me ask you a question – was Paul being unloving to these folks in Corinth? No… I don’t believe he was. Paul knew these people. He knew who he was writing to, and there are unfortunately some folks who are so stubborn, and so obstinate, and so worldly that you’ve got to shock them to get their attention. You’ve got to get their focus off of themselves, and onto what really matters.
And so this is kind of what Paul is doing here. He says to them, “I can’t go on to teach you the deeper things of Scripture, because you’re infants, and you couldn’t handle it. You’re worldly. You’re in the flesh. You are not behaving like Christians at all.” And he gives them an example of how that’s happening, because some are saying, “I follow Paul”, and others are saying, “Well I follow Apollos.”
So this is what’s happening at the church in Corinth – Jealousy, strife, division… It’s a church full of worldly Christians, who have set their minds on worldly things. Some people ask if they are even Christians… I believe so. In verse 1 Paul addresses them as “Brothers”… and so yeah, I’d say they were believers. They’ve been saved. They’ve accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. But then somehow; their growth was stunted, and they’ve failed to move forward in their faith. And this becomes a problem. Not only for a Christian, but for anything. Just think about it for a second…
We recently bought some baby goats. Four babies. And all four of them had been abandoned, orphaned, and so we’ve been bottle feeding them. And one of them was really small. I’d say very under-developed. And Leslie worked hard with that little baby. Trying to feed it, and nurture it, but it failed to grow and died.
You see; every living thing, should be growing. Calves grow into cows, infants grow into adults, grass grows, trees grow, flowers grow. If it’s living – it should be growing. And the same is truth with a “living faith”! We should be growing in our faith and understanding! Pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus!
If you plant some wheat, and it sprouts up but fails to grow; you’ve got a problem right?
And so Paul started this letter to the Corinthians by pointing them to the cross! He was like, “Yup, I’m gonna’ go back and hit this again, because some of y’all in Corinth are acting like you’re not even Christians.” And he went over that – how it was the wisdom and power of God. How God, in His infinite wisdom, sent Jesus to die on the cross to be our substitute. How Jesus took the wrath of God on our behalf while on the cross, and died for our sins, so that we could be justified before God.
And the whole point of that is to point these Corinthians away from self and away from the cult of celebrity pastors and preachers, and point them to Jesus! He’s basically saying to them, “It’s not about me (Paul), it’s not about Apollos, it’s not about Peter.”
IT’S ALL ABOUT JESUS!
And this is a lesson that all of us as Christians still need today. We as believers can be so self-centered, and self-focused that we miss the big picture. We are so infiltrated with the world that we’ve become consumer driven rather than Christ driven. I’ve heard it described as “Golden Corral Christianity”. In other words, I want to pick and choose what I like about it. I can’t tell you how many times in my 23+ years in ministry I have heard people say things like, “Well I like this kind of music.” And, “I like the way this particular person preaches.” And “I like the order of service at this church.” And we never, or hardly ever hear someone say, “Well, this church does it the way God says we should do it. It conducts worship, and operates the way God says it should. And the pastor preaches the way that God’s Word says he should.”
It’s always about what I like and what I want, hardly ever is it about what God’s Word says, and what God wants.
And that’s a real problem isn’t it? Let me tell you why. Let me tell you the danger of that kind of thinking. If we insist that the music be done in only the way WE like it, or that the worship service be the way WE like it, or the preaching, or whatever – we are in danger of worshiping ourselves rather than God. And I’m fearful that’s exactly what is happening in a lot of churches today. The music needs to be done in this way – because THAT’S WHAT I LIKE, and the preaching needs to be done in this way – because THAT’S WHAT I LIKE, and the underlying thought behind this is a notion that if I like it, then naturally God would too.
And we’d never come out and actually say that, we’d never admit to it, but it’s true in a lot of places and in a lot of local congregations.
And not only does that put us in danger of worshiping ourselves rather than God, but in using worldly means and methods in an attempt to attract the world, the Church has become so worldly – it’s now indistinguishable FROM the world.
Now please hear me, I’m not saying that the music and the preaching shouldn’t be good. It should – every time I get up here to preach, I should be giving my very best. And when we sing and worship, we should do our best – FOR THE LORD!
That’s kind of what Paul goes on to say in verses 5 and 6 of our text… “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.” So it’s about God – right! But understand this – you can plant, and you can give water – but you can’t just go on drinking milk. Now don’t get me wrong… milk is good, and I like a good, cold, glass of milk from time to time, but you can’t get all the nutrition you need to grow up and be healthy from just drinking milk. If MJ was here, she could give you all the scientific facts and figures behind it… but I’m not a dietitian, so I can’t do that. Instead I can give you just some good, old fashioned, Oklahoma common sense. You gotta’ eat some beef. You’ve gotta’ eat some potatoes. You’ve gotta’ eat some veggies if you want to grow big and strong.
Now I want you to catch what Paul does here. He goes right at this idea of celebrity pastors. He actually de-personalizes himself and Apollos. He doesn’t ask, “Who is Apollos and who is Paul?” He says, “WHAT is Apollos?” and, “What is Paul?” They are only servants. And in the context of this passage we might say, “Paul and Apollos… they’re farm hands.” They plant and water. And since they’re only servants, they’re not the ones to Whom you owe your salvation. Verse 7, “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”
So is Paul saying we don’t need to worry about planting and watering? No, that’s not what he’s saying. Those are God’s ordained means. We have to preach the Gospel. We have to share the Gospel. We need to read our Bibles, and gather with the church, and worship the Lord corporately. We need to spend time in prayer, we need those things. So Paul doesn’t say, “Don’t worry about planting or watering…” He never says that. Instead he says, “God gives the growth.” In other words church. You and I can’t save anyone. We’re not called to save anyone. Jesus is the Savior. We are called to plant and water, and trust that God will bring the growth. We are called to share the Gospel, and trust that God will work in people’s hearts. We are called to pray for others and trust that God will move in those lives and in those situations. We are called to point others to Christ, and not ourselves, that we are saying, “THY will be done.” Not “MY will be done.” We need to be sure that we haven’t put someone up on a pedestal that only Jesus deserves to stand up.
CLOSING
