Why The Church Matters Series

What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? If Satan took over a city, all the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and the city streets would be pristine with people who smiled at one another. There would be no swearing. The children would say “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am.” And the churches would be full every Sunday where Christ is not preached.

“For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, 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” (1 Corinthians 3:9-17)

Today’s Big Idea: God cares about His Church and He holds its leaders accountable.

Today’s passage has been used for several purposes throughout our day:

1. Some think theses words are aimed at how we build our individual Christian lives;

2. Others think these verse deal with the belief of once saved always saved;

3. And still others Roman Catholics think these verses teach purgatory.

The passage doesn’t deal with any of these thought. Instead, Paul aims to teach us that those who currently lead the church should take heed for their work will one day be tested by Jesus Christ Himself.

Paul is doing two main things through the letter of 1 Corinthians: 1) Responding to situations and problems he has heard about through various sources; 2) Responding to questions, which the Corinthians have asked him.

We are still very much in the first part of the letter - where Paul is responding to problems he has heard about. He is starting with the problem of division within the church. In the passage before us this week, Paul continues to look at the subject of leaders and ministry. Always with the ultimate goal of healing their divisions and promoting greater unity in the Corinthian Church…

1. The Church’s Foundation is the Cross of Christ

Paul makes an abrupt change in verse nine: “For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.” (1 Corinthians 3:9)

If you were here last week then you know Paul spoke of the church and church leaders as a farm. This agricultural image was used to describe the relationship between the leaders and congregation. Paul planted and Apollos watered and that the Corinthian congregation was the field in which they worked. At the end of the day, however, we saw that only God could make anything grow. But, here that he moves from the farm to the construction site. He has given us a new metaphor to consider – the church as architecture. The Corinthian Church is like a building that is under construction We understand Paul’s words more carefully if we remember what a slow process building a great edifice was before the days of power equipment.

Cathedrals in Europe often took four or five centuries to complete. In Paul’s day, a temple, a much more modest edifice than a medieval cathedral, sometimes took decades. So one builder might lay the foundation while others would complete various phases of the building project and then would move on, retire, or die. The lesson is clear: Paul laid the foundation, and others have built on his work. It is the project as a whole that is important. It is foolish to focus all praise on just one of the builder who has contributed to the project.

The builders have a common purpose. When he speaks of architecture and the construction site, it’s only natural that he mentions foundations. A foundation is the main support for a building where the majority of the building’s weight is transferred to the ground. Few of us worry about foundations, as we are content to leave such matters to engineers: “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). He doesn’t mean that there are other foundations somewhat different and only a little inferior to Jesus Christ. Instead, he insists that there is no other foundation but Jesus for this church or any other church. This is not a question of comparison to other foundations. There are not two saviors… There are two Christs…