Sermon Notes:

We are continuing our series, “Growing in Grace”, where we are working our way passage by passage through the letter of 1 Corinthians. We are being taught by the apostle Paul writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirt, and learning how the amazing truth of the Gospel apply to our lives and shape our relationships with one another.

Remember that the Corinthians were acting foolishly by creating divisions among themselves and Paul has been addressing this by emphasizing the nature, revelation, and recipients of God’s wisdom. In our passage today he will shift to directly address how this applies to them and their leaders. Our key point for today’s message is only lives and ministries built upon the foundation of Christ will endure. Let me say that again, only lives and ministries built upon the foundation of Christ will endure.

We are saved by grace, but our works will be judged. So much of what seems to us to be glorious and valuable in this world will be burnt up and only what is rooted in Jesus will remain. Perhaps the missionary C.T. Studd said it best, “Only one life, t’will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last”

If you have your Bible, please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. If you are using the blue pew Bible, it is page 11XX. If you do not own a Bible, please consider that one our gift to you.

The previous chapter ended with Paul explaining to the Corinthians that they possessed true wisdom taught by God in the word of God and that they had the mind of Christ. We can imagine how encouraging it was to hear that they were not among the unspiritual people of the world who would perish in their foolishness. I imagine some of them no doubt felt really good about hearing Paul says this. After all, they were saints, the holy ones of God, they were the elect to whom had been given the revelation of spiritual mysteries hidden from before the foundation of the world. But then Paul says this…

3 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?

He says, yes you are brothers, you are believers, but you are babies. You think you can ponder the deep things of the universe, but the truth is you are still operating at “peek-a-boo” level. He says, I must talk to you like I would talk to people who are not even believers. You are immature and you’re thinking still looks very much like the thinking of the world.

Some of these Corinthians didn’t think Paul was very sophisticated, but Paul says I was giving you milk, baby food, and you weren’t even ready for that. I wasn’t even able to give you meat because like little babies, you were not mature enough to digest it. You Corinthians critique your teachers and preachers, but you haven’t even completed discipleship 101 yet!  

This sounds harsh, but Paul is pointing us to an important principal we need to understand because it applies directly to us. He says, 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? These people think they have a deep understanding of theology, but the way they treat each other is evidence they do not.

Churches are full of brothers and sisters who love to discuss and debate deep things but show no humility or desire to serve others. There are people who have mastered the intricacies of Augustine, Calvin, and the Puritans but are unwilling to do the mundane and inconvenient things that loving others requires.

If we can explain deep doctrinal truths, but have no love for our brothers and sisters, we may have the right words memorized but we either do not understand them or we do not believe them. The word disciple means one who learns, and Jesus says in John 13:35, ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Our actions testify to what is truly in our heart and mind. Our actions are the evidence of our theology.

A friend of mine who is U.S. Marine once told me that when there is no shooting everyone looks good in the uniform, but a soldier is tested in battle. What he meant was that it is not until a soldier is in a fight that we really know if he is prepared. It is only then that you can see how effective his training was and how well he understands the tactics. It is the same way with our faith. It is easy to be a Christian who knows how to dress for the parade, but when the enemy attacks and the fighting starts are we together or is it every man for himself?

Paul comes back again to their divisions and illustrates how absurd they are with two examples. One taken from farming and the other from construction. He says,

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.

Paul and Apollos are merely servants. They are like the field hands laboring on a farm. Each of them did a job but they only did what God called and equipped them to do. Paul says, “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything.” All the glory goes to God.

When we go to the store and buy a Dole pineapple, we don’t know the names of people who planted that tree or watered it. We don’t know who picked it, who shipped it, or even who put it on the shelf. We only know that it is a Dole pineapple and that whoever did those things did them according to the processes and standards they were given. We don’t go to the store looking for the fruit that Sally picked, or John watered. What ultimately matters is the fruit.

Same thing in the Kingdom. There is no such thing as McArthur Christians or Sproul Christians or whatever. What is Bill, or Andrew, or Kevin? Nothing. As believers we bear the name of Christ, and we are His workmanship. Ministers of the Gospel, whether in Corinth or Southgate are accountable to God for their ministries and God will evaluate them. Look at what Paul says,

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, God’s building.

Each one will receive his wages from God for their labor in serving but you, the church, is God’s field and God’s building. Several of you have shared encouraging words with me about how something I have preached or said has been helpful to you. Praise God for that, I am glad to hear it, but all I am doing is watering the plants. It is God who provided the light and God who provides the growth. We are one field and one harvest growing together by the grace of God.

As a result, it is only those who are using the means God provided who are ultimately going to have anything to show for it. Paul develops this point with another illustration, this time taken from construction.

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.

First, Paul gives the glory to God for all his work. It was by grace that Paul was able to do anything at all. Paul was an arrogant persecutor before God changed him. It is crucial that we never forget that whatever progress or fruit we have in our lives or ministry is by the grace of God. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.

Paul says that like a skilled master builder he laid the foundation in His preaching of the Gospel. He is the one that taught them about the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is the only foundation that can be laid. Anything else they learn of any value must be built upon this foundation.

At the time Paul is writing, building projects were common in Corinth. The city had been destroyed in 146 B.C. by the Romans and rebuilt by Julius Caesar beginning in 44 B.C. It had continued to grow throughout this period and so the image Paul uses would have been familiar to the Corinthians. But Paul isn’t talking about just any building either. Remember a few verses ago when Paul said the Church was God’s building? Paul is using temple imagery here. He is drawing upon the Old Testament themes related to God’s indwelling presence in the Temple and is applying that metaphor to the church.

There can be no other foundation other than Christ because a building built on anything else would not be the temple of God because God’s Spirit would not dwell there. The Gospel of Christ is the only possible way for God to dwell with sinful people. We have all sinned and rejected God’s rightful rule over us. We have all hardened our hearts to His love and sought to glorify ourselves rather than Him. In fact, it is the pattern of our sinful hearts that we desire to do this regularly.

We do not deserve the gifts of God, we deserve to be punished for our sins. But, in an act of incredible love and mercy, God sent His Son Jesus to live as a perfectly faithful human who did deserve the blessings of God. Then Jesus exchanged his righteousness for the sin of all those who would put their trust in Him. He experienced the wrath of God on the cross so that those who had faith in Him would not need to experience it in Hell. He also gave to all those who are united with him the blessings of God that He had earned.

In Christ, we receive forgiveness, we receive adoption as children of God, we receive righteousness, and we receive the Spirit who helps us. This is the foundation. If you are not yet building your life upon that foundation and want to learn more, I would like to talk to you about that. It all starts here because only in Christ can sinners be cleaned and fitted for use in the temple of God.

Paul says that he laid this foundation of the Gospel in Corinth and now there were others who were building upon it. The foundation is critical because if the foundation is not true and strong, the building cannot stand. By God’s grace, Paul laid a suitable foundation in the preaching of the Gospel and Apollos and others are continuing to build.

Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and the others were all working together to ensure that each brick was in its proper place and the factions the Corinthians were creating showed that they were being superficial in their thinking. In John 7:24 Jesus says, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”  He is encouraging them to grow more discerning in how they evaluate kingdom work.

All too often, both then and now, immature thinking leads us to rely far too heavily on outward appearances when we evaluate our own Christian life and what is happening in our churches. There are entire strategies for growing churches that rely on superficial methods and then validate them using superficial measurements. Is it any surprise that more people in the world would be attracted to a church that uses worldly enticements to attract them?

Let us pray that our revitalization effort will include a consistent commitment to those things that God values. The preaching of the Gospel, prayer, and a committed loving fellowship between believers who share the love of Christ. In your own discipleship, I urge you to avoid slick and quick approaches and stay focused on being in the word, being in prayer, and serving others. Make time every day for these things and you will grow.

It might look like others have found better and more impressive methods for building God’s kingdom but let’s resist the temptation to judge by appearances and instead trust that God will bless the means He has established. Listen carefully to what Paul says about this,

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.

There is a day coming when all the work for the kingdom will be tested as by fire. The materials that are proper for the adorning of the Temple of God will become even more brilliant and those that are unfit will be purged. On that great Day of the Lord, all things will be made clear and I suspect there will be many great rewards for men and women nobody has ever heard of while others, well thought of by men, who will have little to show for it. 

Those things that were superficial, meaning they were not done for God’s glory, or were done unworthily, will be burned up. They will be consumed. Notice that Paul isn’t talking about salvation here. He says in verse 15, If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

This is not a judgment related to salvation. For that we are declared righteous based on what Jesus has done. This is a judgment of our works; of what we have done with the gifts and opportunities we have been given to serve the Kingdom. Just because works are not the basis of our right standing before God does not mean that works are of no importance in the life of the believer.

Those who suffer loss are believers whose works were deficient. The building he is talking about is the church. He is still showing us why factions and divisiveness are not consistent with spiritual maturity. In the Church, God is assembling a temple for Himself where each believer, like bricks laid upon the foundation of Christ, are joined together as a dwelling place for the Lord.

One of the key strategies of the devil is to create divisions within the church. He does this because it harms believers and robs God of glory. He finds all sorts of ways to do it. We have all met people whose primary talent seems to be to point out all the flaws in others. Sometiems those people are found in churches as well. There are people now who claim to have discernment ministries. They have websites where they criticize churches, pastors, and ministries. Ironically, folks like this tend to perceive themselves as enlightened and mature because they say they are willing to boldly tell the truth.

Listen, there are certainly times when people need to be called out on unbiblical behavior. The goal of that, however, is always to correct and restore a brother or sister to a better relationship with Christ. This should be done tenderly and with care. It is to be done by those who love and are committed to them. The goal is never to embarrass or shame anyone. Belligerence is not the same thing as boldness and being rude and hurtful is not the same thing as being honest. Every single one of us is a sinner in need of grace and love.

Charles Spurgeon captured it well when he said,

“You that are members of the church have not found it perfect and I hope that you feel almost glad that you have not. If I had never joined a Church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all! And the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect Church after I had become a member of it. Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.”

When issues come up, as they inevitably will, we should work toward unity in the truth rather than division. Imagine every problem like it was a small fire and imagine that in one hand you have a bucket of water, and in the other hand you have a bucket of gasoline. In every case, you must decide which one you are going to throw on the fire. Will you help contain it, or will you help it spread? We must be very careful about the impact of our words and actions on the rest of the fellowship. Verse 16,

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.

Paul is not talking about individual believers here. The “you’s” are plural. He is saying that the Church is God’s temple and that the Spirit of God dwells within the congregation. Each individual member is connected to the other members in such a way that the glory and Spirit of God are to be made known in them. God dwells in His church, not the building, but the members. In the congregation of saints, the Gospel is made visible to the world.

Paul says that if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy them. When we engage in divisive and destructive behavior, we are assaulting the temple of the Holy God. The assembly of believers in Christ is holy. We must never be careless with those things that God has set apart for His use. Our relationship with one another is a precious and valuable gift of God and we must be thoughtful in what we do with it.

The gathering of believers is a precious thing to God. The church is a bountiful field and a holy temple. We must be careful how we plant and how we build. Elsewhere we are told the church is the bride of Christ. On that final day when Jesus returns, how do you think He is going to respond to those who painted and dressed her like a harlot to make her more attractive to the world? How do you think he is going to respond to those who abused her and neglected her?

Paul is trying to show the Corinthians how alarming their behavior was. Sadly, I don’t think things have changed much. Pride and contentment blind us in so many ways that we are frequently drawn away from the humility of the cross to the glory of the world. This happens in our personal walk as well as in ministry.

We are not immune to this temptation. I am sure we can all recall examples that are not too distant where our own preferences and opinions were expressed in ways more consistent with worldly wisdom than the wisdom of the Cross and thus led more to division than the building up of others. I know that is true of me anyway.  I think the real question is whether our love for Jesus is growing so strong that we able to recognize and appreciate Him even the worst of his followers?

Paul continues with yet another warning about relying on the wisdom values of the world in their relationships with one another. (Do you think this was important to him or what?)

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.

Why would we want to think like the world? The world is foolish. The world thinks it can come to know God in its own way. Worldly wisdom thinks that God is found where there is beauty and glory. People feel close to God when camping in the mountains or holding the hand of a child. Paul, however, says sinners cannot find God in the things that are comfortable or reassuring to us.

God is found in the foolishness of the message of the Cross. God is revealed in places that make respectable people want to look away. This is because when the natural man does look upon the wisdom of God, he is confronted with the evil of his own heart and the impotence of his own thoughts. The Cross is a verdict upon his every scheme to approach God. It is a death sentence upon his best works and thoughts. It is a revelation of the righteousness of God and the unrighteousness of his own heart. It is brutal, violent, and humiliating.

But for those who by God’s grace forsake their own wisdom and goodness and trust instead in Jesus Christ there is something else there. What do we see when we look upon the Cross through eyes of faith opened by the Spirit of God?

We see that this God loves the world. We see that God is righteous and that evil will not prevail. We see that Christ knows far more than any of us what evil this world contains. We see that Jesus has not only suffered with us, He has suffered for us. He is the Son of God who died so we might live. He is the king of heaven who made Himself nothing so we could inherit treasures beyond our imagination. When we look at the cross, having received the wisdom of God, we see the glory and majesty of God in His love for us.

Paul is teaching us that when we truly understand these things we will no longer be tugged at by the false wisdom of the world. We will be content to love one another with everything we have because we lose nothing when we do. We have inherited all things in Christ together. Let us therefore leave worldly thinking and values behind and instead focus on building one another up upon the only solid foundation, which is Jesus Christ.