Big Idea: Spirit Filled Christians are Humble Servants of Christ
Intro: Good morning friends and visitors. My name is MATT JOHNSON and today we are continuing our study of 1 Corinthians. Paul wrote this letter to the Church in Corinth because they were so in love with the world and the things of the world, they were becoming like the world…
Prayer: Well today Paul begins to use the word “WORLDLY,” to describe the Corinthian Church. Paul says the Corinthians are worldly, not spiritual. So, what do we mean when we speak of a worldly person? We all kind of know that WORLDLINESS is proud, arrogant, boasting, glorying in self-accomplishment and glorying in the things of this world. WHEREAS THE SPIRITUAL PERSON is humble, acknowledges weakness and glories in God and the things of God.
Now who here has heard the phrase, “Oh, he is a self-made man.” Yes? The phrase a self-made man first appeared in the 1800’s in England and then became popularised in the United States – where it was linked to THE AMERICAN DREAM. In the land of opportunity supposedly everyone could become a self-made man or woman.
BEJAMIN FRANKLIN, one of the founding fathers was described as a self-made man in his biography by Frank Pine in 1916. Pine explained Franklin originally came from POVERTY. His father was a simple candle maker. But through study, hard work and diligence he became a highly respected man in the United States. Consequently, Benjamin Franklin kind of became THE MODEL of a self-made man. THE TERM refers to an individual who rises from A) a poor or disadvantaged background to a place of B) eminence in financial, political or other fields through hard work, as opposed to getting there through inherited wealth, family connections, or other privileges. SOME EXAMPLES of self-made men – include Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford and George Soros. Some self-made women include people like Dolly Parton and Oprah Winfrey.
Supposedly these people all lifted themselves up by their own bootstraps. These are the sorts of people the world honours and glorifies. These sorts of people are seen to carry a kind of worldly wisdom – that we can learn from…
Now something similar was happening in Corinth. As a newly established city, Corinth was seen as a land of opportunity. So, lots of poorer people were moving to Corinth to make something of themselves. Those who made it to the top – were being honoured and those who were trying to get to the top were heralding their worldly wisdom. But it appears these worldly ideas of self-made men and women were being Christianised. Exactly, what was happening in Corinth is a bit of a guess. But it appears that those Christians who were having a measure of success either A) in worldly terms or B) even in spiritual terms – were beginning to give themselves the glory, instead of God. These Christians considered themselves self-made Christians, better than other Christians for x, y and z reasons…
Point 1: Spirit Filled Christians should not be Worldly
Explain: Well as you can see Paul speaks of the church in Corinth as being worldly not spiritual. He says they are MERE INFANTS in Christ. But please note Paul does address them as infants in Christ. THIS MEANS they are Christians and they have received the Holy Spirit. So they should be spiritual people because they have received the Holy Spirit. BUT SADLY, they are not acting like spiritual people, they are still acting like worldly people. Now this is true of all new Christians.
When we first become Christians our thinking is still that of the world. We still think like materialists, or evolutionists, or feminists or secularists. It takes time for the Holy Spirit to renew our minds and change our conduct. So at first we really need to grasp the simple things of Jesus like grace, forgiveness, resurrection life and heaven, before we can really begin to understand the deep things of Jesus. But there comes a point where we should be moving beyond milk and really consuming the deeper things of God.
Now Paul is still not sure the Corinthians are ready for the deeper things of God. Their jealousy and quarrelling still shows signs of Christian immaturity. THE PROBLEM IS those who had LESS were JEALOUS of those who seemed to have more. And those who had MORE seem to be saying they have more because they are wiser, harder working and more disciplined than those with less. I have success because I have achieved it. So the church was full of jealousy and quarrelling. Perhaps it was even taking on a spiritual flavour. Those who in church leadership are perhaps claiming they this honour because they are more faithful in reading their Bibles, they have better self-control or even better spiritual gifts. Either way the worldly idea of being self-made men and women is getting into the church. They think certain people are worthy of honour because they are self-made super-mature Christians. But this thinking itself is immaturity, not maturity.
So last week – Paul got into the meat of Christianity. He did a really, really deep dive into the meaning of Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul was basically saying NO ONE IS A SELF-MADE ANYTHING – for everything from the start of your salvation to the end of your salvation is entirely by God’s grace. This is hard to grasp.
(GOSPEL). As Christians we all sing the song AMAZING GRACE and we think we understand grace. The BIG IDEA is that we have all sinned against God and what we DESERVE is Gods punishment. We have all broken God commands and what we DESERVE is death. But then Jesus died on the cross for our sins – to take the punishment we deserve. He did this because he loves us. Now this means that instead of going to hell which we deserve, we can now go to heaven which we do not deserve. This is God’s grace. MERCY is when God withholds something bad like hell, that we do deserve. GRACE is when God gives us something good like heaven, that we do not deserve. So GRACE is God freely forgiving us and giving us heaven. This is grace and we think we get it. But do we?
But last week, Paul went even deeper into the concept of grace. He explained that even your faith is a gift from God. Your wisdom is a gift from God. Any progress you think you are making as a Christian is a gift from God. You did not even have the wisdom to choose God. God’s Spirit had to choose you. So when it comes to Christianity – who can claim they are A SELF-MADE man or woman? No one! Paul explained that if 1) we are Christians, 2) growing to maturity and even becoming leaders in the church – this is all by Gods grace. It is not really you doing it. It is God’s Spirit working in you and to God alone belongs the glory.
Apply: Of course, if we or others are self-made success stories we can glory in self. But Paul has completely cut the pride from beneath their feet. Grace means every Christian is simply a God made success story, not a self-made success story. So if everything is by God’s grace, there is no place for boasting and no place for glorying in anyone’s achievement.
Point 2: Spirit Filled Christians should Glory in God, not God’s Servants
Explain: So Paul now makes it clear that Christian leaders are nothing, but servants of God. WHETHER its Apollos or Paul, Matt Johnson, Geoff Miles or David Loke – all are just servants of God. Now of course, God may have give different leaders, different jobs and different gifts – in his church. But only God can make anything GROW spiritually. Please notice in both verse 6 & 7 – we are told “God is the one who makes things grow.” That’s the miracle. That’s the thing we should be ooohing and aaahing about. God takes the message of JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED and God makes it grow and come alive in people’s hearts. So who should get the glory – for numerical growth or even spiritual growth in the church? Paul? Apollos? Or God? God alone should get the glory for all church growth. So, we need to stop glorying in church leaders who seem to have more success than other church leaders in terms of numerical or spiritual growth. Again, it’s all God.
So whether you hear THE GOSPEL MESSAGE from an evangelistic great like Billy Graham or from a stuttering work colleague who nervously shares the gospel – it doesn’t really matter. God can use either to bring people to Christ. The same is true in our ongoing spiritual growth as Christians. Do you really think a pastor with 1) the gift of the gab, 2)great administrative skills and 3) a big name is going to GROW YOU as a Christian any faster, than the simple, nobody pastor who faithfully teaches Gods Word, week in and week out?
Well Paul now says – that he and Apollos have one purpose. They may have different jobs and they may even have differing degrees of “success”. But together they have one purpose. Their purpose is to glorify God by being faithful in the task God has assigned them. And if they are faithful in their specific task they will receive their REWARD. Now I don’t have time today to fully explain how grace and reward fit together. That’s worthy of a whole other sermon…
But I do want to say that Christians are called to be FAITHFUL to Christ, not FRUITFUL for Christ. You can be faithful. But only God can make what you do fruitful. So our job is to be faithful. Once Gods Spirit opens our eyes, saves us and gives us a genuine desire to obey Jesus, we are called to follow Jesus as best we can. We are called to fight the good fight (1Tim.6:12). We are called to work at things with all our heart (Col.3:23). We are even called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil.2:12-13). And this does require REAL EFFORT on our part. The Bible says let us not become WEARY in doing good (Gal.6:9). We become weary because it’s hard to be faithful.
But in Jesus, God has given us A NEW WILL to obey him. We really do want to obey Jesus, because he saved us and we love him. This will to obey Jesus did not exist in us prior to becoming Christians. THE NON-CHRISTIAN never, ever asks; What would Jesus do?
But once the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and causes us to fall in love with Jesus – our sinful will, really was set free. There is now a part of our will that truly wants to love and serve Jesus. BUT there is still an old fleshly or worldly principle in us – that still wants to serve the flesh and love the world. So, our faithfulness as Christians is worked out in this TENSION between A) our desire to serve Jesus and B) our desire to serve the flesh. THIS IS A REAL BATTLE. Your will is now in this fight. Your will needs to align more and more with Gods will for your life. But again, 1) if you are faithful as a pastor, 2) or you are faithful in your marriage, 3) faithful in raising your kids, or 4) beating addiction, or 5)living patiently with mental health – WHO STILL GETS THE GLORY? Of course it’s still God. This is hard for us to comprehend. But Paul writes in Philippians 2 (Slide 6: Phil.2:12-13). So even as Christians God works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose. So in anything good we achieve, we must still say to God be the glory.
But even, if you are really FAITHFUL to God, that doesn’t guarantee you will be FRUITFUL for God. Only God can give the growth. So it’s not a pastors 1) giftedness, 2) IQ or 3) superior management skills that produce numerical or spiritual growth in the church. JEREMIAH was one of the most faithful prophets in the Old Testament, but he wasn’t particularly fruitful in terms of results. It wasn’t time for growth. Same with Jesus himself. Jesus was the most FAITHFUL man to ever live, but even Jesus wasn’t particularly FRUITFUL in his own lifetime. Faithfulness doesn’t guarantee fruitfulness – because only God gives the growth as He Sovereignly determines.
I get really frustrated with pastors who think that it is 1) their giftedness, or 2) their management systems or 3) their superior preaching skills that are giving them church growth. No! Its God that causes things to grow when and how he Sovereignly determines. Church leaders are just called to be faithful to God in the task he has given them and if there is any fruit – TO GOD BE THE GLORY. The glory does not belong to the servant or the systems, but to God.
Point 3; Spirit Filled Christians should Build with Wisdom, not Foolishness
Show: 1Cor.3:10-13 (READ)
Explain: Well as you can see Paul says he laid the foundation for the church in Corinth as an EXPERT BUILDER. He wasn’t lazy. He wasn’t dodgy. He laid the foundation of Jesus Christ and him crucified as carefully as he could. Paul strived to be faithful with what God entrusted to him. But Paul says someone else is now building on this foundation. Now you may think that’s APOLLOS. But 1 Corinthians 16 tells us – that Apollos is no longer in Corinth. Paul tried to get APOLLOS to return to Corinth to fix some of the problems in the church. But Apollos could not yet return because of other commitments. So Paul has laid the spiritual foundation of the church and Apollos has built some of the spiritual walls – but others are now building on their prior work.
So Paul says – each servant of God should be careful how they build. They should each build with gold, silver and precious stones, not wood, hay and straw. Now many Christian scholars end up allegorising this metaphor and they say the gold equals this, and the silver equals that and the precious stones equal something else. But that misses the point. IN CONTEXT Paul has been saying we have to build the church with God’s wisdom, not the worlds wisdom. But the new church leaders in Corinth are trying to build the church using worldly wisdom which is foolishness to God. So Paul is saying each church leader must build with the gold, silver and precious stones of true wisdom. This is also true for all Christians. We must build up the church, each other and ourselves with true godly wisdom, not the worlds wisdom. Because if you build-up the church or yourself with the worlds wisdom, it is foolishness. WHY?
Well the Bible tells us that THIS PRESENT WORLD and the thigs of this world is going to be destroyed with fire. So if you know fire is coming and you build with wood, hay and straw is that wisdom or foolishness? Of course, wood, hay and straw all burn-up fairly easily. So building with wood, hay and straw is not wisdom. It is foolishness. The wisdom of this world and the things the wisdom of the world produces is just stubble for the fire. ITS ALL GOING TO BURN. ONLY GODS UPSIDE DOWN WISDOM is imperishable and only the things Gods wisdom produces is imperishable. So, Paul is telling church leaders to make sure they are building on the foundation of Jesus Christ with the TRUE IMPERISHABLE WISDOM of God, rather than the perishable foolishness of the world. Everything else will burn…
But these days 90% of Christian Conferences for pastors are focussed on worldly wisdom. The speakers simply take the worlds corporate wisdom, marketing and management systems and say use these things to be more fruitful in terms of church growth. Now many of these church growth experts argue that there are many good things we can learn as pastors from the corporate world. Perhaps?!
But there is also a big danger bringing the worlds wisdom into the church because it leads to systems that tend to glorify man and the wisdom of man. This has recently led to a quite big and heated debate in Australian church planting circles. ANDREW HEARD who leads a very big church on the Central Coast and heads up a church planting network called FIEC is all about the church benefitting from the world’s corporate wisdom. But LIONEL WINDSOR (a lecturer at Moore College where I studied) has been recently pushing back. He has been asking questions like; 1) what happens to the heart and humility of a church when we start using worldly wisdom to create success? What happens to church leaders ego’s when they think their use of worldly wisdom is what is growing the church?
Apply: There are clear signs that pride is creeping back into these churches that promote worldly wisdom. They are the better, wiser churches. There are also signs of people glorying in the leaders that seem to have the best recipes for church growth. I follow x. I follow y. Now I suspect this debate will continue to rage and those who continue to promote this worldly corporate wisdom will continue to find ways to defend their actions. But Paul clearly tells us in this passage that only God gives the growth. We are called to be faithful. God causes the growth. Paul also clearly tells us to build the church with A) the imperishable wisdom of God, rather than B) the perishable wisdom of the world. So is this wisdom or foolishness? Sadly, so long as the church is in the world, the worlds wisdom will get into the church – which is usually detrimental, not beneficial. We may not immediately notice the detriment. But wherever worldly wisdom is being embraced self-exaltation, boasting and glorying in man will usually be close at hand…
So this leads Paul to make A VERY BIG WARNING. Look with me as we finish up (Slides 9-10; 1 Cor.3:16-18). The point is – all Christians should be committed to building Gods temple (the church), rather than destroying Gods temple (the church).
1) Divisiveness, 2) worldly wisdom and 3) promotion of self (or certain leaders) can actually destroy the church. So Paul says in verse 18, God will destroy those who destroy His temple. Now notice those words and shudder. A) If you GOSSIP and SLANDER other people in the church (and cause division) you are destroying the church. When you cause the church to divide over leaders or divide over finer points of theology, you are destroying the church. Finally, if you are taking peoples eyes off Jesus Christ and him crucified and encouraging them to focus on the worlds wisdom or to glory in certain men (or certain systems) you are in danger of destroying the church. And such activity comes with one of the strongest warnings in Scripture. Do this and God will destroy you.
Sadly, one of the worst forms of worldly wisdom – dividing and destroying the church happened recently in CORONAVIRUS. It was terrible. We had a problem and by and large we simply accepted the world’s wisdom. Now whether the wise response was to accept or reject the vaccines is still being worked out. Every week new information is now coming out saying how detrimental those MRNA vaccines have been to people’s hearts, immune systems and this past week, even our eyes. But the bigger problem is that everyone who accepted the vaccine started thinking they were wiser and superior to those fools who didn’t get the vaccine. AND all those who didn’t get the vaccine thought they were wiser and superior to those fools who did get the vaccine. And sadly, Gods grace went out the window, Gods wisdom went out the window and the church was completely divided. So do not be deceived.
The world is constantly getting into the church in terms of its wisdom, its promotion of self and man’s glory, instead of Gods glory. So we need to be careful that we are in the world, but not becoming like the world. Let me pray….
When we become divisive and form into little sects around certain church leaders (saying Apollos is better tha Paul) it is actually detrimental. But now we have another danger. If all is by Gods grace and only God can make things grow – what does it matter whether Paul does his job well or haphazardly. If God makes things grow because every good gift whether physical
But this doesn’t mean Paul, Apollos or Peter are completely irrelevant…Now that doesn’t mean Apollos or Paul or Peter should be lazy in their job.
If This is again building on last week – where Paul explained everything is by God’s grace. Everything in our salvation, from start to finish is by God’s grace
The Apostle Paul planted the original church in Corinth. Then, Apollos followed up afterwards watering the seed in Corinth and helping it to become established church. But was perhaps being seen as one of the necessary ingredients to be truly successful.
But the real contrast in 1 Corinthians 3 is not spiritual vs worldly. It is actually spiritual vs fleshly. The question is – what does the Spirit desire AND what does your flesh desire.
