Intro South Carolina very different big the foundation Our home in SC coastal island above ground concrete slab Primary reason?

Transcription

1 Intro: Before we moved here my family, we lived in South Carolina. Our homes in each place, here and SC very different. One of the big differences the foundation of each home. Our home in SC. On a coastal island. Foundation was above ground concrete slab. (no basement) Most homes built on a slab. Primary reason?: softer sandy soil, gound water Our home, here, in Western PA. Foundation is below ground basement. True of most homes. Primary reason?: Harderpacked dirt soil. Two very different kinds of house foundations. But both serve their purpose. Both are solid foundations. Both support the homes that are built on them. Trans: Week 2, Sermon series on 1 st Corinthians. Paul s letter to the Corinthians. Early in his letter, Paul is laying a foundation for the church. The people had misplaced their loyalties. Their focus on people and personalities rather than on God. That was a bad foundation. Causing divisions in the church. Paul is correcting them. Laying a proper foundation. Today, from chapter 3: Questions, How did their divisions effect Paul s ministry to them? What is the role of church leaders? What is the true foundation of the church? Once the foundation is established, Paul can build upon it. Rest of the letter. We need the foundation to look at the rest of the letter. Context: Last week I gave a detailed description of Corinthian culture. Some review. Start with the video introduction. Some of you saw this last week show again. Good intro. (Video 2 mins.)

2 Last week, chapter 1, we saw Paul made an appeal to the members of the church. His appeal: Stop your divisions over favorite leaders. How and why did those divisions happen?? The citizens of Corinth were culturally Greek. Many would have studied philosophy and human wisdom. That meant that they would have examined the speaking skills of teachers. The wisdom of the different teachers. And they chose their favorite based on that. But it was a problem when that happened in the Christian church. Because it led to their divisions. And it was destructive for their relationships. This week, in chapter 3, Paul picks up on the divisions and continues his appeal to them. Let s take a look, Text: Today s reading begins with verses 1-4. Page Paul writes, But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 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? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? Paul began by pointing back to when he was with them. They were brand new believers when he was there. Infants in Christ. They were still transitioning out of their old beliefs, their old habits, their old ways of living. In the flesh, worldly. But time had passed since then. Paul s had greater expectations for them. But they didn t seem to be progressing in their lives of faith. They seemed to be regressing. They were divided over leaders. There was jealously and strife. There were impaired and broken relationships. Their lives didn t reflect their faith. That had to change.

3 This week we jumped from chapter 1 to chapter 3. Skipped over a lot of the letter. Important for understanding today s reading to see some of what Paul wrote in chapter 2. In chapter 2, Paul wrote about the contrast between worldly wisdom and Godly wisdom. Look at verses 4 and 5 of chapter 2, My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Paul s teaching was different from the Greek philosophers. They depended on man-inspired wisdom. Paul teaching was not maninspired. It was God-inspired. Its source was the Spirit of God. His teaching had the power of God. A different and better kind of wisdom. The Corinthians faith had to be based on God s wisdom, not man s wisdom. That would have been a big shift for them. Paul continued in verses 6 and 7 of chapter 2, This is important! Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. Different from man s wisdom, Paul writes, there is a wisdom from God. And it s not accessible to everyone. Its secret. It s hidden from many people. But, its available to those who are mature in faith. Available to the Corinthian Christians. Paul began to impart that wisdom during his time with them. Other men, Apollos and Peter, had come after Paul left. And they had continued to impart that wisdom. But the Corinthians had not grown in Godly wisdom. They reverted back to old habits and man s wisdom. They had chosen their favorite leaders and divided over those leaders.

4 There was jealousy and strife. They were still operating in man s wisdom and not God s secret wisdom. Now come back to chapter 3, today s reading, Paul continues his appeal. Verses 5-8, 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 neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. Here Paul makes a transition. He describes the role of church leaders. What is Apollos, who am I? We are merely servants. The Greek word, translated as servants, was often used to describe lowly service. It was foundational in the ministry and teaching of Jesus. Jesus described himself as being, One among you who serves. Remember the foot washing Jesus did with his disciples? He did it as an example. They were to be like him. Servants. Paul and Apollos were simply carrying on that tradition. They were merely instruments through whom you believed., Paul wrote. Then Paul uses an agricultural image to describe how they served. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. The tenses in his writing are important here. Paul and Apollos did acts planting and watering. Those acts ended. The tense is one and done. But it is God who gave the growth. The tense for that is a continual one. Ongoing. Not one and done! God continues to give growth while teachers come and go. The fruitful, continual work is God s, alone. The teachers merely serve God s purposes. They are servants of God. Therefore, it was ignorant and dangerous for the Corinthians to give allegiance to the teachers rather than God.

5 Illust: Let me give you an example. The preachers of this sermon series. 2 weeks me. Next 3 weeks Steve Palmer. Steve and I are servants. We re preachers in this church for 5 weeks. Our task is to preach the scriptures, the gospel. But it s not about us. We plant and water but God gives the growth. How dysfunctional would it be if we competed with each other? How dysfunctional would it be if you all chose who was better at preaching? And how dysfunctional would it be if factions arose over who was better, me or Steve? Paul s saying the same thing about himself and Apollos. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one The teachers are nothing. It s all about God who gives the growth. And the teachers are one, unified in their service to God. Steve and I support each other. We don t compete. We don t want you to choose between us. We point to God. We know it is him who gives any growth. Same was true in Corinth. Then Paul continued, final verses, 9-11, For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. 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. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Three times Paul describes the teachers and the Corinthians as being God s possession. He, Apollos and all other teachers are God s fellow workers. The Corinthians are God s field and God s building. They belong to God. They are all under God s leadership and under his control. Paul is stressing God s divine control over all of them. He s

6 directing their focus back on God and off of the leaders and themselves. We all belong to God! And then Paul switches from the agricultural image to an architectural image. By God s grace, under God s control, Paul laid a foundation when he was with the Corinthians. Others have built upon that foundation since Paul left. In the verses that follow today s reading Paul wrote more about building the structure. He described the different materials to use when building the structure. But for our purposes today, what s important is the foundation. Paul is very clear. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. The true foundation of the church is Jesus Christ Crucified. It is the gospel of Jesus. It s the salvation that is offered to all of us by God s grace. It s the salvation that we can receive through faith. Faith in Jesus Christ who offered himself for us on the cross. It s God s secret wisdom given to all who come to Him by faith. Or like the video said; Jesus, the good news about who he is and what he s done. There can be NO OTHER FOUNDATION. Application: Week by week in 1 Corinthians we will see that Paul s letter has so much for us today. Video: Look at every area of life through the lens of the gospel. So, this morning, good to consider what from this applies to us? I want to consider 2 things: First thing to consider: It s a question we can ask ourselves. What s the foundation of our lives? What s the foundation of your life? Is it Jesus Christ crucified or something else? The foundation you build your life on determines the stability of the structure of your life. Everything else depends on the foundation.

7 In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks to us about the foundation of our lives. Look at and Listen to what Jesus says to all of us, Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. Is the foundation of your life built upon the Rock of Jesus Christ Crucified or the Sand of something else? What is the foundation of your life? Second thing to consider: What does our foundation means for us going forward in this sermon series? As the video said we will, Look at every area of life through the lens of the gospel. Our foundation is the lens of our glasses! How we view things. How we see things. This will be very true the next 3 weeks. We ll look at sexual immorality through the lens of the gospel. There is God s wisdom for sexual immorality. And there is man s wisdom for sexual immorality. And we will see that God s wisdom for sexual immorality is counter-cultural. Many of us will be challenged. Because we are bombarded with man s wisdom for sexual immorality. But I want to encourage you: be prepared to look at sexual immorality through the lens of the gospel.

8 Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. As Christians it has to be the foundation of our lives. And no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Let us pray