Purpose: To teach us that when we work together, God uses us to build on the foundation of Christ.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3
Note: In this lesson any references to the church = the local church.
How do we know when the church is doing its job?
How can we tell when the church is getting off course?
What is the job of the church?
What are some arguments that you have seen in churches over the years?
How many of those arguments were serious?
In this week’s scripture passage Paul gives three pictures of the church and uses these pictures to illustrate what our ministry is supposed to do and be. The first picture is one of family and the goal of family is maturity.
1Cor 3:1-4 ESV
1 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?
In last week’s lesson Paul differentiated between two types of people: natural or unsaved people and spiritual or saved people. Here Paul differentiates between two types of spiritual people: those who are mature and those who are immature.
What are some ways that adults differ from children?
Is spiritual maturity always a product of longevity? In other words, is a twenty-year Christian always more mature in faith than a five-year Christian? Or a one-year Christian?
What are signs of spiritual maturity?
What are signs of spiritual immaturity?
As you read that passage can you picture two kids on the playground: “My daddy can beat your daddy”?
A Christian becomes mature by allowing the Spirit to work in him and through him and by feeding on the Word. The immature Christian lives for the things of the flesh and has little interest in things of the Spirit. Sure signs of spiritual immaturity are lack of interest in the study of the Word, jealousy, and quarreling.
A sure sign of Christian maturity is seen in the “diet” of the Christian. Infants require an initial diet of milk. As they grow, they learn to eat different foods. The normal progression in the human diet is milk, then grains, then fruits and vegetables, and finally meats. So we can see that meat is the most “mature” food of the human diet.
What does “milk” and “meat” represent when Paul is speaking of spiritual maturity?
Milk may represent the easy things in the Bible, the children’s Sunday School lessons and Bible stories and meat may represent the hard doctrines of faith.
The Word of God is described in food terms in many places. The Word is our spiritual food.
Heb 5:12-14 ESV
(12) For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,
(13) for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
(14) But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
1Pe 2:2 ESV
(2) Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation--
Mat 4:4 ESV
(4) But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Deu 8:3 ESV
(3) And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
The Word is our nourishment. Just as we need a balanced diet for proper physical health, we also need a balanced diet of spiritual food for proper spiritual health. An infant begins with a diet of milk, but as he matures and develops teeth, his growing body requires solid food in order to continue healthy growth. Christians have the same needs for spiritual nourishment. Imagine the health problems that a person would develop if he or she did not make the natural progression from milk to grain to vegetable to meat. Now imagine a Christian who never learns more than the children’s Bible stories. It is a simple matter to assess a believer’s spiritual maturity, or immaturity, by observing what kind of “diet” he enjoys.
What other way do we have of determining spiritual maturity?
By how we get along.
Children seem to love to disagree and argue. As we mature we learn to “play well with others”. Children idolize “heroes”. These heroes are usually in the entertainment and sports industries. As we mature we still have heroes, but do not focus on them as much as children and as we mature our heroes may come form other areas. We may idolize spiritual or political figures.
Immature Christians allow minor disagreements to distract them and divide them. Immature Christians are “worldly”, controlled by their own desires. Mature Christians are more concerned with God’s desires.
What were the infantile believers in Corinth arguing about?
They were fighting over their heroes. There argument was over which preacher was the greatest: Paul, Apollos, or Peter. It’s that “my daddy can beat your daddy! My daddy is richer than your daddy” thing. Mature Christians never allow leaders to create barriers between people.
Can you imagine a church full of that type of immaturity?
What is the work of the church?
Our work is to help the Church grow spiritually and to mature in Christ.
How do we accomplish this work?
By working together. By forgetting the petty conflicts. By not arguing over childish things. By partaking of a steady, balanced, diet of the Word of God and by sharing that diet with other believers.
The second picture of the church in this passage is that of a field and the goal of the field is to produce a bountiful harvest.
1 Cor 3:5-9a ESV
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.
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....
Farming images are also used in various scripture. In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus compared the human heart to soil and the Word of God to seed. (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23) If each of us is soil (not all the same type of soil, to be sure) planted by seeds of the Word, then the church is a field. This field should bear fruit.
What is the task of ministry in agricultural terms?
The task of the church is to sow seeds, cultivate the soil as necessary, watering and fertilizing as needed, and harvesting the ripened fruit.
What problems did the church in Corinth have with their “field”?
The Corinthian church placed too much emphasis on the workers (Paul, Apollos, Peter) and not enough emphasis on the One who gave life to their efforts. God is the source of all growth, no man can take any of the credit. It is impossible for any one worker to do all of the work for the entire field. Paul planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but only God could make the fruit grow and mature.
What lessons can this teach us about our ministry?
Three lessons:
1. A healthy ministry is a diverse ministry. All workers in the field do not have the same skills. One plows, one plants, one waters the seed. As the fruit matures other workers reap the harvest.
God’s work involves many different individuals with a variety of gifts and abilities. Our strength is in our diversity and unity. Paul also uses the body as an illustration of the church. The body has many diverse and specialized parts and every part must work properly for the optimum health of the whole body.
2. Diversity alone is not enough. The many diverse parts must work together in unity. Nothing good can happen in the church without unity. Unity creates strength because it combines and enhances the many separate spiritual gifts and abilities of the diverse members. When we are united, our power is far greater than merely the sum of our separate strengths. No matter what work a person does in the field, he is still a part of the final harvest. The one who plants and the one who waters are as one in the overall operation. Paul, Apollos, and Peter were not in competition. Each was doing his part for the overall success of the crop. Even though we have a diversity in our ministries, there is a unity in our purpose and there is a need for unity of spirit.
3. It is not our labor that produces the final harvest. God gives the increase. God has ordained that we all have a place and a function in the field, but our effort without God’s blessing will ensure failure. Our task requires a humility of spirit . We cannot let pride divide our efforts. A successful church will be know by it’s fruits, but that success is not ours. It is God’s. The successes of the Corinthian church were not Paul’s success or Apollos’ success. It was God’s.
The third illustration of the church in today’s passage is that of God’s building or temple. The goal of the church as temple is quality construction. This passage describes the building of the church. (A group of believers worshiping and ministering together, not the building that they gather at.)
1 Cor 3: 9b-15 ESV
9 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.
We must build with quality. The church is not the property of the preacher or the congregation. The church is the property of God. There are certain specifications for building the church of God.
1. We must build on the one and only right and strong foundation. And what is that foundation? The foundation of the church is Jesus Christ. When Paul came to Corinth he declared that he would preach only Christ and Him crucified. He laid the only foundation that will last.
How do we lay that foundation?
By proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The foundation is the most important part of any building. The foundation determines the size, shape, and strength of the building. Any church or ministry not build on the foundation of Jesus Christ and the Cross will not last.
2. We must build upon the foundation with the right materials.
What materials does Paul mention in this passage?
Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw.
What is the differences of these materials?
Notice the progression in the list from strongest and most durable to the weakest and flimsiest.
Gold, silver, and precious stones are all permanent, beautiful, valuable, and hard to obtain.
Wood, hay, and straw, while being legitimate building materials, are also at best temporary, cheap, easy to obtain, and sometimes even ugly.
Just exactly what is Paul symbolizing by his choice of materials?
He is not telling us that we have to have the very best and finest people to make a church.
We have to remember that the first three chapters of 1 Corinthians are discussing the wisdom of the Spirit that only can be learned from the Word of God. The wisdom of God , found in the Word is beautiful, valuable, and can only be obtained by believers through the Spirit. The Corinthians were trying to build there church with a too large portion of man’s wisdom, the wisdom of the world. The wood, hay, and straw of man’s wisdom is often used to build with, but never lasts. Wood, hay, and straw are easily obtained, but if you want gold, silver, and diamonds you have to dig for them.
3. The building will be tested and our choice of materials will determine whether we pass or fail.
What are the absolute essentials needed to build a church?
Worship, witness, nurture.
What are some features of our modern church life that are not essential and which we may find to be combustible when tested by fire?
When we witness strife and disunity in churches, how often can the problems be traced back to problems inherent to the “construction” of the church? Foundational or structural faults?
What responsibility do we each have in building up God’s church?
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