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God's Building - 1 Cor 2:5-15 By Rick Manton

1 Cor 2:5-15 01/10/2011

1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 5, and then we'll go down to verse 15.
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul?
Only servants to whom he came to believe.
As the Lord has assigned to each his task, I planted a seed.
Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who makes things grow.
The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour.
For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building.
By the grace God has given me, I lay the foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it.
But each one should be careful how he builds, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
If any man builds on his foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, ale or straw, his work will be shown for what it is.
For today will bring it to light. It will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test the quality of every man's work.
If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.
If it is burnt up, he will suffer loss.
He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

It is good to be with you this morning. It has been a while since I was here.
I was thinking about it coming along.
I remember, I am not quite sure how many years ago, but Mark Naden was supposed to preach here on the Sunday morning.
He had a few services leading up to the Sunday, and I felt sorry for him.
I said, brother, if you want me to take service for you on the Sunday at a Gilganda, I will be more than happy to do that.
He said, no worries. Thanks for that. I appreciate it.
I was expecting to be here, but he left me high and dry.
I do not know where he went. I do not know what he had done on that day.
I rang him up a couple of days later and said, brother, where were you?
I thought you were supposed to be at Gilganda.
Then he busted out laughing.
I said, that is the last time, brother. I will do you a favour.
It is good to be here with you this morning and to share with you in fellowship and God's work.
A few years ago, when we started out at Mount Druitt, we got a lot of invitations to the churches,
particularly in the Presbyterian Circle, to go out and share with them what we were doing,
the kind of work that we were into and what our goals, aims and purposes were.
I said to one of the guys, I am not sure what we can talk about.
We just started out. We had just come from Melbourne. It was our first year in 1997.
We really did not get ourselves established.
He said, talk about what you would like to do, what you think God would have you to do there in the church in Mount Druitt.
That got me thinking a lot over the years about the Indigenous church, what it is, what it would look like.
I was in the Apology down in Canberra in 2008.
Kevin Rudd, as most of you would know, highlighted some of the churches that were involved in the stolen generation.
I felt a bit ashamed being associated with the church.
But then I came away thinking that Australia has never really seen an Aboriginal church.
We have got Aboriginal work that has been set up through denominations and through missionary agencies.
But have we really truly seen an Aboriginal church?
That has been a challenge for me since 1997 and onwards to think about work through and to build an Aboriginal church.
We have been in Mount Druitt for 15 years and that is what we are wanting to do.
The church there in Mount Druitt is supported by Anglican and Presbyterian. It is a joint venture.
Neville, when he was there, stayed strong against the Anglicans because they wanted to bring Anglicanism on us there in Mount Druitt.
But he stood strong and said no, we don't want that kind of thing.
Which really meant that I wasn't allowed to preach, I wasn't allowed to take the Lord's table because I wasn't Anglican.
Neville stood strong and fought against that and the blessings have come since then.
So what we are trying to do is to establish a ministry and a church there in Mount Druitt that is uniquely us.
The way that we want to build a church and the way that we would like it to run without the restraints of denominationalism, without the restraints of missionary organisations.
We have got that freedom to be able to do that. It has been a stop start situation, an up and down situation trying to work through.
I have talked to a lot of people who have been in Christian ministry for a long time to get their thoughts and ideas about what an Aboriginal church is and what it looks like.
It has been an exciting time to work through that whole issue and try to establish those principles.
Some of the answers that they have given me in regards to that I didn't agree. There are some things that I did agree on.
But we are still working through that and I think today we need to be working towards having an Aboriginal church without these restraints of missionary influences.
All of these kinds of things bearing down upon us. Until we come to that day where we have that kind of church in our communities throughout this country then you will see big changes I believe in a lot of our people, in a lot of our communities.
Every building, big or small, needs a good foundation with strong support beams to hold it in place or in place against the elements and against other things that might destroy it.
If it doesn't have a good foundation or a strong support beam then the inevitable will happen and all the hard work that went into building it would have been a waste.
Jesus highlights this very thing in the Gospel according to Matthew concerning the wise and the foolish builder where he says,
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
The rain came, the streams rose and winds blew and beat against that house yet it did not fall because it had foundations on the rock.
But everyone who does not hear these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash.
Now though these words may appear to be a simple analogy given by Jesus, such truths are not only profound but enduring.
They not only apply to the physical but more so to the spiritual.
To have a strong or a solid foundation in the spiritual is to take heed to the words of our Lord Jesus.
If you want your house or your Christian life to stand in the midst of the deluge that comes from the elements of this world,
then the words of Jesus are a safeguard against this happening.
To hear the words of Jesus is not enough.
Jesus goes on to say and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
While the opposite is the case that failure to take heed to the words of our Lord Jesus is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand
and Jesus ends by saying it fell with a great crash.
Now to build anything takes time, particularly if you want it to last or to look good or to be productive or useful.
To get it to this stage requires several things like manpower, time, money, planning, material and a suitable place or a suitable site to build it on.
Now if we take that scenario and apply it to the situation amongst Aboriginal ministry, what would our conclusions be?
I'm sure that we would get a variety of responses, solutions and remedies to the problems.
Have our leaders in the past laid a good foundation? Have they used the right material?
Have they invested enough time and energy into building a strong base or a solid foundation for our church amongst Aboriginal people?
And why is the falling away great so high and why aren't our churches filled and our ministries thriving today instead of struggling and fragmented?
What has happened and what is going on?
Now when Jesus said that he would build his church we need to be asking is this happening amongst the Aboriginal people of this land today?
If not, why not?
And secondly, where do we start in building such foundations or laying a solid base for Aboriginal people to build on?
Now hopefully our passage in 1 Corinthians 3 will enlighten us somewhat into this and that is why we have called our section God's building.
In verses 9 through to verse 15 or from verse 5 through to verse 15.
And on Sunday morning we will look at God's man, the result of a good foundation from 2 Timothy 4, 1 to verse 8.
Now there are within the New Testament two letters written by the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth.
One is packed with all sorts of partial issues while the other is more personal.
In the first letter to the Corinthians there are 11 separate issues and 10 of those issues are behavioural.
Now although the resurrection is an exception there are still behavioural implications.
And the church at Corinth was one of the most troubled churches with many, many pastoral issues.
And no church caused the Apostle Paul more concern than the church at Corinth.
Now this particular letter is not a work of systematic theology but a personal letter written from the heart of a concerned pastor dealing with the church matters that were brought to his attention.
And there are a range of issues that plague the church such as Gnosticism, to Judaising tendencies, through to the Gentile problem of seeking wisdom, of going to court, the use of prostitution, eating in pagan temples, just to name a few.
Now in dealing with such issues Paul goes from a Gospel perspective as you see for example in chapter 1 verse 11 through to verse 13, chapter 5 verse 6 through to verse 8, chapter 6 verse 14 through to verse 20 and chapter 15 verse 1.
Now rather than try from other sources the Apostle Paul uses the best source available and that was the Bible.
So all of these issues that came to the church at Corinth rather than getting all of these other sources he comes back to the Bible and he gets the Corinthians to come back to the Bible and to see what the Bible teaches on the issue of prostitution, the issue of wisdom, the issue of going to court with other Christians and also eating in pagan temples.
Now to deal with our theme of building a strong foundation or a solid base then we ought to follow the example of the Apostle Paul and allow the Bible to speak to us on this matter and in any other matter that may arise within the Church of Jesus Christ or even in our own ministry or even in our own Christian life.
It has been said that Paul's objective in writing to the Corinthian church was to get it operating more like a church and part of his strategy was to give the people a higher view of church.
Now in verse 9 he says you are God's field, God's building.
Now thinking about our theme of God's building there are from the passage that we read seven important truths for us to consider but this morning we just want to focus on three of those and they are the workers in verse 6 through to verse 8, the foundation in verse 10 through to verse 12 and then you've got the rewards in verse 13 through to verse 15.
Now in the first nine verses of chapter 3 the Apostle Paul deals with this lack of spiritual discernment which he has already discussed in chapter 2.
Now this lack of spiritual discernment is seen in their misconceptions about those who are co-labourers with God.
Now the corrective is given in this latter statement about the importance of working correctly for the Lord as verse 10 through to verse 17 tells and not depending on man or depending on human wisdom in verse 18 through to verse 23.
Now the first point for consideration has to do with the workers mentioned in verse 6 through to verse 8 and there are two people mentioned and they are Paul and Apollos.
They were not only workers but they are co-labourers with God.
Now to be a worker you must be employed in something whether we are speaking about the railway or airlines or the medical profession or any profession you can think of.
Now for Paul and Apollos their employment was not earthly but it was heavenly.
They were workers in the building of God's kingdom, the building of God's church, the building of God's building.
Now there are several things to notice about these two, Paul and Apollos, that can equally apply to each one of us who is of the law and the first has to do with their calling.
Now in scripture there are several different dimensions to the call for ministry.
Firstly you've got the call to salvation which is the starting point for any kind of ministry or any kind of service.
And to serve God with any kind of intention is to firstly be called to Christ as 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5 tells us.
As one Christian leader once said,
The second calling is to service which is not a separate calling but is a natural flow on as you see in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10.
God not only predestined us to salvation but he also predestined us for a life of service.
And service is the Christian's privilege and the Christian's obligation.
Again one Christian says this,
That this calling to service means that he was, as Christ does Christians constitute, a royal priesthood.
And he goes on to say that our privilege is to proclaim the excellency of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
And he ends by saying that all believers should engage in the ministry of servant as priests of God.
Now these two aspects of the one call applies to every Christian.
And it's fitting that we be reminded of this particular thing in light of God's building.
Because it requires that every one of God's people be of one heart, of one mind, of one voice and of one vision in such a work or in such a service.
Now Paul, being an apostle by the will of God as we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 1,
received a calling that was or is the same as ours but his ministry gift was that of an apostle.
Now our ministry gift might not be that of a pastor, might not be that of a Sunday school teacher,
it might not be even an encourager or an evangelist or whatever the case.
Now Paul's calling was significant in the establishment of God's building.
Now according to Paul in his letter to the Ephesians where he states that the foundation of God's building was built on the apostles and the prophets,
with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone.
Now the problem with many today is that they don't know what their ministry gift is or what their calling is.
Now Paul was a man who knew this and set about implementing his ministry gift in the building of God's building.
Now it's important that we recognise this and follow Paul's example that we might know what God wants us to do,
why God called us out of darkness into his marvellous light and what he has endowed us to do in the building of God's building.
Paul knew it, Paulus knew it, do you know it, do you know it, do I know it?
So it's important for us to keep seeking and searching God.
Now the second truth about these workers was they needed to work in a unified manner.
Now the Aboriginal church throughout this country is not as unified as it should be.
Our communities are suffering because of alcohol, because of drugs, all kinds of abuse
and there seems to be no stabilising influences in those communities.
Now David Kirk once said these words in an interview with Jeff Iggins in the early 80s.
He says, because of what I am, an Aboriginal pastor or minister of the gospel,
I feel that alongside government policies of self-development there must be strong, virile, evangelical church
where we have strong Christian churches in Aboriginal communities.
These places shine out as communities.
Take the spiritual atmosphere away and all government programs have been proven to fail.
We must have a strong spiritual base.
I'm not talking about a traditional spiritual base but a biblical base.
Aboriginal culture in traditional form is a perversion of what is taught in scripture
according to Romans chapter 1.
Now that was David Kirk's view I think in 1981
and it should be our view today that what is needed in our communities
right across this state, right across this country is strong, virile, evangelical churches
that will preach the gospel, that will serve the Lord, that will build his kingdom,
that will build his building in those communities.
Now unity is important when working for God.
Paul and Apollos shows in our passage the right way in building God's building.
For he says in verse 6,
I planted the seed, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
Now Paul and Apollos never fought over the top position
and they never allowed division to come between them.
They each knew their God-given role or their God-given ministry
and did it for the good of God's building.
Now I know in our own situation in Mt Druitt
what people tend to do is take the focus of God,
take the focus of ministry and make themselves the central point, the focus.
And it takes it right away from what the calling, what the ministry,
what God wants us to do there.
But Paul and Apollos, they worked together.
They realised that they have an important part to play.
He says, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but it was God who gave the increase.
It was a unified approach to the work and ministry of the kingdom.
Now the Bible says in another place,
unless the Lord builds a house, all of our labours are in vain.
Now God in his wisdom has seen fit to include people like us in his building process
and has blessed us with the necessary gifts and abilities
to accomplish his will and purpose wherever he has been pleased to plant us.
Now I often question in my own mind,
you know, God, you would have known before my calling in 1979
how I would struggle in my Christian life, how I would struggle in the ministry
and yet, you know, you seem fit to put me there in the ministry
in building your church and kingdom there in Mt Druitt.
Now I don't know why, I don't know the answer to that
and maybe you go into the same issues, you don't know why God has called you
and why God has placed you in a certain ministry.
But God has a work for us to do and we need to do it.
And this is what Paul brings to the reader's attention here in our particular passage,
that each one has a specific part, a specific role or a specific ministry to do.
But remember Paul says twice that only God makes things grow.
He says it in verse 6 and he says it in verse 7
and both of these are very important.
That whatever we do, we do it for God and only God can give the increase,
only God can make it work.
It doesn't matter how much time and effort we give into visiting all the people in Mt Druitt
that we do in all of the church kinds of ministries,
all of these kinds of things, unless God is in it and God growing it
and God giving the increase, all our labour certainly is in vain.
So the worker needs to be called to the work
for without a calling their efforts will be in vain
and there needs to be a unified approach to the work of the kingdom
that we all work together, that we all know what our specific role in ministry is.
Just like our own particular physical bodies.
We walk down the street and this leg doesn't go off on its own and say,
look I need a coffee.
Or this hand goes off and says I need McDonalds.
If I need McDonalds, all of me will go to McDonalds.
If I need a coffee, all of me will go and get a coffee.
So the body works as one and in the church of Jesus Christ,
in the building process, we all got to work as one.
So whether we are here in Gilgandra, whether we are in Mt Druitt,
we all got to work as one to accomplish God's will and purpose.
Now the second thing from the passage that we see is the foundation in verse 10 through to verse 12.
Paul now discusses how God's servants can build the church of Jesus Christ.
Now the foundation laid down through the preaching of the cross of Jesus Christ
in chapter 1 and verse 18 is always the same, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Christian worker brings to it their labour and their spiritual material
they use to build a church upon Jesus Christ.
Verse 10, the apostle Paul realises that his skills and his expertise
as a master builder comes from the grace of God.
For he says, by the grace God has given me.
On another occasion Paul says, I am what I am by the grace of God.
Paul recognised that it is and it was the grace of God that made him what he is.
And the same truth goes to us.
Without God we are nothing and without God we can do nothing.
In Ephesians Paul says that we have been saved by grace,
not of ourselves, not of our works, not of who we are or our Christian inheritance,
but it is all of the grace of God.
Peter says that we are to grow in grace.
So what is this grace that Paul talks about, that Peter talks about?
Well the simple acrostic is God's riches at Christ's expense.
It is God's unmerited favour shown to poor sinners like us through the cross of Jesus Christ.
You know as I reflect on my own life I should not be here.
I should have died a few times and then he got choked to death in the pub
and then he fell off the cliff and he got run over in a car.
I should not be here standing in front of you.
But I am here by God's grace.
In 1979 God called me out of darkness into his marvellous light.
It was all of God.
I come from a Christian family.
I am a fifth generation Christian on my dad's side
and that is an erités I proudly proclaim and tell everybody
and the grace of God has been handed down, passed down
and I am what I am by God's grace and Paul recognises the same,
that he is what he is, he was what he was by the grace of God.
And as a skilled builder the apostle goes on to say
that I have laid the foundation as an expert builder
and someone else is building on it.
So what is this foundation that Paul speaks of here in verse 10?
Well one Christian writer says as an expert builder
I want a new God's plan for the building of his church
as you read in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 7 to 10.
He has laid the foundation of Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Now Paul doesn't boast in his exploits nor does he take all the credit
but what he does is to acknowledge Apollos in the work
particularly building on the foundation of the apostle Paul
and Paul's theme was Jesus Christ and him crucified.
You remember in one part of the letter he came in
and all of these others were so caught up in this great oratory speaking
but Paul says I have determined not to know anything among you
except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
That was the theme of his life.
Paul was the foundation that he laid in the churches wherever he went
whether it was in Corinth, Ephesus or Colossae or whatever it was.
His foundation was Jesus Christ and him crucified.
So what is your foundation when it comes to your ministry,
when it comes to your service, when it comes to your church?
Now as the saying goes there is no lie in teamwork
but there certainly was cooperation.
They came together with each knowing where their ministry gifts and roles
and using that in the building of God's building or the building of God's church.
Now towards verse 10 the apostle gives a warning where he says
but each one should be careful how he builds.
Now Paul takes aims at those who are engaged in the work of the ministry
which is a shift from the work to the worker.
The foundation has been laid which is Jesus Christ as verse 11 says
and Paul builds on this foundation with the doctrine of Jesus Christ and him crucified.
As you see in chapter 2 and verse 2 in Isaiah 28
you see the same in Acts chapter 4 and verse 11 and also in Ephesians 2 and verse 20.
The Elder Church was attacked from within by all kinds of doctrinal heresies
and if you know a little bit about church history
that Satan came against the church's full force
destroying Christians and killing Christians left, right and centre
and that made the church very strong, very strong.
So rather than attack it from without he started to attack it from within
with all kinds of false doctrines and heresies
and they threatened to not only destabilise the church
but bring it down through these false doctrines creating confusion
but God always raised up someone to deal with these doctrinal issues
and set the church on the right course.
And false doctrine prevailed not only then
and you can read the pastoral letters to Titus and Timothy
to see how Paul had warned both of them about such things
and this approach has been evident down through the ages.
The so-called sectonisms who go under the guise of church
preach and hold to all kinds of outrageous doctrines today
and attack the very fabric of what the church of Jesus Christ holds to.
So if you don't know what you believe and why you believe it
you'll be tossed to and fro with all kinds of beliefs.
And these are the sectonisms that are coming into our community
that are deceiving our people, that are telling them all kinds of lies
and leading them down the path of destruction.
And that's why it's important that we build churches,
strong, very evangelical churches in our community
that holds to the truth, that preach the truth of the gospel
against these heresies that are prevailing in our communities
and getting into the heart and minds of our people
and into the heart and minds of our families.
It is to these people that Paul speaks
and he also warns them within the church of Jesus Christ
not to build using such materials.
To do so is to have detrimental effects
upon the church of Jesus Christ and upon the worker.
Now in verse 12 through to verse 14
the apostle Paul shifts his focus from the worker
to the kinds of materials the Christian worker needs to be using.
These particular materials consist of
preaching of the cross of salvation for salvation,
building up of believers as chapter 1 verse 8 in teachers
and living the Christian life that is commensurated with that preaching
as chapter 2 verse 2 to verse 4 teachers.
And again one Christian writer says these words
that the purity and depth of such Christian teaching
and a life corresponding to it are crucial.
And for that kind of building materials stand the test of fire
on the day of the Lord's judgement.
Now maybe these are the kinds of materials
that are lacking in many of our churches today
throughout our state and throughout our country.
And maybe that is why we have such a high falling away rate
according to one of our aboriginal pastors.
Our people start well but they don't finish well.
David Kirk used to tell us in college,
you start well, you continue well and you finish well.
Now over the years I have seen people who have stood here at the pulpit and preached.
Beautiful sermons, people who have got up and sang
and people who have testified about the amazing grace of God in their life.
Where are those people now?
I think back over the years they walk no more with Jesus Christ.
They become shipwrecked in their faith.
And that is a blight that is upon the church of Jesus Christ.
Rather than becoming part of the solution
they are becoming part of the problem.
And Mt Doolard is full of people who have walked away
from the grace of God in their life.
The last truth from the passage of course is the reward in verse 13 through to verse 15.
There is an amazing verse in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58b.
It says,
Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord
because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
When our kids went to a particular Christian school in Sydney
they did not have a reward system.
They acknowledged the achievements of the kids
whether that's in the sporting field or the academic field or whatever other field
whether that was in the school or out of the school
they just did not acknowledge the achievements of those kids.
Paul's approach is somewhat different
for he believed and taught as he does here
that Christians will be rewarded for the ministry of the kind of service
that they render to the Lord Jesus.
Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord
because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Now he says firstly in verse 8
that each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
Now he says again in verse 14 that he will receive his reward.
Now throughout the section there are overtones of this reward system
being highlighted by the Apostle Paul.
And it's also evident when we come to Sunday
when we look at 2 Timothy 4.1-8
you'll see again Paul highlights this reward system
that Christians will have and be blessed with
on that day when we stand before the Lord Jesus.
Paul in the passage cautions the Christian about using the right material on building
and he also cautions them about having the right attitude
when it comes to the service of the King.
Verse 13 through to verse 15 says these words
that his work will be shown for what it is
because the day will bring it to light.
So you might appear to be serving God
but at the end of the day it will be shown up
whether you've done it for God or for your own self glorification.
It will be revealed by fire
and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.
If what he has built survives,
if it is done in the name of Jesus for the glory of God
then it will survive.
He will receive his reward.
If it is burnt up
he will suffer loss.
If it is done for your own self glorification,
for your own selfish means and ends
it will be burnt up and you will suffer loss.
He himself will be saved
but only as one escaping through the flames.
Now the day that Paul refers to
is the day when we all stand before the judgment seat of Christ
where our works will be exposed.
Work done in the name of Jesus for his glory
or work done in the name of someone else or something else
and all the glory goes to the individual.
Now this is what I believe to be Paul's reference to gold, silver
or precious stones or costly stones
as opposed to wood or stubble or straw.
Now we are all guilty of this very thing
and how we need to examine ourselves in this matter
as we sang that in, search me oh God and try me.
For as Paul goes on to say
fire will bring to light the kind of work done
for he says fire will test the quality of every man's work.
If it survives then he will receive a reward.
If not then it will be burnt
but the individual themselves will be saved.
So in closing it's important that we as an Aboriginal church
build a solid foundation that will last.
That our people will not only have stability
but we will leave a good legacy to the future generations.
So it's important that we get our act together
and start doing and building according to what the Bible says.
We are all workers in this building process
and as workers we need to be involved in building God's building,
building God's church because at the end of the day
your labour will not be in vain.
So whatever you do, whether people see you
or whether they don't see you, God sees you
and he will reward you accordingly.
Your labour will not be in vain.
Shall we pray?
Father thank you for this particular section of scripture in Corinthians.
Father there's a lot of trees contained there
and we pray that we might take heed to what Paul is saying
and help us Lord to think upon these things
and to use our God-given ministry gifts to build your church and kingdom.
Not only here in Gilgandra, Dubbo, Mount Druid, further afield Lord
and we pray that we will all be of one mind and one heart,
one voice, one body working together to build your kingdom,
that our communities will benefit,
that we'll see many of our people turn to Jesus Christ
from drugs and alcohol and all kinds of righteous living
and we thank you Lord that we are in your service
not because of who we are or what we can do
but of your mercy and grace.
We are saved and have been called out of darkness into your marvellous light.
So bless and pray as we go throughout the remainder of this day
and continue to hold us and guide us in the way that you have us to go
that we might know how to bring glory to you in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.