10 I appeal to you, brothers,1 by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Footnotes
[1]1:10Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters; also verses 11, 26
3:1 But I, brothers,1 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?
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, God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled2 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.
16 Do you not know that you3 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.
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.
The Ministry of Apostles
4:1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Footnotes
[1]3:1Or brothers and sisters [2]3:10Or wise [3]3:16The Greek for you is plural in verses 16 and 17
10 I appeal to you, brothers,1 by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Footnotes
[1]1:10Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters; also verses 11, 26
3:1 But I, brothers,1 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?
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, God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled2 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.
16 Do you not know that you3 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.
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.
The Ministry of Apostles
4:1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Footnotes
[1]3:1Or brothers and sisters [2]3:10Or wise [3]3:16The Greek for you is plural in verses 16 and 17
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
Good morning. It's good to see you all. We are gonna be in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 this morning. We're gonna continue our study of Paul's letter to the Corinthian church. This is our third one.
Jeffrey Heine:
So in chapter 1, we looked at the foolishness of the cross. In chapter 2, we looked at the power of the cross. And now as we make our way into chapter 3, we're gonna look at life in the light of the cross. And as we began and heard a few weeks ago, the Corinthian church was a congregation in the bustling and vibrant city of Corinth. Paul himself had been laboring in Corinth to see this congregation come together and be established.
Jeffrey Heine:
And he saw himself as a parent, and he even uses that language and those images as he talks about his affection for this congregation, his love for them. And he was very protective of this church. And he could also be quite stern in his words, quite firm when it came to instruction and discipline. We're even gonna see some of that today. But news has come to Paul.
Jeffrey Heine:
Things are not going well in Corinth. There is conflict there. And so Paul decides to write a letter, a rather lengthy letter. It's actually the, 2nd longest letter that that he writes that we have in the New Testament. And he writes to address this conflict head on.
Jeffrey Heine:
And there's a pattern in his response, a pattern that I think as we are starting this study through the Corinthian letter, that it's helpful for us to recognize what this pattern is, to get a sense of it, because he's gonna repeat this pattern throughout. It kind of goes like this. 1st, Paul will identify an issue. He'll identify what that issue is, and he will explain how that behavior or that belief is irreconcilable with the gospel. Now, I'm gonna say the word gospel a whole lot this morning, and I think it's helpful for us to be precise with the words that we're saying.
Jeffrey Heine:
And so what I mean when I say gospel is the news that the grace of Jesus, that forgiveness that comes from Jesus, has been secured through his death and his resurrection, and that that grace comes to us because of the love of the Father. It's because the Father loves that Jesus would obey him and go to the cross, that he would die and suffer, and that he would be buried and would be raised to secure that grace and forgiveness for us. So the grace of Jesus, the love of the Father, and then that this is ours, this promise is made true to us in our lives, applied to us. We are enjoined to this grace and this love through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. That's what I mean when I say gospel.
Jeffrey Heine:
And so, to go back to what that first one is, he's going to identify that problem. He's gonna identify the conflict. He's gonna say how it's irreconcilable with this good news of the gospel. The second thing, he will apply the gospel to the situation. And He will show how Christians should believe and how they should behave in light of this gospel news.
Jeffrey Heine:
And then the third thing, he will call these individuals to this life, to this belief and to this behavior that is possible for them. It is made possible because of the work of Christ. And so those are kind of the 3 rhythms to this framework that Paul is going to carry out throughout this letter as different issues come up, because he's got a lot of issues that he wants to talk about. And as these different issues come up, that's kinda the pattern that he's gonna go through. Identify it, see how it's irreconcilable with the gospel.
Jeffrey Heine:
Talk about what the gospel means when applied to this situation, and then calling them to just that. And so, this ethic that he is calling them to, this gospel ethic is what life should look like for the people who know Jesus and trust Him. This gospel ethic will be applied throughout this letter. Because when word came to Paul that there were beliefs and behaviors that were incompatible with maturing Christians, he said it's not just evidence that there's conflict. It's not just that there's a problem here.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's that it's evidencing that they are leaving, forsaking, neglecting the very gospel He preached to them. They're not maturing. They're not growing up in the faith. And in this first sermon, like I said, the first chapter, we looked at the the foolishness of the cross, that it comes across as folly to the world. Then then in chapter 2, that we saw the power of the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:
That Paul said that he wasn't gonna come declaring anything but the power of the cross. He wasn't gonna do it in an impressive, eloquent way. It was the news that Jesus has done this. That's the power. And now we look at life in light of the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:
So if you would look with me, we're actually gonna jump for 1 paragraph in chapter 1, where he's talking about the same thing, because this is what Paul does. We're gonna see this throughout the letter. He talks about something. He kinda leaves it. He comes back to it.
Jeffrey Heine:
We also, in this, passage, maybe more so than than others, I I had this picture of Paul kinda pacing around as he is saying these things out loud, and someone else is furiously writing as fast as they can. And I'll I'll point out one of the places where I think we can see that. So look with me, 1st Corinthians chapter 1, beginning in verse 10. Let us listen carefully, for this is God's Word. I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind, in the same judgment.
Jeffrey Heine:
For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there's quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Jeffrey Heine:
I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Chapter 3 verse 1.
Jeffrey Heine:
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 are 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?
Jeffrey Heine:
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
Jeffrey Heine:
He who plants and he who waters are 1, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. Skip to verse 18. Let no one deceive himself.
Jeffrey Heine:
If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the present, or the future, all are yours.
Jeffrey Heine:
And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Lord, each and every one of us in this room, whether we know it or not, are desperately in need of you.
Jeffrey Heine:
And not one of us even knows the depths of how much we need you. But you do, and you care for us. And so now I ask, Spirit, that you would speak to our hearts and our minds, that you would speak tenderly to us. You would bring the comfort that comes from knowing Jesus, that you would lead us to truth and away from error, that you would lead us to God. And so we ask now that you would speak, for your servants are listening.
Jeffrey Heine:
We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Doctor. Oliver Sacks was a neuroscientist. He published a book in the late eighties.
Jeffrey Heine:
Yes, we are moving from a Lebron illustration last week to a neuroscientist, because I am a nerd. He wrote a book called The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and the title of that book comes from this bizarre account of a man that doctor Sacks calls mister P. And mister P arrived at doctor Sacks's office with a very peculiar problem. His wife had noticed that he had been stopping to talk to parking meters. He had patted fire hydrants on the head.
Jeffrey Heine:
And after going through all these symptoms and and talking about the concerns, the man, instead of reaching for his hat, reached for his wife's head and tried to put it on his head. And what doctor Sacks realized was that the problem was not with mister p's eyes. His eyes were actually functioning quite fine. It was how his brain was understanding what his eyes were seeing. The parking meter was a person to say hello to on the street.
Jeffrey Heine:
The fire hydrants were little kids to pat on the head. And the problem with the church in Corinth, and I believe that it's still a problem for each one of us in the church today, is the issue of seeing and understanding rightly how things really and truly are around us. In chapters 1 through 3, Paul is describing a framework for us for seeing and understanding the world, for seeing and understanding our lives and everything in them. In the first way, the first kinda category that he gives us for how we can see and understand is what he would call the natural way. The natural way.
Jeffrey Heine:
He refers to it with other words too, the human way, the worldly way to see and understand life. This way sees the cross of Jesus as foolish. It sees fame as significance. It sees people as competition, status as importance. It sees public opinion as critical.
Jeffrey Heine:
It sees appearance as strength. And Paul says that that's one way to see and understand the life around us. The current of our culture makes it very easy to go along with this way, this way of seeing and understanding. And that's why Paul calls this the natural way. But then he describes another category.
Jeffrey Heine:
There's another way, another category for seeing and understanding the life around us, and this way is unnatural. So much so that it appears foolish and weak. It doesn't come naturally. It takes a great deal from us, because we have to go against that current of culture. Not only the current of culture kind of around us in society, but really the culture of our own hearts, the culture of our own flesh.
Jeffrey Heine:
And this way of seeing and understanding is what Paul calls spirit, spiritual wisdom, spiritual thinking, thinking with God's knowledge and with the mind of Christ himself. And Paul is establishing these 2 different categories of how we can see and understand. He says, I have heard that there is conflict in Corinth. I've heard that you're breaking up into these divisions, these little groups. You're you're you're finding this way to to get your own significance and identity from these different leaders.
Jeffrey Heine:
You're dividing up into groups like people do at the Sophists of saying, I follow this person. I follow this person. I follow this person, because it gives you a sense of identity and a sense of who you are. And you're saying, I follow Apollos, and others are saying, I follow Paul. And that might be the thing that makes him the most frustrated, is that his name is getting drug into this.
Jeffrey Heine:
So this is the first problem. The first problem that the Apostle Paul wants to run through this framework of gospel ethics, of identifying the issue, seeing how it doesn't connect with the gospel, applying the gospel to the scenario and calling them to that. He's gonna run through all of this with his first issue. Now, not all of them were saying, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos. Some of them were saying, I follow Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
So this is the the original Jesus Duke is right here, where they say, I follow Jesus. I'm not I'm not getting into the fray of all of these things. It's kinda like, maybe in college, you participated in one of these, where someone's arguing Calvinism or some other issue doctrine of the day, and then one person comes and says, well, I just believe the Bible. Like awesome, thanks. That's helpful.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's really great. But Paul Paul responds to this conflict and says, did Paul die for you on the cross? When you went into the waters of baptism, were you baptized in Paul's name? Of course not. Can Christ be divided up?
Jeffrey Heine:
You know, he died, he gave his body to create a body, and now we're just gonna break it into all these different pieces and to each his own. You do you, and that's gonna be okay. No. Paul says that when you do this, when you display conflict like this, when you are divided against one another like this, you are seeing, and you are understanding like the world. You're seeing and understanding in that easy, natural way.
Jeffrey Heine:
You're not seeing and understanding like spirit people. When you are against your brothers and sisters like this, you're not simply creating conflict. You are denying the gospel you confess. So this is the first step of gospel ethics that Paul identifies a conflict. Look at verses 3 and 4, kind of the latter half of 3 in chapter 3.
Jeffrey Heine:
He says, 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? He says, you are behaving in a merely human way. That's an intense charge. A little confusing, because more often than not, in our cultural context, I'm only human is an excuse.
Jeffrey Heine:
I'm only human is the way to get out of a responsibility. I could, I did all that I could do. I did all that I I'm merely human, but that's not how Paul is using it. Paul's saying, you're not merely human. You're spirit people.
Jeffrey Heine:
You were dead in your sins and your trespasses, and you've been made alive in Christ, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you. You are not merely human, but when you do this, you're acting in a way that's merely human. The Holy Spirit in you means you are not merely human. And when you care about garbage like status, and you try to get your identity from the world, you are neglecting the Spirit, and you're being merely human. Now in that alone is like at least 5 sermons, but we have to keep moving.
Jeffrey Heine:
We've got a lot of Corinthians to make our way through. So in chapter 3, Paul is making this argument. And so where have we already been? That there's this one way, there's the the natural way, the worldly way that we can think about things? That there is the spirit way, the the the unnatural way where things are upside down from how culture and the world perhaps will tell us these things are.
Jeffrey Heine:
But then he wants to actually say that there is a third way that these Corinthians are behaving in, because they are in Christ. Let's not miss that. They are in Christ. Jesus by his blood has qualified them for the kingdom. He has made them a part of his body.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's not in question. They are in Jesus. But they're acting and thinking. They are seeing and understanding like the world. And so this third way is what he calls flesh.
Jeffrey Heine:
Really, the Greek kinda comes out to fleshy. He calls them infants, babies, kinda like squishy little fleshy babies in Jesus. That's how he starts to describe them. That's how they're thinking. They're immature in these ways.
Jeffrey Heine:
Says yes, you are in Jesus. Yes, you have been transferred. Yes, that is secure. He's not questioning that. But he's saying, you're acting and thinking in this fleshy way.
Jeffrey Heine:
And so hear this. We are not saved by what we do. Not our right behavior, not our perfect seeing and understanding. It's, we are not saved by the strength of our belief. Paul is not calling them to works based salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:
No. He's telling them that their behaviors and their beliefs are in conflict with the truth of the gospel. He's calling them out of that worldliness and calling them to the liberated life in the Spirit. We can look at the world, and we can see and understand our lives in the worldly way, in the Spirit way, or in this fleshly way. And Paul says that they are infants.
Jeffrey Heine:
He can't even go into the deep things. He talked about in chapter 2, when he says, yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. He can't get into that with them. He said, the Spirit searches out the deep things of God, and we can't even get into that. And here's why.
Jeffrey Heine:
The fundamental truths of the gospel are not element evident in their living. He can't go on to discuss the deep things of God if they can't be unified in the simplest terms of family. Step 1, he identifies the problem. You're being merely human. Next is the gospel applied.
Jeffrey Heine:
He says, See us, see Paul, see Cephas, who is Peter. See Apollo. See every church leader. See us rightly for who we really are. Look at verse 5.
Jeffrey Heine:
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.
Jeffrey Heine:
He who plants and he who waters are 1, and each will receive his wages according to his labor, for we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. He tells them, we are servants. God assigns, God gives growth, and the servants are just merely fellow workers. They're not celebrities to be followed.
Jeffrey Heine:
They're not personalities that need cults built around them. Paul sees fame as disgusting and a distraction. It steals attention that only Jesus deserves, and it steals energy that is needed for the hard work of unity and declaring the gospel. Fame is a waste. You know, I I've I've heard from There was a time where I spoke to youth because people thought that that was a good idea.
Jeffrey Heine:
They've since been proved wrong. But in talking with young people, I I've heard so many times that when I ask them, what do you wanna be when you grow up? And they say, Famous, like, that's a thing, like, that's a jaw. They wanna be famous. And it's worth us admitting that young people got that idea from people that are not young.
Jeffrey Heine:
To be famous, what a waste. It takes away the fame and praise that only Jesus deserves, and it wastes that energy, that affection, that attention that we need to actually be family, to really love well. If we're spending our love and praise on things that don't matter, And we have no love or affection or attention for the people that are actually around us, the people that we actually have contact with, not just in social media or other forms of media that we can watch, but we don't talk to the people on the same couch. We don't talk to the people at the table. We don't talk to the people next door.
Jeffrey Heine:
What does that say about how we see and understand our world? Now it's also worth us knowing that there is a difference between encouraging people and praising people. Within the church, we need to be encouraging one another. Paul is gonna talk about how he needs encouragement, asking people to come visit him as he needs encouragement in prison and in the ministry that he is doing. He seeks to encourage others by calling them out by name.
Jeffrey Heine:
Encouragement is a necessary part of life together as the family of God. We need to encourage one another, but we don't need to praise one another, because praise makes it hard to be humble. And we need to be humble, especially if we have some capacity to lead. We have to be humble, and we we do a disservice to that ministry when we praise. Paul didn't need followers of Paul.
Jeffrey Heine:
He wanted followers of Jesus. And so he goes on to describe who they are. He goes on to describe their true identity in Jesus. He says that the men and women in Corinth are God's field. And in classic Paul, he goes ahead and he brings up another metaphor, another illustration before even completing the one he was just talking about.
Jeffrey Heine:
You're a field, you're a building. Then he talks about how they're building with this foundation of Jesus, that they're built upon that, and that anyone who attacks that temple, who tries to disturb it and destroy it, they will be destroyed. He reminds them that together, they are the temple of the living God. The Holy Spirit dwells in them. He reminds them who they are so they can give up these false ways of seeing and understanding their lives.
Jeffrey Heine:
He identifies the conflict. He applies the gospel, and now he calls them to action. He calls them away from error to true faithfulness. Look with me in verse 18. Let no one deceive himself.
Jeffrey Heine:
If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For their wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours.
Jeffrey Heine:
Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the present, or the future, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. See, Paul is calling the Corinthians, and by God's providence, he's calling each one of us today to leave behind that worldly and fleshy way of seeing and understanding. Worldly wisdom is futile. It will fade. It will pass away.
Jeffrey Heine:
That kind of wisdom, that worldly wisdom is foolishness with God, and he calls them, become a fool if you think that you are wise. And he says, don't boast in people. Don't boast in people, because at the very best, people are servants. At the very best, people are servants. And at their very worst, they're fools.
Jeffrey Heine:
People can encourage you, inspire you, help you, but they can't save you. So don't boast in people. See and understand rightly. See and understand like Holy Spirit people. Live in the light of the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:
Because in the light of the cross, all things are yours. Did you catch that? What does he mean there when he says all are yours? Verse 22, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death, the present or the future, all are yours. What does he mean?
Jeffrey Heine:
Well, Paul means that everything is your servant. Everything is your servant, not to fulfill your every wish. No, a servant for what? A servant that you might believe. A servant that you might live in the light of the cross, that you would receive the grace of Christ, that you would know the love of the Father, that you would abide in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:
All of God's servants have this task, to carry out the mission of God and to be stewards of the mysteries of God. Paul says all things. Paul, Peter, Apollos. He says all men. He says all women, all of the world, life and death, this very moment and all the moments of eternity, all of it is serving you, so that you would believe.
Jeffrey Heine:
That does not mean that all of these servants are easy, or even feel good. These servants might be quite painful. They might seem quite ugly and offensive. But this is what it means that he would work all things for our good, for those who love him and who are called according to his purposes. That's what that means, that he's gonna take all things, good things and bad things, joyful things and sorrowful things.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's gonna take all things, and they're gonna serve you. And how are they gonna serve you? They're gonna serve you that you would hope in Jesus. And not only that, not only are all things your servants, but you are a servant to those around you, because you're Christ's. You know, when Paul introduces himself in his letters, the way he introduces himself is his biggest boast, and that is, I, Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, a servant of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:
That is his identity that he boasts in beyond anything, that he would be a servant. And he calls us to that as well, that we would see and understand ourselves in that way as servants. He says, because you all are Christ's, Christ's servants. And he says, and Christ is God's. What does he mean by that?
Jeffrey Heine:
He means that Christ came taking the form of a servant, a suffering servant, to serve the Father and carrying out the Father's will to crush him. That by his wounds, we would be healed. That's how we know who we are. That's how we know our place in this world, and that is how we see and understand our lives rightly. That is how that gospel ethic is applied.
Jeffrey Heine:
There's a strange chapter break that happens at the end of 3, because really, the the first line of chapter 4 starts to summarize this whole thought out. And it says this, chapter 4 verse 1, this is how one should regard us as servants of Christ, as stewards of the mysteries of God. Just like we have to admit that the cross is foolishness to the world. And just like we have to admit that the true power of the cross is what saves and redeems us. We have to admit that living in light of the cross does not come natural to us.
Jeffrey Heine:
We need the mind of Christ. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to keep us seeing and understanding rightly. We need God to keep us near the cross and living in light of it. See, the Corinthians were forgetting. They were forgetting that their faith in Jesus was to affect every area of their lives.
Jeffrey Heine:
Not one aspect of their lives was to be untouched by the news that Jesus is King and His promise of resurrection. And the first place that Paul applies this gospel ethic is to this problem of division among the body. And throughout his letter, we'll see Paul apply this gospel ethic time and again. 20th century theologian Abraham Kuyper once said this. There is not one square inch in all of creation over which Jesus does not say mine.
Jeffrey Heine:
Jesus says mine over the entirety of your life, the best and the worst, that which can be celebrated, and that which is mourned. He says, mine. So when you look at your life, when you see your life, how do you understand it? How do you see and understand what's going on in your day to day? When you look at your job, when you look at your work, your classmates, your coworkers, when you look at your singleness or your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your spouse, when you look at your children, when you look at your diagnosis, when you look at your fears, when you look at your finances, when you look at your anxieties and your worries, how do you understand them?
Jeffrey Heine:
In light of the cross, in light of the news of King Jesus and his resurrection? That's what we're gonna take some time to pray about. The band's gonna come up here, and as they do, we're gonna just ready ourselves to listen, to confess, to pray, to ask that we would believe, to ask that the Spirit would help us in our unbelief. You know, when it comes to the scriptures, we are called to to hear them declared, to reason together to understand what they say, and we are called to respond. And so that's how we're gonna respond today in prayer, and going to the Lord to ask Him that we might see and understand rightly.
Jeffrey Heine:
And it might feel unnatural. You might hit the resistance of that current of the culture, not only of our society, but the culture of your own flesh that pushes back, that pushes back against surrender, that pushes back, that says that you're not in control, and you know that you're not, how easy is it for us to live and strive like we are in control, to get angry and divide against the people around us, pretending that we are in control? But I I would ask you, on this 2nd Sunday in Lent, in this season where we we ask that the spirit would help search our hearts, that we would turn from sin to Jesus, that we would take this opportunity, that we would take this time to be still before our God, and ask him by his Spirit to help us to see and understand rightly. So let's pray, and then we will sing together.