back to index2015-06-04 Study of 1 Corinthians Week 7
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It says, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men 00:00:09.280 |
I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. 00:00:14.640 |
Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. 00:00:20.800 |
For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not 00:00:28.320 |
For when one says, 'I am of Paul,' and another, 'I am of Apollos,' are you not 00:00:34.680 |
What then is Apollos, and what is Paul, servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord 00:00:42.480 |
I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 00:00:47.180 |
So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes 00:00:52.520 |
Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according 00:01:00.800 |
For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building." 00:01:13.640 |
That, God, we might hear what you have to say. 00:01:16.720 |
Help us in our study to have just fruitful, Lord, both inspiration and conviction. 00:01:22.880 |
God, that we might truly apply your teaching about unity within the church, about the existence 00:01:30.200 |
of division and carnality within, amongst the body. 00:01:34.240 |
I pray, Father, God, that all of us would be able to apply into those aspects of our 00:01:44.520 |
So I want to begin by just simply focusing on this beginning portion, verse one of chapter 00:01:53.560 |
And he says, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as to men 00:02:03.360 |
So Paul is expressing a sense of frustration. 00:02:08.120 |
He's expressing a sense of, "I want to speak to you as spiritual people, but I can't." 00:02:16.720 |
But it's really interesting that he uses several terms to describe how they are. 00:02:21.800 |
He describes them as men of flesh, and he describes them as infants of Christ, or in 00:02:27.480 |
I want to ask you this beginning question, since it's the first verse is more so focused 00:02:31.840 |
on Apostle Paul describing who they are, when you think of infants, what comes to mind? 00:02:41.520 |
Or if you've kind of did the homework a little bit, what do you think is the description 00:03:09.520 |
I think he's talking about a young fever, so that's just, you know, not from the darkness 00:03:19.520 |
of the light, but still has a lot of fleshly struggles that are still in his life. 00:03:27.520 |
I think that's what, you know, kind of clearly he's talking about. 00:03:30.840 |
He's like, you're like an infant in Christ, so maybe you are like a recent convert. 00:03:40.980 |
Maybe you have some old habits that you're accustomed to. 00:03:45.600 |
Maybe what you know to do and only know to do is certain things that pertain to the kind 00:03:52.240 |
of, or you know, kind of contribute to the division that exists in the church. 00:03:57.200 |
Anybody else have other thoughts of what it means to be an infancy? 00:04:02.880 |
There are just some things maybe that come to mind when I say infant. 00:04:12.800 |
They can't eat solid food and stuff like that. 00:04:22.120 |
Infants need to basically care in detail to every single thing they do. 00:04:25.280 |
Are there any other things that kind of come to mind? 00:04:29.200 |
I've heard that it's used differently for other religions. 00:04:35.200 |
And so that it's important not to have one to mean anything, because that can be a big 00:04:43.200 |
I was studying the Bible, that passage that people translate into the Hebrew Bible. 00:04:56.520 |
So she was saying that you shouldn't, I guess, limit yourself to one idea of a term because 00:05:05.200 |
What I'm trying to do right now is kind of get your, what we would normally think to 00:05:09.320 |
be infancy, and then contrast that with what in this context, this passage is saying. 00:05:15.240 |
Thank you though, because you're absolutely right. 00:05:17.840 |
The principle is look at the context for what it is, how it is using that term here in this 00:05:26.160 |
But some of the things that we think of are pertaining to that stuff. 00:05:32.600 |
Well, as we look at those details then, he's calling them infants, and we just mentioned 00:05:39.060 |
that maybe, maybe perhaps, he's talking about the fact that they're acting like brand new 00:05:46.120 |
Maybe he's talking about the fact that Apostle Paul has to spoon feed them everything. 00:05:50.280 |
So we're kind of honing in on what he's intending to say by calling them infants. 00:05:56.440 |
Because you've got to realize, that's pretty significant, you know, when you write a letter 00:06:00.400 |
to somebody and you're telling them, you're just like a baby, big baby, you know. 00:06:06.360 |
It's, you know, let's try to figure out what he's trying to say. 00:06:09.560 |
Well, we want to ask, he does say in verse two, look, I gave you milk to drink and not 00:06:16.880 |
This is part of what makes them infants, right? 00:06:20.360 |
And so, what could he be referring to when he talks about milk, when he talks about solids? 00:06:27.600 |
What is he referring to as he uses this metaphor? 00:06:45.840 |
So would you say solid food, like they're both in the category of spiritual truth or 00:06:50.720 |
is solid foods like spiritual truths and doctrines and milk is something else? 00:07:43.280 |
Those are all like, both of what you're saying, he's not obviously explicit here, right? 00:07:47.800 |
He doesn't expound on it and say milk is this and solid food is this. 00:07:52.120 |
And I agree with you, Karen, that I think milk and obviously solid food belong to the 00:07:58.600 |
And I like what you said about there's a difference between the depth, the difficulty to which 00:08:04.600 |
you're able to understand, comprehend, right? 00:08:09.000 |
Because and the reason why I'm having you guys think about this is because for us as 00:08:15.840 |
an observation, typically when you think of stuff like this, say milk and solid food, 00:08:24.760 |
sometimes we think purely on the level of intellectual knowledge. 00:08:30.100 |
If you say, oh, this person's really kind of babyish in the way they think, they're 00:08:34.800 |
not thinking deeply or, you know, when you talk about milk and when you talk about solid 00:08:41.120 |
food, some of the people who like heavy theologies are like, oh, let's leave the milk and get 00:08:47.160 |
Let's get into, you know, debates about, you know, the, the character of Jesus. 00:08:51.360 |
Let's get into debates about Arianism and all this kind of stuff. 00:08:59.160 |
And when you think baby, is that simply a lack of knowledge? 00:09:03.440 |
The fact of the matter is we know from context that Apostle Paul, he addresses the Corinthians 00:09:13.480 |
He addresses them not as people who intellectually are kind of slow and dumb. 00:09:17.720 |
As a matter of fact, these people pride themselves on what knowledge. 00:09:23.320 |
They come from a culture where they love knowledge, right? 00:09:27.120 |
So the issue here is he kind of introduces this idea or not an idea, a rebuke of them, 00:09:34.840 |
their behavior and their attitude by addressing the fact that they are babies, not for a lack 00:09:39.720 |
of knowledge, but because by, by their spiritual condition, they can't take spiritual truth. 00:09:49.220 |
He says the problem here in verse two, in the second half of verse two, he says, I gave 00:10:00.440 |
Indeed, even now you are not able to receive it. 00:10:06.000 |
If you guys remember from week one in the Corinthians church and the church in Corinth, 00:10:12.360 |
how long did apostle Paul stay at this church? 00:10:18.400 |
If you don't know, if you don't remember, remember the like exact years or whatever, 00:10:21.400 |
the months you can either say short time as in sometimes he stayed at certain churches 00:10:25.800 |
only three months, six months longer would be like a year, year and a half, two years 00:10:35.140 |
As a matter of fact, he has, he has served and he has ministered in the church of Corinth, 00:10:43.840 |
So you can imagine why he's getting frustrated. 00:10:45.400 |
It's like you're like babies, but I've been teaching you for so long, right? 00:10:51.480 |
The thing that he's getting at again is not because they were ignorant. 00:10:54.240 |
It's not because a lack of knowledge, he's getting at something much deeper. 00:10:58.680 |
And this is when for us, I kind of, I should have had you guys do it, but at the beginning 00:11:04.200 |
of the section, I wanted you guys to note the conjunction words because what he's doing 00:11:11.920 |
He says, um, in verse two he says, I gave you milk to drink, not solid food for you 00:11:20.280 |
And then verse three, four, since there is jealousy and strife among you. 00:11:24.780 |
So those reasons, remember the four can mean various things as well. 00:11:29.400 |
Here he kind of uses the four as supporting evidences for what he just said, right? 00:11:40.640 |
For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly? 00:11:48.280 |
So if you go to letter C, I ask, he's been unpacking this rebuke, your babies, big babies. 00:11:57.160 |
And in this rebuke of them being in infancy, he describes, or he tries to not tries, he 00:12:08.380 |
Let me ask you just in your reading of verses one through four, okay. 00:12:14.360 |
Verses one through four, the first half of that section, what are some of these descriptions? 00:12:19.040 |
What kind of picture do we get of the infant person, the fleshly man? 00:12:49.480 |
So I left some blanks for you there and you guys can plug in the two, jealousy and strife. 00:13:10.480 |
You know, because when we think of, oh, that guy is really fleshly. 00:13:15.240 |
We think of real carnal appetites and typically it's sexual morality. 00:13:23.280 |
It's really interesting to me that he highlights this idea of jealousy. 00:13:29.360 |
And for us to think about that a little bit, I know this Bible study I'm doing a lot of 00:13:33.880 |
like, well, what comes to your mind and what do you think? 00:13:38.920 |
When you think of a person who's jealous, how would you describe that person? 00:13:47.080 |
What kind of things would he say, do and think this jealous man? 00:14:16.600 |
This kind of begrudging desire to have what someone else possesses, right? 00:14:22.880 |
And if you think about, um, think about this for a moment, the 10 commandments. 00:14:31.120 |
Within the 10 commandments, you realize God from the really early beginning addressed 00:14:45.040 |
What else comes to mind when you think of a jealous person? 00:14:48.520 |
Jealous person just, you know, just wants what that guy has. 00:14:56.560 |
If he finds himself in a position where he thinks, I don't have. 00:14:59.840 |
He can get extremely bitter, discontent, just not happy, not happy with his plot in life 00:15:12.480 |
How can you be happy when you're sitting there looking at the person with jealous eyes? 00:15:22.520 |
There's a sense in which jealousy, that kind of, um, attitude in the heart that says, I 00:15:35.360 |
can't bear to see that guy have more than me. 00:15:43.540 |
So don't ever, you know, touch my possessions. 00:15:46.680 |
Don't ever, you know, they're very overly protective. 00:15:49.980 |
The stuff that we said earlier where they're, you know, like wanting the possessions of 00:16:07.840 |
They're willing to do what it takes so that I might gain. 00:16:14.760 |
So what I'm saying is this, is there is a trail of thought, right? 00:16:21.040 |
He says, you're infants because you're not able to receive spiritually what the spirit 00:16:27.760 |
And he unpacks it and says, this infancy is marked by fleshliness, carnality. 00:16:33.960 |
It's not what we think typically, which is just this kind of abhorrent, base, sexual 00:16:45.100 |
And he says, this jealous heart in you has caused strife, has caused division within 00:16:52.860 |
People then in their jealousy competing probably for leadership positions, probably for power, 00:17:01.780 |
If I say I've got the teachings of Paulus, that's one thing. 00:17:06.340 |
If I say I've got the teaching of a Paulus and you don't, now who has a position of authority? 00:17:15.820 |
So the people, the men in the church were using their allegiance to leaders in the church 00:17:20.100 |
to gain greater leadership, greater notoriety, greater titles. 00:17:28.700 |
So all I'm saying is there is this contrast he's building up and he's saying, Paulus 00:17:37.260 |
After what I believe is, you know, well over a year, probably like 18 months or so, spending 00:17:43.420 |
time with this church, investing into them, dealing with their problems. 00:17:48.220 |
He expects them to be more mature, but he says, but you're not spiritual right now. 00:17:55.340 |
And so we have to take a, you know, take a moment to kind of encapsulate this point from 00:18:05.580 |
And I asked this question, in verses one through four, what is he trying to prove to the men? 00:18:15.900 |
Because in trying to do this, he's making a direct rebuke, but what is he convincing 00:18:34.420 |
There is a sense in which before in the previous sections, Apostle Paul was talking about the 00:18:42.460 |
worldly principles in the environment, in the world. 00:18:48.300 |
So he was saying, you know, there is a worldly philosophy, there's worldly wisdom, right? 00:18:54.260 |
However, now in this passage, we're talking about, let me phrase it this way. 00:19:12.540 |
Before we're talking about the wisdom of the world, the wisdom of this age, the wisdom 00:19:24.020 |
But here now, what is Apostle Paul really trying to convince them? 00:19:32.220 |
So he says, he's essentially saying, your attitude is jealous. 00:19:38.740 |
So now we're talking about the pressures and enticements of their own heart. 00:19:45.540 |
Before Apostle Paul's rebuked them and said, you're just buying into all this worldly philosophy. 00:19:50.300 |
Your Greek philosopher told you you were stupid, so you didn't want to be stupid anymore. 00:19:57.820 |
And the world rulers have what they define as authority and power, and now you want it. 00:20:04.460 |
So on that end, it's kind of like you have external enticements that keep saying, buy 00:20:08.740 |
into our world system, buy into our world system. 00:20:13.100 |
But there's something that Apostle Paul wants every person there to admit. 00:20:19.460 |
More so than anything, those external enticements work because there is an internal pressure. 00:20:25.620 |
There is a heart issue of jealousy, and that's an attitude of the heart. 00:20:36.980 |
Now there's a second takeaway point from verses one through four, and it's an obvious one. 00:20:43.560 |
So I asked this question, okay, like, what is Paul really frustrated about? 00:20:48.200 |
What does it reveal about what he expects from the church? 00:20:52.180 |
Now what I'm saying is, Apostle Paul knows the flesh, you know? 00:20:56.860 |
In Romans chapter seven, he knows what it means to battle with his flesh, his humanness. 00:21:03.060 |
And in many parts of scripture, he acknowledges, I'm a sinner. 00:21:10.760 |
So there's a sense for me as I think about this passage, he's not necessarily frustrated 00:21:16.580 |
that there exists flesh, because he's the one who teaches us, right? 00:21:23.940 |
That although we're saved, there exists sinful flesh in this day and age. 00:21:29.340 |
And until glorification, we're going to wrestle with it every day. 00:21:33.860 |
What is his main frustration though, with them? 00:22:11.280 |
Although sin and flesh continue to exist, and they are expected, maturity and tangible 00:22:22.960 |
Maturity and tangible change are the norm for Christians. 00:22:27.640 |
I guess you can say not maturity, but maturation. 00:22:37.680 |
You might have started off as like persecuted the church, pagan to the core, but no matter 00:22:44.300 |
where you start, what does God expect of you? 00:22:51.840 |
You know that song that goes, "He's changed, me." 00:22:54.840 |
And then there's that little part that goes, "Although it's slow going, but there's the 00:23:00.400 |
I was like, one day I was just like thinking about that. 00:23:03.720 |
You know, like change is a little slow and you know, all that stuff, but he's like, he's 00:23:10.280 |
changing us and it might be different paces, but the expectation is there still has to 00:23:19.080 |
And I want to use this as a point here is like, you know, the other day, like I was 00:23:26.280 |
spoon feeding Emmett and Bia just looked at me and said, "Let him feed himself." 00:23:32.680 |
And then she's like, "Yeah, he's already over two." 00:23:42.600 |
He's actually, Emmett is more, I guess, coordinated than Yoshi is, but he totally knows how to 00:24:02.440 |
You know, so there's other kids, you know, when they do stuff like hit the baseball off 00:24:08.400 |
When they do stuff like say string together sentences, it's great. 00:24:12.480 |
Even if they have that, like they can't pronounce the R's and it sounds like W's and all that 00:24:20.640 |
But if a 20 year old guy pronounces R's like W's, they're not going to say, "Oh, that's 00:24:33.640 |
It's like, "Uh, no one talked to you about that?" 00:24:38.080 |
And if they're still hitting off the tee, it's not cute. 00:24:41.520 |
If they're still running to second base rather than first base, it's not cute. 00:24:44.820 |
If they still don't know how to feed themselves, it's not cute. 00:24:59.040 |
It wasn't so much just a simple existence of flesh. 00:25:07.800 |
We all struggle with the stains of our previous life. 00:25:19.080 |
That's where I think, okay, Apostle Paul's a bit frustrated. 00:25:28.840 |
And we have to hear that sometimes, you know? 00:25:31.280 |
I hear guys when I ask them questions, I just don't like this statement. 00:25:36.600 |
It's like when I ask them, "How are you doing?" 00:25:55.740 |
If I don't talk to my wife, Bia, for three months, I don't say, "Oh yeah, our relationship's 00:26:01.120 |
No, our relationship's about to crash and go to the pits and she's gonna leave me, you 00:26:06.680 |
As time goes by, things just don't stay the same. 00:26:14.200 |
Your relationship with God does not stay the same. 00:26:25.040 |
And I think that's what Apostle Paul is frustrated with these men. 00:26:29.760 |
And I want you guys to just think about that a little bit, you know? 00:26:33.840 |
The expectation for us, I feel like in recent days, there has been this kind of like wide-scale 00:26:44.200 |
And there was this commentator on the blogs who said, "You know, there exists in this 00:26:47.600 |
day and age of failureism where they almost like just kind of acknowledge and then accept 00:26:54.640 |
the fact there's just gonna be a whole lot of failure. 00:26:57.880 |
And so the only thing we can say about it is it's okay because you're in Christ." 00:27:02.200 |
For me, Apostle Paul is not convincing them of their position in Christ to say, "Oh, you're 00:27:10.120 |
in Christ and so therefore everything's okay." 00:27:12.920 |
Apostle Paul's not talking about position, he's talking about practice. 00:27:19.600 |
Are these people Christians that he's talking to? 00:27:21.480 |
I think so because he says, "Brethren," and he says, "in Christ." 00:27:27.880 |
So the point being here again is what Apostle Paul expects is maturity from the Christian. 00:27:40.200 |
Any questions about verses one through four, the first paragraph? 00:27:53.640 |
Let's read it first and it says, "What then is Apollos?" 00:27:58.040 |
So you can see from here that he connects this section with the verses in chapter one, 00:28:10.560 |
He asks this question and then he answers, "Servants through whom you believed, even 00:28:17.920 |
I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 00:28:22.100 |
So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes 00:28:27.880 |
Now, he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according 00:28:35.240 |
For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building." 00:28:39.240 |
All right, we're going to ask a question, a broad question, and we're going to leave 00:28:45.880 |
it to B. And the question is, what's the main point he's making? 00:28:51.560 |
And then secondly, how is this point connecting with the first paragraph, verses one through 00:28:58.920 |
In order to answer that question, let's look at just the details. 00:29:04.360 |
So verse five says, "What is Apollos and what is Paul?" 00:29:07.840 |
I know this again is kind of a more obvious question, but I want you guys to think about 00:29:13.800 |
How does Paul view himself and his fellow teachers like Apollos? 00:29:31.640 |
If I didn't leave three blanks in there, Kevin just added another one. 00:29:38.040 |
How does Apostle Paul view himself and the fellow teachers? 00:29:41.560 |
He views himself and Apollos, who is Apostle Paul's understudy. 00:29:59.600 |
Whereas perhaps the church people were looking at them like, "Oh, he's my leader. 00:30:08.960 |
Apostle Paul looked at himself like, "I am your servant. 00:30:17.560 |
I don't want you to necessarily milk it, but there's some other stuff you can draw from 00:30:21.200 |
how he views himself and his fellow teachers. 00:30:56.120 |
So I think for me, the point here, the reason why I asked that question is because the point 00:31:01.240 |
in verse five through nine, he's giving them how he is viewing the scenario. 00:31:08.120 |
The problem was these church guys had a really worldly way of viewing their involvement in 00:31:17.800 |
And in so doing, we gain that his perspective on himself and the fellow coworkers is very 00:31:35.320 |
Sometimes my nature wants to run things like a business at the church. 00:31:41.480 |
This guy's like this and this guy has this and this guy has that. 00:31:43.840 |
And then when this guy gives an order, just execute, you know? 00:31:48.320 |
And not only that, but a lot of people in ministry, they do want a title because title 00:31:55.560 |
You know, you get treated when you have a title pastor or have a title deacon or have 00:32:00.000 |
a title of this and that, servant team leader, whatever. 00:32:03.300 |
It does make a practical difference on how people treat and view you. 00:32:09.920 |
So by way of confession, all of those intricate kind of balances exist, right? 00:32:16.160 |
Now what's challenging is apostle Paul has a very counterintuitive, has a very clear 00:32:26.760 |
But more importantly, he has a clear view of God. 00:32:30.200 |
My question to you is, how does apostle Paul view God in this scenario? 00:32:36.160 |
If you had to choose one word, how is God seen in this scenario? 00:32:48.360 |
Looking at the passage, you can even use the gardening example metaphor. 00:33:09.960 |
Because he's the one who gives the people the task. 00:33:16.880 |
It's kind of like, when we say, "Oh, someone so and so gave me an opportunity," we're saying 00:33:23.480 |
This person gave us this networking thing and he gave us a way in. 00:33:26.440 |
That person probably is in a hiring position. 00:33:30.720 |
What's more than that too though, is letter C, God caused the growth. 00:33:38.580 |
To do that, basically this is, perhaps this doesn't feel or doesn't sound like, "Oh wow," 00:33:46.000 |
But how many people do you know who can guarantee success? 00:33:54.920 |
They'll promise you, "Oh, if you make this investment, I think it's going to be double 00:34:02.120 |
Or they'll say, "I promise you this is going to be a win-win. 00:34:20.840 |
And I love that about Apostle Paul's perspective. 00:34:24.400 |
For us, although we know in reality we're not in control of the results, we always think 00:34:33.280 |
If I put in the time, the results will happen. 00:34:36.360 |
If I exert this kind of energy, if I invest that, then the results will come. 00:34:40.600 |
And then, when the results aren't there, you know what we're prone to do? 00:35:01.800 |
He says, "So then neither the one who plants or the one who waters is anything but God 00:35:18.680 |
So the takeaway point really, again, is verse 7. 00:35:23.360 |
And in defining it, he says that they're truly nothing. 00:35:28.160 |
Only people who've been given an opportunity. 00:35:29.880 |
I want to highlight something for you, which is really interesting. 00:35:32.360 |
Is when he defines him and his fellow teachers as servants, it is a different term that you 00:35:41.840 |
And you know how college has a doulos team, which is basically the literal translation 00:36:00.140 |
If you were in a house and you had a boy who served you food, that would be his title. 00:36:05.860 |
If you had a restaurant and there was a guy bossing the dishes and cleaning the tables 00:36:09.360 |
and washing it in the back, his title would be diakonai. 00:36:15.640 |
And literally it's just a person who's serving the thing. 00:36:20.440 |
And I think this is getting at now, for me, the question of how does all this teaching 00:36:25.500 |
about Apostle Paul and Paulus and being servants, how does it connect with before? 00:36:32.920 |
Here are these people struggling with pride and jealousy. 00:36:36.480 |
Struggling to make more of themselves, to have more for themselves. 00:36:44.280 |
Do you go to a restaurant and be like, 'Hey, we want to name this restaurant after you.' 00:36:48.320 |
Like if Mark Lim was the servant and then John Kim was the master chef, you don't name 00:37:08.380 |
The restaurant, the foodies and stuff, they don't go over and shake the hand of the servant 00:37:16.840 |
No, they say to the master chef, it was so nice to come into your restaurant and eat 00:37:23.260 |
And so Apostle Paul is giving them a perspective that's truly humble. 00:37:28.040 |
As opposed to the way that they were thinking, Apostle Paul is giving them what was truly 00:37:35.680 |
And so a couple of the things that are humble perspective. 00:37:39.600 |
Apostle Paul's humble perspective about his work. 00:37:50.400 |
You know guys who do something and they're so like mega, mega, mega insecure whether it'll 00:37:58.400 |
Typically that's just, again, the way the view their work is they weight it very heavily 00:38:04.460 |
as it defines them and men struggle with it a lot. 00:38:07.260 |
Their work is a measure of their accomplishment, success and therefore everything about them. 00:38:13.120 |
Well Apostle Paul has a very humble perspective about his work. 00:38:18.160 |
When he talks about his planting and his watering, I mean humanistically speaking, is that all 00:38:29.120 |
I just went over there, planted a seed and just packed the soil. 00:38:40.200 |
He sacrificed all his possessions, his health. 00:38:45.720 |
He was chastised and persecuted and cast out from his society. 00:38:54.840 |
Doesn't that seem like a really, really understatement of what he has done? 00:39:00.760 |
But Apostle Paul's perspective is very humble, is it not? 00:39:05.280 |
What's more, I want to ask you this question. 00:39:16.360 |
What's more though, really is the way that he thinks about his work. 00:39:23.880 |
We typically think about our work as our work is our contribution. 00:39:32.440 |
So if I give you 10 hours, I better get paid for 10 hours. 00:39:39.200 |
I don't know how many people are willing to go into their office and be like, "You can 00:39:49.600 |
As a matter of fact, if they don't pay you for that extra hour you stay in the day, you're 00:39:53.000 |
going to be like, "Time to look for another job." 00:39:58.400 |
But Apostle Paul, when he thinks about his work, he's not demanding to get paid then 00:40:15.320 |
And as a matter of fact, Apostle Paul says to many, many churches, "I could have asked 00:40:25.880 |
To me, it's not just a simple like, "Oh, of course, planting pasture has to be like that." 00:40:32.400 |
I think it indicated his humility and perspective towards his own work. 00:40:39.280 |
Next, when you think about this next phrase in verse 9, "For we are God's fellow workers. 00:41:01.040 |
The next blank I have is Apostle Paul's humble perspective about his success. 00:41:10.400 |
Earlier someone mentioned that Apostle Paul views himself in the same light as his fellow 00:41:18.000 |
Well, for me, when I read verse 8, it says, "Now he who plants and he who waters are one." 00:41:24.160 |
Commentators have so many different views about this. 00:41:38.080 |
Are they one simply because by nature of being part of one team, Jesus' team, being all a 00:41:44.040 |
part of Jesus' master, boss, and then his workers' team? 00:41:52.120 |
But for me, what's really interesting is I thought about this passage as thinking about 00:42:02.600 |
Because for him, he completely recognizes that each individual is only contributing 00:42:13.280 |
And so in so doing, the results, how it plays out, what they're contributing to, the success 00:42:18.080 |
that they have, they all share in the exact same way. 00:42:29.160 |
When I just read a moment ago verse 9, "For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's 00:42:33.680 |
field, you are God's building," you realize now all of a sudden, there's like metaphors 00:42:41.680 |
So he started describing the whole gardening scene, he started describing the field scene, 00:42:45.680 |
he started describing that, and then he says also building, like construction scene. 00:42:59.920 |
What are these metaphors meant to place in view for us? 00:43:59.440 |
What truth are these metaphors all trying to highlight? 00:44:05.800 |
So she said God is the one who grows a church, God is the one who basically gives a church 00:44:15.760 |
God is the one who gives a church its growth. 00:44:22.720 |
And not only just generally about God, but the fact that God, in verse 9, what do you 00:44:32.160 |
We're God's fellow workers, we're God's field, God's building. 00:44:46.720 |
I heard a mumble so I'm looking over there, but I don't know who mumbled it. 00:45:00.600 |
And so for that little Apostle Paul's humble perspective about God, there is a humble perspective 00:45:11.200 |
you have, and in my mind, the most humble perspective is the perspective that's true 00:45:20.880 |
What do you have that you do not receive from the Lord? 00:45:24.920 |
What did you do with your hands that you create? 00:45:30.280 |
But I am God's, the field is God's, the building is God's, all of this is God's. 00:45:35.280 |
If you're sitting here and trying to give credit, and by giving credit to a man, you 00:45:39.520 |
also get to enjoy that credit, you just have reality all wrong. 00:45:47.840 |
If by elevating this man, if by joining that clan, you hope to somehow share in that glory 00:45:54.840 |
of what they've built, what they've done, who they've taught, you've got reality all 00:46:01.200 |
According to the Apostle Paul, all glory belongs to God because everything is his. 00:46:07.520 |
So I think this is a good tie into what he's been teaching ever since chapter one. 00:46:17.200 |
By way of review, by way of review, in verse one through four, he was again battling and 00:46:24.720 |
reiterating the idea that the men are struggling with the sin of division, both because of 00:46:30.640 |
the external pressures of worldly wisdom and their internal flesh. 00:46:40.560 |
The basic point in verses five through nine is, we are nothing, God is boss. 00:46:46.720 |
If you find jealousy in your heart, the sense in which you have to remind yourself, who 00:46:53.160 |
am I that I think I deserve what that guy has? 00:47:00.840 |
Who do I think I am that I can demand of God and be unhappy that he didn't give me? 00:47:06.600 |
When you find a jealous heart, we have to remember this truth. 00:47:13.280 |
I want to conclude by a little encouragement here. 00:47:18.000 |
I do like the fact, and I'm encouraged by the fact, that in verse one of chapter three, 00:47:28.600 |
he does say, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as to men of 00:47:37.600 |
The reason why I'm encouraged by that verse is because, although Apostle Paul could not 00:47:44.120 |
speak to the men like mature adults, it seems that Apostle Paul spoke as a mature adult. 00:47:52.000 |
Because he didn't speak as Lord over them, he spoke as a brother. 00:47:58.400 |
And he recognizes that they are in Christ, but nonetheless, they're acting and behaving 00:48:07.320 |
In my mind, I'm encouraged by that because I'm reminded we are a work in progress. 00:48:13.400 |
I'm reminded that God is changing us, but that change is going to take time. 00:48:17.840 |
It's going to take constant reflection, village and prayer, and all of that, sobriety, and 00:48:26.040 |
But Apostle Paul, again, in the way that he rebukes them, he has this interesting balance. 00:48:32.600 |
Can he legitimately be frustrated with the people? 00:48:36.080 |
You know, he invested so much into them, but nonetheless, he doesn't come off like, "And 00:48:42.240 |
I don't want to deal with you people anymore." 00:48:45.200 |
He calls them brethren, he appeals to them, and he encourages them. 00:48:54.160 |
You guys can jump into your small groups for discussion. 00:48:58.160 |
You know, typical questions, were there anything that stood out to you? 00:49:02.680 |
I have an interesting question here, letter D. How can you strive to have a legitimately 00:49:07.960 |
strong and consistently mature practice of faith without being all arrogant about it? 00:49:16.880 |
And I find that some people have a hard time with that. 00:49:18.880 |
It's kind of like, they have a hard time, let's say, rebuking or correcting somebody 00:49:23.260 |
the way Apostle Paul would, because they're always kind of on the lines of saying, "I 00:49:27.800 |
know too, and we all struggle," and they almost always have to preface with like, "I'm the 00:49:34.720 |
You know, we're just brothers, both like at the bottom of the wall, and we're climbing 00:49:40.200 |
But I don't necessarily think that has to be true either. 00:49:42.320 |
There are people who are legitimately stronger in the faith than others, and there are people 00:49:46.760 |
who legitimately have practiced righteousness, and so they have a practical, just, you know, 00:49:54.440 |
greater application of living out of the faith. 00:49:58.120 |
But how do you do that without getting all prideful? 00:50:01.280 |
The other question that's not on here that you guys can talk about is, you know, in line 00:50:06.840 |
with this, there's this concept of, if someone were to ask you, "So these people are described 00:50:12.200 |
as carnal, like fleshly, but you're saying that they're still Christian. 00:50:19.400 |
We know that, okay, that kind of anomaly and paradox exists in the Christian life. 00:50:25.080 |
You're still in the flesh, but your spirit is new, and the Holy Spirit is in you, but 00:50:28.480 |
you're still flesh, so it's like, you know, joining of the holy and the flesh and whatnot. 00:50:38.320 |
And I know at our church, Pastor Peter, I've said so many times, like, "Yes, some people 00:50:41.520 |
say there's nominal Christians, and there's plateauing Christians, and there's carnal 00:50:46.280 |
You know, he's preached many times before, like, "That doesn't exist! 00:50:50.000 |
You can't be carnal for all your life and then still call yourself Christian. 00:50:53.040 |
How do you reconcile those thoughts is basically what I'm saying." 00:51:02.960 |
About the summary is, "You are nothing, God is boss." 00:51:07.160 |
Alright, let's pray, and then you guys can jump into your small group discussions.