God's Fellow Workers

God’s Fellow Workers

Third in Lent

Collect of the Day: Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 3

Homily: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

3 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

A young minister went to a country Baptist church. The first Sunday the church had dinner on the grounds. One of the deacons was asked to lead in prayer. He said, “Lord thank you for sending us a young, humble, and poor minster. He’s young and doesn’t have a lick of sense, so we won’t pay much attention to him. He’s humble, and we ask you to keep him humble, though we’ll do our part. And, Lord, he’s poor. You don’t need to worry about that. We can keep him that way ourselves.”

How should we think about ministers?

1. Paul’s Accusation

When you’re a teenager and and wanting nothing so much as to be an adult, there is no worse put-down than, “Why don’t you grow up!” It’s bad when an adult says it to you, but it’s worse when an older, cooler teengager says it.

Paul accurately accuses the Corinthians of being carnal, or fleshly rather than spiritual. Fleshliness is thinking and acting like a person who is not a Christian, whose life is not directed by the Holy Spirit. You’re not surprised when new converts think and act like non-believers. Their transformation has just begun. But you’re concerned when those who have been Christians a good while are still thinking and acting like unbelievers.

Paul says also that they are infants, or baby Christians. His proof is that he cannot feed them spiritual food but must give them spiritual milk. It is no worry at all that a baby takes only milk - that’s what you expect. But, when a child is 10 years old and till taking the bottle and no solid food, you know there is a problem. There is a health problem. Paul is concerned that the Corinthians, who are no longer chronologically baby Christians are still babies. He had spent a year and a half with them in the early 50s and now it is several years later.They have not been ready, and still are not ready for the spiritual food that nourishes growth.

If you read 1 Corinthians there is evidence everywhere of the extreme immaturity of the Christians of this church. There is a man in the church who is living in an illicit relationship with his mother-in-law, and the church has done not a thing about it. Some of them have taken others in the church before secular courts rather than resolving problems with the help of the church. Some have not come to terms with Christian sexual morality and are involved with prostitutes. The more wealthy members eat till they are full and drink till they’re intoxicated at the Lord’s Supper while the poorer members are embarrassed by how little they are able to bring. They have the gifts of the Spirit, but the way they use them creates chaos in worship. Some of them believe that the resurrection is spiritual, not physical, and has already happened. They are believers in Christ and the Holy Spirit lives in them, but think like unbelievers who do not have the Spirit.

In chapter 3 points to disunity as evidence of the churches fleshliness and immaturity. “For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” Where do jealousy and strife come from? Does the Holy Spirit produce these things? Of course not! These things come from the fleshly nature - from the nature that is not sanctified and guided by the Spirit but by the sinful nature. Wherever you see division among God’s people - if it is not required by God’s truth and righteousness, you can be sure it is not produced by the Holy Spirit but the sinful nature.

The evidence of their jealousy and strife is the way they think about and relate to those who have ministered the Gospel to them. Some say, “I follow Paul,” who had planted the church. Some say, “I follow Apollos, a very eloquent preacher who had ministered in Corinth after Paul. In chapter one Paul says that some also said, “I am a follower of Peter” who was one of the original Apostles who had traveled to Corinth. And some, who  tried to top all, said, “Why I don’t follow Paul or Apollos or Peter. I follow Christ!”

Mixed with all their fleshly thinking and acting was arrogance. Even their forming factions formed around Paul, Apollos, Peter, and Christ was an expression of arrogance.

It is a very serious thing to say to Christians, “You think and behave like non-believers. You are not guided by the Holy Spirit but by the old sinful nature. But this is exactly the accusation Paul makes against the Corinthians.

2. Explanation

To show the how absurd their way of thinking Paul asks a question: “What then is Paul? What is Apollos?” What is the role of a minister?

The answer is, “They are servants through whom you believed.” They are not leaders of factions or groups. They are servants. Servants of Christ. Christ called them to serve him by serving his church. They are men through whom you came to believe in Christ.

That is a very high view of the ministry. Through ministers people become Christians. How does that happen? Primarily by their ministry of the Word and Sacraments. Paul puts the Word first because God is pleased by the foolishness of the preaching of a crucified Christ to save those who believe. Paul does not denigrate the sacraments, but because the Corinthians had formed rival groups based on who baptized them, Paul was thankful he had not baptized very many of them. Still God uses the Word and sacraments to bring people to salvation. Ministers are indispensable. They are servants through whom people believe and are saved.

Each minister carries out his particular ministry according to God’s assignment - because he is God’s servant. Paul pictures the church as a field that God’s owns and where God is growing crops. In the case of the church in Corinth, God, as were said to Paul, “Paul I want you to go plant that field with the seed of the Word.” Later he said to Apollos, “Apollos, I am sending you to the field that Paul planted. I want you to water it, so the crop will grow.”

That too is a very high view of the ministry. You might have a few stalks of corn come up volunteer. But, if you are going to plant and harvest a field, you have got to have workers. Seed has to be planted. Plants have to be cultivated. The crop has to be harvested. This is what ministers do in God’s field, the church.

But there is another factor to consider. Only God gives growth. No farmhand has ever produced so much kernel of corn. That is God’s work. God chooses to work through servants, his ministers. But no minister has ever caused the seed of the Word to germinate, grow, and produce a crop. That is entirely God’s work. Ministers must never forget that. Parishes must never forget.

All ministers who are called by God are involved in one work. The minister of a parish of 1000s is doing the same work as the minister of the parish of 10s. All are God’s fieldhands. All work in the same field, and it belongs to God. All will be rewarded by God in the world to come according to his evaluation. Some unimportant and obscure ministers may be rewarded more greatly by God than some important and prominent ones.  God’s evaluations are often different from man’s.

There are two mistakes that Christians and churches make about ministers.

One is to make too much of them - to attribute to them power and effectiveness that belong to God alone and to give them God’s glory and praise. This often happens today with the mega churches that have celebrity pastors. But it also can happen in a small parish where some may think that some minister is indispensable.

The other mistake is make too little to of them - to say, “Well ministers are good to have, but we have our Bibles, and the Holy Spirit lives in us, and we can make up our own minds, and our private relationship with God is much more important than anything we get from a minister.” Some treat ministers as dispensable, and they show it in way they respect and provide for them, and most important in not receiving with faith and submission the Word ministers proclaim.

But the biggest mistake we make is to think of the church as ours to do with as we please. The church is God’s and he does not transfer ownership to others. Fr. Rich and I are field hands. You are God’s field. And all is God’s.