with true spirituality
Series: Breaking the Chains
Speaker: Steve Jeffrey
Date: 11th May 2014
Passage: 1 Corinthians 3:1-23
00:00:00 --> 00:00:05 If you've got a free moment this afternoon, take a look at the WikiHow article, How to
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 Become More Spiritual.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 It begins with this introduction.
00:00:12 --> 00:00:17 Do you sometimes feel like you've lost yourself or that you're not really yourself at all?
00:00:18 --> 00:00:22 Or do you simply want to grow or become who you should be?
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 Here are some tips to help.
00:00:25 --> 00:00:31 Then it goes on and suggests 12 things on how to become more spiritual.
00:00:31 --> 00:00:32 So I'll mention just a few.
00:00:33 --> 00:00:37 Number one, go to a place with no noise at all and sit down.
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 Number two, start meditating.
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 You can sit in a yoga position if you would like.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:48 Presumably you're able to get into a yoga position.
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 Number three, clear your mind of all thoughts.
00:00:52 --> 00:00:56 Easier for some than others, I suspect.
00:00:56 --> 00:01:02 Number six, list some of your life goals and celebrate if you've achieved them.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 Create steps to progress with goals still remaining.
00:01:07 --> 00:01:08 Say a prayer.
00:01:08 --> 00:01:09 Sing a song.
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 Take a break and hop around a bit.
00:01:13 --> 00:01:14 It actually says that.
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 Number nine, some additional spiritual goals.
00:01:18 --> 00:01:20 Explore other belief systems.
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 Sacrifice and accept the sacrifice of others.
00:01:23 --> 00:01:27 Develop an open mind in order to develop a closed mind.
00:01:28 --> 00:01:31 If someone can explain that one for me, I'd be very grateful.
00:01:32 --> 00:01:33 And so the list goes on.
00:01:34 --> 00:01:39 Interesting, there's no need to mention God or any particular truth claim, let alone to mention Jesus.
00:01:40 --> 00:01:45 There is a similar article called How to be Spiritual Without Being Religious.
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 Its introduction says,
00:01:48 --> 00:01:55 We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart,
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 of which there is no duplication.
00:01:59 --> 00:02:06 That is, you're finding your way in a lost world with your own map that you've created.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 The world is all gates.
00:02:10 --> 00:02:11 It's all opportunities.
00:02:11 --> 00:02:16 Have you looked into organised religion and still found something missing?
00:02:16 --> 00:02:23 Well, here are some ways to connect with a higher power on your own terms.
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 That pretty much sums up the mood of our society.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:31 I don't know if you've noticed it, but here in Sydney, being religious has gone out of fashion.
00:02:32 --> 00:02:36 That includes Christianity, whereas being spiritual is actually in.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:45 To be religious is to be judgmental, repressed, uptight, but to be spiritual is to be in touch with your feelings,
00:02:45 --> 00:02:51 to be free-spirited, to be tranquil, to be individualistic, and to be well-rounded,
00:02:51 --> 00:02:56 but without necessarily believing in anything in particular.
00:02:56 --> 00:03:02 The surprising thing is, all this would have gone down really well in first century Corinth.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 It was a trendy to be spiritual in Corinth.
00:03:07 --> 00:03:18 Being in Greece, Corinth held strongly to Greek ideals of individualism, equality, freedom, and distrust of authority.
00:03:18 --> 00:03:26 And so if you mix that with Corinth being a major trading place for the Roman Empire,
00:03:26 --> 00:03:30 with people pouring in for business from all over the world,
00:03:31 --> 00:03:40 the culture of Corinth becomes a melting pot of cultures and morals and philosophies.
00:03:40 --> 00:03:44 And spirituality.
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 I wouldn't have gone down very well in Corinth.
00:03:51 --> 00:03:55 And so what Paul does here in this letter is he writes with a real sense of urgency.
00:03:56 --> 00:04:00 He has spent two years in Corinth, but as soon as he's gone,
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 some people started to lose their way pretty quickly.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:08 Basically, they were being marinated in the culture of Corinth.
00:04:10 --> 00:04:15 The flavour of Corinth was permeating the church.
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 Individuality and freedom to be your own person was in.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 They started thinking about their own spiritual needs.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:28 They started to form factions behind leaders based on personalities and giftedness
00:04:28 --> 00:04:32 and personal preferences and how great they handled language.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:41 Each considered whichever group they were in to be the most spiritual, the most wise, the most godly.
00:04:42 --> 00:04:48 It's like there's a new reality TV show at Corinth, My Spirituality Rules.
00:04:49 --> 00:04:55 And as we pick it up in chapter 3, Paul tells them here how to be really spiritual.
00:04:55 --> 00:05:02 We'll see that spirituality here, it's not an airy fairy thing.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 It's not about essential oils and candles around a bathtub.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:12 It isn't about stopping from daily life and retreating to a quiet place,
00:05:12 --> 00:05:16 selling up everything, moving to the bush, cutting out meat and growing your own veggies,
00:05:17 --> 00:05:21 contemplating the universe and everything in splendid isolation.
00:05:21 --> 00:05:28 The Bible describes something that is dynamic and solid and real and rational and life changing.
00:05:29 --> 00:05:38 To be spiritual is to understand what God has done for us in sending Jesus to die instead of us on a cross
00:05:38 --> 00:05:41 and living in a way that's shaped by that.
00:05:42 --> 00:05:46 And living in a way with other people that is shaped by that.
00:05:46 --> 00:05:52 It is what Jesus called his disciples to do, to take up your cross and follow him.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 True spirituality is fundamentally practical.
00:05:56 --> 00:05:59 And so Paul begins chapter 3 with brothers.
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 There's a hard rebuke coming in chapter 3,
00:06:04 --> 00:06:09 but he softens the rebuke by affectionately calling the people he's rebuking brothers.
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 He's speaking to his brothers in Christ here.
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 He says in verse 1,
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:24 Me infants in Christ, I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.
00:06:24 --> 00:06:25 Now that's expected.
00:06:26 --> 00:06:27 He's not rebuking them there.
00:06:28 --> 00:06:32 They were new to Christ when he was there and their baby steps are expected.
00:06:32 --> 00:06:44 Until this recent cool snap, my two-year-old Amelia had a habit of removing her shirt
00:06:44 --> 00:06:47 and quite happily spending the rest of the day like that.
00:06:48 --> 00:06:53 She got it from Bailey Lowe, who apparently picked it up from his father.
00:06:53 --> 00:07:00 Millie, however, took it a little bit further.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:05 On occasion, she preferred to remove all of her clothes and run around the backyard.
00:07:06 --> 00:07:12 And not long, her elder sisters followed her example and did exactly the same thing.
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 Now I've got to confess, as their dad, I struggle with this a bit.
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 Now I don't mind it in moderation in the house,
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 but I struggle with it in the backyard.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:27 And I struggle with it a little more when someone visits
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 and little Millie insists on performing a dance routine.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 It's kind of embarrassing.
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 I struggle with it, but I put up with it.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:42 But I'm happy to go on record and say that if this pattern of behaviour continues,
00:07:43 --> 00:07:47 there will be a day when I won't be happy with it.
00:07:47 --> 00:07:51 Getting your gear off is okay for a toddler,
00:07:51 --> 00:07:55 but a day is coming when it won't be appropriate behaviour.
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 And that's what Paul is saying here.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:03 There comes a point when you've got to grow up
00:08:03 --> 00:08:08 and you've got to put your babyish behaviour behind you
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 and it's embarrassing and it's inappropriate.
00:08:11 --> 00:08:12 And that's their problem.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:13 See what he says next?
00:08:13 --> 00:08:17 Indeed, you are still not ready.
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 You are still worldly.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:23 For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you,
00:08:23 --> 00:08:24 are you not worldly?
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 Are you not acting like mere men?
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 For when one says, I follow Paul,
00:08:29 --> 00:08:30 another says, I follow Apollos,
00:08:32 --> 00:08:33 are you not mere men?
00:08:33 --> 00:08:35 Are you not acting like babies?
00:08:35 --> 00:08:40 They've been Christians for ages,
00:08:40 --> 00:08:45 but they're still behaving in a way that doesn't fit with the cross-shaped life.
00:08:45 --> 00:08:50 He calls them here worldly and he calls them mere men twice.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:55 Now remember, the perspective of Paul is addressing this church as brothers.
00:08:56 --> 00:08:58 And so he isn't saying that they're not Christian.
00:08:58 --> 00:08:59 He's not saying that.
00:08:59 --> 00:09:03 The distinction he makes in this chapter is between the Christian controlled by the flesh
00:09:03 --> 00:09:07 and the Christian that is controlled by the Spirit of God.
00:09:08 --> 00:09:13 The King James Version, it uses the term carnal here.
00:09:14 --> 00:09:17 And many have picked up the idea since then as the carnal Christian.
00:09:18 --> 00:09:23 And some have even described the carnal Christian as a person who has accepted Jesus as their saviour,
00:09:24 --> 00:09:25 but not as their Lord.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:29 The New Testament doesn't know of such a distinction.
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 You cannot have Jesus as your saviour if he's not your Lord.
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 The New Testament doesn't know that distinction.
00:09:37 --> 00:09:40 Paul doesn't have in mind here two classes of Christian.
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 He's not looking out at the church of Corinth and going,
00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 spiritual carnal, carnal, spiritual, spiritual carnal, carnal, carnal.
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 That's not what he's doing here.
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 He's actually saying this is an issue for all Christians,
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 a question for all of us.
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 What is controlling us?
00:10:00 --> 00:10:07 Are we being led by our natural desires or are we being led by the Spirit of God?
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 Paul has something similar in Galatians chapter 5
00:10:10 --> 00:10:14 when he addresses the characteristics of the sinful nature
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 against those of the fruit of the Spirit.
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 And he says these things, he says things like,
00:10:19 --> 00:10:29 the acts of the sinful nature include things like jealousy, dissension, factions, envy.
00:10:29 --> 00:10:33 The issues of Corinth.
00:10:33 --> 00:10:42 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
00:10:42 --> 00:10:47 Paul doesn't have in mind for us to go through a list like that and go,
00:10:47 --> 00:10:48 well, I'm patient, need to work on self.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:50 You know, I'm...
00:10:50 --> 00:10:56 The idea of the fruit of the Spirit is that we would grow in all of them at the same time.
00:10:56 --> 00:11:00 That's what separates the fruit of the Spirit.
00:11:00 --> 00:11:05 Some of us are natural, have a tendency towards patience where others don't.
00:11:06 --> 00:11:14 What separates natural tendencies from the fruit of the Spirit is that we grow in all of them at the same time.
00:11:14 --> 00:11:19 And so what Paul does here is he gives these churches a slap in the face.
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 They aren't as spiritual as they think they are.
00:11:23 --> 00:11:29 The Galatians 5 description of the acts of the sinful nature describe the Corinthian church to a T.
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 They're acting like mere men.
00:11:32 --> 00:11:38 The competitive self-promotion culture of Corinth was influencing the church.
00:11:38 --> 00:11:42 They were taking hold of the distinctives of the different leaders
00:11:42 --> 00:11:47 and lining up behind them and moralising the distinctives.
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 It's so easy to do, isn't it?
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 Because frankly, we see differences all around us.
00:11:56 --> 00:12:00 And instead of looking at each other through the lenses of the cross,
00:12:00 --> 00:12:04 we moralise our distinctives.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:09 I'm a traditionalist, and so I'm more orthodox.
00:12:09 --> 00:12:14 Or I'm a non-traditionalist, and so I'm less rigid and therefore more spiritual.
00:12:15 --> 00:12:19 I believe this, so that makes me better than those who hold a different view.
00:12:20 --> 00:12:24 Let me tell you, and I'm not...
00:12:24 --> 00:12:31 I exist as a Sydney Anglican clergyman in a culture where we do that.
00:12:31 --> 00:12:39 Where we moralise our distinctives and form factions and judgements of one another.
00:12:41 --> 00:12:45 That is, we've allowed our culture to permeate us.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:50 Our culture grows more performance-centred each passing year.
00:12:51 --> 00:12:55 Competition infects our play, our school, our sports, our work.
00:12:55 --> 00:13:01 In the workforce, you face longer hours on the job with less security
00:13:01 --> 00:13:06 and more performance-based evaluation than there was ever anticipated a generation ago.
00:13:07 --> 00:13:12 It's unfortunate that the spirit of competition, comparison with one another
00:13:12 --> 00:13:19 and rewards based on merit have overwhelmed many aspects of the Christian life,
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 both individually and corporately.
00:13:21 --> 00:13:28 Far too many Christians think that God relates to them like they're taskmasters
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31 that they know in their jobs and in their homes and their families.
00:13:32 --> 00:13:37 And that they therefore expect daily blessings or daily punishments
00:13:37 --> 00:13:43 based on their assessment of daily levels of faithfulness and obedience to God.
00:13:43 --> 00:13:47 That's just performance thinking of our culture.
00:13:48 --> 00:13:53 That competitiveness infiltrates our relationships with one another.
00:13:53 --> 00:13:59 Our hearts are always looking for a leg up over each other.
00:14:00 --> 00:14:07 We're always trying to climb the next rung up on the ladder over each other.
00:14:07 --> 00:14:12 Deep down inside, we're always looking to be more noble than others.
00:14:12 --> 00:14:19 How often do we roll our eyes inside at each other?
00:14:23 --> 00:14:27 It is very rare for us to see the differences we have in the church
00:14:27 --> 00:14:30 for things like liturgy and music and leadership
00:14:30 --> 00:14:34 and a multitude of other things as secondary issues of personal preference
00:14:34 --> 00:14:37 and not to moralise those issues.
00:14:37 --> 00:14:42 We moralise them.
00:14:42 --> 00:14:43 We put tags on each other.
00:14:43 --> 00:14:44 You're a traditionalist.
00:14:44 --> 00:14:45 You're a consumer.
00:14:46 --> 00:14:52 We create moral significance where there is just simply difference.
00:14:52 --> 00:14:56 And that's what the Corinthians were doing.
00:14:56 --> 00:14:58 I'm a poor guy.
00:14:59 --> 00:15:04 Therefore, I'm better than you guys who follow poor Apollos and Cephas.
00:15:05 --> 00:15:09 And it was squeezing out the gospel of grace.
00:15:09 --> 00:15:17 How liberating it would be when the church decides instead to model a countercultural lifestyle,
00:15:18 --> 00:15:21 loving people unconditionally as Christ did on the cross.
00:15:22 --> 00:15:29 We need to recover the foundational emphasis on gratitude for the grace of God
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 as the primary motivation for everything.
00:15:32 --> 00:15:37 And that is why Paul calls this church to keep looking at the cross.
00:15:39 --> 00:15:47 The doctrine of grace is arguably the watershed that separates Christianity
00:15:47 --> 00:15:51 from all other world religions and systems of philosophical thought.
00:15:51 --> 00:15:57 Factions and divisions based on personal preference are anti-gospel.
00:15:59 --> 00:16:00 They are unspiritual.
00:16:00 --> 00:16:09 The Corinthian church hadn't moved beyond mere human nature.
00:16:11 --> 00:16:16 In the rest of chapter 3, Paul gives this church some perspective on those divisions
00:16:16 --> 00:16:21 in the hope that it will lead them to true spirituality and living this cross-shaped life together.
00:16:21 --> 00:16:24 So very quickly, the first bit of perspective he wants them to see
00:16:24 --> 00:16:27 is that they have misunderstood the nature of leadership.
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29 The leaders are all lining up.
00:16:29 --> 00:16:33 Sorry, the people are all lining up behind leaders and they're fighting with one another.
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 And the leaders that they're lining up behind are all the same.
00:16:37 --> 00:16:41 He takes them in their imaginations into a farmer's paddock.
00:16:41 --> 00:16:41 Verse 4.
00:16:41 --> 00:16:43 What after all is Apollos?
00:16:43 --> 00:16:44 And what is Paul?
00:16:44 --> 00:16:52 Only servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord has assigned to each his task.
00:16:52 --> 00:16:57 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God is the one who made it grow.
00:16:57 --> 00:17:03 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow.
00:17:04 --> 00:17:07 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose,
00:17:07 --> 00:17:10 and each will be watered according to his own labour.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:12 For we are God's fellow workers.
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 You are God's field, God's building.
00:17:15 --> 00:17:23 So Paul's advice here is that our focus should always be on God, on Christ crucified,
00:17:24 --> 00:17:29 and not on our leaders, no matter how loving and gifted and charismatic they are.
00:17:30 --> 00:17:31 He doesn't say that you get rid of them.
00:17:31 --> 00:17:32 It's a relative term here.
00:17:33 --> 00:17:39 He's saying that the leaders are only so good as that they point to the crucified Christ.
00:17:42 --> 00:17:43 That's your focus.
00:17:43 --> 00:17:47 Notice the question, what after all is Apollos?
00:17:47 --> 00:17:48 What after all is Paul?
00:17:48 --> 00:17:50 Not who, but what?
00:17:51 --> 00:17:52 They are servants.
00:17:53 --> 00:17:54 They aren't gurus.
00:17:54 --> 00:17:57 Verse 9 says that they are God's fellow workers.
00:17:57 --> 00:18:02 That is, Paul and Apollos, in their distinctives, in their differences,
00:18:02 --> 00:18:04 are actually in partnership.
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 They are fellow workers.
00:18:06 --> 00:18:11 They are partners owned, possessed by God.
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 They are God's fellow workers.
00:18:15 --> 00:18:16 They're on God's team.
00:18:19 --> 00:18:23 They are creating division in this church where division doesn't exist.
00:18:24 --> 00:18:33 In all their difference, they are being used by God to draw people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:18:33 --> 00:18:41 The second bit of perspective on the divisions that Paul wants to give them in hope that it's going to lead them to this cross-shaped life together
00:18:41 --> 00:18:46 is that God really cares about what you do to his church.
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 Look at verses 10 to 17 with me.
00:18:49 --> 00:18:55 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it.
00:18:55 --> 00:19:03 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.
00:19:03 --> 00:19:08 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,
00:19:08 --> 00:19:12 his work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:18 It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.
00:19:18 --> 00:19:22 If what he has built survives, he'll receive his reward.
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss.
00:19:24 --> 00:19:28 He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
00:19:28 --> 00:19:34 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit lives in you?
00:19:34 --> 00:19:43 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 There are two things going on here.
00:19:47 --> 00:19:54 Primarily, Paul is talking about people like me, people who teach the church and lead the church.
00:19:54 --> 00:19:58 The problem was Paul taught the gospel of the crucified Lord Jesus to the Corinthians,
00:19:59 --> 00:20:02 and then some others came in, not Apollos.
00:20:02 --> 00:20:03 He's friends with Apollos.
00:20:03 --> 00:20:08 Some others have come in and replacing that foundation with something else.
00:20:08 --> 00:20:14 His point is that if you try to build the church with anything else than the gospel of the crucified Christ,
00:20:15 --> 00:20:19 that is, if the doctrine of grace is not foundational,
00:20:20 --> 00:20:25 it is like building a church, building a building with wood, hay, or straw,
00:20:26 --> 00:20:28 and the big bad wolf can come in and blow it over.
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32 It won't survive the testing.
00:20:32 --> 00:20:39 And those who have spent their time building like that have fundamentally wasted their time,
00:20:39 --> 00:20:46 and it will be a terrible shock for them when they have to explain to Jesus what they thought they were doing.
00:20:46 --> 00:20:53 And so the fear here is not condemnation, but lack of commendation.
00:20:54 --> 00:20:58 Paul instead encourages us here to build with gold, silver, and precious stones,
00:20:59 --> 00:21:04 not just because they were inflammable, but because in the ancient world,
00:21:04 --> 00:21:07 that's what you use to build temples.
00:21:09 --> 00:21:13 They didn't build their brick houses and say to themselves,
00:21:13 --> 00:21:14 I've got this marvellous diamond.
00:21:15 --> 00:21:16 Where on earth am I going?
00:21:16 --> 00:21:16 Oh, right.
00:21:17 --> 00:21:18 Great door knocker.
00:21:18 --> 00:21:22 I mean, that's asking for all sorts of problems.
00:21:24 --> 00:21:27 The building that they were called to build here is the temple.
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 What then is the temple that we're called to build?
00:21:30 --> 00:21:32 He makes it clear in verses 16 and 17.
00:21:32 --> 00:21:34 It's there in the words you.
00:21:36 --> 00:21:36 It's plural.
00:21:37 --> 00:21:38 It's people.
00:21:40 --> 00:21:43 He has in here the people of God, the church.
00:21:43 --> 00:21:47 And so this is the bit that applies primarily to people like me.
00:21:48 --> 00:21:50 People like me will be held accountable,
00:21:51 --> 00:21:55 not for the building of renovation works of St. Paul's Chatswood,
00:21:55 --> 00:21:58 but for the people of St. Paul's Chatswood.
00:21:58 --> 00:22:05 And primarily was the crucified Lord Jesus front and centre in life and ministry.
00:22:08 --> 00:22:12 But there's also a more general application that is really for all of us.
00:22:12 --> 00:22:15 It's clear from these verses that if you're a Christian,
00:22:16 --> 00:22:19 then one day you're going to have a face-to-face interview with Jesus
00:22:19 --> 00:22:25 about the way in which you've lived and what you've done, all of us.
00:22:27 --> 00:22:32 This is about whether we have given ourselves to the building up of what God loves.
00:22:32 --> 00:22:37 The word for temple in verses 16 and 17 is quite specific.
00:22:37 --> 00:22:42 It is referring to the part of the temple where God actually dwelt,
00:22:42 --> 00:22:45 the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament temple.
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 And Paul is saying that the church is God's sanctuary.
00:22:49 --> 00:22:51 It's where he dwells with his people.
00:22:52 --> 00:22:53 It is holy turf.
00:22:53 --> 00:22:55 It is sacred stuff.
00:22:55 --> 00:23:01 And they were treating the church something that is so precious to God
00:23:01 --> 00:23:03 as if it was just a toy.
00:23:04 --> 00:23:06 Some cheap toy.
00:23:06 --> 00:23:10 You know, in the past, you know, when my kids, well, they're still little,
00:23:10 --> 00:23:12 I'd walk through, and I still have a tendency to do this,
00:23:12 --> 00:23:17 walk through the China glassware section of David Jones,
00:23:17 --> 00:23:19 which ironically you've got to get to to get to the toy section.
00:23:19 --> 00:23:28 I would grab my kids so they don't touch anything because to them,
00:23:28 --> 00:23:29 this crystal is just a toy.
00:23:30 --> 00:23:35 They don't understand the difference of what is precious and what is not.
00:23:35 --> 00:23:38 And that is the problem with this church at Corinth.
00:23:38 --> 00:23:45 You're treating the church like a toy when it is so fundamentally precious to God.
00:23:45 --> 00:23:51 And that's why there's this serious warning in verse 17.
00:23:51 --> 00:23:58 If you destroy what God loves and where he dwells, he will destroy you.
00:23:58 --> 00:24:01 That is different to the person building with wood, hay, and straw.
00:24:02 --> 00:24:03 Two different people in mind here.
00:24:03 --> 00:24:08 At least the person building with wood and hay and stuff is building something,
00:24:08 --> 00:24:10 and they themselves won't be lost.
00:24:11 --> 00:24:14 The person here is not trying to build.
00:24:14 --> 00:24:15 They're trying to tear down.
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 And God will tear them down.
00:24:20 --> 00:24:21 They will be lost.
00:24:22 --> 00:24:31 And the warning for the Corinthians here is that you can't continue in your mere man divisiveness
00:24:31 --> 00:24:36 because it only ultimately leads in one direction.
00:24:38 --> 00:24:40 The destruction of what God loves.
00:24:41 --> 00:24:43 You can't keep going down that path.
00:24:44 --> 00:24:45 So heed the warning.
00:24:47 --> 00:24:49 If they truly understood how precious the church is to God,
00:24:49 --> 00:24:53 then they would sacrifice to make sure that it was built.
00:24:54 --> 00:24:59 To be truly spiritual people, we need to be passionate about the church that God loves
00:24:59 --> 00:25:02 and is building through the crucified Lord Jesus.
00:25:03 --> 00:25:06 You cannot be truly spiritual in isolation.
00:25:06 --> 00:25:13 Being spiritual is a team thing.
00:25:13 --> 00:25:19 It is to care passionately about God's people and to see them built up into and up in Lord Jesus.
00:25:19 --> 00:25:27 The last bit of perspective of what of their divisions that Paul gives them in the hope they're going to live this cross-shaped life together
00:25:27 --> 00:25:32 is that God has already given us everything that we need.
00:25:32 --> 00:25:39 We don't need to be trying to be trying to be trying to climb higher and push each other down.
00:25:40 --> 00:25:42 We've all got everything we need in Jesus.
00:25:42 --> 00:25:47 Why try and climb over a top of one another?
00:25:48 --> 00:25:53 Why to try and get supremacy and to consider ourselves better than others?
00:25:54 --> 00:25:59 Paul here goes back to the language of wisdom he used before in verse 18.
00:25:59 --> 00:26:05 He's basically saying that you cannot, in those first few verses there,
00:26:05 --> 00:26:08 you cannot make sense of life without Jesus.
00:26:10 --> 00:26:11 Verse 21, he says,
00:26:11 --> 00:26:15 So then, no more boasting about men.
00:26:15 --> 00:26:22 All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future.
00:26:22 --> 00:26:26 All are yours and you are of Christ and Christ is of God.
00:26:26 --> 00:26:35 So these last few verses here are effectively a summary of the first three chapters of 1 Corinthians.
00:26:36 --> 00:26:42 Paul says that grasping what Jesus has done for us on the cross is what makes us wise.
00:26:42 --> 00:26:46 You see, the cross nullifies human wisdom.
00:26:46 --> 00:26:49 It nullifies human boasting and the competition.
00:26:50 --> 00:26:54 It nullifies the divisiveness over who's the greatest, the most spiritual and the most gifted.
00:26:54 --> 00:26:56 See it there in verse 21?
00:26:56 --> 00:26:59 No more boasting about men.
00:27:00 --> 00:27:02 All things are yours.
00:27:04 --> 00:27:08 And then he turns their factions on their head.
00:27:10 --> 00:27:14 Here they are saying, I belong to Paul and I belong to Apollos and I belong to Cephas.
00:27:15 --> 00:27:16 And what does Paul say?
00:27:16 --> 00:27:17 All things are yours.
00:27:17 --> 00:27:19 All things are yours.
00:27:19 --> 00:27:24 Including Paul and Apollos and Cephas.
00:27:25 --> 00:27:26 You don't belong to them.
00:27:26 --> 00:27:27 They belong to you.
00:27:27 --> 00:27:37 The crucified Christ has made them your servants to lead you into every blessing in Christ.
00:27:37 --> 00:27:50 The way Paul goes on here to define all things in verses 21 and 22 leaves little room for us to exclude any blessing.
00:27:50 --> 00:27:51 Paul takes them.
00:27:51 --> 00:27:56 Paul takes them back to his introduction in chapter 1.
00:27:56 --> 00:28:06 The grace of God to them in the crucified Lord Jesus has enriched them in every possible way.
00:28:06 --> 00:28:10 It's enriched them.
00:28:10 --> 00:28:13 All things are theirs.
00:28:13 --> 00:28:21 This is a promise that sets us free to live in light of the cross.
00:28:21 --> 00:28:29 Grasping what Jesus has done for us means that we will see that God has made us part of his family.
00:28:30 --> 00:28:32 Not because of anything that we have done.
00:28:32 --> 00:28:35 And that he hasn't held anything back from us.
00:28:36 --> 00:28:47 Grace, by grace he has given us everything that we need for life, health, for safety, rest, for relationships.
00:28:47 --> 00:28:52 The cross sets us free to see things as they really are.
00:28:52 --> 00:29:02 The cross sets us free to enjoy life now and to be able to cope with the small annoying pressures of daily life.
00:29:03 --> 00:29:07 And the enormous life changing pressures of a daily life.
00:29:08 --> 00:29:10 The cross helps us to cope with the fear of death.
00:29:10 --> 00:29:20 Everything we need to live for God now has been handed to us on a plate in Jesus.
00:29:23 --> 00:29:25 God says we are his.
00:29:26 --> 00:29:28 He belongs to Jesus.
00:29:29 --> 00:29:31 And there is nothing else we need.
00:29:31 --> 00:29:42 To the degree that we belong to Jesus, all these blessings belong to us.
00:29:42 --> 00:29:49 To the degree that we are shaped by the cross, these blessings belong to us.
00:29:49 --> 00:29:57 The gospel breaks the chains of competitiveness and the divisions that they cause.
00:29:57 --> 00:30:01 The gospel makes it a level playing field.
00:30:02 --> 00:30:03 Equal in Christ.
00:30:05 --> 00:30:11 Look at the cross and see that God, what he has given you, that he's given you everything in Jesus.
00:30:12 --> 00:30:14 And so live in a way that fits with that.
00:30:14 --> 00:30:15 That is true spirituality.
00:30:17 --> 00:30:23 There is a very clear reason why we have treasured Jesus written in the middle of our mission statement as a church.
00:30:23 --> 00:30:33 True spirituality is about grasping what Jesus has done for us on the cross and living in a way that fits with that.
00:30:34 --> 00:30:40 True spirituality is about treasuring Jesus above everything.
00:30:44 --> 00:30:50 To make it even more explicit for us as a church, we have a core value called treasuring Jesus together.
00:30:50 --> 00:31:03 It exists to remind us daily to do battle against the things that will destroy the church, the things that were threatening to destroy the church at Corinth.
00:31:04 --> 00:31:09 And cause us to grow up into true spirituality together.
00:31:09 --> 00:31:11 It says,
00:31:11 --> 00:31:12 It says,
00:31:12 --> 00:31:42
00:31:42 --> 00:32:12
00:32:12 --> 00:32:14 It says,
00:32:14 --> 00:32:16 It says,
00:32:16 --> 00:32:16 My friends,
00:32:16 --> 00:32:18 Preach the cross to yourself every day.
00:32:20 --> 00:32:20 Amen.