Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20001022.htm

1 CORINTHIANS: MINISTERING TO BELIEVERS WITH DEEP PAGAN BACKGROUNDS
Part V: Being Blessed In "Leader-Laity" Relationships By Heeding God's Master Plan
(1 Corinthians 3:1-9)
  1. Introduction
    1. It is painfully all too common for even sound churches to face congregation-leader relationship problems!
    2. Yet, Jesus promised He would build His Church so that even the Gates of Hades would not prevail against it, Matt. 16:18! Thus, it is good for us to know what God is doing so we can live in spiritual victory in local churches as we at least know how to be properly aligned to His agenda relative to such relationships.
    3. 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 was written to address this need, and we study it for our edifying insight as follows:
  2. Being Blessed In "Leader-Laity" Relationships By Heeding God's Master Plan, 1 Corinthians 3:1-9.
    1. The Corinthians were "carnal," meaning they were out of fellowship with God, and their carnality had led to errant, divisive views arising from allegiance to various leaders' human personalities, 1:11-13; 3:1-3.
    2. Thus, they were not taking full advantage of the ministries of these men: Paul reported he had reduced his teaching level to minister to the people as babes and "carnal" folk due to this problem, 1 Cor. 3:2-3.
    3. The solution involved the congregation's coming to see God's agenda relative to these leaders, 3:4-9:
      1. The people needed to see God had purposely set up various leaders as His varying TOOLS, 3:4-5.
      2. They needed to accept the divinely intended division of labor represented by these tools of God as part of God's purpose -- not as an issue that was to divide them, 1 Corinthians 3:6-7!
        1. Paul had a foundational type of ministry, one of planting, or starting the work at Corinth, 3:6a.
        2. Apollos was assigned a nurturing task of edifying those who already believed, 1 Cor. 3:6b.
        3. God in turn took the planted seed, irrigated by water, and made it all grow: namely, God took Paul's foundational ministry together with Apollos' efforts to disciple the believers at Corinth, 1 Cor. 3:6c
      3. The Corinthians thus needed to view different leaders' efforts as part of God's one master plan, 3:8a.
      4. They hence were to view their leaders as not being accountable to them as though they were politicians in a political campaign; rather, these human leaders were accountable to God as He alone would judge their efforts in the final analysis, 1 Cor. 3:8b-9. God was the HEAD of the Church!
Lesson: To function at peace in the local church in regards to leader-congregation relationships, we must see God uses a variety of leaders with a variety of ministries to produce a single product -- a Church conformed to Christ. This way no human leader or member in the congregation gets the glory for the results, and the people will then trust GOD -- NOT their leaders -- for blessing.

Application: (1) If we find ourselves attracted OR DETRACTED FROM a personality in a church leader, we are living by means of the sin nature, and must confess it to God to take advantage of that leader's spiritual ministry unto us! (2) If we are the overseer, (a) we must NOT view our ministry as the CORNERSTONE to God's blessing the body. (b) Rather, we must accept our gifting as a necessary PART of God's WHOLE effort. (c) Hence, we need to focus on using our spiritual gift's STRENGTH for the benefit of the church, 2 Tim. 1:6-7. Otherwise, trying to do what others are gifted by God to do when we ourselves are NOT thus gifted will make us ineffective and stunt the discipleship of the people. (d) Regardless of the pressure from carnal folk regarding the assets or debits of our NATURAL abilities or personalities, we leaders must NOT cater EITHER to the PRAISE OR to the CRITICISM of people regarding our HUMAN assets or debits, but use our SPIRITUAL GIFT to serve GOD. Otherwise, we may errantly become PROUD and not disciple well, or DISCOURAGED and quit helping others when the Body needs our ministry the MOST. (e) RATHER, we can obtain God's VALID ministry progress reports in accord with 2 Tim. 2:6: IF we perform in accord with God's will, God will signal this fact by arranging for ourselves to be greatly blessed in WHAT we minister, and gain genuinely positive responses from our hearers, cf. William Hendriksen, N. T. Com.: Exp. of The Pastoral Eps., p. 249. Conversely, a LACK of personal, edifying blessing IN the effort and IN its RESULTS means failure!