Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20070204.htm
THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION 1 Corinthians: Discipling Believers With Very Sinful Backgrounds II. Overcoming Human Personality Followings D. Effective Spiritual Service By Adopting God's View Over Man's View (1 Corinthians 3:1-4:5)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

We sometimes face difficult questions on whether we as a Christian worker (a Christian leader or the man in the pew) or we as a Church serve God properly in what and how we function for Him:

(1) It can be a challenge to field criticism from others about our efforts. Dr. John G. Mitchell, beloved Bible teacher and founder of the Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon reflected this problem when he once claimed of many ministers in general: "Some men teach the word of God with intellectual clarity, but do not reach the hearts and lives of God's people. Others are warm in their ministry but don't have an intellectual grasp of the truth." (John G. Mitchell as told to Dick Bohrer, "The vanishing art of expository preaching," Moody Monthly, November 1977, p. 42).

(2) At times the most difficult challenge may be self-doubt concerning our service for Christ. The same Dr. Mitchell again noted in a January 1990 article that he had known "dry" periods in life when he found it hard to understand himself. He noted, "Yes . . . sometimes you wonder why you are there. Satan will seek to get you occupied with yourself, which oftentimes causes one to be in the dumps." ("His Encouraging Words," Multnomah Message, Fall, 1990, p. 10)

I can identify with Dr. Mitchell's remark here, for, at one point in my own pastoral ministry, so many other Christians had implied that I was out of God's will in my efforts that I came to believe them, and complained to God that I was "just spinning my wheels"! However, much to my shock, God quickly and severely corrected my view, revealing He was right on target with His will in my life and service!

(3) On the other hand, we are to guard our hearts and minds from the ministries of apostates according to warnings like 2 Peter 2:1. Thus, we do need to exercise discernment regarding ministers and ministries, and we do want to be sure that we ourselves please God in our service efforts as we know from 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 that we will be judged by God for our Christian service!

So, in light of the confusing and painful differences of opinion that exist on what a CORRECT and EFFECTIVE Christian ministry effort REALLY IS, HOW can we DISCERN if what we DO for God meets with HIS APPROVAL so that we can MAKE any NECESSARY ADJUSTMENTS?!

Need: "How may we DISCERN what is a credible ministry from a false one so that we might ADJUST as needed for God's approval?!"

1. The Corinthian believers' divisive personality followings that [we learned] had risen from MAN'S wisdom yielded FALSE VIEWS of WHAT constituted a GODLY Christian MINISTRY, 1 Cor. 3:1-4.
2. So, to motivate his readers to SWITCH from MAN'S view to GOD'S view to yield EFFECTIVE service, Paul CONTRASTED FALSE with TRUE Christian VIEWS of the MINISTRY , 3:5-4:5:
1. Paul contrasted differing powers in false and true service, 3:5-15:
1. In false Christian ministry, people exalt and trust in the human ability of those ministering [oratorical skill, 1 Cor. 2:4 implied].
2. Yet, in true ministry, though each worker is of no value in himself on the human level, he is made invaluable to the Church by God as God spiritually gifts each one for supernatural work, 1 Cor. 3:4-7.
3. Indeed, in true spiritual service, God has constructed a division of labor where all workers are accountable to Him, 1 Cor. 3:8-15:
1. Paul claimed that in true Christian ministry, there is a division of labor where each worker is assigned a different task, 3:8, 9.
2. Then, all such workers will give an account to the Lord, 1 Cor. 3:8b, 10-15: (1) God will one day test every man's product to determine the quality of his workmanship, 1 Cor. 3:13 ["sort" KJV, ESV is from the Greek term, hopoion, meaning "quality", Thayer's Greek-English Lex. of the N. T. , p. 449]. (2) If the workmanship is exposed to be poor (wood, hay, stubble), the worker will suffer loss of reward though he will be saved (1 Cor. 3:15) and good quality work that survives God's "fire" test (gold, silver, gems) will be rewarded, 1 Cor. 3:14. (3) Now, in discerning what good workmanship is, Scripture reveals it has (a) Christ as its foundation (1 Cor. 3:10-11); (b) it is enduring due to the Holy Spirit's power [precious metals and gems], not transient via the lusts of the flesh, the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16-17); (c) it is sound in doctrine (Rev. 2:14); (d) it is marked by right motives (1 Cor. 4:5), and (e) it truly disciples people (1 Thessalonians 2:19), Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, p. 511-512.
2. Paul contrasted differing authors in false and true service, 3:16-23:
1. The false view of Christian ministry sees a given human being as the author from which the work arises, 1 Cor. 3:16 implied.
2. Yet, the true view of Christian ministry sees God as Author of the work so that the human worker involved is accountable to HIM and thus must exalt and heed Him in his performance, 3:17-23!
3. Paul contrasted differing valuations in false and true service, 4:1-5:
1. Valuations that are false judge on human prowess, 1 Cor. 3:3; 2:4.
2. Yet, servants of God with true valuations see themselves as God's ship slaves and stewards with their respective functions, 1 Cor. 4:1:
1. The term, "ministers" in 1 Cor. 4:1 "denotes subordination (originally an under-rower in a trireme, a ship with three banks of oars)," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV , 1978 ed., ftn. to 1 Cor. 4:1a.
2. The word, "steward" pictures a manager of an estate who gives an account for how he regularly parcels out his master's goods to the master's family and slaves much like a pastor is to parcel out Scripture truths to God's people, 1 Cor. 4:1; Matt. 13:51-52.
3. Thus, workers with God's true valuation see themselves as accountable to God as His slaves to see that His truths are regularly parceled out to His people for discipling, 1 Cor. 4:1.
3. As such, God's workers are called to be reliable in their work, that they perform their tasks faithfully and in obedience to Him , 4:2.
4. Thus, no other criteria for evaluating a worker's workmanship is valid, whether the criteria arises from other people or from one's own mind, and that especially if the criteria is based on the lusts of the flesh, the eyes or the pride of life, 1 Cor. 4:1-3; 1 John 2:16-17.
5. All appraisals beyond these issues must be left with God to judge as only He knows the motives of His workers' hearts, 1 Cor. 4:5.

Application: May we (1) trust in Christ to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and equipped to have God's view of service, John 3:16; Rom. 8:9b. (2) Then, may we evaluate Christian service by Scripture's criteria (above), and make adjustments as necessary. (3) We will be assured that we please God and will receive His reward in heaven!

Lesson: (1) We DISCERN man's false view of quality Christian service from God's true view by noting that (a) the false view relies on man's ability to reach man's goals where the true relies on God's gifting to heed Scripture, (b) the false view sees man authoring a ministry where the true sees God as its Author and the worker as subject to Him and (c) the false view uses man's ideas to evaluate a work while the true leans on Scripture to see the need to highlight faithful Bible exposition for real discipling! (2) In ALIGNING with the TRUE view, we will succeed in God's eyes.

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . ) <+@>Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Last Monday, God gave me encouraging certification that we are using His view in standing against "Christian reconstructionism"!

You may recall this belief is a [Posttribulational] one that arose from Calvinist "Covenant Theology" to claim that Christ so bound Satan and his demons in His death, resurrection and ascension that we are to use social and political activism to set up Christ's reign over the world under the Church's authority [Renald Showers, "An Evaluation of Christian Reconstructionism," April/May 91 Israel My Glory, p. 22-25; "religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/ChRecon"].

In contrast, we [Premillennialists] believe Christ will set up His earthly kingdom in the future at His Second Coming, so our role today is not to build a theocracy on earth using social and political activism, but to disciple men to be Christ's subjects of His coming kingdom!

Well, last Monday's, January 29, 2007 issue of USA TODAY ran Dan Gilgoff's article, "Turning a blind eye, IRS enables church politicking" that revealed how wholesome is our stance on Christian reconstructionism! The article noted that All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena is under IRS investigation since its pastor gave an anti-Iraq war sermon "that appeared to support Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry on the eve of the 2004 election." Though the sermons on its web site show this Church is steeped in Liberal Theology that denies Scripture's inerrancy and Christ's deity and openly supports gay unions in violation of Leviticus 18:22, "many Christian right activists have taken up the liberal All Saints' cause, vowing to fight any IRS attempt to revoke the church's tax-exempt status." (Ibid.) Why? Well, many of the Christian right do the same kind of pulpit politicking for their conservative causes in alleged violation of a 1956 law forbidding churches to aid candidates for elected office, so they have a vested interest in supporting All Saints! (Ibid.) So, by the reconstructionist influence, many on the Christian right now aid an apostate body in violation of God's Word at 2 John 9-11 not to do just that!

Yes, some Christian reconstructionists would never thus support such an apostate Church, but their view has caused weak and new believers to tolerate and even support blatant apostasy!

Thus, to PROTECT weak Christians, may we KEEP HEEDING God's WORD in HIS VIEW of MINISTRY and know GOD'S CONTINUED APPROVAL of our WORKMANSHIP !