1 Corinthians 3
1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 10 viewsIn this chapter, Paul writes about immaturity and purpose. We will cover the first 15 verses of this chapter.
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
1 Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.
2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready,
3 because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers?
4 For whenever someone says, “I’m with Paul,” and another, “I’m with Apollos,” are you not unspiritual people?
1 Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.
2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready,
3 because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers?
4 For whenever someone says, “I’m with Paul,” and another, “I’m with Apollos,” are you not unspiritual people?
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
8 Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
10 According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it.
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.
12 If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,
13 each one’s work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work.
14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.
Several months ago I set out to do a pull up.
We started working out 3 days a week last July but I could not do a pull up.
I decided to get some help and ordered these bands.
Green assist: 50-125 lb
Purple assist: 35-85 lb
Black assist: 25-65 lb
Red assist: 15-35 lb
No band assist: 0 lb
I watch as sometimes people join me in working out and I have been working out since last July and they decide they want to start working out. When they start, they want to start where I am. They want to stack the 45’s on the bar and get after it, but they are not there yet.
Paul says to the Corinthians you are not there yet. You are still infants in Christ. I have to feed you milk to drink spiritually and not solid food.
You are still not ready.
The words you are still not ready imply that Paul believes they should be further along than they are.
I get the opportunity to coach our baseball and softball kids. As a coach, it is difficult when you work on something in practice and then you go to the game and the kids should be further along than they show they are.
Paul says you are still not ready. You should be on solid food but you are not.
How does he know they are not ready for solid food?
v.3 and 4
1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 3
3 because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers?
3 because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers?
4 For whenever someone says, “I’m with Paul,” and another, “I’m with Apollos,” are you not unspiritual people?
You are living in the flesh.
The evidence of this fleshly living is ENVY and STRIFE
Envy: Jealousy or eager rivalry
feeling or showing competition of someone or their achievements and advantages.
They are on the same team and yet they are competing.
Obvious Paul is writing to this group fo adults who are jealous of each other and competing with each other when they are on the same team.
James 3:
When you think of Jealousy, I remember growing up and experiencing this at a young age with other kids and what they wear, what their parents drove, what kind of house they had, what talents they have.
Now being a parent and seeing kids today this same thing exist in children today. You see evidence of jealousy. Young men “fight” with each other because they are jealous. Kids on the same team pick on each other because they are jealous. Girls can be so mean to each other because they are jealous.
This is easy to spot in children but if we are honest many times it is easy to spot in adults as well. Dads may be jealous of other dads and their relationship with children. Ladies are jealous of other ladies and the peace they have in their lives. Some married couples are jealous of the peace they see in other couples.
This same word that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians is also used in James. James writes very sternly about this.
13 Who is wise and has understanding among you? He should show his works by good conduct with wisdom’s gentleness.
14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t brag and deny the truth.
15 Such wisdom does not come from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
16 For where envy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every kind of evil.
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without favoritism and hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
I believe the Bible speaks so sternly against envy because God wants us to want him and not others.
Essentially that is what envy is. You want what others have or can do.
All the while Jesus went to the cross and died the cruelest of deaths by public crucifixion. He hung naked on a cross, nails drove through His hands and His feet, and His side was pierced because he desired that we should have relationship with him.
When we envy others we essentially are saying we want them instead of Jesus. Jesus died for us. May we want God. May we desire God. May we find contentment in God.
Strife: quarrel, to speak discord, argue
quarrel, to speak discord, argue
Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
Romans 1:28-
28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong.
29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.
32 Although they know full well God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die —they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.
13 Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy.
Romans
20 For I fear that perhaps when I come I will not find you to be what I want, and I may not be found by you to be what you want; there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.
19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions,
21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21
3 If anyone teaches other doctrine and does not agree with the sound teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching that promotes godliness,
4 he is conceited, understanding nothing, but has a sick interest in disputes and arguments over words. From these come envy, quarreling, slander, evil suspicions,
5 and constant disagreement among people whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain.
6 But godliness with contentment is a great gain.
1 Timothy 6:3-
Paul says I can tell you are still on milk because there is STRIFE among you.
Think about children for a minute. Do children quarrel or argue?
I will never forget that my cousin growing up was known for always disagreeing with anything that someone would say
His response was always na huh.
I don’t know about you but in our home kids like to argue. If we are not careful a simple instruction to clean a room becomes a long conversation about cleaning a room because kids like to quarrel or argue.
Scripture is very stern about not having strife among us because again an attitude of strife is very prideful.
Strife causes us to focus on our opinion rather than on Jesus. In strife, we want to be right. We want to make sure our opinion matters.
Jesus came in human flesh, Jesus was nailed to a cross, Jesus had thorns placed on his head, Jesus bled and died, Jesus was beaten, Jesus was mocked not so that we could make sure all or our arguments are right, but Jesus did all of this to make us right in him.
Is it not amazing that Jesus’s death on the cross sets us free from envy and strife.
The act of Jesus dying and shedding His blood on the cross releases us from being people who are full of Envy and Strife.
Motocycle wreck
If I was to tell you this morning that I was riding down 65 Hwy on a motorcycle and a gust of wind caught and through me off doing 70 mph
You would see the effects of being in a wreck.
So it is when you encounter the Gospel of Jesus. You can’t encounter the Gospel of Jesus and not be changed.
You can’t stay on milk. You have to seek solid food.
Now if the indicators of immaturity are envy and strife in the church. I am concerned that many Christians are still on the Green band (show the green band).
The finished work of Christ on the cross calls us as believers to be set free from envy and strife. The finished work of Jesus on the cross allows our immaturity to move to maturity.
The death of Jesus sets us free from desiring others and making sure we are right. The finish work of Jesus on the cross sets us free to want God and God alone.