Take Care How You Build
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Our Scripture text this morning is taken from 1 Corinthians 3:10-17:
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
May God now add His blessing to this, the reading of His Holy and Infallible Word.
One of the blessings of living in Western Pennsylvania, is our close proximity to one of the world’s premier architectural wonders—Falling Waters. People from all over the world will spend thousands of dollars to travel here just to see this wonder. Frank Lloyd Wright created an architectural masterpiece—a house that seems to organically grow out of the surrounding hills and suspend itself over a creek. From the ingenious use of cantilevers, which provide the foundation, to the choice of materials used to form the structure built upon that foundation, everything works in harmony to produce a one of a kind house.
It is this same kind of care that God is calling the Teaching Elders, Ruling Elders and the congregations they serve to build. I am including the whole congregation, rather than just the Teaching Elders, because the main problem in Corinth seems to be arising from the demands of the congregation for their Teaching Elders to be employing the wisdom and methods of this world, rather than the Teaching Elders themselves. It is not without significance that Paul lists in the very first verse of this letter the name of Sosthenes, one of the leading elders of the Corinthian church. It is most likely that it was Sosthenes himself who reported to Paul this dangerous turn of events in Corinth.
The fact is, a pastor cannot keep a congregation on the right course alone, he must have the support of both the Ruling Elders and the congregation. Consequently, all of us, myself as Teaching Elder, you as a congregation and all of our Ruling Elders and Deacons need to listen very carefully to God’s call upon us.
The first thing Paul reminds us of is this...
There is No Other Foundation Than Jesus Christ
There is No Other Foundation Than Jesus Christ
This truth is found in the opening two verses of our Scripture lesson this morning:
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
The metaphor of a foundation is a very familiar one used in both the Old and New Testaments. For example we find this verse in Isaiah:
therefore thus says the Lord God,
“Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion,
a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
The cornerstone is the first and most important stone of a foundation. If this stone is defective or is improperly laid the whole building will be off. As revelation history unfolds, this cornerstone is revealed to us as Jesus. Citing Isaiah 28 and Psalm 118, Peter writes this:
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
Notice four things about this Cornerstone:
Jesus is “chosen and precious” to God the Father.
Jesus is the foundation of the church and a sure way of salvation.
Jesus is a “cornerstone” rejected by the world as unfit for the task.
Jesus becomes a “stone of stumbling” and a “rock of offense”.
In other words, the message of “Christ and Him crucified” is going to turn off most people and drive them away from the church, but it is a message that is absolutely essential, because it is the only one that saves!
The congregation of Corinth was pushing their Teaching Elders to employ the worldly wisdom and methods because they wanted their church to be socially acceptable and to grow. It is exciting to be a part of a dynamic, growing and popular movement. As school children, we all wanted to be a part of the “in crowd”. As a baby boomer, I find it somewhat amusing as Millennial are freaking out that Generation X is rejecting skinny jeans and other fashions statements of the Millennials. All I can say is, “Welcome to the world of ‘old fogies’”!
I say this, because not only does it adds a little humor to the sermon, but because it illustrates the futility of running after the approval of the world-what is in style today will be out of style tomorrow. What will draw crowds today will turn them away tomorrow. When a church relies upon the simple gospel message of Christ and Him crucified, it will never be the “happening place”, but it will always be the place where God is building His church!
This brings us to the type of Teaching Elders or Pastors we need to seek and encourage. Paul lays out three types of Pastors:
The Wise Pastor
The Foolish Pastor
The False Pastor
Paul speaks first of...
The Wise Pastor
The Wise Pastor
The wise pastor builds with “gold, silver, and precious stone”. What Paul is saying is that there should a correspondence between the foundation and the building material that is built on top of that foundation. If Christ the Cornerstone is “marvelous” (Is 28:16) and is “chosen and precious” (1 Pet 2:6). Then the building material placed upon it must be as well. In the construction of the Old Covenant Tabernacle and Temple, only the finest building materials were used (Exod. 28:17–20; 1 Kgs 5:17; 6:20–21; 1 Chr. 29:2). In Revelation 21:18-21, we are told God’s Heavenly Temple is constructed of precious stones.
This is way the Wise Pastor makes Christ the center of all his preaching and teaching. To use the wisdom and methods of this world, as many in Corinth were doing, is like building with “wood, hay, and straw”.
At my ordination, there was a reception following, on the cake were written these words, “Preach the Word”. These words come from 2 Timothy 4:
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
This congregation was a wise congregation and its board of elders was a wise board of elders, they were telling the new, fresh-out-of-seminary pastor, “We don’t want to be entertained or have our ears tickled, we want to hear the Word of God!”
Not all congregations are this wise; Paul goes on to say in that same letter:
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
This brings us to the Foolish Pastor
The Foolish Pastor
The Foolish Pastor
As we have already seen, this pastor builds upon the precious foundation of Christ with “wood, hay and straw”. He takes the easy way, he gives people what their sinful, itching ears want to hear. Worldly success is intoxicating and it is easy to see why many choose to take this path. Worldly success in the church is measured by the Three B’s: Buildings, Bodies and Bucks!
As impressive as these things are in this world, they will not be so impressive in the next. Paul goes on to write:
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
What is Paul saying?
First, he is saying these pastors are Christians. They will be saved on Judgement Day. However, the fruit of their labor will be burned up. Why will it be burned up? It will be burned up because it consists of “wood, hay and straw”!
What is the reward they lost? Paul tells us what a pastor’s reward is in 1 Thessalonians 2:
For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.
A pastor’s reward is the people! It is seeing in heaven all the men and women he faithfully ministered to! What does this imply about the congregations these foolish pastors preached to? It implies that the majority of people that filled their churches were not true believers! They were nowhere to be seen in heaven!
How sad! How tragic! A lifetime of labor for nothing!
This however, is not the worst of it. Such foolish ministries often spawn the False Pastor.
The False Pastor
The False Pastor
Paul speaks of such men in the closing two verses of our text:
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
If a congregation puts up with a foolish pastor, sooner or later they are going to find themselves under a false pastor. A pastor will not only build upon the foundation with “wood, hay and straw”, but will dig up the original foundation and replace it with another!
Just look at what has happened to the so called mainline denominations of our nation. The mainline Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist denominations are all dying, or should I put it more accurately, they are being destroyed by God!
Jesus warns us of the False Pastor:
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Jesus goes on to tell us how we can recognize them:
You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
What is the fruit of a pastor’s labor? It is first of all his preaching and then it is those who have been saved and sanctified through his preaching. If a pastor preaches true doctrine, he will produce true believers. If a pastor preaches false doctrine, he will produce false believers.
If pastor’s goal is to grow thornbushes and thistles, he will have the biggest garden in town! If a pastor’s goal is to grow grapes and figs, his garden will not be so large, but it will be of great value and worth in the eyes of the Lord!
As we come out of this pandemic, we need to recommit ourselves to what has brought us this far—the message of Christ and Him crucified!