The Workers of the Church
- Rev. Jerry Lepasana
- Nov 20, 2005
- Series: Building a Healthy Church
THE WORKERS OF THE CHURCH
1 Corinthians 3: 1-15
- Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ.
- I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
- You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?
- For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?
- What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each his task.
- I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
- So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
- The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
- For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
- By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. 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.
- If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
- his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.
- If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.
- If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
On the subject of leadership, we often would hear the modern proverb, "Everything rises or falls on leadership!" This statement simply declares the fact that no organization will experience significant growth without effective leaders. Well, it goes without saying that this is very true even in the church of the Lord Jesus.
Today, we are electing our officers for next year. This is a serious process that we do every year knowing our leaders help us in carrying out the great work of the Lord. Remember, effective ministries happen because of effective leaders.
If you carefully examine our text this morning, the key verse is found in verse 9, "For we are God's fellow workers." The apostle Paul was literally addressing the entire church saying, "We all have the privilege to join God in the great work that He is doing on earth." However, if we are to join God in His work, we need to be the kind of workers whom God can depend on.
I believe it is common knowledge that during the New Testament times, the Corinthians church was a very problematic church. They have truly struggled to stay healthy as a church. In this context, therefore, Paul would help them understand the important characteristics of God's workers in his church:
I GROWING WORKERS (vs. 1-4)
Again and again, we emphasize in our church that all members are ministers or workers. We should not only apply this title to pastors or church staff, but to everyone who belongs to the body of Christ. However, if a member would like to really function as a minister for God, he or she must consider becoming grounded in the Lord.
In the early verses of the passage, Paul makes a clear distinction between a "Worldly" and a "Spiritual" Christian. Notice some descriptions of a "Worldly" Christian:
A. They are helpless - "Infants" = they are dependent on others to care for them. (v.1)
B. Their primary diet is milk - "Milk" represents the easy things of the Word. (v.2)
C. They live like unbelievers - Their walk and talk is no different from those who do not know Christ. (v. 3)
D. They compare spiritual leaders - They attached their loyalties to men rather than the true head of the church.
As we select our future leaders, we need to be certain that they are mature and spiritual.
Leadership in the local church should be determined by spirituality, not notoriety. (Tony Evans)
Sometimes a leader is defined simply as anyone who obtains followers. But in the church it is different. Church leaders are not merely people who get followers for themselves; they are people who get followers for Jesus. It takes a lot of maturity to know exactly why we are placed in position of leadership. Jesus at one point had to straighten the mindset of His disciples concerning their idea of leadership:
- Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
- Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
- and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
- For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
The wisest thing Woodrow Wilson ever said was one of the simplest when he remarked that, as President, he liked to put a man on an important job to see whether he grew or "just swelled." -Malcolm Bingway
II GROUP WORKERS (vs. 5-9)
As Paul had intimated in verse 4, much of the disunity in the Corinthian church can be traced in their lack of understanding concerning the complimentary function of leaders. On account of this, Paul has brought in the metaphor of farming for enlightenment. Just like in the field, farmers can have different functions, but all of them have the same purpose, which is to have a great harvest.
- Some are planters - "I planted the seed"
- Some are caretakers - "Apollos watered it"
Is the planter, more important than the caretaker? Absolutely not! The most important task belongs to God because He is the one who makes everything grow.
You see, church leadership is about relationships and working together for a common purpose. Solo leadership is not consistent with God, nor is it a particularly effective leadership style. We need to build a team of leaders to become a healthy church. Someone gave an appropriate acronym for the word team:
- T - Together
- E - Efforts
- A - Are
- M - Multiplied
The church will always be in need of more mature leaders. So we must never stop recruiting and equipping leaders for the work of the ministry.
- It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
- to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
- until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
III GARLAND WORKERS (vs. 10-15)
Last, but not the least, we need to be workers who are conscious of the fact that everything that we are doing today for the Lord will receive appropriate rewards.
The word Garland or Wreath symbolizes the rewards of victorious athletes during Biblical times. If you read verse 8, the idea of rewards is introduced in the text. Then, when you reached verse 10-15, this idea is expanded. There are two questions we need to ask in order to understand the concept of rewards:
A. What kind of materials are you using?
From the picture of farming, Paul shifted the metaphor to building. Christian life is compared to building a dwelling place for God. Notice that there are two general categories of materials we can use as we build:
- Destructible materials - wood, hay, straw = these are the material, which are temporary and without value.
- Indestructible materials - gold, silver, costly stones = these are the materials with enduring quality.
B. Are you going to pass God's inspection?
Just like any newly constructed building, an inspection is necessary to determine its trustworthiness. Our lives will have a day of inspection. The word fire in verse 13 should not be taken literally, rather it only drives the point that everything we have done for Christ will be inspected to determine whether our services were rendered in the highest quality, which deserve His rewards. God wants us to serve with quality. Since the church does not belong to the pastor or to any member, but to God; it deserves our best.
How are you serving the Lord today? Are you just getting by or are you doing your best? God is conscious of everything we are offering Him, and He promises to give us appropriate rewards.
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
If we want to have a healthier church, we need to be the kind of workers that God wants us to be - Growing, Group, and Garland workers. I firmly believe that God accomplishes great things in the church that has many available and reliable workers.