(1 Corinthians) Building the Church — Brian Brodersen

The Foundation of Jesus Christ

1st Corinthians chapter 3 verse 10. According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid. Which is Jesus Christ? Now if anyone builds on this foundation With gold silver precious stones wood hay straw. Each one's work will become clear for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire and The fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.

If anyone's work which he has built on it endures he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned he himself. Or he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved. Yet, so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.

If anyone? defiles the temple of God God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are. These words? And constitute one of the strongest warnings in all of Scripture to those who aspire to a position of leadership within the Church of Jesus Christ but unfortunately This warning has often been overlooked Due to a failure to properly interpret the verses.

These verses have suffered much at the hands of those who have sought to use them to prove their own theological position like the Calvinist who sees in the words if Anyone's work is burned. He will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved.

The impossibility of Believers ever losing their salvation. Or the Roman Catholic theologian Who finds his one and only New Testament reference to purgatory in the words? saved. Yet, so as through fire Others have simply not been careful enough in their exposition and Have applied these words to Christians generally as an exhortation to build their own Christian lives with proper material.

Paul addresses none of these issues not even indirectly his concern is singular. That those currently building the church are doing so with the perishable material of human wisdom and are in danger of destroying the church and in turn being destroyed by God.

That is Sort of an overview of what he's dealing with in these verses. Now today we want to look at how the church is to be built and I want to say this before we begin. Sometimes when we're teaching There might not be any direct Application For you from what we Exposit, but nevertheless you have to remember that we're we're building a foundation.

We're establishing ourselves in Christian doctrine. In other words, we're re-educating ourself according to the scripture, so Certain texts that we'll deal with might not necessarily have any personal application in the sense that that you listen and you say Oh, yes, that's me or You know, I've I've struggled with that and oh that helps me in this area.

Those things are all of course fine and good and we need to have that kind of personal application Frequently, but there are times when we need to just get a biblical picture of certain things that do Pertain to us, but maybe not in an immediate sense.

See after all the church does pertain to us right the whole church pertains to us because we're part of the body of Christ. Therefore, although there might not be any Personal application to derive from the text yet.

We need to understand how the church is to be built. So we can make sure that as we make our contribution We're doing so according to God's plan and not according to our own thinking process. We also need to be able to evaluate the church in a larger sense and be able to see Where the church is being built properly or where people are using the kinds of materials that God? has not Allowed in the building of this church in other words as Christian people.

We need to be critical thinkers. There's much hostility in certain circles today against any sort of critical thinking and if anyone challenges Certain procedures or methods right away. They're considered divisive and And a person who's hung up on you know minor issues or whatever, but no we need to be critical thinkers it's because people have refused to think critically that the church is in the Desperate state that it's in today.

So we ourselves as Christian people. We have to understand how the church is to be built and That will enable us to build properly ourselves and as much as we are to contribute to it. And it will help us also to be able to understand Perhaps why the church isn't what it ought to be because of a failure to build properly.

Church Leadership and the Work of Building

So again, we're going to be looking at how the church is built now. Paul He is addressing the congregation in general. But when we come to verse 10, it's obvious that he Turns from the congregation in general and he begins to direct more Direct his message more specifically to those in Christian leadership.

To those who are building upon the foundation that he himself laid you remember He was the one who founded the church in Corinth. He laid the foundation and so he says according to the grace of God. Which was given to me as a wise master builder.

I have laid the foundation and Another builds upon it. So what he's going to do right now is he's going to warn these people who are carrying on his ministry. To make sure they're building with the proper material.

So this is a message that really is directed primarily to church leadership. It's an exhortation to church leaders to make sure that they're building the church with the proper material. He begins with reminding them about the only legitimate Foundation for the church verse 11 for no other foundation.

Christ as the Church's Only Foundation

Can anyone lay then that which is laid? Which is Jesus Christ. Any church that's built on a foundation other than the foundation of Jesus Christ is doomed to fail from the onset. One of the fundamental problems with Roman Catholicism is that it is built on the foundation of the papacy rather than on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

Anglicanism has a similar problem. The Parliament of 1532 through 1536 created Henry the eighth supreme head on earth of the Church of England. So the Church of England is built on the foundation of The monarchy.

You see the Bible teaches clearly that Jesus Christ is the head of the church period. There is no human being who is the head of the church on earth just because Jesus is in heaven. Doesn't mean that he is not still the head of the church, of course because Jesus Christ is Omnipresent he is in heaven.

Yes, but he's also everywhere and he is especially dwelling within his church within his people. So Jesus is the head of the church on earth as well as In heaven in more recent times. We see people attempting to build the church on a variety of different things.

We see people today building the church on the foundation of what they would call revelation knowledge. Revelation knowledge is knowledge supernatural divine Insight that comes to them directly from God.

By way of direct revelation in other words The Bible isn't really all that important anymore because we have a direct line to God. He speaks right to us and He tells us that the church is to be built with signs and wonders and different things like that.

That's one example. Another example is that some churches today are being built on the foundation of public opinion. This is a very common thing in the US people will go into a community with the idea of starting a church and they will go into the neighborhood and they will interview the people and They will ask them what they would like to see in a church and Then they will build the church on the foundation of public opinion.

So the the person says well, you know church has always been boring to me. So I'd like to see it a little more lively and entertaining. Okay, we'll give you entertainment. Church has always left me with a sense of feeling guilty.

I'd like to come out of church feeling really good. Okay. Well, we'll We'll make sure that we don't use any terms or talk about any Concepts or anything that would ever make a person feel guilty. People say oh, you know the church doesn't help me on a practical level.

I need to know how to Sort out my finances. I need to know how to Get along with people have better relationships and so forth. Okay. Well great then. You know, we'll have seminars on How to sort out your finances and we'll teach you how to love yourself.

So you can then get along better with other people and so on. These are the kinds of things that presently the church is building upon these types of foundations, but the Apostle Paul says Jesus Christ is the only true foundation of the church.

The implication is This the church is to be built on the supremacy of Christ and on the authority of his word alone that's the foundation for the church of Jesus Christ the supremacy of Christ in all things and the authority of his word alone.

The Church's Building Materials

Now the second thing we see is That Paul Mentions the builders. I laid the foundation and Another builds on it here again. He's speaking to church leaders. He's speaking to people who are in a position of spiritual authority within the church and He goes on to then Talk about The building materials the building materials Verse 12 now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold silver precious stones wood hay and straw now There's two types of material that are possibly I'm going to be used in the building.

One type of material is imperishable. The other type is perishable. So those Of course who are going to build the church legitimate Legitimately must do so with the imperishable material the gold silver and precious stones.

Are that which is compatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's that's simply what Paul is referring to here. The gold silver and precious stones are that which is compatible With Jesus Christ and him crucified.

God has given us basically three things with which to build his church. Three things basically he's given us his word number one. The church is to be built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets.

Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 2 that's a reference to the Word of God the apostolic doctrine. When we look at the book of the Acts of the Apostles the second chapter we find right there How the church began to be built?

It says in verse 38 and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and so the word is To be a vital part of that foundation and that building. Building upon the foundation of Christ himself then using his word to actually build the structure the Holy Spirit is Also been given to us in order to build the church.

Now we're told that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of power. We're told that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of love. So God has given us his word. He's given us his spirit which includes the power of God and the love of God and then we have also Prayer.

So these are the three basic things With which we are to build the church the Word of God the Spirit of God and prayer. Now am I saying that we cannot use? Some of the more modern Conveniences in helping to build the church you have to understand we're talking about building the church in a spiritual sense not in the literal physical sense.

Can we use modern technology to build the church in a physical sense. Can we use computers and things like that? Well, of course we can use that. That's that's not the issue. That's not what Paul is talking about.

He's not talking about building a church like building a building. He's talking about building the body of Christ and for building the body of Christ for strengthening people and bringing people to maturity in the faith bringing people to the faith and then Raising them up to a mature position so they can enter into the ministry that God has ordained for them and fulfill God's will for Their life.

Human Wisdom Versus the Word, Spirit, and Prayer

The three things that God has given us is the Word the Spirit and prayer the perishable Materials under the heading of wood hay and straw are simply human wisdom in all of its various forms. Human wisdom in all of its various forms.

The infiltration of human wisdom into the church has been a reoccurring problem from apostolic times up to today. This is undoubtedly The greatest problem in the modern church. You see the problems in the modern church stem back today to church leaders building with perishable materials.

Church leaders today so often instead of building with the word The power of the Holy Spirit in the truest sense the biblical sense and prayer are building instead with philosophy building with pop psychology building with managerial techniques all of these other things have come into the picture and By seeking to build the church with these things what they're doing in actuality is destroying the church.

Now if you just take a look back maybe a hundred years ago and follow the course of the church for the past hundred years you find that The church has embraced so much of human wisdom and that is Undoubtedly the the cause for the pathetic condition of the church.

Today you think back to the introduction of higher criticism into the church when Darwin's theories were becoming popular not only in the realm of biology and the various Natural sciences, but Darwin's theories were being applied across the board to everything social Evolution and things of that nature.

Men in the church wanting to Be seen as respectable by the world began to embrace those same kinds of theories and then they applied them to theology. And so as they look back at the scriptures, they said well Certainly Moses couldn't have actually written Those books that are attributed to him because man had not evolved to the place of being able to write at the time of Moses.

Therefore somebody else must have written those and then just Attributed them to Moses and so they put later dates upon the writings of Moses and said that Moses didn't write those things at all and Because rationalism said there's really no such thing as the miraculous Men in the church said oh, no, we can't believe in miracles people, you know 2 ,000 years ago believe in miracles because they were superstitious.

Those weren't really miracles that were recorded in the Bible. In some cases they said that was just certain natural phenomena that these ignorant people thought were miraculous things in. Some cases they just flat-out denied and said that the people just these were Mythologies and things of that nature just to give more credence to their message.

But these are men in the church that are doing this for the sole purpose of seeking acceptance by the world. They've embraced Philosophy as you move further Along and closer to the present day you find that so much Ministry is built on pop psychology and So often the emphasis Coming from the pulpit is the need for self-esteem the need for self-love.

The need to know how to live a successful life in business and in family and in relationships and You know drawing a scripture here and there to use as some sort of a springboard to go off into there What I call psychobabble.

But yet It's another manifestation of human wisdom being embraced and brought into the church by church leaders, which has Subtly but yet effectively brought the church down. And then you see with the whole adapting of marketing principles into the church so the church is now a big business and church leaders are the corporate officers of the business and and the congregation they are the consumers and you've got a product and you're you've got to sell this product to your consumers and So you take all of your Advice from the world of marketing and you see how they do it down at Disney or somewhere like that and So you dress up?

Your presentation like that and then you present it to the consumer and all they're so happy. What a great product. You see all of this is the infiltration of human wisdom and it does the exact opposite of What it's intended to do because no doubt many people who Embrace these kinds of things do so sincerely and and are thinking that this is really the way it needs to be done.

They say oh, you know we're living in modern times and people are different than they were back when the Bible was written and Those basic principles that we have given in the scripture those things certainly can't Be effective today because of the modern culture that we live in.

I mean, there are some that even say that what I'm doing right now Shouldn't be done. You can't get up and teach people you can't get up and preach anymore. You can't expect that anyone today could have an attention span that would extend more than 10 to 15 minutes.

So preaching where you get up and you know, 30 45 even 50 minutes all you know. That's relegated to something you could get away with 50 to 100 years ago. But today nobody has that kind of attention span today.

So we can't really teach the Bible to this present generation. We need to Give multimedia presentations of the gospel and things of that nature. We need to harness modern technology. We need to use all of these things.

We need to compete With MTV we need to to dress up Jesus. You know years ago Alan used to sing with a guy named Malcolm and They wrote a song called say it like it is and it's on their fool's wisdom CD but the but the lyrics are great says don't Dress up my Jesus in fancy clothes don't dress up my Jesus in fancy clothes and That's what people are trying to do today.

Dressing him up for the London shows and then they said he'll take care of himself wherever he goes. He just says it like it is. Well, well, that's you know, they wrote that song in the 70s. It's certainly applicable today.

We don't have to do that and I think over and over again what I find consistently with people who do that is they dismiss The material that God has provided for us to build the church with they have a low opinion of the Word of God and they have a distorted concept of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and Therefore they're building with their own types of materials.

“I Will Build My Church”

The building of the church is not to be done through human wisdom. Jesus said I Will build my church. That's what Jesus said I will build my church. Church leaders listen to this. Church leaders are not to come up with a strategy or a plan or even a vision With which to build the Church of God, but yet we find so many church leaders today.

That's that's what they're doing. They're calling in the experts from the marketing world and they're saying okay, this is our community and help us to develop a strategy and They say you know what you need a five-year plan.

All right, write that down a five-year plan. But you know what? There's no place in the Bible where God ever said go out and build my church. Strategize plan. Come up with something to get my program established in the earth.

God never said anything like that. Jesus said I will build my church. It's the job of the Lord Jesus Christ to build the church and our only Part in it as leaders is to use the material he's provided and follow the directions That he has already Laid down for us.

I remember years ago people would come to me and they would say what is your vision? What is your vision? You know quite frankly I'd say I don't have any vision if I've got a vision for the church then we're in trouble.

My answer to them was I'm just here to teach the Bible. I'm here to tell you what God's Word says and he's got the plan. He's got the strategy. He's got the vision and He's going to carry out his plan and his strategy and his vision as we simply Learn about him and yield ourselves to him but so much in the modern church has been reduced to formulas and programs today.

It's pathetic and you know, the amazing thing is the non-christians So often have more discernment than the Christians do. Non-christians walk in and they can smell it a mile away. It's like man this this place smells like a business smells like just a big a Big Franchise or something some sort of a marketing thing and.

And the Christians on the other hand are going. Oh, no. No, this is this is this is the way to do it. These are the 90s. We've got to do it this way. Church leaders are to follow the instructions given in Scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

That's the way the church is to be built. Remember the tabernacle I mentioned that in a previous message, but remember the tabernacle God said to Moses see that you make it according to the pattern given you on the mount.

See that you make it according to the pattern given you he said Moses do not deviate one Fraction from the pattern that's been given to you. So you see as a person in church leadership I really am not responsible to come up with a strategy or a plan.

Not only am I not responsible I'm not even permitted to do so by God. God has the plan and I'm simply to implement what he wants to do and until church leaders realize that. Unfortunately, the church is going to continue to go in the direction that it's going and it seems that more and more and more.

The church is anxious to embrace human wisdom and quick to reject God's blueprint. For the church. Oh. That's so simple. That's that's simplistic. They say you can't just teach the Bible and rely on the Holy Spirit and pray and things like that.

This is the modern world. What Paul goes on to tell us is? That there is a day in which the structure that is built will be inspected and This is where every person who aspires to church leadership needs to Listen closely.

There is a day when all of our building Will be tested to see What sort it is. Church leaders in other words will one day answer to God for how they built his church his church and I think that is the very thing that people in church leadership need to remember today that the church does not belong to them.

It's his church. It's not my church. We say that You know. It's not necessarily implying that we feel it but you know, sometimes we say well my church. Even as a pastor, well, you know, my church is this but to be correct to be accurate I have to always refer to the church as his church unless of course I'm building it with human wisdom that it is my church not his church and It's going to Fail the test on that day.

Judgment and Accountability for Church Builders

Now. He says this. Each one's work will become clearer for the day Will declare it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work. Of what? Sort it is if anyone's work which he has built on it endures He will receive a reward if anyone's work is burned.

He will suffer loss so Again as I mentioned initially this passage is a very severe warning to people in church leadership. Those Who are builders are going to have to stand before God someday and give an account to him of how they've built his church and for some There will be a reward.

Those who have followed God's plan will be rewarded. Those who did it according to human wisdom be at their own or Someone else's will suffer loss. Whether it's their own wisdom or someone else's you see some some church leaders have embraced a larger philosophy something that's you know been passed on to them and And they've embraced this philosophy and this is what they're going about building the church with others have not necessarily embraced some Philosophical system, but they're building the church on what they think Rather than on what God has declared in his word both types of building fall into the same category of perishable material see I'm not to build the church on What I think.

I'm not to come up with my Strategy again. I'm not to develop my formula or my method. I Must always come to the church and As I'm thinking about building it I must always consult the Lord himself. I Think any person that steps into a pulpit Without the sense that they are completely reliant upon God at that moment is to some degree Building the church through their own energy even if I say oh well, I did all of my praying and all my preparation and I've got my great sermon put together, and I'm confident as I go into the pulpit I think that That's over confidence.

I Think that every time a person stands before God's people they ought to have the sense That they are speaking on behalf of God and therefore they want to know what God has to say. I Make it my practice.

Whenever I'm preparing to teach it all to remind the Lord that You're his people not mine and That I don't know you like he knows you. Because I don't know you like he knows you. I really don't know what you need, but he does and So basically what I'm doing is just casting myself upon God and saying Lord.

You know what they need to hear so you have to impart that to me so I can give it to them. But you know really that's what that's what preaching is is all about that's what teaching is all about. Peter talked about Exercising your gift of teaching he said when you when you teach you're to do so as the Oracle of God.

In other words what Peter is saying is when you get up and open your mouth God be speaking through you. And if he's not then you shouldn't get up and open your mouth. You should sit down. God ought to speak through you, but the only way God can speak through you is if you Recognize that God has to speak through you or anything that said is wood hay and straw.

And so you cast yourself upon God. And you just are not going to do anything until you're certain that he's going to speak through you. See again, that's going back to to rely on the Lord, but but man is so insistent on Thinking that he knows and so much of it is based upon human pride.

Human Credentials and Dependence on God

You know when you think of The whole idea of a professional clergy and you think of seminary and things like that. Now I'm not here to say that anyone who's gone to seminary is You know out of out of the will of God or can't be used by God or anything like that.

But what I am saying is that Seminary and degrees and things of that nature were all borrowed from the world as an attempt to impress the world so I come with my PhD and That is the authority behind what I say.

Oh. That man has a PhD you see the focus is put back on human learning and human ability and Things of that nature and and the church again the modern church so much like the Corinthian Church so much desiring the The applause of the world so much wanting to be accepted and to be seen as something significant and important in the community.

The modern church has done the same thing and therefore the seminaries have been developed and the degrees are given and that's what so often is used to validate a person's ministry or to See them as insignificant.

Oh, well. They've never gone to university. Oh, they've never studied. They don't have a theological degree. So they're discounted immediately. Well, you see if you go back to your Bible You don't find anyone there really with any sort of a degree, but you do find men who did not trust themselves, but they trusted God and they cast themselves upon God and God empowered them and Jesus Christ in whom is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

He spoke through them and So when the Apostles were brought before the civil authorities who were also religious men. It says they marveled. Because these men were were ignorant men in their estimation.

They were uneducated. They had not gone to the local universities. But yet they did something that no doctor of theology could do. They had healed a man who had been lame for 38 years. They did so through the power of God.

So it's it's the infiltration of all of these various manifestations of human wisdom That have served to weaken the witness of the church. Now again, let me reiterate. I'm not, you know criticizing A person who goes to seminary.

Unless of course, that's what you're putting your confidence in if you are then that's my criticism is directed toward someone like that. If a person has a PhD. Well fine. Don't trust it because it's certainly not the Basis ministry.

It's certainly not the indication that This man can speak for God if a man has a degree like that. Fine but let him not have any confidence in it. That's the whole point. Let him put his confidence in the Lord.

You remember Paul said that earlier to them. He said let not the wise man Boast in his wisdom don't trust in those things and that is I think in Essence the problem was so much of the modern church trusting in human wisdom.

Not only trusting it but preferring it to the wisdom of God now He talks about the rewards and he talks about the suffering of loss the meaning of suffering loss. I don't know exactly what that means.

But here's the picture one day church leaders those who have built upon the foundation Are going to stand before God and give an account. Some are going to receive a reward and some are going to suffer loss.

What does it mean to suffer loss? I don't know, but I'm sure it will be something less than pleasant. Therefore I don't want to be in that position on that day now as we Come to a close here verse 17, I think is one of the most Frightening verses in all of Scripture.

Defiling the Temple of God

Because it is indeed a severe warning from God to those Who would destroy the church through human wisdom leading to division? He says if anyone defiles the temple of God God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy.

Which temple you are and as I point out in a previous study the context here is clearly the church Corporately not the individual Christian as a temple of God. Later Paul will refer to individuals as the temple of the Holy Spirit.

But right now in the context he's speaking about the church and he's speaking to these men who are trying to build the church with human wisdom and he's saying to them you are defiling the temple of God and God will destroy you.

I believe that this is Stating that God will bring judgment upon people Who defile or destroy the church in this present life? He will bring judgment upon them and I think clearly He's addressing people who are genuinely Christians, but yet have embraced worldly wisdom over against God's wisdom and Have just in a cavalier sense gone ahead with their vision for the church that's undermining The witness of the church we have examples in Scripture of people who experienced judgment because they brought False teaching Into the life of the church.

Paul mentions a man named Hymenaeus. And another man named Alexander, and he said I have delivered them to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. So here Paul is Delivering people over to Satan for for judgment upon them in the physical sense we think of another situation with Ananias and Sapphira.

The couple who had lied to the Holy Spirit you remember as they came before Peter Challenged them on their deceit, and they were stricken dead by the Spirit of God so What Paul is saying is that if you take it upon yourself?

To try to build the church through your own wisdom and end up implementing human wisdom you really end up Defiling or destroying the temple of God and you put yourself in a place to be judged by God. I Think there are contemporary examples of people who have come under the judgment of God because of the Destruction they have brought into the church.

I can think of one man in particular That I have often wondered whether or not his illnesses are perhaps related to All of the havoc that he has wrought upon the Christian Church now I think Incidentally also There's a distinction that's made here between those who are Truly Christians but yet off Building the church with human wisdom and those who are not Christians at all, but are rather wolves in sheep's clothing.

I Think the distinction is this those who are truly Christians will come under the judgment of God in the form of a chastisement. But those who are not Christians at all, but truly wolves in sheep's clothing men who are not really God's people, but just mere deceivers.

They themselves Would not necessarily come under judgment presently, but will definitely come under judgment in the life to come. And I think that's a way to in some sense discern between who's you know truly a Christian who has just gone off on their own Ideas.

Versus those who are not Christians at all because let's face it There are many people who are claiming to be Christians who are teaching all kinds of things that are absolutely Contrary to the scripture and they go on without any sort of affliction whatsoever.

They go on in prosperity. They go on seeming to be blessed. The judgment is coming for them. But the fact that there's no judgment presently I think it's an indication that they're not really God's people at all.

But then there are those who have brought certain Elements of destruction and Defilement into the church who are truly God's people and you find in them you find those those signs of of God's judgment Upon them now finally Let's remember this the local church Is to be Christ's witness to the community and an alternative to the wisdom religion and vices of the world.

The Church as Christ's Witness

That's what the local church is such a precious thing in the sight of Jesus. Because it's through the local church that he wants to manifest his life to Those outside of his kingdom and he wants to draw them in.