God’s Fellow Workers

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

Good afternoon, everyone, to this smoky day here in Edmonton. As you read our scripture, we're back in the New Testament. Shane mentioned earlier that we took a break last week to look at Nehemiah in the Old Testament.

Paul’s Opening Context for 1 Corinthians 3

But we're back into our study of 1 Corinthians, picking up from chapter 3, verse 10 to 23 today. Shane preached on verses 1 to 9, and we are picking up right following right after that. As we keep looking at the book of 1 Corinthians, it feels like we're getting a sense of momentum as we study this book.

And as we continue to study it and to read it, you'll come to understand that there's a couple of running themes that keep reoccurring as Paul has instructed this church in Corinth. And we're going to see those again, but in a different light this time around.

Again, as Paul's writing, like any good teacher, he knows his students. He knows their strengths, their weaknesses. He knows their misgivings. He understands their condition. And as we'll see, again, there are lessons that apply to the church in Corinth back when Paul sent this letter.

But also it has a real world application to us even today. So before, there's a lot for us to get into, so we'll get into it. Before we do that, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord guide us. We who are your servants and workmanship can do nothing outside your saving grace.

We who labor, labor in vain unless it is the Lord who builds the house. Father, we ask that you would redeem this time together and that you would give us strength, wisdom, and humility to accept the correction from you and the grace to pour out your praises as our hearts are transformed and our lives are changed according to your word.

Make us laborers worthy of the gospel. We love you, Lord. And know that it is you who worked through us and worked through us to work about all your glorious graces that you will do on this earth. Lord, we ask again, Lord, that you would prepare our hearts and that you would prepare the soil of our minds, Lord, that we would become laborers who are fervorous and zealous for you, Lord, that we would do the good works that are laid before us with a mind to honor Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

So in his precious name, we do ask these things, we ask in his name. Amen. So we've continued to look at 1 Corinthians. We see that Paul is addressing many concerns, like Shane said earlier. The book of 1 Corinthians is divided into a couple of different subsections.

The first four chapters are dealt with, Paul is dealing with divisions in the church. He's dealing with issues of carnal sin, and he's attempting to make corrections in the church that he planted in Corinth, as we read in chapter 16 of the book of Acts.

So we're starting to understand that Paul is lovingly rebuking this church in Corinth. He holds very jealously this church, but like any good teacher, he doesn't just offer correction. What he does, as well, is that he builds up.

As we've seen in the last couple chapters, the chapters 2, specifically all of the first two chapters, we've seen that Paul has taken aim at the highest minds in the land. Paul has taken aim at the highest halls of academia.

He's taken aim at philosophers of the day. Remember that this time in Corinth, this is a culture that was obsessed with knowledge. They were asceticists, and they were looking at philosophers. They loved orators, and they loved the ability to stand within the halls and to debate ideas and lofty ideas.

And Paul has taken aim in that in the first two chapters. And it's important for us to know that, because he's taken the wisdom of man, and he's brought it low in light of the wisdom of God. And he's doing something similar in that in chapter 3, but his perspective changes just a little bit.

Because what he's done is he's taken, while he took aim at the lofty philosophers and orators of the day, instead now he's changed his perspective somewhat, and he's looking at the laborers. So instead of the high minds of academia and universities and all of academics, he's looking now at the foundation where concrete is laid, and the foundation is laid of the building.

Because we'll see that language emerge again and again in these 13, 14 verses that we're going to look at. We're going to see this language of laborers that Paul continues to lean upon. And, of course, the reason for this is pretty simple, actually, because as Paul addresses this church again as a good teacher, he's trying to build up.

But what he understands as well of the Corinthians is that, and of people in general, is that men and women are laborers. We labor on to things. We labor for things. And this is a letter addressed to the church in Corinth.

He says so in chapter 3, verse 1. He says,. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. Infants in Christ. These are people who are still brothers and sisters, very young, very carnal.

But he's still addressing them as believers. But they are, those who labor there, labor for the wrong reasons, and they labor incorrectly. And the condition that Paul is attempting to fix here, and the lesson, the problem that we're going to tackle today, based on the text is this, is that man cannot labor for God unless it is God who builds him up.

So man cannot labor for God unless it is God who builds him up. He commissions him as a worker and builds him up in the worker that he desires him to be. That man, unless the Lord does that, he's unable to labor for the Lord.

So that is what Paul is going to be looking at here in these next about 13, 14 verses that we're going to look at. So for those taking notes, actually, so we'll just get right into it. We're looking at, again, verses 10 to 23.

But actually, I'm going to take a step back and we're going to look at verse 9 as well. Because verse 9 actually helps us give context to what Paul is talking about in these following verses. And actually, if you're taking notes, you can label this one as the first point, Christ the foundation.

We've sung many a song this morning, or this afternoon, about Christ being the firm foundation. And Paul starts, rightfully so, right where at the base of the building. He's talking right about the foundation where concrete would be laid.

So again, we're going to look at, so for this, we're going to look at verses about 9, 10, 11. And Paul says this, For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. 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 of how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So first observations while looking at this text, there might seem like there's somewhat of a paradox or somewhat of a contradiction.

Because Paul says, 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. So it might seem somewhat like a boast. And actually, I'm reading from the ESV.

But if you look at the, there's an annotation. Because I prefer this when it says, like a skilled master builder. Instead, I prefer what the annotation says, or wise master builder. Paul, again, is making a boast.

And it might seem that he's boasting in the flesh. But actually, Paul is doing something pretty spectacular here. And I'm going to have you turn to Philippians 3, verses 4 -6. To give us, again, some of the context that Paul is talking about here.

So in Philippians 3, verses 4 -6, he says this. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone thinks that he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

So I'm going to pause right there for just a second. But we've come to read those words often. You may have heard those words read. And you've come across them. And you've understood where Paul is coming from here.

But put it, again, into just more direct writing. Paul is saying in this that he was a straight-A student. He's a straight-A student. This was a man who labored. And actually, that means that if you guys are familiar with the Old Testament, there are something to the tune of about 613 laws and commandments in the Torah alone.

This is a man who was zealous. Paul was very zealous for the law. And according to what we have here, he was really disciplined. He was really good at it. Paul was really disciplined at being able to keep this.

And actually, that was something that he would have held highly in regard. And the Lord blessed him with an aptitude to be able to do this. This is not easy. If anyone who's looked in the Old Testament and gone through Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Exodus, you see these laws and commandments, and you see they're very hard to uphold.

There's a lot to do. And actually, the Pharisees would have prided themselves on being able to maintain the law and being very zealous for the law. They were very zealous people. If you guys remember in the Gospels, they chided Jesus Christ throughout his entire ministry because they attempted to catch him in the law.

And so they had to have known the law. They would have had to practice, and they were very zealous for it. And Paul, again, he's a straight-A student. He was not one to falter. So Paul, when he says this, he's not boasting.

So we look at 1 Corinthians again. He's not boasting in his fleshly attitude. Because look what it says in verse 7 of chapter 3 of Philippians. He says this, But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

He sees all that he had beforehand, and he counted it all as loss. It was to him as nothing. When counted with the riches and wisdom and righteousness of Christ, he counted all those things. It would be as though he would be a straight-A student, forsaking all his studies and going into another field because he knew that he enjoyed, and he longed for something that he was doing better in that field versus the one that he was blessed with.

So Paul, having all this intelligence and all this wisdom that the Lord had given him, counted it all for his loss for the sake of Christ. Turning back to 1 Corinthians for a moment, and we look back at 1 Corinthians.

We look that it says, According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation. So upon looking at this just a little bit closer, we see that although it might seem like a boast, what Paul is actually saying is that it was by grace that he was given all these things.

He was given wisdom. He was given the intelligence. He was given the zeal to understand what was taking place. He was given the hands to build and plant the church to which he is now writing. It was grace that allowed him to do these things.

And notice actually, as we look at this, what Paul is saying is actually directly after this is what applies to us. Looking back at verse 10, it says, I laid a foundation. As a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it.

That is actually the part that concerns us more specifically because Paul, and this should encourage us, Paul did not count his labor or any labor that came before him higher or below anything else. Actually, he counted it quite equal because he says, I, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation.

So the foundation is what goes first when you're building a building. And he understands that it's not the architect that builds the building. The architect designs, but he does not pour concrete. He does not pour, they wouldn't have used concrete back then, but the stones and the foundation that they were laying, these things, Paul isn't responsible for these things.

He laid out a plan that the Lord had given him, and there are fellow workers and fellow laborers that have come in after him and will come after those laborers, and their work is the one that is being built upon the foundation.

And look again, real closely, we have to understand that, and this isn't even the foundation of Paul. This is the foundation of Jesus Christ. Looking at 11, he says, For no man can lay a foundation other that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Again, all of this that has come before him, this is a work of Christ. It is a work of grace. He's been given these things, and he's been allowed to enter into the labor. Remember verse 9, he's a fellow worker.

We are God's fellow workers. This is a letter, again, written to the people in Corinth, believers, fellow workers in the Lord, building up the holy temple, which is us. And Paul will get into that ever more so, but we have to start with that point in mind.

This is very good news for us. We have to understand that. Very early on in my Christian walk, while I had faith that the Lord could use me, I often, in my carnal thinking, and again, this would have fallen right in line with what the church in Corinth would have been dealing with, I said, well, the Lord can use me.

No doubt I have faith that he will use me. But if I was smarter, he'd use me better. Or if I had a soundbite or I had a platform, he could really use me there. Right here, he'll use me. But those people, he's really going after.

He's really doing something with those guys. But what we get from this text is exactly the line of thinking I would have fallen into. It would have been carnal thinking, what we've been looking at the last couple of chapters.

Again, looking at what the fleshly eyes see and what the fleshly ears would hear, as opposed to what the godly work that God is doing within us. I would have fallen right along the lines of appreciating the accent of those who are speaking, as opposed to the message that they were saying.

Again, this should be of an encouragement to us. Because the right foundation is Jesus Christ. And everyone is building their foundation upon it. I'm going to ask you guys to turn real quickly to 1 Peter with me.

1 Peter 2, verses 4 -7. And notice that, again, Paul has talked about building the foundation, the temple. But Peter talks this in chapter 2, as you turn there, Peter lays it right down what we're talking about when we're talking about the holy temple.

Again, 1 Peter 2, verse 7 says this. And as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. Again, chosen and precious. These are stones that, these are people that Peter is talking about here.

Verse 5, 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 to the honor it is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Again, the foundation of this building, as we look at this first point, we need to understand that the foundation is Jesus Christ.

We are that temple. This is the temple that the Lord is building. However, we as fellow workers are able to enter into it. So for application, what we really should be looking at in these first three verses, again, it should be of encouragement, and it is taken right directly from the text, is what it says in the end of verse 10.

Let each one take care about how he builds upon it. Let us take care about how we build upon the foundation, which is in Christ Jesus. We have to learn that as we, as believers, labor for the kingdom, that we labor onto his temple, which is in Jesus Christ, the foundation.

But we should be careful about how we go about doing that. But that should beg the question. The question that kind of comes up naturally is, okay, so if we are to take care about how we build the temple, how do we do that?

That is the natural question that kind of comes out of the passage we're looking at right now. Well, how do we do that? And for that, Paul gets right into it in the next couple of verses. Again, for those taking notes, this is where Paul gets into kind of the meat and potatoes.

He set up the foundation, and he goes into his second point here. Again, for those taking notes, you can put something to the tune of the refining fires, because this is the big crux of the argument here.

Refining Fire and the Quality of Our Work

Picking up from verse 12. Well, we just read verses 12 to 15, and he says this, Now, if anyone builds in the foundation, remember that is Jesus Christ, 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 burnt up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Here, Paul gets right into the crux of his argument.

Again, we've shifted our focus from the halls of academia right to the labor force. We're dealing right with the fellow workers, the laborers of the Lord. And right off the bat, as one observing the text, we look at verse 12.

We need to understand what we're looking at here. Foundations and buildings are built with materials. Look what Paul says here. He says gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw. These materials would have been common knowledge to the people in Corinth.

They would have understood what the quality and the caliber of materials they're dealing with every single time. As Paul has relayed these, there's a sequencing. And for those, again, for those who are paying attention, you could almost draw a divider.

You could start to draw a dividing line between one group where you have high-quality materials and the other group, low-quality materials. It's right there in the text. We can start to see the gold, silver, precious stones.

You can almost put a dividing line right there. And then you look further. It says wood, hay, straw. Again, another group of materials. One high-quality, low-quality. And this is not to say that hay, straw, and wood don't have their uses.

They were used commonly. It was commonplace then. But people knew the quality of materials that they were dealing with. They would have known what one would have been used for in one context over the other low-quality materials that are used in another.

Turning to 1 Chronicles, 1 Chronicles chapter 29, verse 2, we get an image of what Paul is talking about. Because if you guys remember in this chapter, this is the building of the Lord's temple. This is when Solomon has been charged by the Lord to build the temple in Jerusalem.

David could not do it because of all the blood that had been on David's hands. And therefore the Lord instructed David's son Solomon to build the temple. But again, I want us to note here really just briefly what it is he's building with.

Picking up in 1 Chronicles chapter 29, verse 2, it says this,. So I have provided for the house of my God so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and the wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx stone for setting, antimony-colored stones, all sorts of precious stones, and marble.

So again, we get this image. The Lord had commissioned Solomon to build his temple, but he did not commission just any regular building materials. He would not have used the hay and straw that you see here in 1 Corinthians for waterproofing.

That was one main use that people would use hay and straw for. And he did not use that in the temple. Instead it was built with stones and precious gold, the things of gold, the things of silver for silver, and so on and so forth.

So you get the sense that there is a dividing line being placed here when Paul is sending this letter out, that he's delineating high-quality and low-quality materials. So looking forward in verse 13 as we move on, take note here what Paul says.

It says,.

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. You see this imagery of fire taking place in many places in the Bible.

For those who like, we used to have a running joke in our systematic study we used to run with our old church, that we had a fire theology going on. Because every so often you'd see fire come up, and actually there's many instances.

I only have a couple here, but Lord knows there are very many that you could point towards. You could look at Isaiah 48 .10. That's one good example. It says, Isaiah 48 .10 says,. This is, again, Isaiah writing to Israel, but talking about them being refined through their suffering.

Again, this is one instance. We look at Matthew 13 .11 -12. This is John the Baptist saying, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me, who is Jesus, is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork in his hand, he will clear the threshing floor, and will gather wheat into the barn, and the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

That's one more example. Let's look at, we read from Revelation today. So thank you, Shane. But actually, what I'm looking for in Revelation is Revelation chapter one. Revelation chapter one, verse 14 -15.

And it says this of Jesus.

It says,.

Again, these are just a couple spots where we see fire, but the Lord uses fire to refine and to judge. And we see that multiple times. You see that in the Psalms. You see that in the Old Testament. You see that everywhere in the Bible.

There is a real connecting theme about the Lord's use of fire and its effect on materials. Again, and just to hit the nail on the head here, and this is an imagery that people would have been familiar with.

Remember, this is kind of a mercantile culture. This is a culture that is used to working with their hands. Look at 1 Corinthians. Look just a couple verses back in chapter one, verse 26. He says this of the church in Corinth.

So he's talking again to humble people. This is a humble people that would have been used to working with their hands. They would have been shopkeepers. They would have dealt with materials. They would have been builders, laborers.

So they're fully aware of the imagery that Paul is using here when it comes to fire. So I have maybe a couple questions for maybe the kids because I like to throw in science whenever I have an opportunity.

Who here, just like show of hands, who here has worked, if you guys, the adults too can throw their hands up if you'd like, but who here has worked with hay, straw, and wood? You guys ever seen that? You guys farm kids?

Yeah.

I know Lisa because she's busy. But so, you know, anyone who's been, who has a farm or has, you know, a grandfather or grandparents who have farms have seen hay and straw, right, that gets everywhere and it's dry and it's kind of coarse, right?

What about, do you guys ever, do you have any carpenters here? Anybody who's worked with wood? Anybody built birdhouses? Any little ones?

Bad ones.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, you've built a couple in your day. So again, you know, again, these materials are, you know, they're good. They have their uses, right? We see them and they're used often. Now again, maybe this one's for the kids.

Can anyone name some of them, some precious stones they've come in contact with? Maybe your parents are wearing them. Yeah, maybe, huh? There's one. Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, they, wow. You have a geologist over here. You usually see it on this finger.

Well, hold on.

Mom lost all of her diamonds in her room.

We don't have that answer here.

Okay, well, I was hoping the kids would say diamonds at some point. But yes, diamonds, not to put Shane on the spot here. But yes, diamonds. Actually, diamonds are actually a really, really peculiar rock.

They're actually, they're very dense. People know the value of diamond. Diamonds are pretty, pretty popular in the culture. Is anyone familiar about how diamonds are formed in the ground?

Maybe the kids. Maybe I'll get the kids today.

Maybe I'll ask on you, Matt, later. But is anyone familiar how diamonds are formed? Yes, pressure.

Pressure.

And because it's lower in the earth, it's something else. When you turn up the heat, that's right. Over the course of many, many, many, many years, diamonds are formed in the earth's crust by immense amount of pressure and heat.

Actually, it's a process that takes a long time. And it's interesting because when you start to look at how diamonds are formed and you're seeing how these brilliant rocks that emerge from the ground and you compare them with things like, you would see here, hay, straw, wood.

Did you guys know, I don't know if you guys knew this, they are built of the same atoms? Do you guys know they're made of the same atoms? The same thing that makes wood, hay, straw is the same at the atomic level, at the smallest level, the same thing that makes a diamond.

You apply pressure and specifically heat to carbon in the earth's crust, you get diamonds. But if you would apply that same heat specifically to wood and hay and straw, what happens to it? Yeah, that's right, it catches fire.

It's consumed, right?

You get a pile of charcoal.

What was once this one building made of wood is now just a pile of ashes. It's consumed. And it's very interesting. Again, they're made of the same things. Carbon, if you guys are curious, again, they're made of the same thing.

At the atomic level, that's what we call it, they're made of the same units. But amazing that you can take diamond and be formed of the same thing, but then you have low-quality grade material that is consumed by fire that does not consume the diamond.

And I want us to apply that because that is the argument that Paul is really getting at here. When he says in verse 13, 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.

This is a promise that we can hold fast to. The day, if you guys are reading your Bibles with a little bit of astuteness, you'd see that is a capital D. This is a moment in time that we are all waiting for.

It's a time of testing that is incoming, that this will happen, that the day will disclose it. We looked at Revelation 1, verses 14 and 15. Jesus Christ comes to us again with eyes of fire, eyes of fires that reveal the truth, and will not just reveal the truth of the works, but will either refine the works that we've laid before him, or will consume what it is we're doing, or what we've brought to him.

Look at verse 15. If anyone's work is burnt up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. This is a safety net, and this gives us encouragement. I don't want us to linger too much here, because this is a safety net, to be sure.

We can take comfort in this, but this is not a safety net, brothers and sisters, that we want to use if we have any opportunity to use something else. In other words, we want to give the Lord our first fruits, the first fruits of our labor.

We want to give those to him. We want to make sure that the exceptional materials of our lives, the gold, the silver, the precious stones, the quartz, the diamonds, all of these things are given to him, and that the hay, the straw, the bale, all these things are left secondary to those things that ought not matter.

We want to give the Lord our first fruits. Again, these are the same materials that the Lord used to build this holy temple. So how much more can we draw on that, on that imagery, for us to bring that before the Lord, and offer him our very first fruits, the one who will refine our works, or either consume them.

The day will disclose it. We can be sure of that. And on that day, we don't want to be saved as one through fire. We want to give him our first fruits. So let that be our application for this point. Let's give the Lord our first fruits, and that goes in everything.

That goes in our parenting, our marriages, husbands and wives, to our work, as we labor, not unto man, but unto the Lord. Attack your work with fervor and zealous nature. Our church ministries. We just started up our groups here with our men's and women's groups, but not just beyond that.

We really, really, really get into those, really give the Lord the best of our efforts. Our evangelism. Everything, truly anything that we can put our hands to the plow for, we ought to do with our best efforts, and give the Lord our first fruits.

Remember that this is the Lord's temple that we're talking about. Being familiar with the Word allows us to understand the blueprints and the planning and the direction for which the Lord intends to build.

Therefore, having learned what the Word says, let us apply that. Let us give the first fruits of our labors, and let us give unto the Lord as one who is worthy of all the things that we give him. So that's our second point.

Again, moving through this, again, for those taking notes, I sometimes try to get them in the bulletin. I wasn't able to get those for Shane earlier, but if you guys are taking notes, this third point is, you can title it Confidence in the Structure.

Confidence in God’s Temple and the Security of His People

We're going to do something somewhat interesting here for this third point. I want us to look at verse 9, and then we're going to read verse 9, 16 and 17. We're just going to read them through. And actually, verse 9 is important because it gives context to the rest of the passage, and you'll see what I mean in just a minute when we read it.

Starting again in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9, it says, For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. Verse 16, it says, 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. Interesting, man. This is a—it would almost seem as though, as we read this, Paul takes a little bit of a pivot.

Again, we've been talking about laborers. We've been talking about skilled master builders, fellow workers. And then in verse 16, 17, he takes almost a pivot. But it is—at first glance, you might look at verses 16 and 17 and wonder, why does Paul take such a pivot?

Why is it such a change in the text? I know I did when I was reading this at first, when I was preparing for this. But actually, it is so obvious to us. It is so on the nose that we dare not miss it. If you look at the book of Acts, if you look at chapter 1, verse 1 to 2, you guys don't have to turn there and read it quickly.

It says, In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.