Work in Corinth — Joel Portman

The Work Begins in Corinth

If you would, please turn to Acts chapter 18. Everyone's have asked where Humber is and I can tell you that is a very understandable question. You blink your eyes driving through it on Highway 27 going north from Black River Falls, you'd probably miss it.

It's a little town of less than 300 people. Back in 1980, I was exercised to go there and we began having some gospel meetings and the Lord blessed a little in salvation and along with other brethren over the years continue to have meetings there.

Jim Frazier and other brethren from this area have had meetings and Robert Orr as well and so the Assembly of Black River Falls is always encouraged to see a little fruit there. The primary reason for having meetings at this time is a sudden death of a 23-year-old man, son of Christian parents there, who has left a young widow.

We're thankful she's been coming every night along with most of his brothers. So remember Elizabeth especially, Elizabeth Copp, in prayer. We long to see her saved and have her happy in the Lord. Now Acts chapter 18 we'll read from verse 1,.

After these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. Verse 4,. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.

And when they opposed them and blasphemed, he shook his garment, his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean. From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. Verse 8,. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house.

And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Verse 11,. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching, teaching the Word of God among them. Look on the chapter, we read about Apollos in verse 24.

And verse 27 says that when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him, who when he was come helped them much, which had believed through grace. For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

The Gospel and the Character of the Worker

Go in 1st Corinthians chapter 2,. 1st Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 1,. And I brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech, that is his word, I came not with excellency of word or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech, my word, and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration or proof of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Chapter 3 and verse 1,. But I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it.

Neither yet now are you able for you, ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal? And walk as a man. For while one saith, I'm of a Paul, another I'm Apollos, are you not carnal?

Who then is Paul and who is Apollos? But ministers, servants, by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth but God, that giveth the increase.

He that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God. Or perhaps you might read that that we are of God fellow laborers.

Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he built it thereupon.

For there are other foundation could no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. And how of any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day, shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire.

And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. That's all I'd like to read for the sake of time. I'd like you to read with me in Acts chapter 18 that we have the commencement of the work of the Spirit of God in Corinth.

The historical record of how Paul went there and began preaching the gospel. And it did so with the evidence of God working. And with the encouragement that came from seeing the results that were being displayed.

And those adhering, it says, believed. They adhered to the Lord Jesus and they were baptized. So we have the commencement of the work in Acts chapter 18. We have in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 the character of the worker.

The character of the man that was doing the work. How he felt and how he thought when he went into Corinth. Very interesting. The attitude and the inward concern of the Apostle Paul as he began this work.

And he saw God working. In 1st Corinthians chapter 3 we have his concern. I take it the concern he has for the continuance of that work. How is it going to continue now that he's left? And he's no longer there.

And his heart is heavy. He's concerned. And he has a burden for the welfare of that assembly that God had established as a result of his labors. That would be only a normal attitude on his part because they were like his children in the faith.

And he longed to see them go on in faithfulness for the Lord and continuance according to the pattern that he had established. In many ways we can learn things, I believe, from what we have in relation to the assembly in Corinth.

And the type and the picture that is presented to us. Because we have a typical pattern for how God worked to establish such a testimony. And beginning in Acts chapter 18, I want you to notice with me that Paul has left Athens after perhaps discouragement.

You remember what had taken place in Athens, reasoning with those philosophers and seeking to present to them truth that to them seemed very strange and foolish. In fact they mocked when he began to speak to them about the resurrection of the dead.

And he left there. And we find he went to Corinth. And I would imagine if you would understand it that Paul going to Corinth must have wondered what am I going to see here in Corinth. A city that was so well known for its evil and its corruption, moral depravity, that was the reputation that was well received and certainly was true to the fact.

A city that was full of commerce, a city that was occupied with gain and for much activity, along with all that went with it, a seaport city. And I would imagine if you understand that Paul goes there and he doesn't know what is going to happen.

But he went there and he joined up with Priscilla and Aquila. They were also tent makers. And he dwelt with them and he worked with them and he used the opportunities that God gave him. We find it says that he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews first of all.

That word simply means he spent his time discussing the implications and the teachings of the Old Testament scriptures. It began with what they knew and what he was certain that he could build a foundation on as he oftentimes did more perhaps more in such cities where there were such a Jewish population, where there was a population of that nature.

And so he began that way but he finds very quickly that there was rejection as oftentimes was the case. We find there when we read farther down the chapter where we've been pursuing that course he says he was pressed in the spirit and he shook his raiment because they opposed them and blasphemed.

And he says from henceforth I go to the Gentiles. And so we find Paul moving from the Jewish environment out of the Gentiles and he begins it says that he preached the gospel of them and the result is that he saw fruit for his labors.

What a wonderful thing to see God work among a pagan population, a population of those that had no connection with the Old Testament scriptures. Well they received the word and God was working in the midst because he says they hearing believed and they were baptized.

That's very similar to what we read in Ephesians chapter 1. He says upon hearing when the believers there heard they believed and they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. So there was a movement of the Spirit of God that developed a tremendous work that resulted in an established assembly that he could rejoice in, that he could speak of it highly in relation to what had taken place among that population.

We find down the chapter that after he has been there for a period of time it says he taught the people for a year and six months. So he not only preached the gospel but he also taught them, he established them in truth, he instilled in their hearts the teachings concerning salvation, the doctrines that would preserve them and help them to go on, the important truths that they needed to know and we all need to know even in our day.

We need to be established in the truth of God as much as possible and understanding the basic concepts, doctrines that are connected with salvation and sanctification and all the results of what should be seen in your life and mine.

He taught them it says for a year and six months. Well then going down the chapter we read about another man named Apollos. He had come there to where Apollos, where Aquila Brazil lived, I believe it's in Ephesus.

At that time they came to Ephesus and he was receiving instruction from them but the time came it says he was disposed to pass into Achaia. He went to Corinth and he went there with an exercise to help that little assembly and he goes there with the ability that God had given him so solidly founded in the Old Testament Scriptures and it brings on this evident truth that Jesus is the Christ, not only teaching the Lord's people there in that assembly but also persuading and bringing conviction to the Jews.

An able man that followed on the footsteps, in the footsteps of Paul and essentially doing the same work along the same pattern, substantiating the message and proving the reality of what the Apostle Paul had already preached and taught them.

So we have the historical background, the commencement of the work. A work that began from nothing and developed into a flourishing assembly to the point that Paul writes to them in 1st Corinthians and he tells them that they come behind a no gift, waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus.

They were flourishing in every spiritual capacity, an ability that was theirs. They had the ability from God to carry on in a very positive way. When you come to 1st Corinthians chapter 2 because I want to cover this as quickly as possible, but Paul unfolds his heart in relation to how he felt when he went to Corinth.

I would take it that what Paul says here, you'd almost think that he was not a very brash man. He was not a man that just simply barged in at his own strength because he had a lot of a natural ability.

He had been trained very ably. He had been instructed in the schools. He knew the Word of God, but he was a man that recognized absolute dependence upon God for anything to be accomplished. You notice what he says.

He says, I, brother, when I came to you, he says, I came not with excellency of speech. In other words, he says, I didn't come with a prominence in the way I was speaking. I didn't come with the ability of swelling words that went over and above the ideas of something that overhangs, something that is so great it expands beyond its capacities.

I didn't come that way. I didn't come with excellency of speech. Or, he says, with wisdom. He wasn't exercising the normal means that men use to seek to persuade man. Mind you that he was speaking to Greeks.

And if we know anything about the Greek culture, the Greek philosophy, they gloried an oratorical ability, logical reasoning, the ability to present things in such a way that nobody could argue against you.

They loved the dramatic presentation of your argument in such a way as to impress the audience and to persuade them. Oftentimes, I wish I had a little more ability like that. It would be a wonderful thing to be able to persuade people, wouldn't it?

And some men in history have had tremendous oratorical ability that they could so sway their audience that they could move them to do just about anything. You can think of some in history if you want to.

Paul says, I didn't come that way. I had the ability to do so, but I deliberately refrained from it. Because he says this, I determined, I did not judge it well to know anything among you. One single message, Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

When Paul backs up back up into chapter 1 and you find that what we heard last night is absolutely true. He says, I didn't come to baptize. Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

He said, I don't want to blanket the message. I don't want to cover the essential aspects of it. I want it to be absolutely clear. The cross stands prominent and preeminent. When the audience misses the cross and the work of Christ, the gospel is all in vain.

Paul dwells on the gospel aloud. He comes to chapter 15. He reminds them of the gospel he had preached to them. He says, I preached unto you that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

That's the Old Testament Scriptures, I take it. And here he is proclaiming that message. He says, I did not judge it well. When I came to you, I came declaring the testimony of God. That word testimony is a word that we use for a witness.

He came there witnessing the truth of God to them, and he did so with language that was simple, direct, and appropriate to the occasion, avoiding deliberately all that would naturally appeal to their flesh.

So he says in verse 3, I was with you in weakness. Someone suggested that indicates that he was not a well man at that time. Maybe other times he wasn't well either. He was weak physically. He didn't come with the normal physical strength to impress people with his prowess.

He said, I came with you in weakness. And fear, he says, fear. Some have indicated it was a fear within that he was concerned that his work would not be in vain. He was concerned about the fact that he wanted it to be established in power.

And he says he came with much trembling and a spiritual exercise before God. Not a very promising worker to move in that capacity, except that those are the very kind of men, those are the very kinds of men that God uses.

Man that recognizes his own weakness. An individual that has a degree of fear within himself, fear that his work might be established in some measure of God's power, not a man's ability. And trembling because of his deep concern that of his exercise before God.

It's not ability really that makes a person usable for God, is it? It's not a matter of your ability or my ability, it's availability. It's usefulness in the hand of God that makes all the difference.

And here was a man that was willing to go to such a depraved, debauched city and there proclaim one message, the cross of Christ and the Christ of the cross. It's still the message that saves souls. It's still the message that God blesses.

Recently I heard two brethren, preaching brethren, preach the gospel at a Saturday night meeting and I never heard a mention of the cross. Never had a mention of how a person can have their sins forgiven.

No mention of the work of Christ. I thought there's something missing in that message. That's what Paul would emphasize. So he had the character of the worker. A man that moved in deep exercise and concern before God.

He wanted to see something done for God that would be established and would continue in faithfulness to the Word of God. And God worked. It wasn't his power, it was God's power. It wasn't his ability, it was God's ability.

And God did the work. So he says, I preaching, my word, that's the word that is used simply for the content of the message. But he said my preaching or my deliverance of that message was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom.

The word enticing, the enticing words is a word that is linked with the thought of the presentation of spurious arts of rhetoric or with the persuasive arguments that are presented in clever language.

He said that's not the way I preach the gospel. That's not the way I dealt with man. No, he says, but a demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.

Planting, Watering, and God’s Increase

So Paul could say when it comes to the chapter 3, I planted. Now, I'm not too convinced that that is that he planted the assembly. I think he planted the seed. I think he planted the Word of God in their hearts.

He came there doing a work that was planting truth in the hearts and minds of people. He planted it, first of all, on the gospel. It's really pointed back to an event that he has completed. I planted.

I've done that work. And then Apollos came along and he watered it by his ministry. And he did so with a good seed of the Word of God. And it found root. And it began to flourish. You know, there's no use trying to water if there's no planting, is there?

And there's no use planting if there's no watering. The two have to go together. I'm sometimes afraid that perhaps we plant the seed and we preach the gospel, we fail to water it. Sometimes we let new converts go on and drift and hope they'll come to the meetings and hear something that might be a benefit to them.

I was once, a number of years ago when I was younger, associated with a group, sort of loosely. I wasn't really involved very much as when I was in the service. But their policy was that whenever anyone professed to be saved, one of them either volunteered or he was assigned to call that person up every day, maintain contact with them, encourage them to start memorizing the scripture, feed them with the Word of God, answer their questions and be a help to them.

I'm afraid sometimes we fail to do that when we have new converts. Someone has said that if we took care of the new converts better, we might have more to take care of instead of putting them in some sort of deep freeze and see if they're still warm after a year.

That's a tremendous mistake. I don't like that. So it's a tremendous thing to have those who care for. Paul says, I planted and God sent a man along, Apollos, and he said we work together. We were one in aim.

We weren't one in singular personality, but we were one in our purpose. We were one in our desires and our ambition. He says he that planteth and he that watereth are one, but he says God's the giver of the increase.

So Paul could say I planted and he planted well. Down the chapter he says I laid the foundation. He laid the foundation well. He established a foundation of truth. Doctrine that was intended to support that superstructure that is going to be built upon it, the local church testimony.

He laid the foundation. Sometimes doctrines perhaps get a little stale and dry. You probably wouldn't get a great attendance of believers if you're going to just speak on doctrine. They might say well I'll think I'll stay home.

But doctrine is so vital. Doctrine establishes the foundation of a believer's faith. Doctrine establishes the principles of a local assembly. And if we don't know the doctrines of the Word of God we have nothing to build upon.

Paul says I established. I laid that foundation. And anyone that builds anything knows that a foundation is so essential for the structure you're going to build upon it. I've never been a builder. Built a few yard buildings and I put a few concrete blocks under them and that's good enough to hold them up because if they're not quite right you can always do a little adjusting and not difficult at all.

But you know when you're starting to build a building and it's going to be a great building and a big building it's got to be a good foundation. Paul says I anticipated the building of a tremendous structure that was going to be for the glory of God.

I established a good foundation. So now there are other men that are building upon it. I think Paul is referring to his own work because he wants them to know that the character of the work that follows what he has done should be the same as what he has already completed.

You know one thing about building on a foundation you've got to stay within the dimensions. You've got to make sure you build on that. Up in Humber it's always interesting to me to walk to this door. I think it's still up there anyway.

Not that old a house. But you walk up to the door and you walk along the sidewalk in front of the house and the foundations out beyond the house about like that far. Because the foundation is too big for the house.

It just doesn't fit so they covered over some aluminum flashing and keep the water out. But they had a foundation they didn't build on it properly. They should have built the house a little bit bigger and it would certainly look a lot better.

One thing about the foundation it determines the structure, the dimensions, the establishment of that building. And he says very simply I laid that foundation. I planted, Apollos watered, God continued to give the increase.

And while I can say my work of planting is done and my work of laying the foundation is completed and Apollos work of watering that's done as well but God continues to give the increase. What he is doing of course is diminishing the importance of the ones that do the work.

He said we're just laborers. We're just workers. We're just servants. Deacons is the word we heard yesterday. Those that are involved in the work. They have a purpose and they're going to accomplish it and they're going to do it with diligence.

Paul had gone to that sphere of labor and he had labored. He had toiled. He said we're just laborers. We didn't come in there to start different parties that would be identified with our particular names.

We didn't give you permission to say that you belong to Paul or to Apollos. We came to unify the saints and to bring them together and to join them into one solid building that would go on for God. But what are you doing?

He says you're dividing the people of God. So Paul says we've done that work but God must be continually dependent upon to continue it. It's in the imperfect tense. It indicates that God continues to give the increase.

Brethren, it's a wonderful thing when we see God continuing to work in a local assembly. It's a terrible thing when we see a testimony established and it's just static, becomes stagnant, doesn't grow.

Sometimes we try to introduce different means or methods to try to make it grow but the only one that can make it grow is God. The only one can do that work is God's power set loose to work through exercised believers.

In any other way will never result in proper building for him. So we have the character of the workers. We have the diversity of their abilities. The insignificance of the individuals but the unity of their work together in verse 8.

It reminds them of the fellowship that we had, they have together. He says we are laborers. We are fellow laborers. Apollos and me and others that have come there, we are fellow laborers and we depend upon God.

We're laboring for God, laboring under his control. I've thought of that expression we are fellow laborers of God. What dignity! The dignity of being a laborer for God. I'm moving in fellowship with him and dependence upon him.

He says we are fellow laborers with God or for God and he's doing it with a dignity and according to the demands of the one they're identified with. I think that the thought of being a fellow laborer and laboring in the field of God and the work of God would induce an aspect of diligence.

Diligence in the work. Determination to do it for his honor and according to his will. Paul says we've done that. Character of the workers. He says I have no shame in what I've done in establishing the work.

But now Paul says as he begins the chapter, he says you're carnal. I would take it that what he is telling them is first of all they have not progressed as they should have. They have not grown spiritually.

They had tremendous ability in terms of spiritual gift. But their spiritual maturity had failed to increase to the level that should be expressed. And he says the sad thing is that you're not being controlled by the Spirit of God.

You're not exercised before God to do the same kind of work that we did. I've entrusted that work of that local assembly into your hands as local men in that assembly. He says you're failing the work because of the material and the way you're going about that work.

You're carnal. So you've got divisions among you. The evidence of envy, strife, and all the other indications of the flesh working in them and producing those characteristics. He says you're carnal. You walk as man.

He says in fact in different manuscripts it indicates that the stronger word is in verse 3. He says you are walking according to just the flesh. You're not allowing the Spirit of God to control you and your activities.

And I would take it that Paul has a measure of trepidation in his heart. As you think of these men in Corinth and he knows what they're doing and he recognizes the false teachings that were coming among them.

And the rising up of those that have reverted back to the pattern of activities that impressed them before they were ever saved. The wisdom of man. The exercise of oratory. The rhetorical arguments that of course prevailed before they were ever come to ever came to Christ.

He says now other men are building on that foundation. It's why I'm thankful it indicates that word is others of the same kind as he was. But he's entrusted that work because Paul could not continue there among them.

He wasn't going to be a pastor of a local assembly. That's contrary to the Word of God. He moved in preaching the gospel and establishing the truth among in other areas. Now he says it's your responsibility to keep on building upon that foundation.

He says I've laid the foundation. Other foundation can no man lay. You can't lay another foundation like I've already laid. Don't try to do it. He says that foundation is Jesus Christ. But he says if any man build on this foundation.

Building on the Foundation of Jesus Christ

Assuming that they are all building upon it. Now contextually I would admit I believe it's true that primarily what he has in view are those that are teaching. Those that are going before the saints of God and setting an example and giving them a pattern.

Paul is simply saying that you have the option and you have sadly the possibility of building either good material or worthless material. In other words Paul is saying the manner in which I went about preaching and establishing those principles in the assembly.

I just take it that he is treating them. You carry on in the same pattern. You keep on doing the same thing. Don't just don't go back and start doing things according to flash. The things that seem to be right to you.

The things that would appeal to the natural mind. He said you keep on working in dependence upon the Spirit of God. I'm moving consistent with the pattern of my activity. He says if any man build on this foundation.

Gold, silver and precious stones. I love to think of the fact that it begins with the three valuable ingredients. Three valuable materials. He doesn't start with the worthless ones. He said but there's also wood, hay and stubble.

I know that there are many ways that those materials have been looked at. I'm not interested so much in and look at the details of them, but here's one thing that's very clear. There are some materials that you and I can build an assembly.

They're consistent with a pattern that has been set before us. Consistent with the principles of the Word of God. I can tell you that the materials that are built into any building will determine what kind of building it's going to be.

In those days Dr. Lightfoot actually has pointed this out that the buildings that would have had gold, silver and precious stones in them would have been the palaces of very rich elite people in Corinth.

You wouldn't find that in the common person's home. You wouldn't find gold in your home probably built into the material of it. No one would have find silver or beautiful columns and all the rest that went with it.

No, he says that material was material that was built in the home, the dwelling place of a very important man. Maybe a ruler in the city. Maybe a very influential citizen. Maybe someone that has a lot of money.

He says the rest of those materials they can be put in the heart of any common person. All he wants is a shelter for the storm. So you take it, wouldn't you, very simply that the kind of materials that are being built into this structure reflect what the builders think about the person that's going to live there.

Whose house is it? Well it's so-and-so's house. Well let's put a few sticks here and a little bit of hay there. Plug up the hole with a little bit of straw. That's good enough. But if it's Prince so-and-so, you don't do that in his house.

If it's Prince so-and-so, you make sure you follow the plan exactly. Some of you know my son's an architect. He's had responsibility for some multi-million dollar projects. Someone very complicated.

I find it difficult to figure out how they keep track of everything. But he says you've got to be on top of those fellows all the time. You've got to be watching everything they do because they'll always cut corners.

And always try to do something that they think is better than what your plan is. And it's going to cost you maybe five hundred thousand dollars in terms of the project just to correct it. Oh he says when it comes to the plan of a local assembly, God expects that you and I follow it.

We don't introduce our own ideas. We don't try to to engage in the kind of work that we think is suitable. Just remember it's his house. Down the chapter he says it's the temple of God. And if I comprehend and appreciate the greatness of that lovely person that dwells in the assembly, the one we claim to know in the midst of his gathered people, if I esteem him highly, as we ought to brethren, we want to introduce the very best material in it possible.

Everything consistent with his will. Everything that is true to his person. Everything that will honor his name. Paul says you believers in Corinth, you're introducing elements of the world into the assembly.

You're introducing the reasonings that you once engaged in. You're glorying in the wisdom of man. There are many other methods that those people use in that day that Paul says I deliberately refuse to use them.

And by implication he is saying I don't want you to use them either. And the application is brother we are surrounded with attitudes and practices in our world today. Naturally, normally speaking we gravitate toward them.

It's a natural direction to go. My brother spoke on change and I'm not against change in assembly, but we need to make absolutely sure that every change we make is consistent with the mind of God. Because it's easy to make the make a move that is usually in the wrong direction.

The historical pattern of God's people in the Old Testament was a downward course. Degenerating. I don't want to be negative about the day in which we live. Brethren, we need to get right back to see what is consistent with the pattern of the Word of God.

And do it in dependence upon the Spirit of God to bless. He still blesses His Word. You know E .M. Bounds wrote those books on prayer and other things and I read them years ago and I probably should read them again.

He read the power of prayer, purpose of prayer and so on. One thing that impressed me when I read that book that has stuck with me ever since. He said God doesn't need new methods. He needs new men. And brethren, we need to be revived in our souls today.

Revival, Dependence, and Faithfulness

Because it's the power of God that we need. It's the essence of the Spirit of God moving in liberty. According to the pattern, the purpose that has been established before. You may call it tradition. All traditions aren't bad.

Most traditions that have been the practice and the character of local assemblies down through the years have been used by God for the preservation of the spirit of God. For the preservation of the distinctiveness of a local assembly testimony.

But what we need is to be revived in our souls. Drawn back to the dependence that Paul experienced and expressed. When he went into Corinth in fear and trembling, depending upon the Spirit of God to work.

And God did work. God can still work. God doesn't change. Sadly, you and I change. We need to have that work of God in our souls. I feel it myself. To get away from things that are so distracting. To get away from elements that are deadening to the spirit.