Transcription
Okay, let me start with just a few words to pick up from the last hour. Now, once we hear the exegesis of the text and hear what Paul is saying to the Corinthians, many times that causes a great number of anxieties, as you could probably see by the number of people who clustered around after the hour. The questions that usually arise have to do with, "Well, what about all of those people who call themselves Christians but don't seem to be living in the spirit and walking in the spirit?" And my answer to that always is, "Well, I thank God that He's not called me to be judge. You know, there, whatever, it's His business, but He has called me to be faithful to scripture and to be faithful to calling people to discipleship."
I still will insist that in the New Testament, there is simply no such thing as a Christian who has not the Spirit. That is an unheard-of thing. In fact, in the passage in Acts 19, when there are some believers who know something about John's baptism, obviously have not yet heard of Jesus because they know nothing about the coming of the Spirit, when Paul says, "Did you receive the Spirit when you believed?" and there was obviously something wrong in their lives, the absence of the Spirit, he said, "Well, they said, 'We haven't so much as heard that we're, you know, that the Spirit has come.'" Well, his first reaction is to baptize them as Christians because they haven't yet become Christians, obviously, because the presence or the absence of the Spirit is the absolute sign.
Now, what about those then who call themselves Christians and aren't living in the spirit? And my answer always is, "Well, get with it. That's what we're called to."
Now, one of the difficulties we have, and I think you need to come to grips with this, one of the difficulties that we have is that the New Testament is a document, or are, is filled with documents, but the New Testament are, is contains documents all of which were written to new, to uh, uh, missionary churches. That is, all of the New Testament was written in the context of the first or second generation. Second generation, not meaning children who've grown up to be Christians, but second generation, meaning a, a, you know, a second generation of people who have become believers. The kinds of problems that almost invariably face us in the church are problems that are not wrestled with at all in the New Testament.
What do we do with children? Now, that question is not faced in the New Testament at any single point in any way. And the reason for it is that that was not a question that you, that is asked in a missionary context. You go in and you make believers of adults, and they, in turn, then bring their children into that same faith, just sort of automatically. But it's when those children grow up and have children that you begin to ask, "Where do children fit?"
The basic answer that has been given in the church over many years to that is to go back and see the analogy of the Old Testament people of God in Israel with circumcision, and the child that has been circumcised becomes a part of the covenant community, and to transfer baptism then to the child and to make the child baptized and make him a part of the covenant community. And it's a way that the church has had over those many, many, many years to affirm that the children too belong to God.
But in the process of that, and I have no great anxieties, I am one of those that can, can live with or without infant baptism, as long as it's not regeneration. And is here's where I, I part company with Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Reformed. Infant baptism is no more than the Baptists do when they dedicate children. It's nothing more significant happens in that baptism than when a Baptist simply dedicates a child. And I know that my Presbyterians don't like to hear me say that, but that's true. The only real question in baptism is where do you believe the Spirit comes? And there isn't a Presbyterian on the face of the earth who believes that the Spirit is given to that child in baptism. And since that's not, you know, but that's what the, that's what ordinary Episcopalian and Roman Catholic theology and Lutheran theology, and I have troubles with that. That's where I part company. I don't think the New Testament will allow that. First of all, because it doesn't equate baptism in water with the coming of the Spirit in the life. That is not an equation that is made in the New Testament. That's an equation that some people have read into the New Testament, but it's not there.
Now, given that you, you can't have that, you know, what I call sacramental view of baptism, the question is, when does the child receive the Spirit? What does a person receive the Spirit? And it receives the Spirit at the point when he himself enters into the life in the Spirit. That's, and I don't ask me how, when, or what kind of dynamic takes place. It's when the child himself or herself becomes aware or moves into some dynamic of the Spirit's coming into the person's life.
Now, I appreciate therefore, I, you know, I can handle infant baptism in the covenant theology sense, or I can live without it in the Baptist sense. The thing that bothers me with it is what it tends to say to the church with regard to life in the spirit. By the time one gets to the third and fourth generation, you have people who tend to think that they're Christians because they were born in a Christian family. And as David DuPlessis said, and as C.S. Lewis said, and they said it independently of one another, because I'm convinced DuPlessis never read C.S. Lewis at this point, and they said, "God has no grandsons." And that's true. There are no grandsons. You cannot be born a Christian by being born into the Christian home. You are born into the covenant community, and for that I have deep appreciation for reformed theology. I, I was in prayer this morning over my own children, and I can remember hearing myself say in prayer, weeping in prayer, "Dear Father, for my youngest boy especially, dear Father, make him a member of the covenant community. Help him to realize that he belongs to the family of God. Bring that moment into his life when the Spirit comes into his life in that awareness that he really belongs. We've given him to You, and he's really Yours. Now bring into his heart that, that, that moment of awareness that he really is a child of, of the, of the Spirit of the Kingdom."
Now, I don't have any magic formula for that. But my son is not a Christian because his dad is a Christian. But thank God that he has that great covenant community, that community of the Spirit, that together is helping him become what he is by, by our trust and commitment of him to the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's why many of those kinds of questions aren't asked. So what we're doing is we're wrestling theologically with questions the New Testament doesn't speak to, you see what I'm saying? We have to wrestle with them theologically on the basis of everything the New Testament says, but the New Testament doesn't speak to them precisely because those questions hadn't been asked yet.
But as far as the New Testament is concerned, and you'll notice that, you know, it's talking about believers, Christians, the real thing. It, it's very hard for us sometimes. We live in, in cultures where you can go down the, down, you know, into the city and see a cathedral that's 7, 800 years old and, and the sense of magnificence and permanence and it's been forever kind of thing that goes on, you know. Uh, well, well, the New Testament, you know, wasn't spoken in that kind of a situation. It was spoken in an absolute, total pagan kind of culture, except for those who had their, you know, Jewish roots.
For the Apostle Paul, there's only one kind of Christian: that's a person in the Spirit. And if you're not living in the Spirit, then get with it, because that's what we are to be. People of the Spirit, we're to live in the Spirit and love in the Spirit. The Spirit is to do His work in our lives. We are to admonish one another in the Spirit. We are to exhort one another in the Spirit. We are to love one another in the Spirit. Everything we do is to be life in the Spirit.
Now, given all that, let's go on to the next part of the text, chapter 3, verses 5 to the end of the chapter. Now, here is the text that we were going to use as illustration for methodology, and we will in fact do some of that. And we'll do that by turning to the second two paragraphs, that is, paragraphs 10 to 15 and 16 and 17. "According to the commission of God given to me like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it." Then he goes on to talking about building upon the foundation with, uh, six kinds of materials, which go from the greatest to the least: gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. And then talks about the coming of the day of judgment, a judgment by fire, in which every man's work is going to be seen for what it is by the coming of the judgment by the coming of fire. And it says that in one case, there's going to be reward, and another case, the work is going to be consumed, but the man is going to be saved, or but only as it were through fire.
Then in verses 16 and 17, he asks, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God 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 that temple you are."
Now, the traditional interpretation of this text is that Paul is here referring to how one builds his life on Christ. Now, you can't build it on any other thing; you can only build it on Christ. But every person ought to take care of how he builds, because it's possible that you can build your life. And then, of course, tie into that idea that 3:1 to 4 talks about carnal Christians. Carnal Christians are those who build their lives on Christ with wood, hay, stubble, but in the day of judgment, all that they have done is going to be consumed, but they are going to be saved. And the text has become a part of the Arminian-Calvinist debate.
Now, Paul wouldn't even understand you. I can say that point blank, dogmatically. Paul wouldn't have understood anything I've been talking about up to this point. He simply wouldn't have understood himself. That's not what he's talking about. Now, how can I be so dogmatic? Well, because the text really is quite clear. It just takes a moment at times for us to bring that clarity out, and that's what we're going to try to do.
The place to start is verse 5-9. And in the process of doing that, starting at 5-9, we want to keep in mind, what's the problem? Now, what's the problem again? It's division that has strife that has been, that is accumulated around leaders, that is related to making Christianity some kind of expression of wisdom or sophia. Now, that's the problem. And please understand, unless one can argue this is a digression and that he's not addressing that problem, then we have to take into account that this speaks to that problem as an answer to it.
Now, you understand, he's not talking about individual Christians here. He's talking about the church in Corinth and what's going on in the church in Corinth that is being fractured by division. Now, look at 5 to 9. Paul first of all takes up the question as to what then is Apollos? What is Paul? Now, that's the basic question, and he gives its answer here in verse 5. Now, you notice what they've been doing with Paul and Apollos is making them, what? They've been making them philosophers and therefore lords. They were saying, "I belong to Paul. I belong to Apollos." Well, now Paul says, in effect, "That is really dumb. Here you are going around saying, 'I belong to.' And what is Paul? And what is Apollos? And what is Cephas? And what is anybody else who has positions of leadership in the church? Servants through whom you believed."
Now, just as in chapter 8, verses 2-16, the emphasis in verses 5 to 9 is that everything is God's. Notice it in verse 5: "You through whom you believed, to each as the Lord has given." That is the ministry. The servant is something that the Lord has given. Look at verse 6: "But God who gave the increase." Look at verse 7: "But God who caused it to grow." And then look at verse 9, especially. And here is a place where the RSV is simply dead wrong in its translation. Now, I don't say that all the time when it comes to texts where there are some, you know, where it really is optional as to whether we're going to translate this way or translate that way. But here is one of those places which it's simply dead wrong. And the Greek text is what causes us to come to grips with the fact that it's dead wrong.
I'm going to read the translation of the RSV. It says, "We are fellow workers for God; you are God's field, God's building." Now, in the Greek text, all one has to do is simply see the Greek text and, and, you know, sort of let it register. The form of the Greek text in the first phrase is precisely the same as in the next two phrases. The word "God" comes first. In fact, if I can put it emphatically and translate what is not good translation, but gets the emphasis on the right syllable in terms of the Greek text, Paul says, "God's fellow workers, we are God's field, you are God's building." You are. Now, what he's saying is that both the fellow workers and the church alike belong to God. He's not saying, "We and Apollos are fellow workers for God." He is saying, "We are God's possession, and you are God's possession. Everything is God's." And therefore, the translation should come out some way that says, "We are fellow workers who belong to God. You are God's field, God's building."
Now, everything Paul says is God's. But they, Paul and Apollos, are workers in a common cause. But yet, on the other hand, each one has his own work to do. Now, let's get the emphasis. First of all, everything is God's. Worker and field. Paul and Apollos are servants in this common cause. We are fellow workers, both of whom belong to God. But he says, "Each of us has his own work to do." Now, the emphasis, therefore, is on the, is on the belonging to God and being servants in that context. But each servant has his own specific ministry in that common cause.
Now, what Paul is doing, therefore, I'm going to say quite obviously, what he's doing, therefore, is arguing for diversity of ministry within a single unity of the body. Instead of exalting Paul and Apollos, you should recognize them as having differing ministries, but both ministries are ministries of servants. One has a ministry of one kind, one had a ministry of another kind, but only God caused the thing to grow. One did this, one did this, but only God. We are fellow workers, but we belong to God. You are God's field, God's building. Okay. Okay.
Now, what Paul is going to emphasize then in the next two paragraphs are these last two things, namely that they are workers together in a common cause. Look at verse 8: "The one who plants and the one who waters are one." That's emphasized. They're one. But he says in verse 9, or in verse 8 and verse 5 and 6, "Each one as the Lord has assigned, each will receive his own reward." That is, we're, we're one in terms of our work. There's a unity in what we're doing, but God is the one who is responsible for everything happening.
Now, these two things are going to be what are, are going to be the two items that are taken up in the next two paragraphs. Verses 10 to 15 are going to reflect upon the fact that they are servants and a common cause, but each has his own work to do. And verses 16, 16 and 17 are going to take up the fact that they are God's building, namely the church in Corinth.
Now, it is precisely this that we need to hear as God's word. But before we do that, that is, this, that's, that's the exegesis. That's what Paul is saying at level one. What is he saying to the church in Corinth? What he was saying to them was that God is the one who owns the church in Corinth, not Paul, not Apollos, not Cephas. It isn't Paul's church; it isn't Apollos' church; it isn't Cephas' church; it's God's church. And the only relationship that Paul and Apollos have to that church is the relationship of those who are servants.
Now, what is God trying to say to them? God is trying to say to the church, at step two, "Have a proper perspective with regard to your leaders." And the leaders probably ought to hear word in that too. "Have a proper perspective with regard to yourself in your role of leadership in the church." That is, simply get your leaders into proper perspective. It seems to me it's the text that tends to, should tend to obliterate this whole tradition in the church of clergy and laity. The problem with clergy and laity is that we think of clergy as being somebody important. Well, they are important, important as long as they've got their perspectives, you know, squared away. But the very concept of clergy means that he's the big guy. We always look to the clergy. The clergy becomes, you know, "We're of so-and-so." And even apart from that kind of thing, we, we're in a, in a, in a context today. If I sound a little harsh, it's not because I really am. It's that, it's that the Holy Spirit is having to deal with a person who didn't sleep as well as he should have last night, and hopefully the Holy Spirit will do His work in spite of how I may sound at times, because some of the things I say may, may sound terribly, much terribly, uh, more cutting than I intend them to be. If they cut too deeply and they step on your toes too harshly, I don't mean to be harsh, but if it does drive you back to the word, praise God.
Besides the clergy-laity problem that we have in the traditional churches, in our, in our contemporary revival, the thing that God is doing where there's a lot of abandoning of the church and its structures, uh, we are going through a time what I, in America, call the time of following the gurus. I almost have asked, come to ask the Lord in prayer regularly, "Lord, keep me from being one of the gurus." "Have you heard so-and-so's teachings?" "You know, boy, the teachings of some such-and-such." So-and-so's teachings. Bless your hearts. I only want one person's teachings: the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why I'm so concerned about exegesis and hermeneutics, because I'm scared to death you might hear Dr. Fee's teachings and not hear the word of God. And I mean that not to set myself over against some others. I'm convinced that they want the same thing. But we have a tendency to talk about, "Oh, man, have you heard so-and-so?" I'm not going to mention names because I'll really get myself into trouble. But we've got people who are just becoming gurus. I mean, who are becoming, uh, followers of the gurus. There used to be a day when we had, uh, people who were bookworms, and now we've got tapeworms. And, and, you know, it's becoming really, it's becoming a disease almost among us. We're running around, "Oh, did you hear so-and-so?" And then we run to hear so-and-so. "Oh, I'm his man." And we never say it quite like that, you know. We're not that perverse, but we just go around acting that way. The moment we start doing that, we're going to be abusing exactly what's going on here in this text. "Oh, I'm so-and-so's man." Because what they're doing is they're taking natural preferences and they're turning them into exclusive preferences. They're saying, "Paul, yes. Apollos, no." Or in this instance, more likely, "Apollos, yes, and Paul, no." Saying, "Lauren Cunningham, yes. Gordon Fee, no." Now, I can understand natural preferences. I can understand that. I have them too. There are certain things that I like. That's the problem. Liking certain things to the exclusion of that which is nutritional. And here's the problem that's going on in the church. We're, we're beginning to be those that are exalting teachers and leaders and making them something important. And one of the things that really happens in that is that some of us start believing it, and that's the great danger.
The only model we have for work in the church of Jesus Christ is the Lord Himself. It's the only model we have. This is why people like a theology of glory, because the model that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ is not a model that we like. We like Jesus to have done the work for us, you know. We like Him to have gone to the cross for us, but not me, thanks. You know, boy, I'm glad God came into the world and did what He did for me, but don't ask me to go that way.
Now, the model of Jesus' lordship, and you and I sit here and we saying, "He is Lord," exalted in the highest. It's true. But you know how that exaltation came about? He is in the New Testament Lord precisely because He wears a towel around His arm and washes the feet of even Judas. That's the model. That's the standard of His lordship. How does He assume lordship? By saying, "Judas, knuckle under. You obey me, or else you get zapped." Now, He exercises His lordship by knowing who He is. We're told, "Once He had come, and whether He was going, He knew all things." And He knew it was in the heart of man, and He knew good and well that they were so blooming proud and so busy asking, "Who's the greatest in the Kingdom?" that they didn't have the common decency to let any one of them be servant-like. They end up being too small, and Jesus simply assumed the role and washed their feet.
Now, that's the way He always does us in. Like last night, He does us in by the cross. You understand? You see, it isn't until you finally come to grips that the heart, the cross, is at the heart of everything you're really get done in there, you begin to see where you really are in perspective. And once you get yourself in perspective, then things are going to be okay. You know, you're going to make it. Towels, washing feet.
Now, one of the great troubles that I have, not, not personally, I, I don't say great troubles, my language is expansive, not always realistic, but I am concerned at times. I go to denominational conventions. I love the fellowship of the saints. I happen to be one of those that has a deep appreciation for my denomination. I was born and raised in it; it's my home. It's where I was nurtured in the gospel of my Lord Jesus Christ, and I love my home. I love these people who brought me to Christ and cared for me even when I was wandering. They loved me. I love them. I go to denominational conventions, and all the preachers begin to stand around out in the foyer and begin to ask, "How's it going in your church? How are things in your church?" Now, our language betrays us. Our language betrays us. When you and I start talking about "my church," "my people." In fact, this whole shepherding controversy that erupted in the United States, I, I must admit that it's one of the, it's a thing that brought great concern and anxiety to my heart. And the reason I had anxieties that were in every single case asking the wrong question. The question always was, "Who's in authority here? Who's in leadership around here? Who's in authority? Who's over me? To whom do I submit?" Well, I'll tell you to whom you submit: you submit to every other believer. That's to whom you submit. Everyone. It's as simple as that. That's the biblical text. Whenever you're beginning to ask, "Who's in authority around here?" you're asking the wrong question. The question is, "Who's in service around here? Who's leading the way in service? Who's leading the way in giving his life for others?" That's the only, only question that is to be asked. "My church." Boy, you start to talk like that, and you're going to believe it. And once you believe it, it's a disaster for the church. Because the one thing I can stand here and say on the authority of God's word is that your church isn't going to make it, but His is.
Some years ago, that time when I was in Afghanistan, what was it? The summer of '72. I came back from Afghanistan with that awful experience that everyone who goes there goes through, known fondly as the K.T.s, the Kabul trots. Sick, so sick, I didn't care if anything, you know. Ah, but I was scheduled to speak a series of meetings in Yugoslavia where they were opening a Bible school. Where a former student of mine, Wheaton College, gone to Southern Cal College, brilliant, Spirit-filled young man named Peter Kusmich, had gone back to his home to become the dean and principal and teacher and everything else in a Bible school. After spending some days in a Yugoslav hospital, finally, by the grace of God, and a story that's too long to tell here, I got out in the afternoon in time to be there for the opening ceremonies that I had been invited to come to. I was one of the speakers along with, uh, the man who is the head of the Assemblies of God Mission in greater Europe, and don't know where all else. Anyway, Charles Greenway. Some of you might know him. He's, he's one of God's choice people. He's unique. He's his own man. He's a funny character, but he loves the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a room that wasn't much bigger than this one that had 150 people in it. I mean, we were in there. And sitting down in the front row for this evening service, I had spoken in the morning, and he's in the evening service, the dedication service itself, and he's giving the dedication address to this opening of this school. 18 young people who are going to be in the first class. That class is now graduated, and many of those are ministering in Yugoslavia for Jesus Christ. Old Charles Greenway took a text out of Matthew chapter, uh, chapter 16, 16:16 and following: "Thou art Peter, upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates," which means the councils of hell, "shall not prevail against it."
Now, Charles Greenway is a unique man. He preaches with a kind of bombast that, you know, and he looked down at these 18 young people, and what seemed like forever, he just kept doing, and he gets his hand going like this, preaches like this, and he looked at those young people and he says, "You're going to make it. You're going to make it. You're going to make it." Says, "You know why you're going to make it? You're going to make it because Jesus said, 'I will build my church.' You're going to make it because it's not your church; it's My church, and the councils of hell cannot prevail against us." I heard the word that day. "I'm going to make it. We're going to make it. You're going to make it. The church is going to make it. The church is going to make it because it's not our church; it's His church. It's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord." It's my church, and the councils of hell cannot prevail against it because it's His church. The only, only function I have in it is to be a servant.
Now, because I'm a servant in the church, I'd better listen to the next paragraph and listen to it well. Chapters 10 to 15, because now we're addressed personally. Listen to it. Paul says, "According to the commission of God given to me like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation." A foundation for what? For the church in Corinth. Now, let's go back and understand what's happening in the text. This is where the exegesis becomes absolutely crucial. But the moment you see it, you can see that it, it can't possibly mean anything else.
In the first analogy, he's given us four particulars. There is Paul, let's, let's take the, let's take the analogy before we give identifications. There is a field. There is one who owns the field. There is one who plants, and there is one who waters. Okay? And we're told who they are. The field is what? The church in Corinth. Nothing else. It can't mean anything else. The church in Corinth. The one who owns the field, God. The one who plants, Paul. The one who waters, Apollos.
Now, Paul is not a rural man; he's an urban man. One of the great differences between Jesus and Paul, in fact, is that Paul isn't comfortable with agriculture. He's comfortable with buildings and, you know, athletic contests and, you know, he's, he's an urban man. So he changes the analogy. He wants to get a new point, but he changes from agriculture to architecture, but he keeps the same particulars. Now, instead of the field, you've got a, what? Building. You still have an owner, and instead of one who plants, you've got one who lays a foundation, and instead of one who waters, you've got one who builds the superstructure. Exactly the same particulars.
Now, that brings us then to ask, what is going on in the text? The text has to do not with building my life upon Jesus. It has to do with what? The responsibility of building the church in Corinth upon the foundation that Paul has laid, namely Jesus Christ, which is what chapters 1 and 2 are all about. Now, listen to the text. "You," plural, the church, "are God's building." Now, you notice, and here is the clearest evidence of this, comes right out in the Greek text when Paul says, "We are God's fellow workers." Notice that. Fellow workers is plural. "We are God's fellow workers." But when it comes to the, to the field and the building, the "you" is plural, but the field is singular, and the building is singular. In other words, you, plural, altogether, are God's field. You, plural, altogether, are God's building. And the point is, he could have easily said, "You are God's buildings." You see, there's a plural in Greek. He could have said, "You are God's buildings, so build your lives with upon Jesus Christ." But that is not the point of the text at all. In fact, that's so foreign to the text. To make that the point is to abuse the text and to totally misunderstand it.
What Paul says is, "I have laid the foundation for what? For the church in Corinth. And another man is building upon it." Who's that? Apollos, or anybody else. Now, who has responsibilities for building the church in Corinth? But the great point of the text is, "Let each man take care how he builds."
Now, what's the point of the paragraph? Well, the point of the paragraph is Apollos, Paul, Cephas, Stephanus, Fortunatus, Apollos, all the rest of you who have responsibilities for building the church in Corinth, you take care how you build that church because it's God's church, and it's possible to build badly. Now, here's where I don't want to press metaphors. Don't ask me what Paul would have had in mind with gold, silver, and stones as over against wood, hay, and stubble. I've got my own 20th-century ideas, but they're purely 20th-century homiletical suggestions; they're not exegesis. My 20th-century homiletical suggestion to you is maybe we've had enough candy bars and contests. It's time to build the church on the foundation of the word, or excuse me, on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and the superstructure made of the word and the Spirit. I know of no better evangelism. I mean, there are a lot of things that I would crank into what makes a church built well, and I know some churches that are being built well, and I know some that aren't. And the point that Paul makes is that there's going to come a day of test, and the day of test is going to try the work as to what kind it is, and the work that has been done well is going to, it's, both the work and the worker are going to, you know, go into the eschaton, into the end in glory. The man that has built poorly, says the work that he has built is going to suffer loss, it's going to collapse in the day of test, but the man himself is saved. And that's all the text is dealing with.
Now, does that have anything to say in the 20th century? Well, I, I have the feeling that's got a lot to say in the 20th century. "Let each take care how he builds." One of the great sins of 20th-century church building, especially in Protestant circles, is the building on the cult of personality. You build upon the cult of personality, and you watch that personality collapse, and see what happens to the church. Or you see the day of test that comes into the church and see what happens.
We have in our group young people from Nigeria, some who are Ebos, and one who is not. I don't, yes, here he is. I, I spent four weeks in Nigeria. One of the greatest experiences of my life. I don't want to give an illustration that would in any way get me involved in the inner politics and the struggles that sometimes go on in a country that was divided. But most Western people have forgotten that some six, seven years ago, there was a devastating civil war in Nigeria. Group of people who on a weekend had been mercilessly slaughtered all over the country, called the Ebos. All in that weekend became refugees and fled back to their own native land and seceded from Nigeria, started a country called Biafra. It was not to the advantage of all of Nigeria to have the Ebos opt out, become their own country. The Ebos, I think, really believe that they were going to get support from the West. There are a lot of things that are going on, but the upshot of it all was that there was a terrible civil war. Terrible civil war. Because of the initial slaughter, the Ebos lived in great fear of their lives. Those outside of the Ebo country suggest that that was a fear of their own making, but nonetheless, it was a real fear. And so it was there, and wherever the war was going on, and they expected to get outside help but didn't, and they, that the war lasted for two and a half years. Two and a half years. There were 11 million Ebos at the time of the outbreak of the war, and 2 million died by starvation alone. 2 million by starvation. They refer to this as the time of their ordeal, the time of their ordeal, because of the great fear, the entire population became, well, entire, but you know, for the most part, became, um, refugees. As the Nigerian National troops would make advances, that the Ebos would simply pick up and and move. And wherever they went, they just, in fact, that was one of the great troubles in the war. The civilian population was always there in the midst of the, of the soldiers. They could, you know, they, they were getting killed just because they were always there. Refugee camps and the military outposts were all one and the same thing.
Well, all of that, because we spent a week among the Ebo Christians, people who had suffered in a way that I probably will never suffer, perhaps never suffer. It's hard to know, but something that I personally have never experienced, deep, deep suffering. We were with the Assemblies of God Mission, and this is one of those places where I am, I am denominational, not in the sense that I think it's the only one, but here is one of those instances where a mission had done its work right. The Assemblies of God does its missionary activity on the indigenous principle. The only way in the Assemblies of God Mission a man can be supported to have a church is that he's got to, you know, go out and win people and start a church and get support from them. No money from America at all. No "rice Christians" among these believers in Eboland. I was there two and a half years after the war was over. The marks of the war are still there. In fact, our brother is from the town of Owerri, is it Onitsha? The town which, just driving through, large buildings still pockmarked by, just still pockmarked by all the devastation of war. The Assemblies of God Mission, during that two and a half years of war, when two million people were dying by malnutrition, experienced a growth rate of 50 new churches and 23,000 new Christians. You know why? Because somebody had built the church out of gold, silver, and precious stone. Not a missionary in sight, you understand. Yeah, one missionary, but he was there through the UN offer, you know, in the relief, uh, through the, uh, uh, bringing the food relief that was being, uh, brought in at night through the, through the air, but not a missionary in the missionary sense. Not a single missionary. But the church grew, and the more they died, the more they grew. And every, I sat in a church in the East Central State, a church that had been nearly decimated during the war, people just literally abandoned. Two and a half years after the war, 1,600 people in that church on a Sunday morning. Women all on one side, and men all on the other. It was an L-shaped building. The church had so outgrown its facility that they had to build, you know, on this way, and instead of expanding it, you know, they just build out an L. People back there like you can't see the people in this corner, you know, just weren't. And there's nobody on the face of the earth, unless it's the Zulus, who can sing like the Ebos. You think you can sing? You should hear the Ebos sing. I got one request when I get to heaven: I want to lead the Ebo choir. Harmony, melody, magnificent. And I sat there that morning and was to preach, and it was as if I had nothing to say. What could I say to those people? I sat there during that service that I was ministered to until I actually, I had goose flesh. I was so completely transported in the presence of God's people, people who had gone through suffering and hatred, all of the anguish of war, and there they were singing their Hallelujah to God in such a way that it is an indescribable sound. And I heard the text again: "Let each man take care how he builds." The point is, you can build the church well. Let's not build on all of these bad experiences that we so often see. Build a church on the foundation, and then give the church the word and teach it to walk in the Spirit. I say church, I mean church. I mean the community of God, wherever it is, those communities of believers that have been formed by the Holy Spirit. God loves His church; it's His church. But you and I have a responsibility. And I hear we're in a training school, and I want you to hear the word in 1 Corinthians 3:11: "Let each man take care how he builds." It's an awesome responsibility. But praise God, you aren't responsible for bringing the increase. The only thing you're responsible to do is to be faithful. In fact, you don't even find the word "success" in the New Testament. That's an American value, and it's an American value that is based on all the wrong things, like money and affluence and influence and all the rest of that. Fire you to find the word "success" in the New Testament. The word is faithfulness. That's what God requires of His servants. Paul says, "What does God require in His servants?" Faithfulness. Chapter 4, He'll give the increase. But it's an awesome responsibility, so you better hear it.
Now, that brings us to the last paragraph, and this, in a certain sense, is the most important text in the entire section. This is what everything has been leading toward. This is what everything is all about. This is why the warning in 3, it's not 11, but at the end of verse 10, 10B: "Let each man take care how he builds." Verse 16 says, "Do you not know?" And I'm going to translate this so that you hear what Paul is saying and can only come by translation in English, because I mean by this kind of translation, because when you read the text, you can't see the singulars and the plurals. Paul says, "Do you not know that you, the church, are God's temple in Corinth, and you are God's temple in Corinth because God's Spirit dwells in your midst?" And then this awesome word: "If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, because God's temple is sacred, it's holy, it's His, and that temple you are."
Now, friends, you can understand some of my anxieties about taking this text and making it refer to your own life or to the human body, because this is the one great text in the New Testament that tells the church what it is and what it is to be. It is the great text that deals with the local church as a community of the Spirit. If any man destroys this, and how are they destroying it? How were they destroying it? Weren't they? How were they destroying it? By their divisions, by their strife. Their strife was a sure way to cause the Spirit to go and to destroy the churches, to remove the Spirit from its midst. It is the Spirit that makes the church sacred and holy.
Now, I have a hard time with this text. You'll have to bear with me. I was going to move, but I can't move because of these cameras. Okay, I'll stay where I am. There are people in contemporary Christianity who have taken a dim view of the local church, of the local body, as a community of faith and a community of the Spirit. This text tells me that it's precious; it's the apple of His eye. Now, hear me well. God does not save people in isolation. He does not save people to become hermits. The only Christians there really are, are Christians who who have become members of the new race, the new body, the new humanity. He is not in the business of saying, "Saving so many isolated individuals who then live their isolated individual lives." Paul says, "Out of the old humanities, namely Greek and Jew, God has produced one new race, one new humanity, thus making peace." The only salvation there is in the New Testament is a salvation into community. One of the great words in the New Testament, in fact, is the word "one another." You don't do things by yourself. And the imperatives always come in plurals, and it always says, "Forgive one another, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ, love one another, live your lives out for one another." Everything is being done in the context of "one another," "one another," "one another," "one another." We have been called into that kind. We have been saved to become members of a community which in other places is called the body of Christ.
Now, you understand that in Corinth, where there were those 26 temples and shrines to the pagan gods, there was a single group of people who were God's temple as over against the temple of Apollos and the temple of Diana and the temple of Deuter and the shrines to Lord Carapus and Lord, uh, uh, well, the other Egyptian deities. Paul says, "There is the temple of God in Corinth. God's option. God's alternative." The only alternative God has to Corinth. It's the only one. You destroy this, you can't go down the street to another one. If you destroy this, you've destroyed the only alternative God has to Corinth. Pagan Corinth. Pagan Corinth, where there is that lust and that hatred, where people are hurting and dying and crying out in their loneliness for something, some one. God has an alternative to Corinth, and it's His church. It's the only alternative He has, the only one. And if you destroy God's option, God will destroy you, because the church is what He's doing. That's what God is building. That's what God is creating. A community of the Spirit, a place where people live in the Spirit and love in the Spirit, and know what it means to be joined together in Spirit, and as a community become a total option to the world, an alternative to pagan society.
I love the church. Oh, that the church would be the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Or people could say, "I need help. I'm living in a family where there are broken relationships. People hate, scream, no love." Oh, in that moment to point and say, "Hey, there's an alternative over there in the community of faith. You'll be loved over there. They'll care for your needs." Then I begin to think of the way the church so often is a place where people go on Sunday mornings, sing together, and wear their finery together, shake hands together, and then go home. No wonder Jess Moody wrote the book, "A Drink at Joel's Place," said most people can find more fellowship at Joel's bar than they can in the local church. Get more in the Kiwanis Club, have greater fellowship in the Lions Club, the service clubs, than they can in the church. And my word to you is, that's because we've destroyed the church. Don't blame God. But oh, listen, if you pray, and I think you do, pray for the church. Don't talk about its apostasy. Don't talk about its sins. Don't badmouth it. Pray for it. And as bad as it is, as ugly as at times it is, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He wants to renew, it's there that He wants His Spirit once again to dwell. It's there that He wants to create humanity, the new humanity, a community of the Spirit. And if we've destroyed it by letting it just be a place where we gather on Sundays and see one another, then go home and never know about one another, don't even know one another's names, let's pray that God will once again make the church what it is: His alternative, His alternative. A place where people love one another. A place where people gather on Sunday mornings not to go to, but to assemble as, assemble as the body of Christ, where they love one another and care for one another, worship with one another, sing together, believe together, lay hands upon brothers and sisters who are hurting in the name of the Lord, and expect God the Holy Spirit by His gifts to minister until lives are changed, and those that are weak are supported, and those who have sinned are loved and not condemned, where we don't have to wear plastic faces, but where somebody can stand up and in then in our midst say, "I sinned," and tell us what it is that he did, and know that he can tell us without our, oh, looking down our long faces at, "So-and-so sinned. I would have never done that." The very fact that he can expose himself in our midst because he knows those that he supported and loved, because we're the church of the Lord Jesus Christ that He purchased with His own blood.
Don't make this text mean something it doesn't. It has not to do with your body; it has to do with His body, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's His temple. Let the Spirit dwell in it. Okay, we'll pick it up again tonight.