Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Epistle, which was read earlier.<\/p>\n
Have you ever paid close attention to the progression of eating food from birth to adulthood? Following birth, a baby is on a solely milk-based diet, giving to them the basic nutrients that are necessary for growth. As they age, they begin supplementing their milk diet with baby food, starting out with Stage 1 and increasing to Stage 3 foods. Eventually, they reach something that resembles real food. Children need help cutting their food and tricks to help them eat because they are fearful of foods, especially weird things called vegetables. Once we reach adulthood, we are capable of eating a plethora of foods, but to get to this point, it was a progression. For the Church at Corinth, Paul feeds them much the same way that we feed children \u2013 starting with the basic and the simple and moving to the complex.<\/p>\n
As Paul presents the Gospel to the Corinthians, he could not address them as spiritual \u201cbut as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.\u201d<\/i> <\/span>These Corinthians, so fascinated by man\u2019s wisdom, so bent on acquiring it, so vain about the worldly wisdom they possessed, were insisting that Paul also give them God\u2019s deepest wisdom when he preached to them. That sounds wonderful, with great potential to the Corinthians, doesn\u2019t it? Aside from their fascination with worldly wisdom, which, who could blame them since that\u2019s what sinful man tries to attain, they want the fullness of the Gospel preached to them. But there was a problem with their desire \u2013 they weren\u2019t ready for it. They were not capable of drinking from the firehose; they needed to drink from the faucet in little bursts.<\/p>\n Paul was faced with a question: how much of God\u2019s wisdom can you feed an infant? The Corinthians were only babes in Christ, too immature spiritually to absorb much heavenly wisdom. They were too worldly; their flesh was too weak to understand more than the basics of Christianity. Paul gives to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ but in a way that they were able to digest. He says, \u201cI fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.\u201d<\/i> <\/span>It wasn\u2019t a slight to the Corinthians but an honest evaluation of where they were in their Christian faith. No mother gives her infant solid food when they cannot chew or digest it; so Paul could give the Corinthians only the simplest of spiritual food, that is, spiritual milk. They thought they were ready for the spiritual big leagues when they were yet still a farm team.<\/p>\n What was at the root of their spiritual problems? They faced many a division, from within and without. They had spiritual divisions as to who to follow, what message to listen to, what god they should confess and the like. They were squabbling like children, each wanting to first. They were behaving like children rather than the men who they were.<\/p>\n As if that weren\u2019t bad enough, they started bragging about which teacher they followed. There were those that followed Apollos and thought they were getting some extra blessing that those who followed Paul were not getting and vice versa. For them, it wasn\u2019t so much about the message as to who<\/span> was preaching the message. Paul seeks to put an end to their egotistical ways. He said with regard to himself and Apollos, \u201cWhat then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.\u201d<\/i> <\/span>It wasn\u2019t about the man, it was about the message. That was Paul\u2019s point from our Epistle reading. It was vital for the Corinthians to understand that Paul was a mouth, a speaker of the Gospel. He didn\u2019t add anything to it. What could Paul add? Remember, Paul was the former persecutor of the Church: it\u2019s not like he had years and years of good works and merit saved up that he could hand out to others. Apollos was a former Greek heathen who\u2019d lived as an enemy of God for years too. He had no salvation to contribute to what Jesus had won, either. Had both been saints their entire lives, they\u2019d still have nothing to add to Christ! Both teachers were Christians by the grace of God, chosen by God to speak His Word. Whether it was Paul or Apollos speaking it, what mattered was that it was the Gospel.<\/p>\n It was a simple truth, but such an important one for the Corinthians to believe. Why? Because as long as they thought Paul was something they needed, they would think that Christ was less than sufficient to save them. But once they realized that Paul and Apollos were simply the messengers of the King, they were ready to rejoice in Christ and Him crucified, that Jesus had done everything necessary for their salvation.<\/p>\n For the Church today, it\u2019s not about the pastor, though there are have been the fair share of churches that have been centered upon the pastor. What happens to those congregations often turns out to be detrimental. This fact is important: the preacher is just the instrument. He can easily be removed or replaced, though by God and not the sinful desires of man. The pastor is God\u2019s tool, not theirs. The pastor doesn\u2019t really matter for salvation; what matters is the Gospel that is preached.<\/p>\n The preacher is just the mouth and that is the comfort for the Church. Preachers come and go, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. As Paul concludes our text, \u201cFor we are God\u2019s fellow workers. You are God\u2019s field, God\u2019s building.\u201d<\/i> <\/span>Owned by God, given one\u2019s duty by God, empowered to one\u2019s service by God, and ultimately held accountable by God, the servant is a conscripted slave laborer by the ultimate of lords\u2014the sole God of everything that is. Everything that the pastor says and does is for the work of the Church and not for himself. Paul\u2019s desire is to retrain the Corinthian\u2019s focus from their human leaders and refocus it to God. Who is the one who gives growth to God\u2019s Word? It is not the pastor but it is God. The Church remains God\u2019s Church and not the pastor\u2019s Church. It is not about personalities but the Word.<\/p>\n The Lord gives the growth, and the Lord is faithful. By His Word which endures forever, He has made you His field, His building, His holy people. By that eternal Word, you are forgiven all of your sins. In the name of Jesus, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Epistle, which was read earlier. Have you ever paid close attention to the progression of eating food from birth to adulthood? 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