Sermon by Rev. Tommy Allen

"As Through Fire"

I Corinthians 3:10-15

10  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 how he builds upon it.

11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—

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 done.

14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Cor. 3:10-15, ESV)

Many of you have commented, since I took over the main preaching responsibilities, on my use of movies to illustrate biblical truth. Some are "pro." Some are "con." Some even complain that I’ve spoiled endings for them! My answer, usually, is that you need to get out more.

With this said, I’ve decided to break from the norm and open instead by going literary. My guess is that everyone here has either read the story (or had it read to them) because the story is one of the most famous and important literary works to grace the English language. To what do I refer? The Three Little Pigs, of course!

Let me remind you of the story...

There are three little pigs whose mother could no longer support them so she sends them out into the world to seek their fortunes.

Pig #1: Decides to build his house from straw because it’s cheap and easy.

The big, bad wolf comes and says, "Let me in little pig...or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down."

He huffs and puffs, the house falls down, and it’s ham for dinner.

Pig #2 Decides to build with sticks (because they are a bit stronger).

The result? Ditto pig #1.

Pig #3 Builds with bricks.

Wolf threatens; fails and ultimately dies a death by soup kettle.

Result? #3 "lives happily ever after.."

The Moral?

If you build your house upon and with anything but imperishable materials, you’ve wasted your time.

This is precisely the point of today’s passage—although it’s almost never read that way.

As we continue, I want to consider three points:

    1. Our Misconceptions
    2. The Church’s Foundation

I. Our Misconception (v. 10)

    1. This passage is addressing the individual life of the believer or even personal piety.
      1. While many passages, in all of Scripture, address the issue of personal piety, this isn’t one of them.
        1. I’ve sometimes heard this passage used to motivate either by "reward" (if you live a "good" life, God will reward you for it) or by "fear" (if you trust Jesus, but don’t live a "good" life, you’ll make it to heaven, but only barely).
    1. We know this can’t be right for at least two reasons...
      1. It is inconsistent with the gospel.
        1. At the end of the day, whether you’ve been "good" or "bad" is irrelevant. What matters is what you’ve done with Jesus. Did you know him? Did you seek him? Did you love him?
          1. See Matthew 7:21-23
        1. This leads to the fact that "final judgment" has already happened—at the Cross.
          1. At the Cross, God poured out judgment for all of our sins, once and for all. And for those who believe that by embracing Christ, their sins are gone—period.
          2. What will happen at the end of time, it seems, will be more like a sentencing hearing, and the sentence is based upon the verdict: guilty or not guilty.
      1. The second reason we know that the focus of the passage isn’t to motivate personal piety is because it doesn’t say that.
        1. Notice what Paul says: "According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a sophos master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it" (v. 10).
        2. Here’s where he’s going:
          1. "According to the grace of God which was given to me..."
            1. This is a reference to either a) the general grace of God shown toward Paul; or b) the "gift" of God given to Paul (i.e. his apostolic gift of preaching the gospel and planting churches).
          1. "... like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation..."
            1. The word for "skilled" here is sophos (wise)
              • Paul is saying, "I used my gifts, like a wise master builder to lay a foundation (for the church at Corinth).
            2. "...and someone else is building upon it."
              1. Who is this "someone?"
                • Those who lead and carry out the ministry of the church.
                  1. The bottom-line is that Paul isn’t warning individuals about how to build their lives, he’s warning the leadership of the church and those who do ministry in the church about how and with what "materials" they build their church.
                    1. This is completely appropriate given that many in Corinth were caught up and infatuated with the whole idea of "wisdom" and spiritual one-upmanship.
                    2. In a sense, he’s saying, "As a contractor, I won the bid and started the job exactly how the client (God) instructed. You are the subs and I’m warning you to stick to the blueprints and don’t skimp on materials because you won’t be able to hide it.

                This leads to the nature of the foundation that Paul laid. Notice what he says...

                10  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 how he builds upon it.

                11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

                II. The Church’s Foundation (v. 11)

                  1. He reminds them of the exact nature of the foundation that he laid—it was not methodological or philosophical, but theological.
                    1. In other words, the foundation of the church was, and is, the person and work of Jesus.
                      1. Paul came preaching not only how to have a relationship with Jesus, but that that relationship defines everything else they do.
                        1. The problem is that many Corinthians didn’t do this. They trusted Jesus to enter the kingdom and then sought some kind of higher or special wisdom with which to build and run the church.
                  2. Paul warns them. Why?
                    1. If the person and work of Jesus don’t define everything you do and are as a church, then tangents will. What do I mean?
                      1. Generally speaking, there are two types of tangents:
                        1. Ethical tangents
                          1. Pro-life or pro-choice?
                          2. Democrat or republican?
                          3. Conservative or liberal?
                          4. Rich or poor?
                          5. Black or white?
                          6. Feminist or chauvinist?
                        2. Theological tangents
                          1. Infant baptism or not?
                          2. Communion?
                          3. Worship: "traditional" or "contemporary?"
                          4. Dancing? Drinking? Etc.?
                    2. Many here, including my family, have had completely terrible experiences in one church or another.
                      1. I’d be willing to bet, that in each case, that the nature of the problem was not because the church was too defined by the person, work, and call of Jesus, but rather one or more ethical/theological tangents.
                      2. One of the reasons that I’m continually preaching the same sermon is because you/we need to be reminded every week to stop defining our lives by our tangents and, more and more, trust Jesus.
                      3. If you lead a ministry here or anywhere, the next time you deal with any significant issues or come to some point of conflict, ask yourself: Are we really talking about something that is consistent with the gospel of Jesus and important to building upon this foundation or are we caught up with tangents? Am I driving this tangent because of personal preferences?
                    3. This question is extremely important because, Paul points out, sooner or later the answer to that question will be evident.