First Corinthians 3:12-14 The superstructure of the Church in Corinth
1 Corinthians 3:12-14 · Roger Henderson · Jul 12, 2020
Letters to the Corinthians, No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261919324142

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright, so we're going to continue on in 1 Corinthians, and I've labeled today's lesson, The Superstructure of the Church at Corinth. So we're going to, basically what I've been doing is, I like to kind of review the previous lesson, and then go into some new verses for this lesson. So I'm going to follow that format, and so, okay.

I use Chester McCauley a lot. His his outlining abilities are amazing. So, you know, basically there was a there are many problems in Corinth. And one of the problems was that there were very gifted leaders. There was Paul. How'd you like to have Paul in your body? I mean, you know, and they had a Paulist who apparently was a gifted preacher as well and others and and Cephas, Peter. And people were lining up, I'm going to be a Paul follower, I'm going to be a Cephas follower, and so on. So Paul's trying to put them straight. And so this, we're down to chapter 3, still going on that topic. So we're down to the section that is, we're going to talk about rewards today.

We're going to talk about the foundation, and we're going to talk about the superstructure. But we're also going to talk about rewards for the believer, which isn't often talked about. But it's actually, it's very good, very, very encouraging. So last week we talked about the foundation of the church at Corinth. And I have a little picture for you here about that. And we're going to talk about the superstructure, or the building on top of the foundation. And then next week we're going to talk about a warning to the church at Corinth. So let's just get right into it here. So here's my little picture. We're going to start with the foundation. So I'm sure if Phil were up here he could tell me all the different kinds of foundations there are. I don't know. I'm totally ignorant of that. I know that it's nice to have a good foundation. That is pretty cool.

So actually that's what we studied last week versus 10 and 11. We're going to review that today. But we're going to spend some time talking about the building that goes on top of the foundation. And this whole thing is, you know, in Paul's word pictures, he pictured in verse 9, he talks about the church, especially the church at Corinth is God's field. And it's under cultivation. It's under development. People are being saved and coming to know the Savior. So it's under cultivation.

The very similar picture here of God's building There's a foundation, and there's a superstructure, and God's at work in both of those. So, starting off with, in God's building, not in man's building, and this is a picture of the church, a picture of coming to faith in Jesus Christ, there's only one foundation possible in God's building. He doesn't allow for any other foundation, and that's wonderful. The superstructure can only be built from certain materials.

And that's what we're going to talk about today. What kind of materials are appropriate for God's building that can be built on the foundation? And then thirdly, the material must be tested by fire. And this is the one that's kind of interesting, that the materials in God's building must be tested by fire. But it's interesting, this testing is not going to come until a future day.

So we'll see how that all fits together. So we've talked about verses 10 and 11 last week, and we're going to review that. We're going to talk about 12 through 14 with a superstructure. So let's just get into it here. So last week's verses, according to the grace of God, which was given to me, like a wise master builder, I lay the foundation on it, but each man must be careful how he builds on it.

For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Okay, so as I pointed out before, in this verse, there's a core part. And the core part is, I, Paul, speaking, I lay the foundation. And the rest of the verse are all modifiers of that core phrase, I lay the foundation. That's my little picture of a foundation.

I'm not sure whether that's a good one or a bad one. It's the one I found on the internet, so it's got to be good, right? Tested by the internet. Hmm, I don't know. It might not be too good. Okay, there's a picture of a foundation. Okay, laid, the idea of laid is to lay a foundation metaphorically in relation to the church. It's a fact, past point fact. The foundation is metaphorically of the fundamental doctrines of the faith. You know, grace, Christ, all the fundamental doctrines of the faith. And so the first modifier of this I lay a foundation is Paul was a wise builder. He wasn't just a casual. He wasn't your weekend builder. He wasn't. He was a wise builder.

And so and actually the word for builder here, a master builder is a word for architect. And it's used in the idea of. architecting or master building God's building. And the verse I like, the reason that Paul was wise, and he mentioned that much earlier in this verse, much earlier in the chapter, and it talks about, or actually in the book, in chapter 2 he said, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." So Paul was centrally focused on the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and that was his focus. No other focus was to get in his way, and that's why he was a wise master builder, because he wasn't going off on tangents. Okay, so the second modifier of that, in addition to being a wise master builder, it was according I was a wise builder. I laid a foundation according to the grace which was given to me.

And according to is this word in the Greek called kata. It's according to a norm or standard. And what's wonderful here, as you might guess, just looking at that phrase, the standard here is the grace of God, God's marvelous grace. And the definition we like here at Holly Hills is by Macaulay. And this is in the biggest sense.

Grace is the unlimited, unmerited blessings from God, whom God based on the totally adequate work of Christ on the cross. But Paul actually, you know, and there's just so many aspects of that, and I want to talk about a few of those in just a second. But it says, having been built according to the grace of God, this marvelous according to God's Norman standard, which is grace, which was given to me. Paul was given, not only did he have it as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, but I believe he was given a special measure of God's grace in his work in Corinth. And that's kind of what's in view here. And a few more notes on grace.

It was given to Paul for the foundation of the church. Paul was a recipient of God's grace. And I really like this verse in 2 Timothy I mentioned last week. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. And just think about it. If you think about God's grace, God's grace is delineated through scripture in just so many ways, and we have so many testimonies to that. Especially, I like the compilation, I mentioned it last week, by Dr. Chaffer, and the 33 riches of God's grace, and just to mention a few of those.

You know, scripture tells us that we're redeemed, we're reconciled, we're forgiven of all trespasses, we're children of God, we're born again, a new creation, adopted, Delivered from the power of darkness and so on that's God's marvelous grace showered upon the believer based upon his exercise of faith in him Okay, so as we go down through the verse the next part is and Another is building on it in God's building program.

There's not a rivalry So here's this was in in direct contrast to what was going on in Corinth. There was a rivalry going on He said it's not a rivalry Because he talks about another, another is building on it, another of the same kind, alas, the same kind as Paul was. So Apollos was building upon that, and there wasn't to be a competition there. And he had the same grace that Paul had.

So next, the last part of the verse gives this warning about how a man builds. It says, but each man must be careful how he builds on it, each man, each one. And the idea here is to be careful. And this word is used, this blepo word is used in Ephesians 5.15. It says, be careful how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise.

We're to be careful how a man builds, how a believer builds on his foundation in Jesus Christ and his faith in Jesus Christ. It builds on the idea to build upon, to erect a superstructure. It seemed like as I looked through, as I studied for this lesson, different commentators would use the word superstructure to indicate, as my little cartoon picture had, you had the foundation, you had the building. They call it a superstructure, which at first was a little bothersome, but I think it captures the idea. And then lastly, this is a really good verse, but it speaks about the apostles and the prophets.

Ephesians 2.20, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. So if you look at this, the apostles and prophets were built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. So there's no conflict that we benefit or we stair-step upon their writings. The Apostle Paul is one of those, and imagine the New Testament without the Apostle Paul.

It would be pretty slim and pretty trim, and actually not a lot of wonderful things we need to know. OK, so let's go on to verse 11. So this is the second verse of review. So I took the inner linear here, which I thought kind of brought across the best.

It says, for no one is able to lay another foundation beside the one who has laid Jesus Christ. So the subject is, no one actually is capable, if in God's building, under God's direction, no one is capable of laying, there's not another possibility. Able has the power to lay or to put. Another foundation.

And what's really cool in this verse is this word, beside. And kind of hidden within that verse, hidden within that word, is this word para in the Greek, has two meanings. And actually, I didn't really appreciate until I did this study the dual meaning of this. The first meaning is the idea of substitution. And the second meaning is the idea of addition. So what's really cool here, and this came from Macaulay, Think about this.

So here's the foundation that God has created. There's no substitute for the person of Christ in God's foundation. And there's no addition to the person of Christ. So this helps us out tremendously. So when you're looking through and reading people that talk about scripture, if you see them putting in, well, you need Jesus Christ plus this, you know you're in trouble reading what they're reading. You probably want to not read that part. Skip over it. Maybe they have some good stuff. You know, it has to be based totally upon the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. You can't add to it.

You can't substitute to it. being laid, and this is the interesting thing, it's the picture, the picture, the farm picture that we had back in the previous verses, earlier in this chapter, talked about a cultivated field, it's under cultivation, and this is actually like a building, what is still being laid, and I kind of picture that as additional believers come into the building, if you will, they join, and that's God's building, it's a church of, it's a body of Christ. So it's being laid, that's the idea, God is performing the action here. And then the last part is really cool, which foundation is a person, Jesus Christ, critical to remember, you know, people, often people say, yeah, God's way up there and he's doing this thing and I'm way down here and there, you know, I don't, I don't feel any, any connection. Well, that's just the opposite of what scripture teaches. Scripture teaches that, that we have three persons in one God, God is a person. And hence our foundation is on the person of Jesus Christ. And nothing else can exist in God's building.

And notice, as a person, I'm going to re-emphasize that again, that I really love this verse. This is a quotation from the Old Testament from Isaiah, the last part of 2.6 in 1 Peter. Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, speaking of Christ, one chosen out of a cornerstone, highly honored, precious, and one who And one who rests his faith on him shall positively not be disappointed. Just a wonderful, wonderful verse.

Okay. So now I thought I'd just, you know, this is a little bit of a divergence. So what is your foundation? And I hope all your foundation is the same as, as what Paul's talking about. Let's just think about it for a second here. You know, we had the example of the foundation on the sand member.

If you were online last week, or you were here last week about the, um, in Matthew seven 24. It talked about the, therefore everyone who hears my words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. You know, pretty familiar.

We even have a song the kids sing in Sunday school. So the wise man is compared with one who hears the word of God and believes it. And that, and when, by believing he's on the rock, the rock Christ Jesus, the foolish man who does not listen to God's Word in the context here does not hear God's Word and doesn't act upon it doesn't put his faith. He's like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand.

So this actually is a little some quotations here from Schaefer. He says the important truth to recognize here at this point is that while the unsaved build on the sand all Christians are standing and building on the rock Christ Jesus. They are secure with respect to their salvation to the merits of Christ apart apart from their own worthiness or faithfulness. It is clearly stated by the objective lesson that Christ is the foundation on which Christians stand, on which he is built. And then lastly, and this is, think about this, and he says, to be taken off the stand Sand, S-A-N-D. To take off the sand foundation and be placed on the enduring rock, which is Christ, constitutes one of the richest treasures of divine grace.

You know, he's basically talking about coming to know the Savior. But the picture here is the sand and the rock, moving from the sand to the rock. And that's what, that's our prayer for everyone who hears this message today. Okay, so now that's, Okay, so that kind of wraps up the review. So maybe you're tired and say, where's lunch? And so we got halfway through. Okay. All right.

So here's the day where we're going to talk about, we talk about the foundation and how critical and how important it is. Now we're going to talk about the superstructure. So these verses say, now, if any man builds on the foundation, so notice he's building on, he's building on the foundation. If you don't read that right, you can think I'm confused, but This is any man building on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, straw.

Each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire. And fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on remains, he will receive a reward. Don't you find it interesting that the Lord is going to test our things with fire? It's a picture, but it's kind of interesting.

Now, if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, and straw. So that's the first phrase. Now, if any man builds on the foundation. So it's assumed that he, okay. Now, in the Greek, there's different classes of if. This is the one that's assumed to be true. It's assumed that the believer is building with one of those six items. You think, well, that kind of reduces it down. You mean I'm building on the Christ with one of those six things? I'm not sure I like any of them. I'm not sure I like the gold. I'm not into gold. I'm not into silver. But they're pictures. Wood, hay, and straw. I don't know. That sounds like a pretty poor building material, right? And it is.

Any man, anyone, actually, you know, in studying this, I found that not everyone agreed with some connectivity to what's called the judgment seat of Christ. So I looked at that and decided, well, I think it is focused on that. So I'm going to teach it. Basically, this is kind of a connection to the judgment seat of Christ, and we'll see that shortly. But others say, well, no, I think this is particular to Paul on that day. So any man, I think, including Paul and Apollos, to build upon, to erect. It occurs in a bunch of verses here we're teaching.

It also occurs in 2.20, which we saw earlier. So the foundation, the the tells us that it's a particular foundation, and we know that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I said, I actually got ahead of myself here. From verse 9, we know it's the Lord Jesus Christ, a particular foundation.

So now we're going to talk about what's What composes this superstructure? So we have the six elements, six materials, but they fall into two categories. Gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, and straw. Those are the categories they fall into. Some have taken it and you read through it and think, well, okay, yeah, gold, silver, and precious stone, that sounds pretty valuable. So God's telling us that there are valuable things we can build with.

And there are things that are not so valuable. Wood, hay, and straw don't sound too valuable. If you're a horse, hay is pretty important to you. But for most of us, hay is not going to be too tasty. But I don't think the difference is, in fact, the verse doesn't say that. The verse doesn't say, even though gold is valuable, He doesn't say that that's what he's focused on.

It focuses on this aspect. 14 and 15 dictate the distinction between something that's consumed or not consumed by fire. That seems to be the distinction. You think, wow, this seems really strange. God's going to look at my works and whether they're consumed by fire or not. One stands a fire test, the other does not. One's burned up, one goes through.

So, so that's, you know, that's very interesting. So, so I thought, you know, this is, you know, we've, we've heard this, this teaching before. I'm sure what Haynes that we've heard those things. And I thought, I need to connect that with something that makes sense to me in the Christian life. So here's, here's my take on it. And if you think I've gone astray, talk to me later, you know, okay.

Building with gold, silver, and precious stone. So here's, here's my thought. We know from Ephesians that God has prepared our works beforehand. So I would say, building with gold, silver, and precious stone, this is a work God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in it. And by faith and trust in Christ, we do walk in this work. So I would say, that's a gold, silver, and precious stone work.

Okay? Secondly, wood, hay, and straw. This work, I believe, was not prepared beforehand by God. But, we have decided that this work will please God. So we do it in our own power and strength. So I have a couple of verses, a couple of thoughts here in backing this up. So what do we say about, let's take the last one first. So I went, boy, it's been great studying with Mike on Wednesdays. You ought to Zoom in if you can't be there in person. We have plenty of room on Zoom. You won't exceed the capacity of the room. Anyway, if we study in Genesis there, we see Cain and Abel. And you look at Abel, righteous Abel, and you look at Cain. Cain had this exact problem.

He tried to please God with wood, hay, and straw. Because apparently God, and it's not totally delineated, but it seems that Cain knew what God wanted. God wanted an animal to be brought to him as a sacrifice, or as an offering. But Cain decided, well, I have this great garden, and it's going gangbusters. I'm going to bring you some of the fruits of my produce, and that will please you.

Well, God makes it very clear that was not what he wanted. And Cain gets into a fit and does a terrible thing. He kills his brother. But anyway, I see that as kind of a picture of how you can, you know, over and say, well, God, you didn't want this, but I think this is really what you want.

So that's an example of this. The next one, I'm going to step on some toes here. Okay. What about the work, gold, silver, and precious stone? Well, I was thinking about this. The myriads of instruction we have in scripture just you know Instruction after instruction. Let's just take the family Let's take instructions of the husband and wife So I think that's something that is prepared beforehand. God has given us his instruction beforehand he says this is how a Christian marriage is to work and he has things that the husband should do things that the wife should do and Let's start with the husband. He says husbands. Love your wives as Christ loved the church That's something that God, in my mind, has prepared beforehand.

And the wives are saying, you know, I don't know if he's doing too well on that one. Actually, I thought, this isn't a one-time event. I don't think you get one chance to do that. Fortunately, you have a whole lifetime. And fortunately, your wife is gracious. But on the flip side, the wife is to be to listen under, to be subject to her husband, and she may not do that her whole life. So I'm just saying that what seems to me that God has given us a multitude of instructions, and they're prepared in advance, they're in the pages of scripture, and we can walk on those or not walk on those.

So I try to give some flesh to these two categories. Okay, if you don't like those, come and see me. Alright, so here we go, we'll get into the details here. So now 13 and 14 are going to tell us about the details of this, and now we're going to kind of change the scene.

It says, each man's work will become evident. One of the points here is that we don't know, we don't know precisely which one falls in those two categories, but God will show us that down the road, and we're going to see that in a second here. Each man's work will become evident, will become manifest, Work is here, a work that you're doing for Him. It's a future tense. Open to sight, become visible. There's several words that talk about it's going to become visible. It's not visible now, but it will become visible. The true quality of each man's work will now be open to sight.

This is a revealing of man's work, not his character. Here's something to think about. We're going to talk about God looking at our works. There's no question about a believer's character. He has a very life of Christ. So God, we're not talking here about whether a person is worthy to to go to be with the Lord. We're talking totally about his his work, his service for God.

So we need to make ourselves clear. This is about his work. Actually, think about this. The thief on the cross had no opportunity to do a work for God. Right. He said, you know, just remember me. And from all we can see that he's a saved person. So we zero works will go. You can still go to heaven. But God's talking about works that he wants to reward you for here.

We'll see shortly here. OK, for the day we'll show it. So so now we kind of get into this is where some people. So what is the day? And the best I could kind of come up with, and you can kind of trace it through, there's the day or that day. They all seem to point back to the judgment seat of Christ. And Constable has this nice little paragraph here.

This is a reference to the day or that day when the believer will stand before God and will give an account of the stewardship of his life at Christ's judgment seat. And then here's a verse that we'll study probably a year or so from now in 2 Corinthians. And it talks about the judgment seat, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. So that's going to happen to all of us. And that's the time when we'll know the true value of our work, whether it be gold, silver, or precious metal, or wood, hay, or straw. Okay, so here's another word that will be shown to make plain. This is the second word that expresses that idea.

Christ will show on that day the quality of their work. Macaulay says we are told of the time and events that will reveal the quality of service to the Lord. And he points out the quality is not revealed now, but at His return. So we're not, you know, we know from Scripture what pleases Him, what He desires us to do. but the total, the final revelation of that will be a time future.

Okay, so now he says two aspects with fire. The first aspect, because it is revealed with fire. Reveal is to make manifest Dr. McGee says, fire won't hurt the first three, the gold, silver, and precious metal. Fire purifies gold, silver, and precious stone. And the weast has it because it was made clear as to the identity by one of its attributes, namely fire.

So basically God I was kind of thinking about that. God is a purifier. He's looking for pure works. And fire is a picture of how he purifies those works for him. And then the second part is fire will test the quality of each man's work. And in scripture, there's a couple of words for testing.

And this is a word, you know, God never tests us to sin. He never wants us to fail to sin. He tests us to approve us. And this is this word, Dakimazo, to test, to approve. So the fire is going to prove that that work was really a work that Bill was adding to God's building and his superstructure. It's a proof of the example of that.

And a beautiful verse that kind of says that, which we've studied earlier this year, 1 Peter 1.7. So the proof of your faith, look at this, the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable. Even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So your faith is actually more precious than his example. This is really wild. You know, it's amazing. Your faith is so precious to God because you trusted him of your own volition.

And the weast has this, and the fire itself will put each person's work to the test for the purpose of proving it to determine what sort of work as to quality. Okay, then the last verse kind of wraps this up. Actually, I'm going to split it here between the good works and the bad works. Next week we get the bad works, this week we get the good news.

If any man's work he has built on remains, it's gone through the fire and it remains, he will receive a reward. It's assumed to be true. It's assumed that it's gone through the fire and made it. Its work remains, endures. So Weiss renders this, assuming the work of anyone which he has built upon endures and it meets the specifications.

So I thought, you know, I was thinking about rewards and it's a big topic. But crowns seem to show up a lot in the rewards that God has for us. But crowns seem to have a purpose. Crowns aren't nice for us to just carry around in heaven, saying, look at my crown. I'm really cool. I got a crown. Mike says, I got a crown here, Roger. Your crown. Oh, my crown's bigger. Which one? No, we're not doing that. And the 24 elders here is a picture of the church.

So it says in Revelation 4.10, The twenty-four elders will fall down before him, Christ, who sits on the throne, and will worship him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne." So the picture in Scripture is one that, yes, we get crowns, yes, we get rewards, but they're all something that we will use to glorify Christ because, remember, from Ephesians, God has planned the work for us, we by faith carry out the work, and He rewards us for it.

What a deal. He prepares the work for us to do, we keep it by faith, and He gives us the reward. Pretty good deal. Nothing like that kind of deal anywhere else. It is all by His grace and His love for us. So in closing here, just a couple of thoughts. I like so many different authors, but this is Schaeffer again.

In this passage, the believer, who is a once for all established on the rock, Christ Jesus, is said to be building on the rock either materials which are subject to burning by fire or murals which are purified by fire. I think actually that's the best picture to think about, that this fire is a purifying agent. It's purifying the works for God. They need to be purified. The picture is gold has some inherent, in physical gold it has some inherent impurities, but fire many times is used to purify it. And that's kind of that picture of what God is doing, taking our works through the fire.

And the last part here is, there is no reference to character building since Christian's character under the economy of grace is produced by the child of God as a fruit of the indwelling spirit. is the believers works or service, which is he is building. And that and that are that are in view. These are the works and the foundation that we should walk in. All right, so let's close.

We thank you, Father. We thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior. Thank you for your plan and your building and the foundation, which is our Savior. And thank you that we can We can do works that please you by the power of the Holy Spirit. And thank you that you give us rewards to glorify you in Christ's name. Amen.