Man, thanks, Chris, and it’s so exciting to hear about your meetings coming up. Yeah, really excited to be able to meet Chris sooner or later and celebrate with you all on this next chapter the Lord has for your church. If you have a Bible, you can open with me to 1 Corinthians. I’m picking up where I left off. I’m going to read 1 Corinthians chapter 3 all the way to chapter 4.
Verse 1, we’ve been seeing in the first few chapters of 1 Corinthians here how immaturity among a group of people, any kind of group of people, makes unity impossible. Immaturity makes unity impossible. When immature, self-focused, and short-sighted people get together, it’s only a matter of time until they start to argue and divide. themselves up into tribes and completely dissolve what they used to have.
For example, children in the sandbox start out just fine. My two kids start out great until one grabs a particular toy that the other had. And then everything falls apart. Coworkers build a company together, but competition for promotion causes one to backstab another. A husband and a wife enjoy life as a family, but someone’s personal goals might leave the rest of the family behind.
Church members gather to worship the Lord together and serve their neighbor, but preferences for certain leaders and styles of ministry feeds the arrogance of their hearts and causes them to look down on others in their own church family. It eats away at the momentum that they used to enjoy.
This is what was at stake for the church in Corinth as we’ve been reading these first four chapters. As the Apostle Paul writes to them, their individual preferences for certain preachers, like Paul or Apollos or Peter, their theological tribes, these preferences were undermining the unity that they had once enjoyed.
And Paul writes that it is showing everyone how immature they really were. He says, you’re spiritual babies, essentially. One would hope that they’d soon grow out of these silly kind of squabbles into the kind of perspectives about life and leadership that would protect them from division, but even Paul himself, he says he’s not sure. At the end of chapter four, he says, I’m not sure if this is going to work out.
There were a few things that they needed to learn about the limits of leaders, especially the kinds of leaders that they boasted in. And this is the issue that Paul addresses in chapters three, all the way to chapter four, verse one. So let’s read that together now. If you have a pew Bible, it’s in page 1,200. 12. So let’s hear now God’s Word. Paul writes, But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. Even now you’re not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, behaving only in a human way? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul?
But servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his wages according to his labor.
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation. Someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care of how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 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. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple 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 you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he might become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God, for it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. This is God’s word. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we just ask you now to help us consider what we read. Holy Spirit, would you illumine our minds so that we might understand the significance of your word here in 1 Corinthians 3. so that our lives today and the way we view our church and the leaders of our churches might be reshaped by what you’ve said. And it’s in Jesus’ name we give you thanks for hearing us. Amen.
So this is really providential for you then as you reminisce on your former pastor and you anticipate your next pastor. How should we view leadership in the church? Is there a biblical foundation that should ground the way we think about our leaders? in church. Is there a kind of perspective that we could have that would protect us against the kind of immature, self-focused, and short-sighted views that were dividing the church in Corinth? Is there something fundamental to the identity of a pastor that we can hang on to?
The answer, according to our passage, is this, that we ought to think of pastors and teachers, even our own theological tribes and church traditions, as servants not saviors. This is how Paul ends in chapter 4, verse 1. Consider us servants in contrast to some sort of savior. Paul wraps this entire passage around this idea. Chapter 3, verse 5, what after all is Apollos and what is Paul? Only servants through whom he came to believe. And then in chapter 4, verse 1, this is then how you ought to regard us as servants. We have been entrusted with the mysteries of God revealed to us.
Now, what defines a servant? How would you define that term? Well, a servant is someone who works for somebody else’s benefit, not their own, and is under the authority of a supervisor, not themself. The word for servant found in our passage in 1 Corinthians is the same word that is often translated as deacon when it’s referring to the office in the church. A deacon is an officer of the church who serves certain needs of the church in order to allow the elders to give themselves over to prayer in the ministry of the word, like preaching and counseling. As opposed to the office of pastor or elder, which is defined as a leader of the church, a deacon’s role is defined as a servant of the church, which is why that term was formalized.
And yet, underneath, there’s a sense in which, underneath God’s own authority over his church and Christ as head, Even pastors and apostles take up this identity, as Paul gives, being defined as a servant, as those who don’t have authority within themselves to do as they please, but rather are called to work for somebody else’s benefit, namely yours, under the authority of a supervisor, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Though the church in Corinth once boasted about which theological tribes they each belonged to, saying, I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos, the opposite was actually true. You don’t belong to them. Because leaders are fundamentally servants of the church, it’s more like they belong to you. As Paul concludes in chapter three, verse 22, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, all are yours. Here’s the problem.
There’s some really good pastors out there. There are some really great churches that you could be a part of. There’s some really effective Christian ministries you could participate in, but if our appreciation for those people and churches and ministries goes unchecked, we might keep ourselves spiritually immature and we might threaten the unity of our church. In this passage, Paul provides three reasons to show how he himself is a servant of the church and not the church’s savior, and these three reasons provide a powerful exposure of some myths that we might believe about good pastors, good churches, or good Christian ministries that we might appreciate. So there’s three reasons why ministers are servants, and these three reasons expose three myths that we might believe about them.
So let’s walk again through our passage. Here’s the first myth that is uncovered in our passage that we might tend to believe, that my pastor, can change my situation and fix my spiritual problems. Have you ever believed that before? Man, this pastor can really change my situation and fix my spiritual problems. According to chapter 3, verses 5 to 7, that’s a myth.
Let me illustrate this first point through a lesson of history. Here’s just an illustration. How did the Protestant Reformation ever happen? How was it that a lowly monk like Martin Luther sparked a revolution that upended the abuses of the most powerful institution in all of Europe in a time when there was no freedom of speech or religion as we know today. How could such a thing have ever happened?
Here’s what some people suggest. Some suggest it was due to political tensions. Many princes and kings resented the power and wealth of the Catholic Church. Others might suggest that it was due to economic pressure. The church’s wealth and taxation were a heavy burden on the population.
Or how about just simply the bold and inspirational leadership of Martin Luther? To publicly protest and inspire commoners who would have never thought they could have stood up for themselves like that. Well, these all were certainly factors that combined to contribute to the Protestant Reformation, but consider what Martin Luther himself believed. about how this happened. Martin Luther writes, take myself as an example.
I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the word was greatly weakening the papacy. such that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing, he says, the word did everything.
My pastor and my church, my theological tribe, can change my situation and fix my spiritual problems. That’s a myth. The fact is, they can cultivate spiritual growth, but they can’t create spiritual growth. Only God can do that, as Martin Luther says, I did nothing, the word did everything. We see this back in verse five.
What after all is Apollos? What is Paul? But servants, through whom you came to believe, as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. Paul planted the seeds of the church in Corinth. Before that church ever existed, he was there in Corinth preaching in the synagogues and marketplaces, gathering the first Christians of Corinth and starting the church. After Paul left, Apollos came after and continued doing the same work that Paul had been doing, picking up where he left off. But because Paul had already planted the seeds, Apollos’ work looked more like watering the seeds of their faith, and it’s likely that Later, the Apostle Peter, who’s referred to in 1 Corinthians as Cephas, came after Apollos to help.
Perhaps Peter needed to do something like put in a wooden post by this growing plant to make sure that it could stand up straight as it grew. Other pastors and teachers, no doubt, added fertilizer, while others had some pruning to do later on. In the same way, there once was a congregation that started Forestdale Church, the church I pastor, around 175 years ago. And through the years of our history, many pastors have come to do their gardening work.
Together, all of this lineage of pastors have preached the Bible. We’ve prayed over the sick. We’ve married members and joy celebrations. We’ve buried members in the sorrow of death. But despite all of these pastor farmers that have done, we share one thing in common. None of us has actually caused this plant to grow.
In verse 10, Paul says that he laid a foundation for the church to be built on, and yet even his work, he says, in laying that foundation only came about because God gave grace to him for that task. Like a chisel in the hand of a carpenter, though the chisel carves a new shape into a piece of wood, it is not to be praised. A chisel has no power in and of itself. The carpenter, who has the power in and of himself, must pick up the chisel and transfer his power through the chisel to do the work. And even though there might be a chisel you really like and you really appreciate for whatever reason, know that the carpenter could have used any other chisel for his task. God alone makes grass grow. God alone can change your situation. God alone can fix your spiritual problems.
The Lord brings us to faith and the Lord helps us grow up into our faith. As the author of Hebrews explicitly says, Jesus is both the founder and the perfecter of our faith. As we saw in the previous passage, 1 Corinthians 2, although pastors preach sermons, it’s the Lord who reveals himself through his word so that we can know him, and it’s his spirit that illumines our minds so that we can understand the significance of what is said. And so neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but only God who makes things grow.
And one of the lessons my first few years as a pastor taught me is that there’s really only a couple reasons people will come to church or visit your church. Either they love Jesus, and you’re just gonna, hey, what brought you to church today? And they’ll say, I love Jesus. There’s nothing else I understand to do on a Sunday morning than come to church to worship Jesus together with God’s people. Other people, they’re not sure about their love for Jesus, They simply have a problem.
So if they don’t exuberate with some sort of obvious affection for the Lord and I ask them why they’re here, despite whatever they stumble into telling me, I know they have a problem. They woke up with a problem and they thought they wanted to come to church to see if the church could help them solve their problem in some way. If you’re here today and you fit this general category of having some kind of problem in your life that you’re trying to solve, which has brought you to this church for the time being.
Let me just cut to the chase. You don’t need me. You don’t need a new pastor. You don’t need this church. You need Jesus. You need to look to Jesus. You need to behold the eternal glory of Jesus Christ. There’s no pastor who can make us a sufficient substitute for Jesus. For Jesus lived a perfectly obedient life before God and died a sacrificial death on a cross to pay for sin. And his victorious resurrection from the dead gives us the only hope that we could ever have, to grow spiritually, to know the Lord, to be reconciled to him. We need to turn and recognize our desperate need for the Savior and our ongoing need for him evermore. Now, the Lord very well may use a particular church, a particular pastor, as one means by which he works through your life. And that’s why we’re here. Maybe exactly why God has brought you to this church.
But don’t waste any of your time hoping that either me or some other pastor or a particular church has the power within themselves to change your situation or to help you grow spiritually or to ignite, if you will, spiritual growth in your life. And by the way, if any, you don’t need me to tell you this, but if any pastor or church does claim to have that power, run away because it’s a scam. I can cultivate the spiritual garden of your life And a pastor, that’s what he’s called to do.
Plant, water, fertilize. Through prayer and the ministry of the word and the sacraments. But I can’t make spiritual grass grow. Only God can do that through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. As one pastor summarized it, my job as a pastor is simply to point out the ways in which God is already at work in your life. This brings us to verses eight to 10 in myth number two. Myth number two, my pastor, church, or theological tribe has the best ministry. We have the best.
If you have played sports on a team, you probably know this term. We shout out same team, same team. Now what does that mean when you hear someone say same team? That means one of the players isn’t aware that they’re actually rivaling someone else on their team, thinking it’s someone from the opposite team. So if you’re fighting for a ball in soccer, you might be wrestling up against another person, thinking it’s someone from the other team, when it’s actually one of your own teammates. So we shout out, same team, same team, to help you realize the person around you is actually on your team. You don’t need to fight them.
My pastor has the best ministry. The fact is, according to these verses, is no, He doesn’t. He’s actually a teammate. He’s on the same team. He’s a teammate in ministries with other pastors and members of your church. My church is the best. No, it’s not. Your church is a co-worker in the field of God’s ministry here on the Cape. Look back at verse five.
We’re only servants through whom he came to believe. Listen to this, as the Lord has assigned to each his task. Do you realize there’s a particular task your pastor is going to have? And it’s more specific than simply administering the Word and sacraments. There’s a particular point of providence in your life that the Lord is bringing a pastor to help you solve. And you can look back and say, wow, I can see why God used them at that point in my life. It’s just what I needed.
We haven’t taken up our own tasks. in ministry as ministers. We’re doing what the Lord has assigned to each of us according to his providence and time. Don’t you realize despite what your plans are, the Lord has his own plans? Do you realize that despite what strategy for ministry might seem best in your eyes, the Lord is already moving, executing his perfect will through all kinds of churches and ministries that preach the gospel? How could we say that our most beloved pastor, Bible teacher, church, or even approach to ministry is better than someone else’s if what we’re doing is simply what the Lord has assigned us to do. I’m not saying that there aren’t healthier and less healthy approaches or more biblical and less biblical approaches to ministry, but to think in terms of better, that’s not what Paul’s after here.
He’s saying there’s a particular task and what we’re trying to evaluate is faithfulness. Are we being faithful with the task we’ve been given? Could it be, imagine this, a thought experiment here, could it be that the Lord is okay with different kinds of pastors ministering in different kinds of churches so that different kinds of people with different kinds of problems or objections to the gospel might all be reached?
This leads us to what Paul concludes in verse six, I planted, but Apollos watered. Even though Paul and Apollos were both pastors, they didn’t do the same thing. Why is that? Well, most likely it’s simply due to the providence of God, the historical development of their church in Corinth. In the lifespan of a single church, a variety of needs are going to spring up over different seasons of that church’s life. For example, before the church in Corinth existed, they didn’t need to be watered.
They needed to be planted. Yet after they were planted, they didn’t need to be planted even more. They didn’t need Apollos to just dump a whole bunch of more seeds on the ones that Paul planted. They needed Apollos to water the plants. And yet, even after Apollos, a third pastor comes, and he doesn’t need to drown it with more water. Perhaps he needs to fertilize it and stabilize it for growth.
So in my first year as a pastor, I asked the former pastor, who was actually an elder, who remained an elder for that first year, as well as the other elder who was there, I asked them, what was ministry like for you guys? So the former pastor had pastored Fort Steele Church for seven years. I asked him, what was ministry like seven years ago when you got here?
By the time he first, so he accepted the call, and then he arrived, within that time frame, the church continued to plummet financially, and by the time he arrived, they couldn’t offer him a salary anymore. Although they allowed, I mean, they had a parsonage, you know, thank God, and they could give him a place to live. They talked about even how the parsonage needed a total renovation before it could even be inhabitable. All of these organizational issues, And I was listening to these stories thinking, Lord, thank you.
You did not assign that task of ministry to me. Because those are difficult problems. Now, there are other problems that he’s assigned for me in my task at this point in our church’s life. But the Lord had uniquely equipped Bruce to lead the church in that particular way. In many ways, they needed to plant some new seeds. Now I have the privilege of watering the seeds that were planted by that last pastor.
After all, remember what Paul wrote earlier in chapter one. The gospel is not a stumbling block to everybody, only to some. Paul writes that the gospel was only a stumbling block, actually, for Jews. What of for the Greeks? They weren’t stumbling over it. They just thought the gospel was silly. It was foolishness to the Greeks, right?
And so what did the Lord do? Well, he didn’t send the same preacher to both. He didn’t send the same preacher to both, did he? He sent Peter to preach to the Jews who were stumbling over the gospel so that they might learn through Peter how the gospel is the only building block toward God. He sent Paul to preach to the Greeks so that they might learn through Paul how it’s in fact the wisdom of God which confounds the wise.
And let’s be honest, not every preacher of Christian ministry looks and feels the same. They all have a different culture about them. Even within the OPC, you’re going to find different cultures. of churches if you visit other OPC churches. Some churches feel like different worlds altogether.
You’re like, what was that when you get out of it? But could it be that the Lord sees fit to use various types of preachers and ministries to reach certain types of people who have their own kinds of hang-ups to the gospel, like Jews or Greeks, to serve them in a particular season of spiritual growth in which they’re in? You might enjoy the watering you’re getting, What if another church just needs to be planted? You might enjoy the fertilizer you’re getting, but what if a church needs water?
Paul will write later in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, there are all kinds of different gifts of the Holy Spirit, which the Holy Spirit gives to different people in the church. And what does he say though? Yet they’re all for the common good. In Ephesians chapter four, it says, Christ gave various gifts to the church in the form of leaders.
Some of them were apostles, some were evangelists, some were pastors and teachers, and yet it is written they all worked toward one and the same goal, which is to equip the saints for the work of ministry and build up the body of Christ. Remember how Jesus responded? The disciples came to Jesus one day to tattle, to tattle on other people who were doing ministry. They said to Jesus, Rabbi, we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop because he was not one of us. and they felt proud of themselves, didn’t they? Jesus said, don’t stop him, for whoever is not against us is for us.
Far from competing against one another, Paul writes in verse eight that the one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose. Verse nine, we are co-workers in God’s service, and you are God’s field, God’s building. So competing co-workers should be an oxymoron in the kingdom of God.
There may be various approaches to ministry, but it’s all done in the same garden. There may be different applications to ministry, but it’s all the same building, whether consecutive pastors within one church or other pastors of various churches. There is one universal church made up of various local assemblies, all of people who worship Jesus as Lord. And none of the above has the best ministry, or at least that’s not the way we should be thinking about it. for there is one ministry in one sense.
Therefore, when evaluating our pastors or our churches, we shouldn’t be asking, are they the best one around? This is what we should be asking, are they faithful with the task the Lord is assigning to them? Are they being faithful with the task the Lord has assigned to them?
Myth number three now, toward the end of chapter three. My pastor does everything right. My church and theological tribe gets everything right. This is important to laugh at this one because of how obviously wrong it is. But let’s see how it plays out and how what Paul writes should reshape our perspective.
In the military, we had field day every Thursday. Field day was not fun. is when we cleaned our rooms and got inspected the next day. On Friday morning, our supervisors would come in to inspect every room in the barracks to make sure that they were tidy and clean. And so to make sure our platoon passed inspection on Friday, the NCOs of each platoon would check the rooms the night before.
Now, I became an NCO. In my first night as an NCO, I went with others to do this initial check for the first time, and we were shocked to find Lance Corporal Farland’s room spick and span. Lance Corporal Farland was clumsy. He regularly forgot things and made mistakes. And so I thought he might be starting to turn a corner in his life. This is great. But a more experienced NCO went straight to his closet. He opened it up and exposed the overflowing pile of junk. My pastor does everything right. Our church does everything right.
We’ve got it locked down. The truth is, we’ll see. We’ll see. Because every minister is going to be held accountable before the Lord and evaluated on Judgment Day for the quality of his ministry. That’s what revelation means. Everything will be revealed. It’s what Paul talks about at the end of chapter three. We see this in verses 12 to 20, but let’s just look back at verses 12 to 13.
Paul writes, if anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the day, referring to the last day, the day of judgment, will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.
Not all work is quality work. Not all ministry is quality ministry. What’s more, sometimes what you think is a high quality ministry is actually full of fluff, and it will all be exposed on the day of judgment. As ministers, we get some things wrong. Though we did what we thought was best, sometimes we don’t exercise the best judgment. Perhaps we didn’t have the wisdom or experience we needed to make a smooth transition or offer a simple solution. Other times, ministers, we can be tempted to cut corners. We know what makes for quality ministry, but because of the pressures of life, whether time or energy or fear of what people are going to think, we can attempt to get by with a quick fix and hope everything will sort itself out.
Other times we can think we’re so smart with our new approach to ministry or church leadership or preaching, replacing the ordinary ways God has promised to work with worldly trends that come and go. New Testament scholar Paul Barnett writes that ours is an age preoccupied with style and appearance rather than substance. And this has affected the life of the church and the ministry.
Paul writes in verse 18, don’t be deceived. If any of you think you’re wise by the standards of this age, you should become fools. He’s saying it’d be better if you were just a fool so that you might become wise. But it can get even uglier than this.
Other times, ministers can even be malicious, self-serving, and wicked, looking to take advantage of their position, steal away certain benefits from their ministry, and even abuse people under their care. And we see an example of this in the Old Testament, 1 Samuel 2, through Eli’s son, Hophni and Phinehas. Unfortunately, we still see it in churches today. The Lord gives a strictness warning to them, Chapter 3, verse 17. If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is sacred, and you together, that is the church, are that temple.
So this kind of reminds me of the chair outside of my principal’s office in my elementary school. It was in the main lobby where everyone comes in through the front door, every class walks by it, there’s the water bubbler, all these classes are coming to get water, go to the bathroom. And there I am sitting in the principal’s chair outside of the office waiting for my turn to go in and speak to him. And so everybody is walking by seeing me in the chair, because I was there quite often. So what I would do is put my shirt over my head and just sit there and hoping no one would notice who’s really there. Whatever the circumstance, and regardless of who knows what’s actually going on, the Lord sees it.
And he will hold all pastors and Christian ministry workers of every kind accountable for the quality of their work. As the Apostle Paul writes here, and the Apostle James writes in his letter, this is why not many of you should become teachers, because you know they’ll receive an even stricter judgment. So there’s going to be a day when you’re going to see all the pastors you ever have. walk by you to go see the principal, if you will. We’ll all be there to get evaluated for the quality of our work.
So while appreciating a certain pastor or spiritual mentor or church tradition or even theological tribe, don’t assume the first thing that looks impressive or seems effective is the real deal. Instead, we should try to learn how to test the quality of a ministry over time. Study the art of discernment to see whether or not a pastor is doing good work or shoddy work, whether they’re laying a solid foundation or a sandy foundation, whether they’re treating wounds at the source or merely numbing symptoms. We’ve noticed how our passage this morning exposes three myths that we can sometimes believe about our pastors or church traditions.
Why do we need to see leaders in the church as fundamentally as servants? Because there’s no other way to grow spiritually. There’s these three myths that we might fall to actually rob us of actual true and lasting spiritual growth. And these myths infect the church and bring disunity like a virus.
It’s ironic in a way. When we want to grow in other areas of life, like let’s say you want to grow in your ability to understand finances or relationships or fitness or develop your career. We put all of our energy into being around other people who do those things well, whether a mentor, an author, podcast host. We become super fans of the celebrity, right? The expert. It’s ironic.
If we do that in church, we can end up placing our spiritual hope in someone who has no actual power to give us those things. Like if I were to place my hope in getting a refund from the IRS in my mailman. I really want a refund, I don’t want a bill. Is there any sense in me putting my hope in my mailman for that? That’s what happens if we put our hope for spiritual growth in our pastors overlooking the actual substance where this comes from, Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
So church, I’ve got some bad news for you. Your new pastor isn’t able to make the grass grow. Neither will he have the ability to sprout spiritual life in your unbelieving friend. He won’t have the power to heal your marriage. He won’t be able to snap his fingers and take away your anxiety or depression. But he can plant, and he can water, He can fertilize, he can try to dig up roots, but that’s where his abilities end. As a pastor, he’ll only be able to cultivate spiritual growth. He’ll never be able to create it.
I don’t have a greater ministry than any other pastor that you could go to, because I’m a co-worker with them in God’s field. And regardless of what positive experience you may have under a former pastor or a new pastor, They both are accountable to God in the end, and we’ll all see the quality. There’s a good and right way to respect and appreciate the Christian leaders and pastors, even church traditions or theological tribes that the Lord brings into your life. But if our hope or admiration gets out of hand, we’ll actually be undermining their very identity as servants, as well as forsaking our only hope for true spiritual growth. But there’s good news.
If we are able to understand God’s place over all things in Jesus by the Holy Spirit, Paul says, then all things will be yours. Look back once more at our text, chapter 3, verse 21. No more boasting about human leaders, he says. All things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours. And you are of Christ and Christ is of God. If you have Jesus, he’s saying, you have it all.
Because the gospel says that Jesus’ perfectly obedient life before God is credited to your account. Jesus’ sacrificial death is counted as payment to cleanse us of our guilt and sin and shame. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the down payment for our own future inheritance. This is all according to God’s grace given to us through faith for whoever would confess their sin and turn to follow Jesus.
So I’m glad you’re at this church. Glad you have a new pastor coming to your church. And the reason I’m happy is because there’s a Savior here. It’s just not your pastor. And this is good news. There’s a Savior here who can change your situation and fix your spiritual problems. There is a Savior here who can help your marriage. There is a Savior here who can snap his fingers and make your anxieties and depressions be filled up with the hope you never had before.
There is a Savior here, but it’s not me. It’s not your last pastor, it’s not your next pastor. In fact, no matter how much I even develop as a pastor myself and as a preacher, I will never, ever become any kind of savior who could save you. As John the Baptist had to continually remind people, I’m not the Messiah. And that’s why as a servant, my primary role as a pastor is to point you to Jesus.
Whether I’m preaching the Bible or praying over the sick or baptizing new believers and feeding you the Lord’s Supper, counseling you in uncertain times, marrying you in joy celebration or burying you in the sorrow of death, I must point you to Jesus in all things and in every way, because whether it’s life or death or the present or the future, all are yours if you are in Christ, because Christ is of God. So if you have Jesus, there’s nothing you’ll be missing out on in heaven, because you had a certain pastor here while on earth. If you have Jesus, you’ll not be shortchanged in the new creation because of the church tradition that you happen to be a part of. So long as you have Jesus, you’ll have it all in the end.
Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, I’m grateful again to be here and open God’s word, read it, preach it, think about it, because your word gives us life. Your words challenges us, but also encourages us. It shaves off a little of the old man we still have and helps us grow up ever more into the new man. into Christ. Would you please bless and keep this church in your grace? We’re so grateful for this call for a new pastor. Pray you would bless him. And may this be a joyous new season that this church can be led into. We thank you again, Lord. And we ask you to keep us humble, continue to rely on you for all good things, even our spiritual growth. And it’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.