I.                   Introduction

Many of you have children.  Your children are all at different ages and different levels of development.  Some are adults, some are teenagers, some are elementary age, some are toddlers, some are infants, and some are newborns. 

Whatever stage your children are in you can probably remember back to the days that they were totally dependent on their parents for nourishment and protection.  The days when they needed to be fed are often remembered with fondness.  I was over visiting James and Sarah this week and I got a kick out of James requesting to feed Chloe.  Because Sarah is nursing he doesn’t get that opportunity very often, but they were feeding her with a “plunger” and James wanted to be involved.  I can just imagine that I will want the same sort of involvement.

It was very precious for me to be able to be at the hospital when Harley and Haegan were born.  It was very precious for me to be at the hospital when Chloe was born.  I remember going to visit Chris and Celina right before Sarah had Chloe and I walked in and Chris is feeding one of the boys (I can’t tell them apart, yet!).  How precious it is to see a parent feeding their child, especially babies who are still on milk!  It just warms my heart.

Now, think about a couple of different scenarios.  Think about what would happen if I cruised into the hospital room with a big ol’ steak and tried to feed that to one of the babies.  How would that go over?  Probably not very well!  How about a hot dog?  Would that work?  No, probably not.  Why?  Because babies cannot handle adult food, they have to develop jaw muscles, teeth and a digestive system.

Now let’s think about it the other way.  What would you think if you saw Craig sitting in the pew with Chad lying on his lap suckin’ milk from a bottle?  How would that suit you?  Would you be appalled? It would at least make you raise an eyebrow, wouldn’t it?  It makes me kind of queasy just thinking about it!

Now, think about your spiritual life.  Are you rightfully on spiritual milk or are you one of those people that should be on solid food but is still sucking on a bottle?  This is exactly the sort of problem that Paul addressed with the Corinthians.  Let’s look at our text.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9  But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  (2)  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,  (3)  for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?  (4)  For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human?  (5)  What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.  (6)  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  (7)  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  (8)  He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.  (9)  For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

Let’s remind ourselves where we have been so that we can stay in context.  I know that I keep reminding you of context and you’re probably getting sick of it!  Well, get used to it!  J I will show you when we get to Chapter 6 why context is so important.  I’m looking forward to getting there, but we’re not going to jump ahead.  We learned in verse 10 of chapter 1 that Paul is writing to address divisions in the church.  The Corinthians were dividing themselves based on their favorite teacher.  Some were aligned with Paul, some with Apollos, some with Cephas.  Paul pointed out how ridiculous that was because they were just people.  They needed to be aligned with Christ.  That, Paul says, is why he preached such a simple gospel.  He purposed to know nothing among the Corinthians except Christ and Him crucified, lest the cross be emptied of its power!  Paul continually battled the idea of wisdom.  Then last week we saw that Paul is happy to impart wisdom to mature believers, because it is the Holy Spirit who interprets heavenly wisdom for earthly people.  Therefore, if there is any boasting it can only be boasting in the Lord. That brings us to our passage today where Paul clarifies that he wasn’t talking about the Corinthians when he said that he imparts wisdom to the mature. Look at verses 1 & 2 with me again.

II.                The Problem: Immaturity (3:1-2)

1 Corinthians 3:1-2  But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  (2)  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,

A couple of things we need to notice here in the opening words of this verse.  First off we notice that Paul is addressing them as brothers.  We are going to notice this trend over and over again throughout this letter.  Paul is going to say some really harsh things, but he will always do it in the shadow of affirming their place in the Lord and Paul’s love for them.  This is important for us to remember as well.  It is imperative that we address the shortcomings and sin issues in the lives of our fellow believers, but we must always do so in a manner that assures them of our love for them and their status in the Lord. 

The second thing that we need to notice is something that is important to understanding this passage.  Notice that Paul said he “could not” address the Corinthians as spiritual people.  This is in the past tense.  This is important because we tend to look at this verse and think that Paul is bashing the Corinthians.  He’s not…yet.  The past tense shows us that he is talking about sometime other than the current writing of this letter.  So, he is probably saying that when he originally came to them and gave them the gospel he could not give them solid food, but milk (vs. 2).  He couldn’t address the Corinthians as spiritual people when he originally came to them because they weren’t spiritual people then.  Notice the first half of verse 2.  He said he fed (again, past tense) them with milk, not solid food because they were not ready for it. 

These are not negative statements.  The immaturity of the Corinthians upon Paul’s initial visit was expected.  If they had heard the gospel before he got there it certainly wasn’t very long before. Of course he would address them as “infants in Christ,” that’s what they were! 

All that to say that I don’t think Paul is being terse with them, rather he was just stating a fact.  But, then comes the last part of verse 2.  Here comes the hammer!  The statement, “And even now you are not ready,” turns the corner.  Now Paul is being judgmental, if you will.  This statement indicates that he fully expected them to be spiritually mature by this point.  Paul was with them for roughly eighteen months and it had been another two years or so since he had left.  He expected them to be more mature by this time. 

This gives us more insight into how to deal with those around us.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with expecting people to advance in the spiritual maturity.  The Bible commands us to advance.  We must become more and more like Christ.  This process is what scholars call sanctification.  We become more and more like Christ the longer we have walked with Him.  Sin becomes less and less of a struggle (still a struggle, just less of one), trust in God becomes easier, and faith gets stronger.  As we are about to see, Paul confronted the immaturity of the Corinthian believers and we should confront the stagnant Christians that we know as well.  It’s time for them to be weaned and potty trained!       

III.             The evidence of immaturity:  Jealousy and Strife (3:3-5)

1 Corinthians 3:3-5  for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?  (4)  For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human?  (5)  What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.

Paul urged the Corinthians to be unnatural.  Don’t act like a natural man, be supernatural!  Jealousy and strife are not attributes of mature, spirit-filled Christians.  They are attributes belonging to those who are merely human.  Christians are called to act differently than mere humans.  Christians are not mere humans.  We have supernatural powers in the purest sense of the word. 

The power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us is at our fingertips. The power that raised the dead, the power that calmed the sea, and the power that healed the lame and gave sight to the blind is readily available to us.  We just don’t use it!  Too often we act like mere humans.  We grow concerned about what others think.  We become worried about our financial status.  We are consumed with how successful our children are going to be.  Don’t be merely human! 

The specific example that Paul is giving is in this idea of following humans.  Look at verse 4.  When you claim to be a follower of a person you are being merely human.  Now, there is a sense in which we all follow someone, right?  In fact, Paul is going to say to the Corinthians in Chapter 4 and Chapter 11, “Follow me.”  Is he having another one of his schizophrenic moments when he does this?  No, he follows that phrase up with, “as I follow Christ.”  So, we all follow someone, correct?  Some people are following you, some people are following me, I’m following someone.  The hope is that we’re following those who are following Christ.  That puts a huge responsibility on us, as well, since we know that there are people who are following us.  Also, Paul was fighting the notion that you follow him to the exclusion of the other guys.  You don’t exclude those who choose to follow Apollos just because you’re following Paul.  This is a call to unity and we can apply it to our setting in the area of local churches. 

I have said this before and I will reaffirm it here.  I am very grateful that you all come to Faith Christian Church, I love being your pastor.  You’re all so generous and loving.  But, I wouldn’t like it if you were to exclude people who attend other biblical churches.  They are good too!  When we exclude we are being merely human.

Okay, are there any grammarians out there?  I do not claim to be a grammarian, for there is a lot that I do not know, but grammar has always been one of my strong suits.  My mom is an editor for a newspaper and she would never let me get away with bad grammar!  Having said that, verse 5 jumps off the page at me because of the bad grammar.  My mom would have marked it up and sent it back to Paul in a hurry!  His noun, pronoun agreement is off.  He says, “What is Paul?”   The proper saying would be “Who is Paul?”  However, I am certain that Paul does this on purpose.  By turning himself and Apollos into objects, he took away the focus on the person and put it back on God. 

I absolutely love the last statement.  Paul stated that he and Apollos were merely servants.  They are the servants that God sent for the purpose of the Corinthians salvation.  Notice that it says that God assigned certain people to come to faith under the ministry of Paul, and others to come to faith under the ministry of Apollos. 

Sort of as an aside, I don’t believe there is any real significance in the exclusion of Cephas here.  I think Paul is just simply making a point.  However, it is very likely that the Paul party and the Apollos party were the biggest of the schisms that existed in the Corinthian church.

I am absolutely in love with the sovereignty of God.  It takes a lot of pressure off us to try to do certain things or attain a certain attendance, or achieve certain goals.  Yes, we must work hard and strive for goals, but we must also understand that it is God who opens and closes the doors.  We cannot think to highly of ourselves for achieving our goals, nor can we beat ourselves up for not achieving them.  God is in control!  He gets all the glory, whether we achieve our goals or not. 

One of my favorite illustrations of the blend of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility is found in the Old Testament.  In the book of Joshua the Israelites have come into the Promised Land and are about to take control of it.  In many different places in that book God says to them, “I have given you the land, now go take it.”  Do you see the blend there?  I have given it to you but you have to go take it.  When you obtain it don’t think that it was by your power, though, because I am the one who has given it to you!  I just love that picture!

And I love here, in this text, that God has assigned each of the preachers certain ones who will come to salvation because of their ministry.  Let us remember that.  God may very well have someone assigned to you but you will have to give them the Gospel! 

IV.            The Solution to Immaturity:  Focus on God (3:6-9)

1 Corinthians 3:6-9  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  (7)  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  (8)  He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.  (9)  For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

              So here Paul said that he and Apollos are merely instruments in the process, but it is God who gets the credit.  The one who plants and waters is nothing.  It is the one who causes the growth who is worthy of our praise, adoration and loyalty. Look at verse 8.  Paul said that he and Apollos are one.  Neither one deserves to be followed over the other.  In fact, with out one the other is useless.  Think about it along the lines of the analogy that Paul is using.  Plant a seed in the ground but don’t water it.  What happens?  Nothing! It dies.  Water the ground with no seed.  Does anything grow?  Nope!  It just makes mud!  Paul and Apollos were dependant on each other, for one planted and one watered, but both were dependant on God for the growth!

              God has promised wages to the one who plants and to the one who waters.  The loyalty of the plants is not part of that wage.  Our loyalty should be to God, not to men.  For as men, we are all just God’s fellow workers.  Those that we are ministering to are God’s field and His building.  Notice that Paul keeps drawing the attention to God.  His workers, His field, His building. 

              That is why this whole notion of division over teachers was mind boggling to Paul.  It’s not about the men, it’s about God.  Let’s not be immature and merely human.  Let’s be mature and superhuman! 

V.               Conclusion