I Corinthians 3:1-9
Preached Sunday Morning February 21, 2010
Introduction:
Thanksgiving and Christmas were times of mixed emotions when our children were small. We loved to spend time together, sharing gifts, visiting relatives and eating a big holiday meal. The problem was that little Zachary would get very sick for every holiday. He would seem fine during the day, but after all of the festivities, family, and food, he would violently throw up all the food he ate during the day. At first we just thought that the little guy had a very nervous stomach. One day we had turkey like we did during the holidays and he reacted in the same way. It turned out that Zachary was allergic to the solution that was injected into the frozen poultry. Something caused him to be unable to digest the food he should have readily processed.
Sometimes born again Christians go through the same thing in the spiritual realm. The Word of God is our food and we eat it when we read it or when we hear preaching. Sometimes there are certain passages or subjects that really bother us. Either we do not understand it, or we become confused and violently agitated about what we hear. When we hear preaching that is basic salvation and forgiveness, the symptoms go away. We can only handle spiritual milk, but have a spiritual meat intolerance. We have a case of Spiritual Indigestion.
In our passage this morning, the Apostle Paul is continuing his letter to the church at Corinth. This is the church eh helped to start. Paul has written this letter to help correct some problems in the church. The Corinthian believers were hearing the preaching and teaching from Paul, but could not handle what he was teaching. Paul had to change the menu he was serving to the church at Corinth. They were suffering from Spiritual Indigestion.
This morning, as we read this ancient letter to an ailing church, we are going to discover the symptoms, the cause, and the cure for Spiritual Indigestion.
I. The Symptoms of Spiritual Indigestion
A. Maturity is lacking
1 Corinthians 3:1
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1. Cannot be treated as spiritual people
a. Spiritual = maturity attained through prolonged relationship with the Holy Spirit.
b. This term did not exist in scriptures until after the Gospels, once the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit had begun.
2. Had to be treated as carnal people
a. Carnal = having the nature of the flesh
b. This childlike behavior is expected in baby Christians.
c. Christians are expected to grow past the dictates of the selfish and passionate whims of the flesh.
“The young Christian is still carnal,” says Andrew Murray. “Regeneration is a birth: the center and root of the personality, the spirit, has been renewed and taken possession of by the Spirit of God. But time is needed for its power from that center to extend through all the circumference of his being. The kingdom of God is like unto a seed; the life in Christ is a growth, and it would be against the laws of nature and grace alike if we expected from the babe in Christ the strength that can only be found in the young men, or the rich experience of the fathers.”
B. Spiritual diet had to be changed.
1 Corinthians 3:2
2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1. Could only handle milk
Hebrews 5:12-13
12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
a. Unskilful in the Word
b. Have not developed a bond with Holy Spirit teaching.
2. Could not handle meat
Hebrews 5:14
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
a. Of full age – mature
b. Have honed their spiritual senses of discernment.
3. Could not bear = sustain the weight or burden of
4. Still cannot bear it – they had not matured.
Luther was told of a nobleman who, above all things, occupied himself with amassing money and was so buried in darkness that he gave no heed to the word of God, and even said to someone who witnessed to him, “But the gospel pays no interest.”
“Have you no grains?” interposed Luther. And then he told this fable. “A lion was making a great feast, and invited all the beasts, among them some swine. When all types of dainty foods were set before the guests, the swine asked, ‘Have you no grains?’ It is the same way with carnal men today,” Luther continued. “We preachers set before them the most dainty and costly dishes, such as everlasting salvation, the remission of sins, and God’s grace. But they, like swine, turn up their snouts, and ask for money. Offer a cow a nutmeg, and she will reject it for old hay.”
è We follow the appetites of whatever nature is stronger, the Spirit or our flesh.
II. The Cause of Spiritual Indigestion
A. Carnality prevents deeper spiritual growth and understanding
B. Evidence of Carnality
1 Corinthians 3:3-4
3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
1. Envying = To feel uneasiness, mortification, or discontent at the sight of superior excellence, reputation, or happiness.
What we have not poisons what we have…. Our urge to acquire things is due less to the passion to possess them than to the vanity of feeling superior to those who envy our possession of them…. Envy transmutes other people’s base metals into gold…. Our envy is the yeast that swells the fortune of others…. No form of hatred is as keen as envy. It magnifies the importance of our enemy—and belittles our own.
Paul Eldridge
2. Strife = contention in anger
3. Divisions – standing apart.
4. The heart is betrayed by their speech. “I belong to…”
Matthew 12:34
…for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
5. Carnality comes as we split, following men or movements, not Christ and His Word.
III. The Treatment of Spiritual Indigestion
è A proper understanding of how God uses people will help us not to divide over them.
A. Realize that Christian leaders belong to God.
1 Corinthians 3:5
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
1. These men are both ministers = servants
2. These men were both responsible for bringing people to belief.
3. God offers Salvation to all people, but they must hear the Word before they can believe.
Romans 10:17
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
B. Realize that Christian leaders are doing the work of God.
1 Corinthians 3:6
6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
1. Planting = sowing the seed – EVANGELISM
2. Watering = seeing the seed germinate, watching the plant grow, seeing fruit develop, watching that plant reproduce. – DISCIPLESHIP
3. We fight today over which one is more important, evangelism or discipleship.
4. God’s design is to see a seed planted, germinate, grow, and produce fruit.
Matthew 13:23
23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
C. Christian leaders depend upon the Power of God.
1. God is the One to get the credit, not the men.
1 Corinthians 3:7
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
2. The one who waters and the one who plants are laboring for the same goal, fruit in the lives of the believers.
1 Corinthians 3:8
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
3. Each laborer will be rewarded according to his own effort, not whether he was planting or watering.
1 Corinthians 3:8-9
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
Conclusion
Have you struggled with the scriptures lately? Do you find that the only messages that resonate in your soul are ones on basic salvation stories, even though you have been saved a while?
Perhaps you are suffering from Spiritual Indigestion. Identify the envy and division in your heart. Realize that we all serve the same God and will answer to Him. God really wants to use all of us. He is waiting, leaning over the banisters of Heaven, hoping that you will turn from the strife that divides and embrace His love that unites! He loves you more than you will ever know and wants to heal us all of our Spiritual Indigestion.