God builds on the Foundation, Jesus Christ.

 

Sermon for Septuagesima, January 31, 2021

Grace, mercy, and peace to you all from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

1 Corinthians 3:7-15  ⁷So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but it is God who causes the growth.  ⁸The one who plants and the one who waters are united, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  ⁹For God is the one whom we serve as coworkers, and you are God’s field, God’s building.  ¹⁰In keeping with the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it.  But let each person be careful how he builds on it.  ¹¹In fact, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.  ¹²But if anyone is building on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, ¹³each person’s work will become evident.  The Day will make it plain, because it is going to be revealed in fire, and the fire will test each person’s work to show what sort of work it is.  ¹⁴If what someone has built remains, he will receive a reward.  ¹⁵If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but it will be like an escape through fire. (EHV)

God builds on the Foundation, Jesus Christ.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

            The congregation at Corinth had a serious problem; it was being torn apart by rivalries among the members. (1 Corinthians 1:11)  Some of those early Christians claimed to follow Paul, but others Apollos or Peter or Jesus.  Paul wrote to say how ridiculous those ideas were.  There is only one Savior and only one Lord, Jesus Christ.  Becoming enamored of the eloquence, teachings, leadings, or personalities of various men can only lead to disaster.  No ordinary pastor can save anyone.  In fact, the point of our text is to assure Christians that God builds on the Foundation, Jesus Christ.

Now, perhaps you have had a favorite pastor at some point in your life.  Naturally, we do well to give thanks to God for those who have brought us to Jesus’ feet or opened the Good News of the Scriptures to us.  Yet, we dare not confuse God’s coworkers for what God Himself does for us.  That’s why Paul says, “So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but it is God who causes the growth.”  For many of his readers, Paul had been the planter of the seed, yet those other faithful preachers had watered the new faith with further proclamation of the Word. 

Pastors, evangelists, teachers, and preachers are all just mortal men.  By ourselves, we can do nothing.  Like Paul, we are charged by the grace of God to preach the Gospel in the field of humanity so that the Holy Spirit can build faith in the former lost souls of our race to produce a rich harvest of souls for the Lord’s heavenly kingdom.  Thus, it is the Lord who produces that faith.

Of course, we who by God’s grace serve the Lord in preaching and teaching may or may not be rewarded in this world for our efforts.  History is filled with scores of faithful teachers who were chased out of parishes or persecuted by the world, but the Holy Spirit promises, “The one who plants and the one who waters are united, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.”  Faithful pastors and teachers are not in a competition for a prize.  We are united through faith in Christ and empowered by Him to serve in such a way that our reward comes in our heavenly home.

In the course of its 133 years, this little congregation has had 26 pastors, each with his own set of talents, gifts, and weaknesses, but God used each one of those men to bring the living water to you.  Yet, it wasn’t any particular talent or strength in the men that worked faith in anyone, for “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)  Instead, “We hold this treasure in clay jars to show that its extraordinary power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)  Therefore, though many have served here, only God builds on the Foundation, Jesus Christ.

Paul then observes that “God is the one whom we serve as coworkers, and you are God’s field, God’s building.”  What is especially interesting is that God Himself chooses those who He wants to serve Him.  Our confessions testify that no one should preach or teach without a regular call.  We don’t staff our churches by seeking out the most eloquent preacher or smooth-talking, best looking teacher.  We use the calling process so that the Lord may work through the calling body to place servants of the Word in your midst. 

God makes us His co-workers!  To me that is a great yet humbling honor.  Still, it is not something about which we should boast.  Often, I think I was chosen for this work simply because of my ordinariness.  That God can work through someone of such humble talents as myself shows that all good things are done by Him alone.  Consider Jesus’ twelve apostles.  To the world, those men couldn’t have seemed less likely of making a difference in the world, yet through them, the Lord changed the world and changed the eternal destination of countless generations.

Because Paul was the first to preach about Christ in the city of Corinth, he laid the foundation for that congregation.  That was Paul’s role throughout his earthly ministry.  God chose that sinner and once-rebellious man to carry the Gospel to the gentiles, and the Lord gifted him with the talents and determination to succeed against all odds.  Paul wrote, “In keeping with the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it.  But let each person be careful how he builds on it.”  Though a humble tent maker by trade, Paul was a master builder of the Christian Church in that through him, the Lord founded numerous congregations.  At the same time, other co-workers with Christ followed after Paul to continue preaching the Good News and building up the church.

There also is a warning here—“But let each person be careful how he builds on it.”  Sometimes, this can be misconstrued to imagine that nothing can ever be changed and that every tradition and practice followed in the past must be continued.  However, Paul’s point is that we must be careful to keep the focus on the foundation which is Christ.  “In fact, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  To let our preaching and teaching be about anything other than Jesus is to lay some false foundation that will not uphold the church.  Even if that congregation should grow large and prosperous in the view of the world, it will not stand in the judgment.

For decades, there has been a tremendous push in our world to find methods that bring people into a congregation and tickle their itching ears with promises of glory, riches, or ease here on earth.  This is why some supposedly very pious Christians can propose heinous actions as somehow moral.  Abortion, sexual freedom, liberation theology, and other deviant ideas are promoted as good for the people, but the people promoting such things have abandoned the one foundation upon which salvation is found. That movement has seemingly done a lot of damage to traditional churches.  Yet, that is a misconception, for the real church is only found built on the solid foundation of Christ regardless of the earthly trappings that surround the members. 

Paul wrote, “But if anyone is building on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each person’s work will become evident.  The Day will make it plain, because it is going to be revealed in fire, and the fire will test each person’s work to show what sort of work it is.”  Preachers and pastors will come and go.  Some will be faithful, and others less so.  Those who build with the imperishable Word of God will see results that last. 

Yet, while others may build earthly congregations that look good on the surface, when the final day shall come the fires of Judgment will consume all they have built.  The work we do cannot be hidden from the Lord’s fierce gaze.  Those who seek the quick and easy build would be advised to give an ear to the story of the Three Little Pigs, or better yet, they should listen to Jesus who said, “But, if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.  Woe to the world because of temptations to sin.  Temptations must come, but woe to that person through whom the temptation comes!” (Matthew 18:6-7)

Every faithful pastor takes this admonition to heart.  We dare not preach what our own nature might dream up.  Instead, the faithful servant of the Lord will preach Christ crucified, rightly dividing law and gospel so that you members of the church are not led astray but continually receive the Bread of Life and Living Water of the Son of God, the Savior who gave His life to take away your sins and give you perfect righteousness before God.  Paul wrote to Timothy, “We brought nothing into the world, and we certainly cannot take anything out.” (1 Timothy 6:7)  The only treasure we can hope to take with us to heaven is fellow believers who have been strengthened by our service to the Lord through Word and Sacrament.

This section of the letter to the Corinthians concludes with this: “If what someone has built remains, he will receive a reward.  If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but it will be like an escape through fire.”  Pastors, teachers, and parents too can be comforted with the certainty that even if we fail to build something that will withstand the fires of Judgment Day, those who believe in Jesus for forgiveness and salvation will be saved.  If all that remains after our time on earth comes to an end is an empty shell of a building that once was filled with living souls, our service will not have been in vain.

“It is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:2)  No one should pretend anything different.  At the same time, we don’t make the seed grow.  Only the Lord can make the Word work in the hearts of sinners.  We know that God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, but we also know that many will reject the truth for the devil’s lies.  Therefore, as pastors, teachers, and parents, we should work diligently as co-workers of the Lord to build with only the finest materials, the Word and Sacraments of our Lord.  These are the things that will last, and the only things that the Holy Spirit uses to produce fruit in the fields of the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35)  Faithful workers, and those they serve for the Lord, trust that these are the precious materials that will build God’s church and bring them their reward in heaven because God builds on the Foundation, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.