Sermon on 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

3:10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 3:11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.  3:16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  3:17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.  3:18 Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.  3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”  3:20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”  3:21 So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours,  3:22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future–all belong to you,  3:23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Grace and Peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

• Our epistle reading is an example of a literary unit that is broken apart at interesting places.
• We can only ask what does the epistle say; what does it mean; and what does it do?
• Here we have Paul continuing to admonish good Christians that are full of pride, license, jealousy, selfishness and … well you know…
  • Just like us!
• But Paul knows that appealing to the Corinthians to be moral is not the solution to their problems.
• No, the evangelical solution is forgiveness in the Gospel.
• He (and we) begin today by being reminded that the foundation of life is
  • “…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Rev. 13:8)
  • that foundation is Jesus Christ.(3:11)And upon this foundation, God in His mercy has created little temples to Himself….that is you and I.
• He puts Himself in these little temples as
  • ‘…God’s Spirit dwells in…’ them (3:16)
• God also posts a warning sign outside of these temples
• Anyone that destroys this temple will also be destroyed.
  • By the way, this is a warning to others as well as ourselves.
  • Do not destroy yourself with by following false teachers & false leaders.
• We, of course, are smarter and more clever than these poor wretched Corinthians.
• We have two-thousand years of information to make us wise beyond any first century cretin.
• God laughs at our craftiness and you will too!
• Listen to these absurdities, you hear them all the time;
  • “Everyone is a winner!”
  • “All the men are handsome and all the women are beautiful!”
  • “All the children are above average!”
  • Perhaps funniest of all; “Hope has returned!”
  • Oh yes, ‘there’s a new dawn a’ coming’ and
  • Utopia, the promised land, is just around the corner.
• In my neck of the woods, there are two towns; Tarpley and Utopia.
  • Tarpley advertises itself as “Not Quite Utopia”
  • Tarpley would be St. Paul’s kind of place.
• Don’t listen to that stuff!
  • The snow job of the ‘wise’ is to get you to believe what they say…
  • They are liars and murderers because they are the children of devil.
  • God says, “…that they are futile.” (3:20)
• Forget what the wise leaders say, it doesn’t matter….
• Quit fussing over the little things, because,
  • “…all things are yours…”(3:21)
• Now let’s not strip our gears
• Paul shifted the whole focus of his words
  • Stay with us……
• All things are yours because;
  • He was with God in the beginning.
  • Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
  • In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.(John 1:2-4)
• AND…
  • “…he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (Eph. 1:4)
• As baptized children of God…
• Jesus Christ has taken you for His own
• You can’t escape!
• You little temples…you….
• Jesus Christ has taken you for His own; and
  • “Christ belongs to God.” (3:23)
• As such, today you will receive all things…
• the body and blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
• because you are His.  Amen

SDG