Unveiling Our Building Plan

1 Corinthians 3:5-17

^5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ^6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. ^7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ^8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. ^9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

^10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. ^11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ^12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ^13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. ^14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. ^15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.  ^16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? ^17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

This Tuesday is our important informational meeting in regard to our building program. Please plan to attend this meeting because we really need your involvement in the entire process. But we’re not going to wait until Tuesday to start talking about building a church—we’re going to start right now. There are six things we need in this building project—a foundation, an architect, builders, building materials, a final inspection and, for safety reasons, a stern warning. These six things are necessary to build our church facility on our ten acres of land on County B, but they are also necessary to continue to build the church without walls—the body of Christ at Grace Church.

Paul laid it our perfectly clear in v. 9, For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. This is a great Biblical analogy and all six parts I listed come directly from this chapter. The invisible church—the church without walls—is like a building. The first and most important part of the building is the foundation.

In the tenth century a beautiful cathedral was built in Italy. Even from this picture you can see how the sun glistens off the white marble structure. The church leaders in this Italian city wanted their cathedral to be even more magnificent, so on August 9 in the year 1173 construction began on what was to be an equally beautiful, eight-story bell tower next to the cathedral. But there was a serious problem—the foundation of the bell tower was no good. This was the result--what is known today as the leaning tower of Pisa. The foundation was faulty so the building itself was faulty. We cannot build an actual church structure with a faulty foundation and we most certainly cannot build the spiritual church building with a faulty foundation. Verse 11 reads,  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Without apology we declare that the sole foundation of our church is Jesus Christ. Our church does not stand on the foundation of Christ and something else, but on Christ alone. It is not Christ plus good works. It is not Christ plus human wisdom—but Christ and Christ alone.

Paul knew that the church in Corinth was struggling mightily, but he also knew that the foundation was laid securely on Christ because he was the one who laid the foundation. In verse 10 he wrote, By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder. This brings us to the second necessary part of our building which is the architect. In the original language, the word translated as “expert builder” was the single word “architecton”. Paul was the original architect—the founder of the Corinthian church. The purpose of Tuesday’s meeting is to discuss hiring an architect to design our future facility. Without proper plans that include local building codes and detailed drawings, such as the one from Richland Center, we would be foolish to start pounding boards together in some random order. Just as we need an architect for the physical structure, so also we need an architect for our spiritual building. I believe that the architects of Grace Church are the elders. The elders are entrusted with laying out the plans for spiritual growth and for making sure that we follow the blueprints for our church found in Scripture. It is vitally important that we choose a qualified architect for our church building and it is even more important that this church continues to choose qualified spiritual architects in the form of its leaders—especially the elders. As I have often said, as go the leaders, so goes the church. Faulty architects will destroy the church just as quickly as a faulty foundation.

The third piece that we need to build is the builders themselves. The church in Richland Center is being built by hundreds of volunteers with thousands of volunteer hours. So far our church has put in about 30 hours of sweat equity and I would like to see that number be multiplied a few times over. If we are to ever build our own building it is almost certain that we will need to use the wonderful resources of Solid Rock Builders. In the same way, everyone needs to have a part in constructing the spiritual building of our church. While addressing the divisions in the church, Paul said in v. 5, What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. Paul had his task and Apollos has his task. Each person in the Corinthian church had a divinely assigned task to build that church. So what is your task at Grace Church? It is not healthy for even one person to be without a task in the body of Christ.

When we were helping at Richland Center I felt badly for this one older couple who arrived late. They had hoped to be of use that day but most of the work was up high setting the trusses. I could see that they were frustrated because they did not have an assigned task. Maybe that is how you feel about your service at Grace—you are frustrated because you don’t have a meaningful service. Let me tell you how I found my task at Richland Center. When they were organizing the workers they asked who was willing to work up high setting trusses. I immediately volunteered for the job, but when they asked me if I had ever set trusses before, they turned me down because I did not have any experience. A little bit later they asked again for volunteers and again I offered my services and again I was turned down. I could not find a suitable task on the ground so finally I climbed the wall and started helping another man with the trusses. The next thing I know I had my own assigned task. I spent the rest of the day 12 to 20 feet off the ground doing something I had never done in my life and having a blast doing it. I am not saying that you should just start doing anything at Grace, but sometimes you just have to step out in faith. God has an assigned task for each person. The specific task will be determined by your character, giftedness, experience and time, but it also requires a step of faith on your part.

Some of you might be thinking that I am merely trying to recruit people to fill slots that are empty in the church, but this spiritual building we call the church is far more important than filling empty slots. The analogy of a building is nearly perfect because it illustrates that as individual Christians we are inseparable from the whole. When Paul said that “you are God’s building” it was a plural “you”—you the church are God’s building—you as the body of Christ are God’s building. What good is a foundation without walls? Of what use is a roof without trusses? Every part of the building must be present for the building to be whole and complete.

Think about it another way. When you were saved, what were you saved into? You were saved into Christ, but you were also saved into the church. You immediately became part of the church. You do not exist apart from the universal church. In the spiritual realm there is no such thing as a Christian who stands alone. Every Christian is inseparably linked to the church. Part of the problem, and I am guilty of this, is that we individualize spiritual growth too much. We talk about how we have grown in our Christian walk over the past few years. We rejoice over sins that have less power and over our victory over temptations, but we think of ourselves far too much in isolation from others.

Let me give you an example using an O.T. capital campaign. When it was time to build the Temple, King David was very generous. He not only set aside vast resources from the treasuries of Israel, but he also gave from his own personal treasure. He gave enormous amounts of gold and silver which would equal three billion dollars in today’s economy! Now compare David’s massive gift to that of the widow who gave two copper coins which was worth next to nothing. Our natural reaction is to think that the widow needs David’s gift, but in reality David needs the widow’s gift. I realize they were separated by a thousand years, but what if these two people were in the same church? David’s spiritual life would be greatly enhanced by experiencing the faith of the widow. David gave massive sums of money, but do you think he actually gave sacrificially? If you’ve got three billion dollars to give away chances are you still have some money left over. David needs the faith of the widow and the widow would also benefit from David’s generosity—being able to use the money in ways that her two copper coins would not be used. They have value as individuals, but together they are much better than the sum of their parts. As a church we are God’s building. We are better together than we could veer be as individuals. The only question is whether we are acting like a unified whole.

We are the builders of the church and our role as builders is inseparable from the building materials we use. On Tuesday we will hear a little commercial about the quality of materials that Morton Buildings uses. We don’t plan to use the most expensive building materials, but we must use quality materials. In the spiritual realm there are two basic types of construction materials. Paul described it this way. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ^13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. ^14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. ^15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Do you see why it is so important to use quality materials in our spiritual building? Because there will be a final inspection. What if you built a new house and the final inspection revealed that the builder framed the house with 1x4’s instead of 2x4’s? What if the electrician used poor quality wiring? What if the plumbing sprung a dozen leaks? Your builder would miserably fail the final inspection. His workmanship would be declared to be worthless. As a builder for the Lord Jesus, all of our work will receive a final inspection. Everything we have ever done will either burn up because it is worthless or it will pass through the fires of the final inspection. Paul said that some people will have most of their works burned up but they will be saved as one escaping through the flames. Is that the way you want to live your Christian life—barely escaping the flames? What have you done in the past month that has eternal value? Did you build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ with quality materials or did you waste your time and materials in the fire? Did you complete your assigned task or did you fail to finish?

There remains a final warning to builders of spiritual churches. If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. The divisions in the Corinthian church threatened to destroy the church. And what happens to those who destroy the church? Paul said that God will destroy the one who destroys a church body because a church is a sacred and holy community. When you mess with the church you are messing with the bride of Christ and he cannot tolerate anyone harming his bride. This is a warning sign of imminent danger to those who would seek to divide and destroy the bride of Christ and the local church.

Tuesday night we will begin to discuss the next possible steps toward constructing our own church building. If we are able to move forward it will require an all-out commitment from the entire church body. Every person will need to wear one or more hats. But whether or not we build a physical church building in the near future, our chief calling is to build the spiritual church building. You are God’s building, the sacred temple, the bride of Christ.

Rich Maurer

July 30, 2006