1 Corinthians chapter 3, give
the children time to find it, nice to
see them turning it up in their Bibles.
1 Corinthians chapter 3 and commencing to read
from verse 1.
And I brethren could not speak unto you
as unto spiritual but as unto carnal, even
as unto babes in Christ.
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.
For ye are not, for ye are yet
carnal.
For whereas there is among you envying and
strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and
walk as men?
For while one saith, I am of Paul,
and another, I am of Apollos, are ye
not carnal?
Who then is Paul?
Who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye
believed, even as the Lord gave to every
man?
I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave
the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth anything,
neither he that watereth, but God that giveth
the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth
are one, and every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labor.
For we are laborers together with God, ye
are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
According to the grace of God which is
given unto me as a wise master builder,
I have laid the foundation and another buildeth
thereon.
But let every man take heed how he
buildeth thereupon.
For other foundation can no man lay than
that is laid, which is Christ Jesus.
Now if any man build upon this foundation,
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every
man's work shall be made manifest.
For the day shall declare it, because it
shall be revealed by fire.
The fire shall try every man's work of
what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he hath
built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he
shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be
saved, yet so as by fire.
I'd be glad if you turn in the
New Testament to the letter to the Colossians
and I read to you just a few
verses right at the end of the third
chapter from the 18th to the first of
the fourth chapter.
Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as
it is fit in the Lord.
Husbands love your wives and be not bitter
against them.
Children obey your parents in all things, for
this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Fathers provoke not your children to anger lest
they be discouraged.
Servants obey in all things your masters according
to the flesh, not with eye service as
men pleases, but in singleness of heart, fearing
God and whatsoever ye do.
And do it heartily as to the Lord
and not unto men, knowing that of the
Lord ye shall receive the reward of the
inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ.
But he that doeth wrong shall receive for
the wrong which he hath done, and there
is no respect of persons.
Masters, give unto your servants that which is
just and equal, knowing that ye also have
a master in heaven.
Well, we continue working our way through this
remarkable letter full of good doctrine and of
choice, practical teaching for the Christian believer.
And in these last few verses, as you
will remember from our study, those of you
who are regularly with us in the tabernacle
last week, the Apostle projects a very familiar
scene in front of his readers.
They are aware of the ordinary domestic situation
in the average Roman household, with mother and
father and children and the slaves, the latter
category occupying, so we are told, some one
-third of the members of the Roman Empire.
And Paul is concerned to take the message
of Christianity and to apply it within the
context of the family circle.
Now, as we continue to look into what
he is saying, let me remind you that
this is, in one sense, very specialized teaching.
I say that because, as I told you,
there are those who dip into certain parts
of the New Testament, and they extract its
ethical comments, and they say, that's very fine,
this is how we are to live, let's
just go to it, and let's apply these
teachings to our own lives, to societies in
the 20th century.
But I say that nothing is more disastrous
than that approach to the Word of God.
I say this for this reason, that when,
for instance, Jesus was giving the teaching that
we refer to as the Sermon on the
Mount, He was setting down a code of
ethics, practice, a manner of conduct for people
who had trusted Him.
This was not for the ordinary unbeliever.
These were ethical teachings for those who were
members of His kingdom, the kingdom that He
had come to found.
And a member of Christ's kingdom, what is
he?
Well, he is the person who has trusted
Jesus as Lord and Master.
He has received the implanting of the Holy
Spirit, he has confessed his sins, he has
offered the stewardship of his life to the
control of Jesus, like asking someone to drive
your car, and to take command of the
steering wheel.
So the Christian has asked Jesus Christ to
control his life, and it's to that person,
who has known the new birth, who has
entered into the experience of conversion, that these
practical teachings of the New Testament are addressed.
So you see the absurdity of looking at
the Sermon on the Mount and working out
some practice of conduct, shall we say, for
the Trade Union Congress, or for Parliament, for
that matter.
What is basic to the outworking of New
Testament principles is a handing over of one's
complete life to the Lord Jesus, and the
resurrection of His Spirit, and practicing a close
walk with the Lord God, so that day
by day you receive sufficient strength and enabling
to be able to live up to these
precepts.
Now, nothing can be more clear in the
teaching of the Apostle Paul than what I
have just brought before you.
To whom is he addressing these remarks?
To the whole of the Roman Empire?
Not a bit.
Look at the third verse of the third
chapter.
He is addressing those who are dead.
Spiritually, they have renounced the type of life
that they used to live, and in a
dramatic fashion, this can be illustrated only in
the metaphor of death.
You are dead, and your life is hid
with Christ in God.
The life that you are now living is
a life through which, and in which, God
is in control.
Again, it's made clear in the first verse,
and also in the fourth verse of this
chapter.
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above.
And the fourth verse, when Christ, who is
our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
appear with him in glory.
The Christian is the person who has renounced
control of his life, who is not living
according to the standards of many people in
this world, and whose one controlling factor is
the thought that Jesus Christ shall return and
rejuvenate the heaven and the earth, and bring
in the eternal age.
Now, in the interim, in the time in
between these two things, the first and the
second appearance of Jesus, there is a life
to be lived, a testimony to be born.
How are Christians to live?
How are they to behave in the domestic
situation?
How is the Christian employer to treat his
employee?
Well, all these very practical matters the apostle
takes up in this chapter and elsewhere in
the epistles that he writes, and he spells
out so clearly what should be the pattern
of Christian behavior.
Now, the fact that Jesus is in control
in the domestic situation becomes obvious from a
cursory glance, for instance, of verse 18, still
in the same chapter.
He's speaking to wives, is the apostle, the
authority of the Spirit, and he tells them
to love their husbands and to submit themselves
to their husbands because it is fit in
the Lord.
Come down to what he has to say
to children in the 20th verse.
Obey your parents in all things, for this
is well-pleasing unto the Lord.
Now, in the 22nd verse, he's addressing slaves,
or if you please, employees, and he's telling
them to obey those who have authority over
them, not with eye service, as men pleases,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
Three particular categories of life's experience, wedlock, childhood,
employment, and when the apostle addresses Christian people
who are in these categories, he says that
they are to rise to their responsibilities, enter
into their relationships as men and women who
are completely dominated by, controlled by, the living
God.
And all this can be wrapped up into
one injunction.
It all converges into one logical proposition, which
is clear in the 23rd verse and is
a repetition of what you find in the
17th.
Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to
the Lord and not unto men, knowing that
you, Christian people of the Lord, you shall
receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye
serve the Lord Christ.
I want to break open those two verses,
the 23rd and the 24th, for our consideration,
with a context that already is in our
mind.
And the first thing that it seems to
me, as I have reflected upon the teaching
of these two verses, is that here is
an enlarging of the priesthood.
Here is an enlarging of the priesthood.
Christian people are being addressed, whatsoever ye do,
whatsoever situation you found yourself in, realize this,
verse 24, you are serving the Lord Christ.
In the Old Testament, the priesthood was a
very specialized group of people.
Members of the tribe of Levi were automatically
priests unto God.
But one of the great distinctions between Old
Testament teaching and New Testament teaching is this,
that the concept of priesthood is taken up
in the second part of the Bible, and
it is developed, it is widened, it is
broadened, to the extent that the Apostle Peter,
when he is writing the letter that bears
his name, speaks of Christian people in terms
of being a holy nation, a royal priesthood,
a people who are set apart for the
service of the Living God.
1 Peter 2 and verse 9.
Revelation 1 verse 6 is exactly the same
thing.
We are priests unto the Lord.
In other words, the New Testament is saying
that every man, every woman, who belongs to
Jesus Christ is a priest, and offers priestly
service, be it in the context of wedlock,
of childhood, or of employment.
Now it's here where we would differ very,
very much from the Roman Catholic Church.
Martin Luther had great problems.
One of the reasons why he went into
the monastery in Germany, was because the Catholic
Church had determined that there were two orders
of life.
There was the religious, and there was the
ordinary.
And for a person to be religious, well
it meant, in the case of Luther in
particular, that he took up holy orders, that
he went into his monastery, that he became
a priest.
But later on he was to realize the
doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, that
this distinction between the secular and the sacred
was an artificial one.
It is not within the heart of Scripture
itself.
Now as far as the Church is concerned,
the RC Church, we heard the Pope, Pope
John Paul II saying not so long ago,
priesthood is forever.
And that caused a shudder to come across
certain sections of the Catholic Church, inasmuch as
there are those who would like to move
away from the priesthood.
There are many thousands of priests who are
resigning from the priesthood year by year.
And many of the conservative Catholics were glad
to hear the Pope saying, priesthood is forever.
You cannot discharge yourself of the obligations of
being a priest.
Now we would agree, as we come to
the Bible, that the true priest of God,
the true priest of the Lord Jesus Christ,
cannot discharge himself of his obligations.
Because priesthood belongs not just to a special
elite within one religious body.
Priesthood embraces, describes every person who belongs to
Jesus Christ.
Some while ago, I conducted a series of
Bible studies on the Christian home.
And I talked about the priestly responsibilities of
a father, and the priestly responsibilities of a
mother, and the priestly responsibilities of a boy,
and of a girl.
And this is what I believe.
That whatever I am engaged in, whatever I
am doing, if I am a Christian, then
I am offering service to the Lord God
Almighty.
I am a priest.
Priesthood is comprehensive.
It applies to everyone who is a Christian,
and who has confessed his need of Jesus,
and has had his sins forgiven.
And that priesthood is forever.
We shall always be serving the Lord our
God.
So in this 23rd verse, you see the
enlarging of the priesthood.
Whatsoever ye do, you Christian people in Colossae,
whether you're slaves, whether you're employers, whether you
are parents, whether you are children, whatever context
you find yourself in in life, know this,
you are priests of the living God.
And yours is the honor of serving him
now, and always.
Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto
the Lord.
Here is the enlarging of the priesthood, referred
to in Scripture.
But stay with me for a moment or
two, longer.
Still in these verses, for we discover something
else that is equally of importance, and indeed
is latched on to, hinged to, what I've
been teaching you a few moments ago.
Here is the elevating of the ordinary.
The elevating of the ordinary.
Whatsoever ye do, do it unto the Lord,
and not unto men.
If I am a priest, then all my
service counts for God.
That means that certain deductions can be drawn
from that proposition, from that premise.
If I am a priest, then all false
distinctions between what is religious and what is
irreligious are broken down.
What I'm arguing is this, that the lady
who is attending to domestic affairs in her
kitchen is serving God.
Hear me, I mean this without qualification.
Is serving God as much as I might
claim to be serving God, trying to explain
the Scriptures this morning.
There is no distinction between the spiritual and
the secular.
Here is the elevating of the ordinary.
All types of service in which we engage
is worship to the Lord God.
Some people think that worship is just attending
services, but that's not so.
Attending services is a lovely privilege, but worshipping
God is offering service in everything that you
engage in in your day-by-day life.
Out on the streets of Calcutta you will
find the colleagues of Sister Teresa, and they
will be picking up the down-and-outs,
literally the dying, of that vast, fascinating, awful
city.
They will do it in the name of
Jesus.
Mother Teresa sometimes teaches and perhaps goes too
far in her mystical approach, that when she
is ministering to someone who's dying, she's ministering
to Christ.
When she's helping someone who's in a desperate
situation, she's helping the Lord.
And the basis for her own thinking, and
as I say I think it needs a
little bit of qualification, is at the end
of the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, where
Jesus refers in these words, and I'm not
reading them all, you'll have to slot it
into context later on as you read the
whole passage yourself.
Jesus says, I was a stranger and ye
took me not in, naked and ye clothed
me not, sick and in prison and ye
visited me not.
And the idea in what Jesus is here
teaching is that the person who is ministering
to the sick, who is giving hospitality, is
offering worship to the living God.
It's the Apostle James, who when he defines
what true religion is, has to say this,
pure religion and undefiled before God and the
Father is this, to visit the fatherless and
widows in their affliction and to keep himself
unspotted from the world.
There is no mention of attending church, though
obviously it doesn't preclude that sort of worship.
Here is dealing with the practicalities of life,
of offering hospitality, of ministering to those who
are in need.
The person who does that is offering worship
to the Lord.
So we come back to what the Apostle
here has to say, here is the elevating
of the ordinary, whatsoever ye do, do it
heartily as unto the Lord.
Let me make a further deduction.
Evangelism can continue from a variety of pulpits.
There are those who seem to think that
evangelizing is just preaching and teaching and coming
to church.
That is one aspect, but it's only one
aspect What becomes the greatest evangelical factor for
winning men and women for Jesus Christ today?
It cannot be the Christian pulpit.
One would wish that this was the case,
but logically it cannot be.
In the United Kingdom for instance, only 10
% of the people will be along in
a church at any one time.
So how are the other 90% going
to hear of the gospel?
Not through the likes of me.
Evangelism can be the living of the life
before the ordinary unbeliever, doing what you have
to do, rising to your responsibility on the
workshop, in the workshop, in the school, in
the home, doing it heartily as to the
Lord, so that other people look upon your
life and your behavior and your manner of
deportment, and they see something that is completely
different to what they experience in other situations,
and they ask the reason why.
You say, well this sounds all so very
nice and so very idealistic.
Well that may be so, but it's a
practical idealism.
Go back to the Old Testament story of
Joseph.
Here is this man.
He is in the employment of Potiphar.
He's really a slave.
He's been sold into servitude by his brother,
by his brothers.
And after the passing of the months, what
happens to Joseph?
He's elevated.
He's promoted.
Potiphar sees something different about this man.
He's never had such a slave like this
one, and so he entrusts him with responsibility.
You see his life is speaking for him,
whilst he's engaged in a domestic situation.
Joseph then falls foul of Potiphar, and he's
thrown into jail.
And exactly the same principle is seen outworking
what he did, even in the prison.
He did it heartily, as to the Lord,
not unto men.
What was the consequence?
The jailer comes along, and he promotes Joseph,
and he gives him the responsibility of the
rest of the prisoners.
I say it's the Joseph principle that is,
if not mentioned by that actual phraseology, is
prominent in the New Testament as a means
of evangelizing.
The elevating of the ordinary.
It does matter what type of wife I
am.
It does matter how I control myself as
a mother in front of my children.
It does matter how I conduct my family
affairs as a husband.
All these things are not distinct from what
happens here on a Sunday morning.
They're vital to it, for worship is a
big word.
It's a comprehensive term, and those who will
serve Jesus Christ must serve him Monday through
to Saturday, and not just on a Sunday.
For if the latter is the case, then
it's a cosmetic Christianity that does not bear
analysis at all.
There have been people who have been won
for Christ by those who have been doing
the most menial of tasks.
How did the slave in Paul's day continue?
Here he was, one-third of the Roman
Empire, given over to servitude, and he comes
to Jesus Christ, but he's still manacled.
He's still got his problems.
His life is not his own.
How does he manage to continue?
How does he cope with his frustration?
Well, he does so by realizing this, that
it's only at one level that he's serving
his earthly master.
He's only serving him according to the flesh,
verse 22, but he realizes that there's another
master.
There's a greater person.
There is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
is working for him.
You remember that great hymn which says, a
servant with this clause makes drudgery divine.
Who sweeps rumors from thy laws makes that
and the action fine.
Here is not only the enlarging of the
priesthood, here is the elevating of the ordinary.
Whatever I do, I can offer it to
the Lord God as worship, and I do
it heartily.
So here I am as a wife, as
a husband, as an employer, as an employee,
as a child, as a parent, and in
those relationships I want success.
I want a successful marriage.
I want a successful home.
I want to be successful in my employment,
but the most important thing in those categories
is not the pleasing of my wife, the
pleasing of my parents, the pleasing of my
employer.
The most important thing is the pleasing of
the Lord God, who says in those situations,
worship me.
Offer me the sacrifice of your heart and
your life.
The enlarging of the priesthood, the elevating of
the ordinary.
Finally, our accountability in the future.
Our accountability in the future.
Look again at the 24th verse, knowing that
of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward
of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord
Christ.
A Christian does not control his beliefs, he
is controlled by them.
Let me repeat that.
A Christian does not control his beliefs, he
is controlled by them.
What is the controlling factor in my life
as a Christian?
It's the thought that God is sovereign in
my experience and Jesus Christ is coming back
again.
And an even equally wonderful thought is the
fact that in the future that Jesus will
bring into this scene of time when he
rejuvenates the heavens and the earth, I've got
a program.
I'm going to be involved in this.
This doctrine is hated, it's scorned, it's despised
by secularist philosophers.
It made Lenin speak of the opium of
Christianity.
But despite all the scorn that's heaped upon
it, Christian people are told in both the
Old and in the New Testament that this
life that they now know is not going
to last forever.
They are but strangers going through.
It was Abraham's beliefs that controlled his lifestyle.
He was seeking for a city whose maker
and whose builder was God.
He wasn't concerned with the here and now
in number one position.
He was concerned with the ultimate that God
had in store for him.
It's the same with our Lord Jesus Christ,
who for the joy that was set before
him, he assumed the cross.
He assumed the the position of one who
would offer his body as a substitutionary sacrifice
for those who would trust in him.
He went through the here and now for
the joy that there was in the future.
And the controlling factor of my life is
this, in this 24th verse, I am accountable
to the Lord from whom I shall receive
the reward of the inheritance as I serve
the Lord Christ.
Ian in the reading earlier on referred to
the fact that Christians will one day be
brought before the judgment seat of Christ.
And the life that we have lived will
be assessed.
This has got nothing to do with our
salvation at all.
We are saved through simple trust in Jesus
Christ.
But in the interim between our salvation and
being called into the presence of the Lord
Jesus, we have opportunities for service as husbands
and wives, as children, as employers, as employees.
And that service is going to be assessed.
It's going to be evaluated.
The apostle here makes reference to those who
will receive the reward of the inheritance because
they serve the Lord Christ.
I want to ask you, do you really
appreciate these things?
Do you understand that this is the teaching
of Scripture?
That one day you shall stand before the
Lord God and he will ask you how
you have lived your life even as a
Christian.
And the Bible talks about degrees of reward
as it talks about degrees of punishment.
There will be those as the apostle Paul
who shall be saved as by fire.
There will be nothing to show, no gold,
no silver, no precious stones of service illustrating
what they have done for Jesus.
They will be saved but by the skin
of their teeth.
And the Bible says that we are to
realize right now the fact that there are
rewards.
There are reasons beyond and above our love
for the Lord God that should promote us
to live lives that are pleasing to him
in the domestic categories in which we find
ourselves.
Oh to live for Jesus in such a
way that brings pleasure to him.
Oh to be a priest of the Living
God in the way that I control my
house, look after my children, look after my
husband.
Oh to be a priest of the Living
God in the way that I go up
to London on a Monday and a Tuesday
and so on and attend to my business
commitments.
Endeavoring by my life to illustrate the very
virtues of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Oh to be a priest unto God who
one day when I enter into the eternal
age shall receive the award of the inheritance
having served the Lord Christ to have his
accolade.
Well done you good and faithful servant.
Enter into the joy of your Lord.
Here in these two verses is the enlarging
of the priesthood.
Here is the elevation of the ordinary.
Here is a reminder of our accountability in
the future that one day, come next month,
come next year, come this decade, we shall
be called into the presence of God to
give an account for the way that we
lived our lives as Christian people.
Let's serve the Lord Christ then with all
our hearts.
Amen.
Father we pray that during this week we
shall know the elevating of the ordinary, that
in every task in which we're engaged we
shall realize that it directly affects our service
for you.
Help us to do it heartily unto yourself
even those boring and dull jobs that otherwise
would frustrate us.
At times when we're at wit's end because
of our responsibilities within our homes, help us
Lord to realize that you're involved in what
we're doing.
You want us to be successful and you'll
grant us your peace and you'll give to
us your wisdom.
So we pray that as you've enlarged our
concept of the priesthood this morning elevate the
ordinary as we attend to it during the
days that are yet to be for Jesus'
sake.
Amen.