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PAUL AND APOLLOS
Although the Old Testament writings are older than the New Testament ones, within the Old Testament and New Testament the books in our Bibles aren’t arranged in order of date written.
For example, the Bible starts with Genesis (which is about the beginnings of the world) but that book was not the first to be written.
And in the New Testament we begin with the four gospels - which tell of the life of Jesus – but they were not the first books to be written.
And of course, its funny that we call the Bible writings “books” – because they are mostly much smaller than any book we would normally read. The gospels make for very short books indeed, and all the other “books” in the New Testament are even shorter – some only a page long!
The oldest documents in the NT are actually some letters by Paul to churches.
1 Corinthians is the third book to be written in the NT. It’s the third oldest book.
Corinth was a busy seaport and capital of a region of Greece which included Athens. In other words, when Paul was alive, Corinth was a more important place than Athens – in fact at that time it was the most important city in Greece.
It was here that Paul lived for at least 18 months and he started a Christian community. There was a synagogue in Corinth but most of the people were Gentile and the new church reflected this diversity.
By the time Paul writes 1 Corinthians he has been away from that church for about two years.
And this letter forms part of some lost correspondence.
Paul refers to a previous letter he sent to them, and the reply he received from them, but these letters have never been found. They are lost in time.
So when Paul writes this letter, the third in the New Testament, there are no other writings. And there are no gospels – no written record of the life of Jesus.
No gospel has yet been written.
This was the world of the early church.
And it’s interesting to notice that this particular early church had “issues” – problems they were facing, which is part of the reason for Paul writing.
Again that’s not at all surprising – there had never been a church before.
These people were starting out from scratch. They were creating a new community of people from very different backgrounds and they didn’t have a model or blueprint to guide them.
Some of the problem issues included Communion, the gap between rich and poor, the difference between being Jew or Gentile, spiritual gifts, factions or groups within groups.
And that last is what featured in our reading for today.
The fact that the church seemed to be divided into groups each one claiming to follow a different leader.
According to Chapter One, there were at least four groups claiming different leaders.
By the time Paul refers again to this in chapter 3 he narrows it down to two main groups: Apollos and Paul.
We don’t know too much about Apollos. He was a Jew from Alexandria, the second largest city in the Roman Empire. He was a very cultured and educated man and he was apparently a great preacher and teacher.
He came to look after the new church at Corinth after Paul moved away.
There’s no evidence that Apollos was trying to upstage Paul, or that he thought he was a superior leader, or that he approved of the divisions that appeared.
Some arguments seemed to have begun within people in the church and this had been the outcome.
I guess all of this is like people in a church arguing over the ministers they have had. And as a minister myself its never clear how you will be remembered. I guess you’ll be remembered in different ways by different people..
The one thing I do know is that Bill Greenock (a few years back) did a time-line of all the ministers that have been here at Langside. There was a photo of each minister beside a picture of the church. You can see it still on the website.
A list of ministers and a picture of the church beside them.
That’s all very well, but beside the picture of me is a picture of our church burning down to the ground!
So will that be my legacy – to be remembered as the minister of Langside when the church went on fire? I hope not!
Anyway, going back to the Corinthian church, it could be that the richer and more cultured people in the church and the Jews in Corinth who had become Christians there identified more with someone like Apollos.
And maybe the Gentiles and the poorer folks in the congregation gravitated to Paul, but we can’t be sure.
What Paul wants to say to them is that divisions are unacceptable. And the idea that people should line themselves up as followers of leaders is crazy.
The person who matters is Jesus.
He is the only one to whom we should be giving our allegiance.
“Who is Apollos?” says Paul.
“Who is Paul?” says Paul!
Just two human beings with all kinds of faults!
Paul may have planted the church, and Apollos may have watered it afterwards, but only God gives the growth.
So Paul says that it doesn’t matter who does this work.
When Paul says it doesn’t matter, I think it’s a bit of an exaggeration.
A good minister can do a lot of good and a bad one can do a lot of harm.
All leaders in churches obviously have an opportunity to make an impact on the church for good or ill.
But this is also true.
Every person who is part of a church has influence.
It’s not the case that we all can have an influence.
Truth is that every person does make an impression - for better or worse.
So this conversation about division ends up (for Paul) being about growth and each person having a part to play.
Our own spiritual growth comes down to our relationship with God, and our resolve to pursue and prioritise it.
The Bible has much to say on personal spiritual growth.
But in our passage today Paul is talking about church growth.
Church growth is not just about bums on seats…
In fact, it may not even be about bums on seats at all.
There are churches around the world, which may be growing numerically, but they are not growing spiritually.
There are churches that are packing the customers in but they are not presenting the challenge of following Jesus, and not taking Jesus’ way seriously.
Just because you have more people at your church (in itself) doesn’t mean the church is growing in ways that matter to God.
Of course that leaves us with a cop-out that allows us to downplay more people appearing at our church as being unimportant.
And I don’t think that’s true either.
If a church is growing it should usually include more people coming along and getting involved. That should be a part of it.
Paul uses two analogies for growth – a plant that is being tended to and watered and a building that is being built slowly but surely, brick by brick.
But how exactly does this growth happen?
This is where we often make mistakes. There are two answers given to that question and both of them are wrong.
1)It’s down to us.
If we want to see growth we need to do something to plan for it. Growth is not likely to come about by accident and without our conscious decision that we want to see it happen.
But by ourselves we cannot do what God can do. On our own we can work ourselves ragged with activities and programmes and ideas. Without Gods input we are wasting our time.
2)It’s down to God.
The good thing about this idea is that it stops us imagining that spiritual growth is about us trying harder or working harder, and making us feel inadequate if it doesn’t happen.
The trouble with this idea is that it puts everything down to God and absolves us of any responsibility.
“Will our church grow?”
“Well, that’s not up to us.”
“God will decide. It’s up to God to bless us with growth”
“Its all to do with God’s timing.”
All of a sudden we are spectators.
All of a sudden, church growth is only about the action of God, and nothing to do with us.
So where does the truth lie?
The truth lies in combining these thoughts.
Growth is about us. And it’s about God.
It’s about a partnership.
This is the way God has always chosen to work in the world - in partnership with ordinary human beings.
We work together with God.
It’s like that old expression: Work as if it all depended on you and pray as if it all depended on God.
Paul planted, Apollo watered, God provides the growth. Partnership.
When the Church in Glasgow was working on its infamous Presbytery Plan, it was based on the idea that there are not enough ministers to go round, and that there are too many churches too close together.
When they looked at our area they reckoned that Langside, Clincarthill and Cathcart Old church buildings were very close geographically. They wondered about downsizing the number of ministries in our area in the future from 3 to 2.5.
The churches replied that all three congregations were doing separate but complimentary work and that all three were viable churches.
And one of the things that I pointed out was that Langside church was actually growing.
It ended up that the Presbytery suggested something for our area that is not there for any other part of the city.
They suggested that we should keep the three minister posts if the growth continued to happen.
Now although I don’t agree with the thinking or the philosophy behind the Presbytery Plan, (something I’m not going into now), I quite liked the challenge that leaves us with.
Although it is plain that some churches are dying, (and though it is sometimes even quite obvious why they are dying), I do not believe that dying has to be the direction that we are all headed for.
Because God invites every church to thrive.
Even in the difficult times we face these days.
So, why do churches not grow?
One reason is that we don’t expect it. We don’t believe it will happen or we don’t imagine it is very likely.
The second reason follows from that.
We don’t plan for it. We don’t organise for it. We don’t factor it into our aims.
We don’t have growth as our goal.
I think that growth for churches is more than a possibility, and for Langside Church I can see no reason why we shouldn’t continue to grow if we continue to do our bit here, seek to invite others, and look to God for blessing.
In fact, let me say this….
If we are up for involvement,
ready to play our part,
ready to welcome,
ready to grow,
ready to pray,
ready to follow where God leads, (which means being brave enough to try new things)
and to become sensitive to the Spirit’s voice and leading,
wewill grow.
This is how God wants to work with us.
This is what God wants for the Church.
God invites every church to thrive.
1 Corinthians 3: 1-11
February 16 2014