We Got Work To Do

We Got Work To Do
Our Means and Motive For Sharing the Gospel

Introduction:
There are two types of work in this world: our work and God’s work. God gives us a job kind of like labourers in a Vineyard. We till and sow and water and reap. And God also has His work, He causes the increase- He makes the dead seed germinate and spring to life.

The Bible says “trust in the Lord with all your heart… and in all your ways acknowledge Him”- that’s our work. Then He will direct our paths.

You know I think that the reason so many people here are struggling and anxious and dealing with the consequences of bad choices in their lives is because so many have been trying to do God’s work- so many have been trying to germinate the seed that they have not been out planting and sowing.

We miss this truth, “Except the Lord builds a house, they that labour, labour in vain” (Ps 127:1). Because people are confused about the work that they should be doing, Marriages are falling apart; people are going broke; relationships are shattered, families are ruined and churches are divided.

Our work of Evangelism is the emphases this month and I want to look at 1 Corinthians 3 to unpack three important elements of Evangelism: the Workers, who they are, the Work (what it is), and the Wage (our reward for the quality of the work we do).

Read Passage
1. We are the Workers (i.e. servants)
Paul opens by asking “who are we?” Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? Other than the fact that God has stooped to accomplish His will through them, they’re really ‘nothing much to talk about.’ Not only are they nothing, but they are equal to one another in their nothingness.

What he means is that, apart from God working through men and women, there should not be any hero worship in the kingdom of God. There’s no one who can say, “I did this for God” because it would not be more fitting to say, “God did this through me.”

Billy Graham has headed massive evangelistic crusades all around the world and led millions to Jesus. But he is no better than the little old lady who has never left Surrey, but forever regularly hands out bible tracts and shares Jesus- even if she’s never personally won a single person to Christ.

I planted, Apollos watered… BUT God gave the increase! Paul describes two kinds of workers in evangelism: planters and waterers.

a) Planters
In the parable of the sower, Jesus tells how a sower went out with seed. Some of the seed fell on the wayside and was eaten by birds. Some of the seed fell on the stony places and sprang up, but the sun came out and scorched them because they didn’t have deep enough roots. And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop of 30, 60 and 100 fold.
The seed is the gospel and the ground is the human hearts. Verse 6 of the NLT says it this way, “My job was to plant the seed in your heart.” Preaching the gospel is like planting a farm or a vineyard. It doesn’t just grow by itself; you gotta go out and plant it.

“How will they call on Jesus in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” The Bible asks (Romans 10:14-15).

How will the farms produce if there isn’t any seed in the field and how will the field be seeded if there aren’t any farmers to put the seed in the field? How will the people of Surrey hear the gospel if no one preached it to them? The seed is here… we are all the sowers. We got work to do.

It’s funny, because we are all aware that the fields in Surrey are ripe for the harvest and so we pray, “God send workers to help us to bring in the harvest,” but we aren’t even working ourselves.

We’re too busy… we’re afraid that another door will slam in our face… we hate the rejection… we don’t want to push our beliefs…. How else will they hear? Don’t worry about the rejection- you don’t have to germinate the seed, just sow and water it- God will do the rest.

b) Waterers
Then there are those who water. This an age old excuse, “I’m called to water not to plant.” The truth is that people who say it don’t even water either.

1 Corinthians 12:13 says that we were all made to drink from the same Spirit. Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the water He possessed was able to quench thirst so that anyone who drank it would never thirst again.

Watering involves the work of the Holy Spirit and it can only be done by keeping in step with the Spirit. It means wielding the sword of the Spirit: His Word.

If you are really doing the work of watering, then: you’re praying for the lost; praying for opportunities to share Christ; praying for new believers. If you’re really a waterer, then: you’re a disciple making disciples; teaching the Word to new believers and to old believers; modeling it by your lifestyle and your conversation- not swearing or slandering or gossiping, but speaking what is good and pure and true….

One thing I am certain about Gateway: we are not lacking labourers; we have sowers and we have waterers. But where is our fruit? Don’t blame God. Jesus said His Father is always working. The stoppage is not because He is not doing His job. We are the labourers. “Each one will receive his own reward according to his own labour.”

2. The Work (the church)
Let’s look at that labour. What are we planting? What are we building?

The work is the church- Did he give this work for the building up of the world? For the building up our careers… our families… our self esteem?
No! The labour is for the building up of the church- establishing the presence and the reign of Christ… sowing the field until the landowner comes to reap.

We the church are God’s field, His house. Jesus himself is the chief cornerstone, in him the whole building is fit together and grows into a temple (Eph 4:11).

Imagine Solomon’s temple is a picture of the church. Each stone is individually mined and hand carved. Then they are carefully shipped to the temple mount and laid in place. Each stone overlaid in Gold to erect one of the most dazzling structures in the ancient world. That’s a picture of God’s building, which is the church. Each stone would require hundreds of workers to get it from the mountain to the temple.

When Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus praised him and said upon this confession He (Jesus, not Peter) would build his Church. This church is not built by brick and mortar, its’ built upon the confession that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour.

“Whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful” (v. 10 NLT). Take head how you are building on this foundation.

We’re not going to trick people into the church with slick human reasoning or self-help anymore than we can put mud into Solomon’s temple and expect it to endure. If we’re not going out with the simple message that Jesus saves us from our sins- then we are not building a structure that can stand.
If we are going out and planting tares and not wheat, then we cannot expect a harvest that will sustain us in our ongoing labour anymore than we can expect to thrive and survive for any length of time on pop and potato chips.

So “Do not labour for food which perishes, but food which endures to eternal life” (Jn 6:27).

3. The Wage (judgment seat of Christ)
That’s Paul’s point here. He’s writing to the Corinthians, a church that he planted. And, instead of continuing in the work of evangelism that he had entrusted to them, they were entangled by petty controversies, flaunting their adultery, taking communion in a rude way, denying the resurrection, and parading their Spiritual gifts like a circus.

In all that, I believe that God was testing to see if they were made of Gold or straw; precious stones or wood. Just like God will test our church and has.

One day, each one’s work will become clear. And I am sorry to say, when we come before the judgment seat of Christ, it won’t be the work of your chosen career or how much overtime you put in at work or even how big your RRSP got. He will be judging whether or not you’re working of sowing and watering will withstand judgment.

“For the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is” whether or not it keeps its value.

There are some people here who won’t have to worry about their work being tested when they go before the judgment seat of Christ… because there is nothing to test.

If it is any consolation to you who are labouring, I think it would be preferable to labour in the kingdom and have my work be burned up in the fire because it was worthless then to have no work to claim for myself. Because, even if my work is burned and I suffer loss, I will still be saved.

Jesus says that if anyone is ashamed of me before men, He will be ashamed of them before my father in heaven. There needs to fruit. If you abide in Christ, you will bear much fruit. Take the talent of silver at least put it in the bank so you can collect interest… don’t bury it.

What is the wage? It is the treasure that you will find in heaven. Not treasure of gold and silver and precious jewels, but treasure in people: friends and family and strangers that you met on the street.

The people who left the Jesus video at my drug dealer’s house have no idea that it has had any effect. One day, when I get to heaven, those people who planted will see that God caused the seed to sprout. When I go up to them to thank them for the labour, there will be a line-up of people behind me whose faith was either planted or watered by me.

“If your work endures” (v. 14) “if it survives the fire” (NLT) then you will receive your wage and God will say well done my good and faithful servant, enter into my joy.