Looking Past the Gifts at the Giver

One thing about the shutdowns over this last year -- I've spent quite a bit of time listening to various preachers and teachers I've found on the internet, because I had the time to do so. Along with that -- I'll be honest -- I've been so thirsty for the Word of God, for the Holy Spirit, and for a deeply-rooted growth in the Lord. I've had a steady faith in the Lord for nearly as long as I can remember, but after kids came and as our lives grew intensely busy, my faith has stood still in a fog. For years.

The pandemic and the Lord's shaking has pulled me out of that fog. And I find that -- like a person lost in the desert -- I haven't been drinking deeply for far too long, and my dehydrated soul can't seem to get enough. I want more, and more, and more, and so I dig deeper and deeper and deeper to where the Living Water streams in the desert.

Our church ran Youtube sermons once a week, but that wasn't enough for me. So I found power-packed messages two or three times a day on the internet and streamed them while I cleaned bathrooms and our kitchen, and swept floors and dusted furniture. 

And in the whole last year, I've found four or five teachers who appeal to me, who are rock-solid on the Word of God, who are faithful in posting daily or every-few-days meditations, and who have -- though they don't know who I am -- made a crater-sized impact in my spiritual formation and growth.

Hallelujah! The Holy Spirit works in amazing ways!

I had been living on milk for far too long; I needed meat, protein, bone and muscle-enhancing power. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2: "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly -- mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it."

Paul was a pioneer, really. He founded this church in Corinth where no church had been before. Why? Because Jesus had returned to heaven not many years before this; there had been no chance to establish churches across Asia Minor yet. When Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 28 to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation," He meant it. And his disciples did as He commanded. 

Paul, though not one of the Twelve, was an apostle, because he had a face to face experience with the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, and the Lord gave him his commission.

But now there's a problem. Because in Corinth, in this church that Paul founded -- there are some disagreements. Some of the people in the church are staunch followers of Paul. Others have been listening to this guy named Apollos. And some more have been strongly drawn to the teachings of Peter. Still others pushed all that away and said, "We're only supposed to follow Christ."

So while the church was still in this "milk" stage (they were like babies; their stomachs wouldn't yet handle steak and fried potatoes), they were easily divided among the leaders to whom they were most strongly drawn.

Paul calls them on their divisions, which -- it sounds like -- weren't nicely drawn lines in the sand, but skirmishes. "You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not mere men?" (For more on this, see 1 Corinthians 1:12). 

Back in Acts 18, we get to briefly "meet" Apollos. He's just arrived in Ephesus, and Acts 18:24-25 describes him as "a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue."

I suspect had I lived during that time, I might very likely have been one of those who said, "I follow Apollos." I love finding fervent followers of Christ, who are fluent in the Scriptures and accurate in their understanding of them, and who mesh these characteristics into a powerful work for the Lord. I might have even bought tickets to an event where Apollos was the keynote speaker. I don't know. But I love that the Lord had hold of Apollos' life and was using him powerfully. Acts 18:28 says of Apollos: "For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ." I love watching a good debate (not a bad one, not one of those awful excuses for debates that have been the past few presidential ones, but ones where someone lays out the Truth with irrefutable logic, and then consistently and irresistibly trawls over any objections to the Truth. I see Apollos as being that guy).

However, his theology needed a tweak or two, apparently, a la: "though he knew only the baptism of John." He hadn't yet been introduced to the Acts 2 baptism of the Holy Spirit with fire. Now -- y'all, if you are a Christian living in a fog as I was for years, let me just remind you -- "Our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29), and He burns deep into our souls, and that burn is flat out amazing!

Anyway, so Priscilla and Aquila "heard him (Apollos), and they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately."

Who were Priscilla and Aquila? Roman tentmakers. That is, they had lived in Rome until the emperor Claudius ordered all Jews to leave Rome (Aquila was originally from Pontus, just south of the Black Sea). In a contemporary account by Suetonius, he writes that Claudius' expulsion order "was given because of [the Jews'] continual tumults instigated by Chrestus" [which is a common misspelling of the word "Christ."]

Don't you love history?! Come on, nerd out with me! :)

Anyway, so Priscilla and Aquila were two of these Jewish "tumulters," who then moved to Corinth and set up "camp" (heh) as tentmakers. (Dads aren't the only ones who get to make "Dad-jokes.")

Paul also knew how to make tents, so when he gets to Corinth, he hangs up his business flag right next to Priscilla and Aquila, and they get to be good friends. 

All of this is found in Acts 18. 

Okay, back to where I was going: Paul has established the Corinthian church on the foundation, that is, Jesus Christ. Apollos has come along and preached as well, edifying this church that Paul began. Somewhere in there, Peter's had some influence, because he's mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:12. 

And somehow, the people find themselves divided.

So back in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9, Paul says: "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. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, Who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."

Have you ever heard: "Don't kill the messenger?"

The spirit of that statement is here in these verses. We are all messengers. Some of us have a silver tongue and will gather huge followings with our abilities to speak and reason (Apollos). Some of us have a gift for writing and clarity with words, and many people will read and reread our words as understanding seeps in (Paul). Others of us have an extra-close relationship with the Lord and speak to us out of our experiences with Him (Peter, John, etc.). 

Paul moves the target out past these people, these leaders, and I should note -- all of these leaders are good leaders, not false, righteous, and powerfully equipped to do the work God has given them to do. But Paul reminds the Corinthian church, as well as the church today: Your focus, he says in not so many words, is not on this speaker or that writer or that friend of God, because look at those guys. Every single one of them is pointing...

To Jesus. Your focus is on Jesus! "The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose!"

For me, present-tense, this makes me examine my terminology. "My pastor." He's a fellow servant of God, just as I am. "My favorite teacher." Fellow servant. "Intercessor." Fellow servant. "Sunday School teacher." Fellow servant.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6 says: "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men." 

Look past the gifts and to the One to Whom the gifted people are pointing. "Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, Who makes things grow."

Do you know why I'm thankful for this? Pressure's off! Not that I'm allowed to go live any way I want; the Word of God is crystal clear about His standards for holy living. But if my heart is right, and I make mistakes (whaaaat? Mistakes?! I. Will. Make. Mistakes. You. Will. Too.), the Lord is the One Who makes things grow.

I will use the gifts the Lord gives me to the very, very best of my ability. But the Lord Jesus Christ is the One Who makes those gifts work, even when I mess up.

What amazing grace!!! Hallelujah!