Three years ago now we came to the conclusion (after searching the Scriptures together) that our mission should be to focus on presenting men complete (or mature) in Christ. That is to say, we are focusing on laboring in men’s lives with their final salvation as our end. We also said that this seemed to be Paul’s mission and purpose in light of Colossians 1:28-29, and therefore, we adopted it as our own. And it is a mission that I am becoming more and more convinced is indeed right as I continue to study through the Word of God and observe the need for the church to labor in the ultimate salvation of men’s lives.

By my own admission, my strength is thinking on that kind of plain. That is, it’s easy for me to spend a great deal of time thinking about what should be the mission of the church, what are the principles that should govern the church’s thinking about church government, what are the principles that should govern our practice of missionary support, etc. My great struggle, however, is in working out how these things should flesh themselves out in practice (thus, pulling all the adult Sunday school classes together this past year so as to aid me and the other elders in thinking through how our church government should function, what our corporate worship should look like in light of our statement of faith, etc.).

With that said, as I have become more convinced that the mission we have set before us is indeed right, (i.e. presenting men complete [mature] in Christ, being empowered by His Spirit and sustained by His grace, in order that God might be glorified above all things), it has forced me more and more to examine how exactly we should carry out achieving that mission.

However, as we look at 1 Corinthians 16 this morning, we get to fill in answers to a lot of the questions we might be asking to this end. For in this chapter Paul gives these believers some final exhortations as he intends for them now to carry out that which they are to be doing as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as you spend time reflecting on these last few things he says to them, you begin to see some crucial things we need to remember as requirements in our lives if we are to successfully carry out our mission.

Therefore, this morning I want to show you a few of those from this chapter, and in doing so I hope that we will refocus our minds on the mission at hand and will institute some of these principles and practices into our lives so that we might effectively carry out such a mission.

Thus, let me remind you of a few things that are required, according to this text, if we are to fulfill our biblical mandate to labor in men’s lives toward their final salvation.

Our mission will require investing time in face-to-face encounters with one another

This reality of investing time and being face-to-face with brothers and sisters in the faith was a precious reality to Paul. If you take this chapter and simply highlight those things which Paul says he will do amidst everything else he says, you will see this over and over again. Just listen to his statements of what he has done and what he intends to do. He writes, “I will visit you … I will stay with you or even spend the winter … I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits” (16:5-7). And yet he can’t come right now. But why? It is because he is practicing this reality in Ephesus. He writes in verse 8, “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me and there are many adversaries.” So, what does he do? He sends Timothy to them and then writes to them of Apollos, “I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers … He will come when he has opportunity” (16:12). Finally, though he can have no face-to-face contact with the Corinthian church just yet, he writes in verse 17, “I rejoice at the coming of Stephanasas and Fortunatus and Achaicus because they have made up for your absence.”

If Paul’s mission was to labor so that he might present every man whom the Lord commits to his care complete in Christ (and it was, according to Colossians 1:28-29), then Paul saw face-to-face contact and investing time in others’ lives as a crucial aspect in that mission. And I think it would behoove us to assume it is a crucial aspect of our mission as well.

Brothers and sisters, I do not think there are short cuts to laboring in one another’s lives so that they are built up in Christ. It requires time and face-to-face contact. And so I ask you to commit to being willing to do this and being intentional about it with one another in this body. Spiritual maturity does not simply happen with the passage of time, and I don’t think it happens to the degree we will desire if we do not have others pouring into our lives.

And we definitely will not be God’s means by which he preserves his people until the end if we are not intentional about involving ourselves personally and intentionally in their lives, giving quantities of time to their upbuilding.

We simply need to look no further than Paul toward Timothy to realize what should be expected of us in discipling others. And at very least, it will require a willingness to invest time and have face-to-face encounters with them.

Yet Paul reminds these Corinthians that there is a far-reaching requirement of them as well.

Our mission will require that our ministry extend beyond those who are members of Cornerstone Community Church

If we are going to be faithful to the ministry to which God has called us, we must expand our focus beyond those who are members of this church. Now, I don’t mean we expand our focus so as to ignore those who are members of this church, for we have covenanted with those in the church to labor in their lives. What I am saying is that we need to add to that a focus on those beyond the membership of this local church.

We see this is an expectation for the church at Corinth. In the first four verses Paul is giving them instructions to gather an offering of money together so that they might support the believers at the church in Jerusalem. Then in verse 10 he encourages them to minister to Timothy as he comes to minister to them. Then in verses 15-18, he tells them to support and honor such men as Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus. Finally, in verses 19-24 he sends greetings to the church in Corinth from the churches of Asia, Aquila and Prisca, and the church that gathers in their house.

Clearly Paul’s vision for ministry is that local churches have a heart to build up and to minister to other local churches. This is indeed the biblical view of the ministry of the church. And yet today it might seem preposterous to suggest to one congregation that they should labor in building up another congregation. It’s as if we see other churches (even evangelical ones) as our enemies.

Therefore, I encourage us as a church to think of ways that we might labor in other local churches to build them up so that Christ might be honored among them. I am thankful when individuals from this congregation get opportunities to preach elsewhere, when we can pass along our constitution and membership curriculum to others, when we get opportunities to publicly pray for other churches, and even when we might be able to financially aid another church in carrying out biblical ministry, to name a few. In short, we need to add a broader dimension to our thinking about building up the church, looking for local churches outside of ours to minister to as well. This attitude seemed to be an assumption of Paul when he wrote to other churches. May it be the attitude of this church.

Our mission will require us to keep eternity at the forefronts of our minds, to remember the importance of the faith, and to display courage and sacrificial love so that Christ might be honored through his church

This mindset is what is exhorted by Paul as he writes in verses 13-14, “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” This kind of thinking which has its focus on eternity, remembers the importance of the faith (even above oneself) and is willing to display the spiritual maturity manifested in courage and sacrificial love is a rare thing in the church today. But it is no less needed in the church today.

We need to fight every day to keep our minds from forgetting that this life and this world is not the end for us. Otherwise everything we will do will reflect that our treasure is on this earth. We need to fight every day to keep our minds from forgetting the importance of standing firm and girding up ourselves in the faith. Otherwise, the Bible will become less than the bread that we need daily simply to live. We need to remind ourselves every day what it means to reflect spiritual maturity, being willing to show courage and sacrificial love in a day and time when these things are no longer honored. In short, we need what Paul exhorts us to in verses 13-14.

Therefore, I warn you against letting these kinds of exhortations fall to the ground unheeded. I warn you against forgetting why we exist and what is expected of us having been purchased by the blood of Christ. For if we do, we will only be ashamed at the Lord’s appearing.

One of the clearest exhortations to this end that I’ve read comes from the pen of John Calvin. In 1553 there were five men who had been made prisoners in Lyon for preaching the gospel. They had been accused and condemned of heresy, by those who were rebellious to the gospel. And though there had been many signs that they might be freed and Calvin himself had written to them in March of 1553 with hope that they might be freed, by May it was sure that they were going to be executed. They were going to be burned at the stake.

So, what do you say to such men? What do you say to someone who is doing the same thing that you’re doing only they are about to be burned alive for it? What do they need to hear? Calvin wrote to them in May of 1553, under the setting described above. And he wrote of themes quite similar to the exhortations found in these verses in 1 Corinthians 16.

He wrote to them, “Now, at this present hour, necessity itself exhorts you more than ever to turn your whole mind heavenward. As yet, we know not what will be the event. But since it appears as though God would use your blood to sign his truth, there is nothing better than for you to prepare yourselves to that end, beseeching him so to subdue you to his good pleasure, that nothing may hinder you from following whithersoever he shall call. For you know, my brothers, that it [behooves] us to be thus mortified, in order to be offered to him in sacrifice. It cannot be but that you sustain hard conflicts, in order that what was declared to Peter may be accomplished in you, namely, that they shall carry you whither you would not. You know, however, in what strength you have to fight – a strength on which all those who trust, shall never be daunted, much less confounded. Even so, my brothers, be confident that you shall be strengthened, according to your need, by the Spirit of our Lord Jesus, so that you shall not faint under the load of temptations, however heavy it be, any more than he did who won so glorious a victory, that in the midst of our miseries it is an unfailing pledge of our triumph. Since it pleases him to employ you to the death in maintaining his quarrel, he will strengthen your hands in the fight, and will not suffer a single drop of your blood to be spent in vain.” ¹

How can we hear those words and not long to think eternally in our actions, being courageous and willing to lay down our lives in love for our Lord and his church? And yet tomorrow morning many of us might get out of bed and live without thought of eternal things controlling our thoughts and actions. We will live thinking nothing of the eternal value of our labors. Therefore, I urge you to meditate on these kinds of exhortations from God’s Word. In fact, I would urge you as time of devotion to God as you read, meditate upon, and memorize his Word, and pray for yourself and intercede for others, that you also take a few minutes each day and read biographies of faithful saints who have come before us and/or their works (especially their letters). For this is a way in which you can drive your heart to imitate the faith of those who have come before us.

Finally, our mission will require God’s grace to be with us, and we need to remember that it indeed will

One of my biggest fears about preaching a message like this is that it becomes legalistic for everyone. That is to say, all of you gear up to try harder and do better in your own strength, forgetting that the Christian life is about constantly needing God’s grace if we are to be found approved of before him.

Therefore, my final exhortation is to remember your need for God’s grace and trust that God’s grace will sustain you in your labors.

So, go to bed at night praying, “God, give me your grace to rise in the morning and spend time meditating on your Word. I trust that you will.” Pray as we close, “God give me your grace to invest my time and labor in the lives of those here and those outside of this church for the building up of your kingdom. I trust that you will.” Pray for God’s grace and believe that he will indeed give you the grace to be obedient.

I think that is exactly what Paul is driving at as he ends a book with so many exhortations writing to them in verse 24, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” He wanted them to know that they could rely on God’s grace to find strength to be obedient. And I want you to know the same.

Therefore, this morning as we close, do you need to commit afresh to intentionally laboring in people’s lives face-to-face so as to build up his church? If so, ask God for his grace to do so. Do you need to expand your vision of ministry to those outside this membership having ignored them for a while? If so, repent of your actions, and ask God for his grace to obey. Have you lacked an eternal mindset, a commitment to truth, and courage and sacrificial love? If so, again, repent and ask God for his grace to reflect his Son in these areas.

And then after having repented, prayed, etc. we will gather at the table as a reminder that we are indeed forgiven, that our righteousness is in Christ, and that the one who has shown us grace by sending his Son to die for us will most definitely give us the grace to obey him so that he might receive glory through his church.

Grace be with you. Amen.

¹ John Calvin, Selected Works of John Calvin: Tracts and Letters. Volume 5. Jules Bonnett, Ed. David Constable, Trans. Reprint. (Still Waters Revival Books: Edmonton, AB, Canada, 2000), 404-6.

A CALL TO FOCUS ON OUR MISSION