God Gives the Growth

Listen on

Jonathan Reasoner

0:16Good morning. My wife Chico and I were sent out by Bethlehem Baptist Church and worked as missionaries in Japan for 40 years. Just bear with me a little bit for a brief introduction. At the beginning of our career we were in Okinawa, Japan helping pastors build up their local churches, and after that we served in the Tokyo area for over 10 years. We let a church plant and then in later years we had an itinerant ministry to Japanese churches. During that time, I was also involved in mission administration and Chico was engaged in palliative care for Japanese people and the missionary community.

1:05Earlier this year, we retired from active full-time missionary service and have recently resettled here in Minnesota on this first Sunday of Global Focus Week. It is a real privilege for me to hear God's word with you and to seriously consider it together. The theme for this week is Colonel to Kingdom. Together, we want to see the glory of God in expanding his kingdom from a seed like stage to a bountiful harvest. Let's ask God to help us as we engage with his word.

1:53Father in heaven, thank you for your living word. We praise you for moving forward your purposes in spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. We wait on you now to teach us through your word and by your spirit to apply it to our hearts and to our lives according to your will in Jesus' name, amen. When we first arrived as missionaries in Japan, I remember that I was eagerly looking forward to see how God might use us to point Japanese people to Christ. Over time, my enthusiasm began to fade. Things were not happening according to what I had hoped. I often prayed that God would call many more Japanese people to himself and I'd feel really encouraged while praying, but then out among the masses of people in the city, I would feel totally discouraged.

3:02It was just overwhelming to think that so many around me were without real hope and nothing seemed to be happening. Evangelical Christians in Japan make up only about 0.5% of the population. That means that way over 120 million are without Christ, and sometimes when I prayed I would even ask, Lord, is that okay with you? That's so many millions. I currently lost.

3:39In contrast, evangelical Christians in the neighboring country of South Korea, number almost 17% and the total of Christians there is 31% Now and then when back on home assignment here in the us, people would ask us, why does Japan have so few Christians compared to Korea? It was hard to give a good answer. I would like to touch just briefly on some of those issues as we think together about today's text and global missions based on the short passage for today. Let's take up three main points and we can remember them easily like this, God's work, God's workers and God's will, God's work, his workers, his will, fleshing that out.

4:39We want to see first the building of God's kingdom is God's sovereign work and then in carrying out that work, God uses workers, he uses human servants, and third, God causes his kingdom to grow in his timing and according to his will. In one statement, we could say God sovereignly works using his people to cause his kingdom to grow according to his will and in his timing Very briefly. First, let's consider the background to this text. We won't turn there but it can be found in Acts chapter 18. The apostle Paul during his second missionary journey started at church in the city of Corinth in modern day Greece, he had begun by speaking about Christ to the Jews in that city, but when they opposed him, he turned to the Gentiles.

5:38Paul stayed in Corinth for one and a half years. The Bible says teaching the word of God. After that, Paul left Corinth and another man named Apollos, a Jew who was an eloquent teacher came to Corinth from Ephesus and the Bible records. Apollo greatly helped those who through grace had believed he refuted the Jews showing by the scriptures that the Christ, the Messiah was Jesus. That's the little background. Now let's dive in. God's work, the expansion of God's kingdom is God's sovereign work. We see that at the end of our text today we're changing the order, but at the end in verse nine, we read you the church.

6:31That means the church at Corinth, you are God's field. You are God's building. A local church belongs to God. Likewise, the global church belongs to God and thinking globally, we can see throughout scripture that God has purpose to bring to himself people from all nations and ethnic groups. There are many scriptures and I'll just bring a few before you. When God called Abraham, he promised in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Genesis 12, three and then God speaks through Isaiah the prophet saying, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other to me.

7:31Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear Allegiance. Isaiah 45, 22 and 23 and then Jesus declared, I will build my church and he also declared I have other sheep that are not of this fold, that is not of the Jewish race. I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so there will be one flock, one shepherd, John 10 16 parenthesis these words of Jesus. I must bring them also They will listen. These words of Jesus were a sort of rock of strength for me when I was disheartened in Japan. Jesus must certainly bring in his sheep from among Japanese people. I knew it end of from scripture, it is unmistakably clear that Jesus by his blood has ransomed people from every tribe, every language, every people, every nation.

8:47It is they who make up his kingdom. Revelation five, nine and 10 from the very beginning, God ordained this plan of redemption as well as its unfolding growth throughout history, God is supreme. God is completely sovereign over the building of his kingdom and over global mission work. We ought to stand in awe and break into doxology together with the apostle Paul, oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. Amen. Romans 1133 following indeed the expansion of God's kingdom is God's sovereign work and he will bring it to completion.

10:06Moving to the second main point, and we're going to linger here for a while, God has his workers, his workmen in building his kingdom. God uses workers, he works through human servants. In verse five, we read that Paul and Apollo were servants through whom you believed. This seems like something we didn't, wouldn't even have to say, right? God uses people to reach other people, but think about God's workers. Who are they? They're human servants who are redeemed broken vessels, simply jars of clay, limited, weak, prone to sin. I know that 'cause I'm one of them and yet God has ordained to use such instruments, even people like us.

11:15How can it be? Jesus declares that this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come Matthew 24 14 who will proclaim it? It has to be proclaimed who's gonna proclaim it? It's his people weak and limited as they are. I wonder if some of us may have thoughts like these. I understand that, but we just said God is sovereign. He's ultimately in control. Even if there's no person to communicate the gospel to somebody, can't God easily intervene supernaturally On this point, let's consider how God actually directed Paul's work in Corinth where our text comes from.

12:18In Acts chapter 18, again, we find that the Lord appeared to Paul one night in a vision. The Lord said to him, I have many in this city. Who are my people? Great that is the Lord had chosen many people in Corinth who would believe and they would become Christ followers if the Lord had already chosen people in Corinth. There was no more work for Paul to do. Right, wrong, very wrong In the very same vision, the Lord also said to Paul, do not be afraid but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you. And then he said, for I have many in this city go on speaking for I have many in this city.

13:11You are my people. After that vision and calling Paul stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them, not only has God chosen people who will believe he has also chosen to use human servants through whom those people will believe. Verse five, again, servants through whom you believed. That's what Paul and Apollo were. That's what many of us are. As we communicate the gospel to others, God does work sovereignly, he does work supernaturally and part of God's sovereign work is to use weak servants of his to proclaim the good news. That's part of his glory.

14:06Let's look at verse six. I planted Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. Why are there different servants of the Lord who worked to build a church? If it's a small church, can't there just be one person? Well, Paul's using agricultural terminology in the field of agriculture in addition to planting and watering, there's a need to prepare the soil to fertilize it and much later to harvest the crops and probably many other steps in between. Likewise, in the spiritual work of gospel proclamation and church growth, there are many kinds of work contacting people, building a relationship with them, engaging in various steps of church startup, of course teaching discipling, developing leaders and so on.

15:00Different kinds of work require different servants with different gifts. As the Lord directs, Paul wanted to hit that home for them. We'll see that in just a minute in verse eight, we see that those who labor in this work, if even if they're doing different things, they are one, none of them is superior or inferior to other workers. Verse eight, he who plans and he plants and he who waters are one. In a sense, Paul is saying, I laid the groundwork. A Paul has strengthened the faith of those who had believed after that, but we are one in this church planting work. There should be no competition or comparison either among the servants themselves or by others looking on the Lord is in charge of the workers, his servants, they do different kinds of work but they are united in the same cause.

16:12When Paul wrote his letter to the believers at Corinth, he knew that there were divisions among them and I'm sure you're familiar with this. Each believer was claiming to follow a certain leader. Some of them were saying, I follow Paul. Others were saying, no, no, no, I follow Apol or I follow fuss Peter and some of them I follow Christ one Corinthians one 12 And then in chapter three verse three just before our passage, Paul writes that there was jealousy and strife among them perhaps with pride. They were thinking, the man I'm following or maybe the one who baptized me is better or greater than your leader.

16:58God's servants do different kinds of work, but Paul says, no, we are one. We're doing the same work. We work in harmony. We have different, different giftings, but we are one. Christ is not divided. It takes different workers with different giftings as God assigns, as God directs to do the work. Let's ask further, how does God use his servants to expand the kingdom or to build up a church? There are many ways I think, and I will give you three this morning. First, God opens the hearts of hearers. When his workers communicate the gospel of Christ, he opens the hearts of some of the heroes. Many will reject the message but some will Believe One Corinthians one 18 and following, they will believe because of God's working and opening of the heart.

18:05For example, when Paul started communicating the gospel in a different city, Philippi, here's what happened. This is in Acts chapter 16. The Lord opened Lydia's heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. Lydia then believed and was baptized. It was the Lord's work. He opened her heart so she could believe, but he used Paul's communication of the gospel, so that's one way God uses his servant to communicate and he opens hearts when they do it a second way. God's grace and power are at work in and through the workers themselves.

18:47I saw this in chapter 15 of this same letter. Paul says he is the least of the apostles but that he worked harder than any of them, but really it was not him but the grace of God that was with him. God was working in him through him and it and God he says, isn't just working in the frontline workers in the church planters. Paul also prayed for believers in the churches that they would know God's power toward them and within them we see it in Ephesians one and Ephesians three, we should recognize that God is at work in and through the workers And in the believers themselves.

19:36The Planting and the watering and all the other steps in the process are tasks that God assigns and God gives grace and strength to his servants. He's working through them and he works to open hearts as they communicate the message and now let me apply this to all of us. I think a very good case can be made for saying that every believer has a part in the extension of God's kingdom. It's not just pastors or full-time Christian workers, and this also is probably not new to you, but let's think about it. Paul and Apollo started and built up the church at Corinth, but I'm quite sure God must have also used the ordinary believers in Corinth to be a clear witness to the truth of the gospel.

20:33Why do I say that? Because later in this letter Paul says very clearly some of the believers in Corinth had been sexually immoral, some had been idolators, some adulterers, some drunkards and so on, but they had all been washed, sanctified and justified in the name of Jesus and by the spirit of God chapter 6, 9 3 11. In other words, there had been undeniable transformation in the lives of these believers. Surely this was seen by people around. In fact, Paul says so in his second letter to Corinth chapter three verse two, you, you believers at Corinth, you are our letter of recommendation to be known and read by all.

21:22Everybody could see that God uses the witness of changed lives of believers to build up local churches and it's not just passive, it's active because Paul also in one Corinthians instructed the believers at Corinth not to go door to door passing out tracks, but he instructed them in how to relate to unbelievers in their context. One Corinthians 10 27, he emphasized doing good to one's neighbor, giving no offense to the gospel so that others would be saved.

22:04Little application right here. We need to ask ourselves are we walking as Christ followers wherever God has put us in such a way that we make the gospel attractive here? Now, are we faithful in doing the work of work that God has called us to trusting him to use us in his way for his purposes? Not long ago I read in a missionary prayer letter about an Okinawan believer who told her relatives about the true God As a result, over time, I don't know how many years it took, but as a result that believer's mother and then one aunt and then another aunt came to believe and later even her 99-year-old grandmother trusted Christ and was just recently baptized.

23:03That's what, that's what the main news of this letter, amazing God uses ordinary people. In the 17 hundreds a shoe cobbler worked in a shoe shop. His name was John War, WARR. He and he had, he used to have conversations with a coworker there and John would defend the truth of God's word every time they had a conversation about it. As a result, uh, he had a real influence on the coworker and over a a year or two as a result that coworker embraced the truth. Furthermore, he developed a passion for taking God's word to other peoples in other nations. He ended up being greatly used by God in mission work in India and you know his name I bet William Carey who is called the father of modern missions.

24:07Almost nobody remembers or knows John War. I've told you his name now, but you, I bet you didn't know it before that, but John War's faithfulness in the secular workplace had immeasurably huge repercussions for global missions. Be faithful in your life and work where God has put you even here in your country in your local context. Not everyone does frontline cross-cultural missionary work. God wants to use your life and your work in the overall plan of building his kingdom, whether that's locally or globally. Another little parenthesis from my perspective, it seemed to me often that Christians in the US had a harder task than I did as a missionary in Japan in in one sense at least, I think it must be a lot more challenging to stand for Christ in this culture than it was for me to work in Japan where the Japanese people would expect a foreigner to speak about a different God and they would politely listen, End of Francis.

25:25Thirdly, how does God use his people? We're still on that and that question, God responds to the prayers of his people. We don't see prayer mentioned in this text, but prayer is one of the most important ways every believer should be involved in many of Paul's letters to various churches. He tells the believers to pray. He appeals to them to pray continually, to pray for him specifically that he would boldly proclaim the gospel, that God would open a door for the word that the word of the Lord would move forward and be honored In a real sense, Paul was, I think depending on the prayers of the believers in local churches, and I know you are praying for your missionaries, but I want to emphasize this morning Andrew Murray, the famous pastor in South Africa in the 19th century declared the supreme question of foreign missions is how to multiply the number of Christians who will pray, who will individually and collectively pray for the conversion and transformation of people.

26:44Every other consideration and plan is secondary to that of wielding the forces of prayer. Do you hear that? Every strategy, every human plan In missions he said was secondary to the wielding of the forces of Prayer. We can and should be involved in the global cause of Christ through prayer in the early 20th century. Here's an example. James o Fraser missionary to the Lisu people in China. Great results he had, but he struggled to get there. Fraser wrote that he could tell the difference between people and places that had been much prayed for in those that had not in the case of the former, that is those who'd been much prayed for.

27:45He said it seemed that half the work had been done already as if an unseen ally had gone ahead to prepare the way. Because of this, he resolved to persevere in prayer himself and at the same time to strongly encourage Christians at home to pray and it was Fraser who made this sort of surprising statement, solid lasting missionary work is done on our knees.

28:28It's God's sovereign work, but he responds to prayer and he responds to prayer. It's his work. He uses workers who communicate the gospel as he opens hearts of hearers. He works in and through the workers, in and through the believers and he responds to our prayers sovereignly and now we come to the third point. God's will. God gives the growth. God gives the growth in his timing according to his will. Verse six, again, I planted Apollos watered, but God gave the growth and verse seven, so neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. Paul says it twice back to back.

29:20The growth comes about because God gives it The work done by God's servants is God ordained. It is important. It is God's will, but the workers should not get special attention. They themselves are not anything God is all in all. Don't elevate your global partners too much. You are one with them. If God were not working in them and through them and through their message, their work would be in vain and God's work goes infinitely beyond man's work. Actually his work precedes the work of man. The growth of God's kingdom happens because God gives it and surely this implies that growth happens according to his will, in his way, in his time.

30:19A college friend of mine was a financial partner with us throughout our time, uh, in our career of mission work in Japan. From time to time this friend would ask me, is it really worth it for you to keep on working in Japan? It doesn't seem like there are many results. As I mentioned earlier, this was something that troubled me as well. I told my friend that part of my missionary work was to be a catalyst so that Japanese believers could move forward the gospel in ways I could never do. Results would come later perhaps after I was gone. That's not a total answer, but I think it's, I hope it's helpful.

31:06We have to be careful not to define or measures the success of mission work in our own terms. People may not say this next statement. I think it's underneath at least a lot of Western thinking. Global missions is not necessarily about seeing the biggest number of converts in the shortest amount of time. That's not a quote from anybody that that's just something I think is true. Global missions is not necessarily about getting the biggest number of converts in the shortest amount of time. In fact, God's kingdom building work carried out over generations. Jesus told his disciples, John 4 35 and following, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest and now this I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.

32:10Others have labored and you have entered into their Labor. The disciples of Jesus were building on hard work done in earlier times by others. The kingdom is built over time, over generations. In 1912, a medical missionary, Dr. William Leslie worked among the tribal people in a remote corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After 17 years, he returned to the us. He was a discouraged man. He was convinced he had failed to make an impact for Christ. He died nine years later. Then in 2010, not too long ago, and we're talking over 70 years after Dr. Leslie died, a mission team made a shocking discovery.

33:17They found a network of churches in the dense jungle area where Dr. Leslie had worked. Lord great and amazing are your ways, your deeds, God's ways are not our ways. Things he has done through his people may only become visible many years or generations later, perhaps only when we are with the Lord. The growth is according to God's will and it happens over time and over generations and the growth is also seen at different times in different places. It is not for us to know the times or the seasons at this time. In God's redemptive history, South Korea has seen the remarkable fruit of church growth and multiplication.

34:15Japan may yet see more fruit for the kingdom and generations to come. We don't know that during our first term in Okinawa, I experienced a time of personal struggle. Let me tell you about it for several days, one summer I led a few Okinawa young people, I think they were 16 years old on an, they were believers on an outreach trip to Ishigaki Island, part of the islands in the prefecture of Okinawa. We worked under Pastor Uta of the Yama Church. On one weekday evening, pastor Uta told the true story about his own mother's conversion. His mother known to us as Grandma Uta. She was older, we knew her, we'd met her.

35:07His mother had been a sort of sorceress, a shaman in the Okinawa dialect, a Utah. She went deeper and deeper into the things of the spirit world. She actually had a measure of spiritual power. She could actually see spirits as clearly as if they were flesh in blood. Humans, it was hard to tell the difference sometime in the 1960s. One day in a trance, grandma Uta heard a voice, go to the main island of Okinawa and you will hear about the true God.

35:46She went on the first night, she found herself at an at a special evangelistic meeting. Meetings were being held for several days by various a number of missionaries. My father was one of the speakers. When Grandma Guata heard the message, I'm not sure if it was my father speaking or not. That's beside the point. When she heard the message that night, she knew this is the true God that the voice told me about.

36:15She believed she turned to Christ. Please notice God's work preceding man's work and yet God used his servants to communicate the gospel. She could not get enough at the night meetings. She was going night after night, but she couldn't get enough. She came by herself during the day to hear more of the Bible's teaching from my dad and after a few days she said, I'm filled up to here with this new knowledge. I must return to my people back on her little island of omi. She told her people about Christ and she burned her God shelf and all her relics right in front of them. The people could not believe it.

37:05They said, the Gods will not let you get away with this. You will be struck dead or some great calamity will come upon you. There was spiritual opposition, but nothing like that ever happened. She grew stronger in joy and in faith. Grandma Tata's dramatic conversion had a great influence on the family and the relatives. Over time, her children, all of her children, their spouses, her grandchildren and other relatives turned to Christ. Over a period of roughly three decades, more than 100 members of the extended family clan became believers in Christ. Wonderful. It's such a remarkable, wonderful work of God, but after hearing the story from her son's mouth that night, I'd heard the story before, but I heard it again.

38:08It came alive to me. I heard it and I was troubled over a couple serious questions. First, this conversion of a well-known Utah in that culture must surely have been the best witness that those people could ever have had. Right? Grandma Uta was respected and known for her powers and in front of the people in her community. She had burned her spiritual relics and testified of Christ. What better witness could they ever have? And I thought, here I am. I was in my first term. Here I am a foreign missionary. What more could I do? Why am I here? Secondly, why was it that only the family clan had become believers?

39:00There were many people from other families who had witnessed this transformation and heard of the true God and of Christ If they would not believe when seeing this, what else could be done? The questions are related. Obviously these questions cause me to search the scriptures intently centering on second Corinthians chapter four, there Paul writes, if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel. But then a little later, Paul goes on to say, God has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and the face of Jesus Christ.

39:50Two Corinthians four, six, and I was thinking, Paul, is there some secret? How do you get people who who have been blinded by the God of this world? How do you get them to receive this light? How do you transfer them from one place to the other? Is there a clue? Is there a hint? I, I poured over the text. I didn't find it. I didn't find a word like that, but I did find these words. Having this ministry by the mercy of God we do not lose heart. And then right after saying that God has shown his light into our hearts. Paul declares, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

40:43I had to conclude that even though I could never witness to the truth in as powerful a way as had done, I still must be faithful to continue communicating the gospel in the ways that God would lead me. I should not lose heart. Not only that, the outcome of my little work as a weak jar of clay was not ultimately up to me because the surpassing power belongs to God and not to me. Not to us. I still could not understand why many others would not believe even after such a powerful witness. But I realized that I must simply submit myself to God and his wisdom.

41:37We have considered God's work, God's workman and God's will and the expansion of God's kingdom. We have seen that God sovereignly uses his human servants to cause his kingdom to grow according to his will in his timing. And now I would like to leave you with four potential applications. Some of them I'm emphasizing that I've said earlier, but first, be faithful. Be faithful in the place God has put you. Whether you are in the secular marketplace or in a Christian organization. Live for him using all he has given you. Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. You do not know what, how God may use your little resources to bring about growth in his kingdom over time.

42:30Remember, you might not see all the fruit or much of the fruit or maybe any of the fruit in your lifetime. Two, draw closer to God who has a heart for the nations. It is his plan to bring in some from the naan bush people of Botswana and from the Pashtoon people of Pakistan and from every other people group, including the Japanese, including people in Minnesota. God is working in the world to move toward the culmination of his grand purpose. The closer we are to God's heart, the more effectively we'll be able to be involved even in small ways. Third, pray. Pray much. This is critical. Pray individually.

43:28Pray with others Unitedly. Pray for God to fulfill his purposes in extending his kingdom worldwide. Get information, specific information about cross-cultural workers and the places they work and the progress of the work and use that as a basis for prayer. Pray for the North church's global partners. Pray for friends and fellow members. Pray large prayers, pray specific prayers. Pray That's probably the most important thing.

44:04Finally, grow in your passion for God. This is similar to the second application, expanding it a bit. You know the mission statement, it's already been prayed about and mentioned here, and it's right there. Spreading, spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things, for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. But here's the challenge, brothers and sisters. How can we spread a passion we do not have? Do you have the passion to spread it? We must have it Ourselves. I would like to urge all of us to do what we can to grow more and more in our own thirst and in our passion for God.

44:58And as you grow in that, you will be able to more effectively be involved in spreading the passion locally and globally. Let's renew and deepen our relationship with the Lord Jesus. Let us not hold back anything from him who asks for our all. Jesus is the one who has ransom people for God from all the ethnic and language groups of the earth, and he is the one who makes them a kingdom to our God. And Jesus is the one who will reign until all enemies are put under his feet. Let us grow in our passion for God and in our compassion for those who do not yet know the Lord Jesus. Let's pray.

45:49Our Father, our Father in heaven, we recognize your sovereignty and authority over all things, especially over the building of your kingdom, throughout the earth. Lord Jesus, we know that you are the king of kings who will reign overall. Move us to pray often, to pray much, give us hearts of devotion and passion for you and for your kingdom work. Use us, use this church as you will for your glory and honor among the people around us and among the nations. We eagerly anticipate the day when we will join the people of every tongue and all creatures in all of creation to praise you in saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, the Lord Jesus.

46:41Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever and ever. Amen. Amen.

Jump to live

Jump to live

Sermon Text

1 Corinthians 3:5-9