Coworkers with God: Building the Church Together

Paul refuses the Corinthians’ habit of splitting into team Paul and team Apollos. Paul calls that natural, but he will not let natural church politics become the thing that defines the church. Christ makes the church one, and God brings different gifts together for the work sitting right in front of it. Paul names believers as God’s coworkers, not because God needs help, but because God chooses to work through human hands and feet.

Ecclesiastes calls work a gift from God. God gives people the business of being busy, puts past and future in their minds, and still remains beyond anybody’s ability to figure out from beginning to end. God’s work endures forever, so work done in God’s name and with God cannot finally fall like a Jenga tower. Papers get forgotten, but food given to hungry neighbors, songs sung, worship offered, children taught, and grace shared continue in people’s lives.

Participation becomes the word for this kind of coworking. Christ meets people at the table through bread and cup, and faith chooses to participate in that grace. God likewise invites people to choose participation in God’s work in the world. Seeds planted years ago in another congregation can shape somebody who later leads, serves, and makes a difference somewhere nobody could have predicted. God prepares lives through work that may never receive a report back.

Genesis gives humanity a world to tend. Moses gives Israel commandments, worship, and different skills for the common good. Jesus gives the church the Great Commission: go and make disciples of all nations. Acts gives Pentecost, where the Spirit touches every person and sends every person out to do something. The Spirit does not reserve God’s work for ordained people, because every person has something to do, whether preaching, building, leading, feeding, or rocking babies on a Sunday morning.

Paul returns to the foundation already laid: Jesus Christ. The foundation does not need replacing, but each builder must choose with care how to build on it. The church receives an opportunity to set priorities, trust God, trust one another, and bring its many gifts into a common purpose rather than sending eight tentacles in every direction. God makes a united body of people an alternative to division, and that witness lets others see something greater than themselves: God at work among them.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God chooses coworkers, not spectators. God can do all things, yet God chooses to work alongside ordinary people. Participation means more than agreeing that God is at work somewhere else. God gives resources, grace, and a calling, while people bring hands, feet, attention, and faithful action. [28:14]
• 2. Kingdom work does not finally fall. Ecclesiastes names work as God’s gift, even when people cannot see the whole beginning or end of what God is doing. God preserves the fruit of love given, hunger fed, children taught, and worship offered. The work may outlast its visible results because God carries it into lives far beyond the moment. [27:56]
• 3. Every gift belongs to the common good. Paul rejects personality teams because the church belongs to Christ, not to a favorite leader. God gives different gifts so that a particular people can do a particular work in a particular place. Common purpose keeps the body from becoming like an octopus with every tentacle moving in a different direction. [24:45]
• 4. The Spirit sends every person outward. Acts pictures Pentecost as the Spirit touching every person gathered and sending every person into action. God’s call is not limited to preaching or ordained ministry. The Spirit makes room for the holy work of serving, building, caring, teaching, and showing up where somebody needs grace. [34:23]
• 5. Christ remains the only foundation. Paul says no one can lay another foundation besides Jesus Christ. The church’s real question is not whether to invent a new foundation, but whether it will build carefully on the one already given. God calls each generation to honor what has been built before while faithfully doing the work now placed before it.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [22:30] - God’s Coworkers in 1 Corinthians
• [24:09] - Team Paul and Team Apollos
• [25:34] - What It Means to Work With God
• [26:05] - Ecclesiastes and the Gift of Work
• [27:14] - Work That Does Not Fall
• [28:34] - Participation in God’s Grace
• [29:16] - Seeds That Shape Future Lives
• [30:28] - Setting Priorities Together
• [31:33] - Tending What God Has Given
• [32:58] - Go and Make Disciples
• [33:37] - Pentecost Sends Every Person
• [35:05] - Building Carefully on Christ
• [36:13] - A United Church in a Divided World

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 3:9-11
“For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” [35:28]

Ecclesiastes 3:9-14
“What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.” [26:05]

Acts 2:1-4
“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” [34:23]

Matthew 28:19-20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [33:28]

Observation questions

1. In 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, what three pictures does Paul use for God’s people, and what does each picture say about belonging and working together?
2. What problem was happening when some Corinthians identified themselves with Paul and others with Apollos? What does Paul put ahead of loyalty to a favorite leader? [24:23]
3. Ecclesiastes says that people cannot see everything God has done “from the beginning to the end.” What does it still call people to do with their daily work?
4. In Acts 2, what happens to every person gathered at Pentecost, and what does that suggest about who receives the Spirit’s call to serve? [34:02]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul calls believers God’s fellow workers while also making clear that God is the one who gives grace and growth. How can a congregation work faithfully without acting as though everything depends on its own effort? [25:41]
2. Ecclesiastes calls work a gift from God and says that God’s work endures forever. What kinds of work may have lasting kingdom fruit even when people never get to see the results? [27:58]
3. Jesus commands the disciples to “go,” and Pentecost shows the Spirit resting on every person. How might this shape a congregation’s understanding of ministry beyond preaching, teaching, or ordained leadership? [34:25]
4. If Jesus Christ is the one foundation, what might it mean for a church to “build with care” while honoring faithful work that previous generations have already done? [35:55]

Application questions

1. Where are you most tempted to think in terms of “teams”—favorite leaders, preferred programs, generations, political views, or worship styles? What would it look like to put Christ and the unity of the church ahead of that loyalty? [24:50]
2. God gives the work and resources, while people bring hands and feet. What is one practical need in your church, neighborhood, workplace, or family where you may be able to participate in God’s work this week? [28:23]
3. Think about someone who planted a seed of faith in your life—a teacher, family member, friend, church volunteer, or neighbor. How does that person’s influence encourage you to serve people whose future stories you may never hear? [29:31]
4. What gift, skill, or kind of care has God given you that may seem ordinary but could serve the common good—welcoming, listening, organizing, feeding, repairing, praying, teaching, giving, or caring for children? What is one next step toward using it? [34:46]
5. Are there good things you have stopped doing because they seemed unnoticed, small, or unlikely to succeed? How does the promise that God’s work endures reshape the way you see those acts of love and service? [26:41]
6. A church can become like “an octopus with eight tentacles going every which away” when everyone follows separate priorities. What shared purpose or ministry need could help your group or church focus its gifts together? [35:00]
7. Jesus is the foundation that cannot be replaced. As you consider decisions, commitments, and relationships in your own life, what would it mean to build more carefully on Christ this season? [35:40]