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1 Corinthians
9
Previously on 1 Corinthians...
Context – chapter 8: Can I eat this kebab?
In a culture where all the meat has come from
idols temples and was probably used in ritual sacrifice, some Christians
with a weak conscience couldn’t eat it without thinking they were part of
idol worship. Others with a strong
conscience thought, it’s just a kebab, it’s not demon meat. And Paul says ‘you’re right – you can eat.’ But that doesn’t mean you should eat. Because if you eat in front of a weak
Christian, they will be scandalized, or they’ll be tempted to eat
themselves against their conscience.
And that will tear them apart.
So Paul says ‘Yes your right to eat is real. But you should relinquish your rights
for the sake of others.’
And that’s a theme Paul will continue through
chapter 9 as well.
[SLIDE]
Rights are real. But rights are to be relinquished.
The Corinthians were full of rights. They were saying: ‘I’ve got the
right. I’m free. The law’s on my side. I know the right answer, so I’m
untouchable. No-one can take my
rights from me.’
That’s just like us. We are a rights based society
Children learn the phrase ‘That’s unfair’
very early. It’s pretty much the
only phrase teenagers ever say – to adults that is. ‘So unfair.’ It’s deep within us.
We have an enormous ‘entitlement spirit’
within us. Someone steps on our
toes, someone dares to infringe upon our sphere of protected personal
space, puts demands on our money or time, intrudes into our wallet or our
diary – we are incensed. You might
not think you’re particularly bothered by your rights. But I guarantee, when you are wronged you feel it. We know our rights and we stand on
them.
What’s amazing is: We fight for our rights so we can stand on them. Paul asserts his rights so he
can give them up.
But that’s what he does in the first 14
verses – he asserts that he does actually have rights. But only so he can tell you he’s
relinquished them.
It’s a bit like this: Imagine we are
walking along a corridor and you’re slightly ahead of me and you say
‘Please after you.’ I think ‘How
sacrificial. You had the right to
go first but you sacrificed your right for me. How kind.’ But if I was about to go through the
door and you were 10 metres behind me and shouted ‘Please, after
you.’ I would think you were a bit
strange. You never had the right
to go first. So you’re not giving
up any right to serve me. Paul
insists he has rights so he can show the Corinthians the loving thing to
do with them – which is relinquish them.
And please note that sometimes
you should insist on your rights.
In Acts 25, Paul is on trial and he claims his right to appeal to
Caesar (Acts 25:11). Rights are
real. And sometimes you should use
them. It’s just they’re not the
ultimate thing. The gospel
is. Getting the good news out into
the world – that’s the main thing.
Sometimes we serve the gospel by claiming our rights. Most often we serve the gospel by
relinquishing our rights.
The Corinthians thought: I have a
right therefore I MUST use it.
Paul says: You may well have a right, but your rights are not
ultimate. The gospel is ultimate.
And so from verse 1 Paul discusses one major
right he has as an apostle. He has
the right to get paid. Now Paul
wasn’t paid by the Cornithians.
Paul worked a second job to pay for his ministry. He made tents for a living. And on Sunday he never passed the
plate, he never took a collection from the church. He never asked the Corinthians for a
penny while he worked among them.
Paul relinquished his right to payment. But first he’s going to show them that
he had every right to claim payment from them. Do you see v4 and 5 – ‘Don’t we have
the right... Don’t we have the right...’
He’s establishing the right of gospel workers to be paid. From verse 7 he gives some examples:
7Who serves as a
soldier at his own expense?
Can you imagine that? A
soldier having to work a second job just to afford his own bullets? The enemy’s coming – quick I’d better
re-mortgage the house.
Ridiculous. Soldiers have a
right to payment.
Then in v7 he gives the example of
farmers. Who would object to a
farmer eating the food he’s grown?
Every farmer has the right to say: “My soil, my labour, I’m gonna
have some.”
Then in verses 8-10 he tells them that even
Oxen were treated better in the OT than Paul has been treated in
Corinth. The OT law gives even
oxen the right to eat on the job, to profit from their own labours. But Paul has effectively muzzled
himself, refusing to take anything from the Corinthians. Even though he had the right.
Then in v13
he gives the example of OT priests, they got paid. And if Paul hasn’t yet convinced the
Corinthians of his rights, he cites Jesus Himself, v14:
14In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the
gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
In Matt 10 and Luke 10 Jesus said the gospel
worker is worth his keep. Jesus
says ‘Pay your gospel workers.’ So
Paul has proved it: His right was real.
Isn’t that a challenge? Would you be prepared to do what Paul
does? Paul has been like a soldier
working a second job, like a farmer not eating his own food, like an OT
priest passing up the sacrifices, like an ox muzzling himself so he can’t
eat what he’s entitled to. And
even when Jesus says he CAN, Paul says: I know, but I won’t. Paul’s approach to his rights is SO
unlike our own. If anyone else infringed on Paul’s rights
like this Amnesty International would be sending in the Human Rights
Lawyers. But Paul treats himself
like this. Why?
Well it’s all over the chapter. Look at the second half of v12:
BUT we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with
anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.
Or look again at v18:
18What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of
charge, and so not make use of my rights
in preaching it.
Or again v23:
23I do all this for the
sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
It’s for the sake of the gospel. Taking a collection was going to hinder
the gospel going out in Corinth.
People would get the wrong idea, as though he’s just a con-man
interested in a quick buck. Well
then the gospel would get a bad name.
So when the right to payment clashes with the cause of the gospel
– the gospel always wins. And Paul
wants us to think the same way.
What wins with us? Our
rights or the cause of the gospel?
But what does that even mean? What is the gospel? What’s the cause of the gospel? Let me
summarize it for you:
‘Gospel’ is a word that just means good
news. And here is the good news
that the bible tells us:
[SLIDE]
Jesus Christ has all the rights in the
universe. Jesus Christ is the
LORD. He’s the King. He is the Son of God. He made the world. He owns everything. He’s got rights. Ultimate, supreme, absolute, unimpeachable
rights.
On the other hand we think WE are Lord. If I ask you ‘Who’s got the right to
tell you what to do...’ Your
heart, if it’s anything like mine, answers: ‘No-one! No-one’s got the right to tell me what
to do.’ Well... what have I just
said about Jesus. He does have the
right to tell you what to do. So
when we say ‘No-one’s got the right’.
That’s blasphemy, mutiny, an utter rejection of Christ. It’s what the bible calls sin.
Now how does Jesus respond. He has every right to crush our little
rebellion. But here’s what He
does. He gives up His rights. He who was rich became poor. He came into our world as a penniless
preacher. He who was free became
our slave. He stooped and served
and washed our feet. He who was
powerful became weak. He could
have called on 12 arimes of angels to save Him from death, but instead He
walked alone to His execution. He
who was righteous, became sin. You
see on the cross Jesus stepped into our guilty shoes and He took the
punishment due to us. Have you
ever seen a Man more stripped of His rights than Jesus Christ on the
cross? Next time you find yourself
bitterly lamenting how you’ve been wronged, think of your LORD, Jesus
Christ. Next time your entitlement
spirit surges up within you and you cry out ‘It’s not fair’, think of the
cross. There is the King of the
Heavens, the LORD of the earth betrayed by a friend, deserted by
disciples, wronged outrageously in the courts, mocked and abused by the
soldiers, nailed to a piece of wood and jeered at by those He came to
save. But He gave up His rights
and took our punishment. So that
we, who were due His punishment can have His rights.
John’s gospel chapter 1 says ‘To all who
receive Jesus (into their lives), to those who believe in His name, He
gave the right to become a child of God.”
Jesus has the right to be a child of God – He’s the eternal Son of
God. If you receive Him, you get
His rights – you’re adopted into the family. This offer is for free and it’s for
everyone.
[SLIDE]
There are only two kinds of people in this
room. Those who insist on their
own rights to run life their own way.
And those who’ve given that up and received Jesus instead and in
Him they’ve received the right to be a child of God. Which are you?
If you’re not yet a Christian, if you’re
still insisting on your own rights to run life your own way, stop. Tonight, stop insisting on your
rights. Receive Jesus and by
receiving Him receive the right to be a child of God. That’s the only right worth getting
excited about.
If you have received Jesus, do you realize
the nature of this gospel? This
gospel is an offer. And if you
receive the offer, it claims you so you pass it on. The gospel doesn’t just save you – it
claims you. It’s not just a
message you once trusted – it’s a way of being that has wrapped its arms
around you. We’re like someone who
has received the torrent flowing down the hill, and we are swept along to
offer it to others. So as we pass
it on to others we will pass it on for free and for everyone.
You know what that means though don’t
you? It’ll be costly. Not costly to pay off God – all that’s
dealt with. We’re children now. Kids don’t pay back their parents, they
just receive. But of course kids
grow up and have other kids. And
that’s costly. Same with us. We don’t pay back God, but it will be
costly as we pass the gospel on to others. It was costly for Jesus to offer us a
free salvation. It was costly for
Paul to offer the Corinthians free gospel ministry. It will be costly for us to freely
offer the gospel in Eastbourne.
Now in the first 18 verses, Paul has outlined
the time and money cost. It put
tremendous pressure on Paul’s diary and his wallet to serve the
Corinthians like this. Gospel
ministry costs time and money. And
that’s a huge sacrifice. Are we
prepared to sacrifice time and money?
But more than this, from v19, Paul talks about another sacrifice
that is just as costly.
From v19 we see Paul sacrificing his personal
comfort. It shows him moving out
of cultural comfort zones and into other cultures and religions and
socio-economic groups to win them.
19Though
I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win
as many as possible.
And then Paul gives some examples:
20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under
the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the
law), so as to win those under the law.
Paul grew up Jewish. He called himself a Hebrew of
Hebrews. Circumcised on the 8th
day. Of the tribe of Benjamin.
Paul was a Pharisee. You
know those pious religious types who kept every law and made up more just
for fun? Paul was one of
them. But then, as v1 reminds us,
Paul met Jesus. Jesus turned
Paul’s life around. And Paul
realizes it’s not about the law.
It’s not about legal obedience.
It’s not about circumcision or eating the right food or observing
special days or jumping through any of the hoops of the OT
law. It’s about Jesus. To be saved – to be right with God,
trusting Jesus is IT. It’s not:
trust Jesus and do your best. It’s
not: trust in Jesus and be circumcised.
It’s not: trust in Jesus and take a pilgrimmage to Bognor
Regis. It’s: trust in Jesus. Full stop. And all that religious stuff has every
danger in the world of getting in the way of simply trusting Jesus. And so Paul writes the most damning
critique of Jewish practices in all the bible. He says ‘If you think Jewish practices
and religious observances get you to God, you’re headed for hell.’ It’s Jesus and only Jesus. The book of Galatians is all about
this. He even says at one stage:
‘If you think getting circumcised will bring you closer to God – I hope
the knife slips.’ (Gal 5:12). He actually says that. You couldn’t find a person more opposed
to Jewish practices as a road to salvation.
But what does he say in v20 here? He says when I’m with Jews, I’m like a
Jew. I dress like a Jew. I eat like a Jew. I go to all the Jewish festivals. I even pay for others to go to Jewish
festivals. And here’s how much
Paul is flexible. In Acts 16, Paul
goes with another gospel worker called Timothy into a predominantly
Jewish area. Timothy’s mum was a
Jew, but his dad was not. So
Timothy had not been circumcised.
You know how flexible Paul is?
The man who wrote: “If you get circumcised to get closer to God –
I hope the knife slips”- he circumcised Timothy. Not to get closer to God, but to get
closer to the Jews. Not to save
Timothy – to save those Jews. Paul
didn’t want all his conversations with the Jews to be ‘Why isn’t Timothy
circumcised? His mother’s a Jew,
don’t you care about the Old Testament?’
Paul didn’t want his conversations to be about foreskins – he
wanted his conversations to be about Christ. So he said, “Timothy... mate. You’re
going to have to take one for the team here.”
Imagine I’m invited to a high Anglican church
to preach – and I say ‘I won’t wear your priestly robes, because wearing
robes doesn’t get you closer to God.
And if I show up in a T-shirt and shorts. I might think I’m demonstrating the
gospel to them: “It’s not about robes, it’s about Christ.” Are they going to listen to a word I
say? No and actually my refusal to
wear robes makes robes the big issue.
Robes don’t get you closer to God no. But not wearing robes doesn’t make you
closer to God either. So wear the
robes and preach the gospel.
I once spoke to a group of Muslims from the
bible. After I read from the bible
I didn’t have anywhere to put the bible and so, I put the bible on the
floor by my feet. Every widened
eye was fixed on my bible and jaws were on the floor. This was how the Christian treated his
holy book?? And they didn’t listen
to a word I said. I might think
I’m prioritising Christ by being careless about my religious and cultural
practices. Actually when I’m
careless about my religious and cultural practices, THOSE practices
become the issue and no-one listens about Christ.
How far do you go? Well if you were living among Muslims
and everyone fasts at Ramadan, it’s the holy thing to do, would you
fast? Would you fast to Jesus,
while they fast to Allah? If
you’re a woman and all the Muslim women wore a burkha, and to wear less
than a full burkha was to cause offence. Would you wear a burkha?
Again, here’s the fascinating thing. If you don’t fast, all your
conversations are going to be about fasting. If you don’t wear the burkha, all your
conversations are going to be about clothing. If you do fast, if you do
wear the burkha – then any conversations about fasting and burkhas get
off on the right foot. Because you
say, ‘I’m doing it for Jesus, let me tell you about Him.’
Let me ask you a question: What does an evangelical look
like? ‘Evangelical’ is just a
label that bible believing Christians like us use for ourselves. It’s taken from the word ‘evangel’
which means ‘gospel’. An
evangelical just means a ‘gospel person.’
So what does an evangelical look like? The scandal is – everyone knows what an
evangelical looks like. Ned
Flanders. We know it. The world knows it. Evangelicals look like white,
middle-class, suburban, university educated, irritating, sanctimonious
nerds. Did you know that the
average Anglican in the world is an evangelical, 20-something Nigerian
woman who has to walk 2 miles to get clean water? Did you know that most of the world is
not white, middle-class, suburban, university educated and nerdy? So what would an evangelical look like
then? Burkha? Tattoo?
Robes? Poor? Chinese? Porn show?
If evangelicalism starts to be visibly
identifiable as a certain cultural / religious movement it’s actually
betrayed the evangel – the gospel – that supposedly shapes it.
That is the stunning implication of 1
Corinthians 9
But perhaps your question is, where do you draw the line? Is Paul infinitely flexible? Just a
chameleon with no integrity? No,
look at those brackets in v21:
21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law
(though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to
win those not having the law.
Paul is not just all spin and no substance.
Even when Paul enters deeply into another culture there is still
something ruling Paul. He says
he’s not free from God’s law but he uses a wonderful phrase to describe
his relationship to Christ. He is
in-lawed by Christ. Not that
Christ is like the in-laws – that would not be good! But it’s the idea of Paul kind of sunk
down into Christ who is Paul’s law.
Christ Himself is the ruling authority in Paul’s life – Christ has
en-law-ed Paul. So Paul has not
just cast off every rule and authority “Hey – all things to all men –
whatever man!” Instead he is
ruled, he has a centre, he has integrity.
It’s Jesus. It’s the Jesus
who hung out with prostitutes and publicans and sinners. But it’s the Jesus who never sinned in
those circumstances.
Which means Paul could never say ‘I became a
drug dealer in order to win drug dealers.’ ‘I became a drug user to win drug users.’ Or ‘I became sex worker to win sex
workers.’ But it will mean some
people saying ‘I hang out with drug dealers and drug users to win drug
dealers and drug users.’ ‘I hang
out with sex workers to win sex workers.’
There’s flexibility, but there’s also
faithfulness.
But why Paul?
Why go through all of this??
It’s so much easier to stick with people like us.
We’re not even aware of how strongly we just
gravitate towards people like us.
When we’ve walked into a room we’ve assessed the people there in a
nanosecond and we gravitate immediately to people like us. Without even thinking about it, we
strike up a conversation with people our age, our race, our tax bracket,
our sense of humour, our fashion sense.
We’ve made those calculations at the speed of thought, and we slot
into cliques with ‘people like us’.
Because – we crave acceptance, we deeply want to belong and it’s
exhausting crossing social and cultural boundaries.
So how does Paul do it?
23I do all this
for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
I read another translation of this verse
which I think is a bit better.
“That I may be a CO-sharer in the gospel.” Paul shares in the
blessings of the gospel. He has
the right to be God’s child. But
he doesn’t want to enjoy this blessing on his own. He wants other CO-sharers. He wants other children around him.
And that’s the prize he speaks about in
v24. In v25 he calls it ‘the
crown’ – we might call it the gold medal.
The prize Paul is interested in is having MANY other people share
in the gospel blessings with him.
In Philippians (4:1) Paul calls his fellow believers his joy and
crown. And in 1 Thessalonians
(2:19) he says this:
[SLIDE]
19For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory
in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? 20Indeed,
you are our glory and joy.
Paul’s vision of the future is not just
sitting down at the great feast with Jesus and no-one else. His vision is sitting down at the feast
in the new creation enjoying the presence of Jesus WITH the Philippians
and the Thessalonians and the Corinthians and with as many other people
as possible. That’s a crown worth
working for. That’s a prize that
can get you excited. And so Paul
tells us how this prize motivates him.
24Do you not know that in a race all the
runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the
prize. 25Everyone who competes in the games goes
into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but
we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore
I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man
beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my
slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be
disqualified for the prize.
Do you know how
much training it takes to run a marathon?
Frankly I don’t want to know.
Cos it aint happening? I’m
out of breath just brushing my teeth.
But I looked up a few training regimes this week. And they seem to vary between 14 and 23
weeks. And at some point you’re
running 75 miles in a week. Even
if I did nothing else, there are not enough days in a week for me to run
75 miles. Where do they find the
time? I read one 14 week regime it
said: Week one, day one: Run 6 miles.
I need a 14 week regime just to get me to that! By day 7 of week one it said: Run 13-15
miles. You’re running a
half-marathon by the end of your first week. I thought ‘That’s a bit extreme’ and
then I realised that this was the training regime for someone who wants
to run the marathon in under 3 hours.
But actually this is the kind of regime that Paul’s talking about
because, v24, we run in such a way as to get the prize. In v24, Paul’s not saying ‘There’s only
one spot in heaven, I’ll race you!’
He’s saying the way we seek to win others for Christ is not like a
fun run. It’s not a saunter in the
park. It’s a competitive sub-3
hour marathon regime. And when
you’re on this regime you watch your diet like a hawk, you eliminate
virtually everything else from your diary and your life is taken over by
running.
But you know
what? If you are obsessed enough
about running a sub-3 hour marathon, your whole life will be brought into
line. If the crown is in mind, if
the medal is in mind, if the finishing line is in mind, you’ll find that
you have the most amazing self-discipline. Unnecessary stuff gets squeezed out and
you’ll do it with zeal because you’re looking to the prize.
Read verses 22-23
again:
I have become all things to all men so
that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do
all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Paul wants to sit
down with Christ in the new creation.
And next to him is that Philippian jailor he converted. And the Jewish business woman Lydia. And that demon possessed slave girl he
met. When Paul was in Philippi he
was flexible enough to reach all of them – you can read about it in Acts
16. But there they’ll be the Jail
warden, the well-to-do Jewish business woman and the demon possessed
slave girl. (Ex-demon
possessed). They’ll all be
feasting together. What a
prize! And opposite Paul will be
the very religious Jews he met at the synagogue and across from them the
very clever Greek philosophers he converted in Athens, and next to them
will be some Corinthians who chapter 6 told us were once sexually
immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexual offenders,
thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers. They’ll all be there because the Gospel
is big enough to meet and change all of them – and Paul was Christ-like
enough to be flexible.
Who do you want to
sit down with on that day? Jesus’
blood has paid for every tribe, language, people and tongue. Who’s going to reach them? Who’s going to reach Eastbourne? Well – we are. That is, if we abandon our entitlement
spirit. If we stop insisting on
hoarding time and money and comfort?
If we stop sauntering along like a fun run, or like a shadow
boxer. There is a race to run and
a prize to win. Thank Jesus that
we can partake in this great work.
And ask Him now for help to sacrifice what needs to be sacrificed
so we can run well.
PRAY:
sacrifice time,
money and
comfort to offer the gospel just that
bit wider.
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