For the Sake of the Gospel
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Intro:
AG: Nantucket, Massachusetts is located next to important shipping lanes running along the East Coast. Toward the end of the 1800s, sailing ships were in their heyday. Nantucket Island saw hundreds of vessels passing by each day—all navigating without the advantages of modern technology. Treacherous shoals and stormy weather led to over 700 shipwrecks in the surrounding waters of Nantucket, causing the area to be dubbed “a graveyard of the Atlantic.”
Prior to the advent of organized life-saving, sailors involved in a wreck were likely to perish. Even if fortunate enough to make it to shore, the limited shelter offered by the dunes didn’t significantly improve the sailor’s chances of survival. Faced with the large number of shipwrecks and loss of life, the people of the surrounding communities began efforts to save the lives of shipwreck victims. They built lifesaving huts along the shores, gave swimming lessons to Boston public school students, produced instructional posters on resuscitation methods, and developed volunteer life-savers that would row out to the ships to rescue shipwrecked sailors. They were incredibly brave and heroic men.
On March 31, 1879, a violent storm swept across Nantucket Sound, bringing powerful winds, freezing rain, snow, and heavy fog. By April 1, over sixty-eight vessels lay wrecked or disabled around the island. This led to the largest rescue effort in the island’s history.
Captain Thomas F. Sandsbury and his crew of volunteer lifesavers rowed their surfboat toward the schooner John W. Hail. They rescued the crew and rowed them back to the safety of the shore. Then they went back out to the stormy sea and made their way to the schooner Emma J. Edwards. She was rolling from side to side. Her masts would thrash the sea with every turn, making it impossible to get near her. A sole survivor was visible. George Coffin tied a line around his waist to prevent himself from being swept away and jumped from the surfboat. George Coffin rescued the survivor.
For thirty-two consecutive hours Sandsbury and his crew endured the hardships of the storm and moving from wreck to wreck they rescued more than a dozen sailors. Other crews were doing the same. By the time the storm began to break, Nantucket’s volunteers had rescued over forty sailors. The U.S. Congress recognized the courage of Sandsbury. Captain Sandsbury was given a gold medal and silver medals were awarded to each of his crew. There’s a museum dedicated to all these brave men that served as lifesavers (www.nantucketlifesavingmuseum.com).
The motto of this group was: “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back.” Though they were never paid, they never lacked for volunteers. They risked everything to save lives.
The apostle Paul was a man like that. He was willing to risk everything for the sake of the gospel.
TS: In chapter 8, Paul discussed the limits of liberty based on loving each other and avoiding putting stumbling blocks in front of weaker brothers and sisters. In ch 9, Paul illustrates how he sacrifices his liberty for the sake of the gospel.
In 1-18 He discusses his right to support from those to whom he ministered and his sacrifice of that right
RS:
v 1-2 Paul’s Apostleship
v 1-2 Paul’s Apostleship
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?
If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
Free
Paul has liberty just as all Christians
Apostle- Paul reminds them of why they should recognize his apostleship.
seen the Lord
This is one of the qualifications for Apostles.
Paul was a special apostle in that he was the only one who didn’t walk with Jesus while he was on Earth.
However, he was trained by Jesus later.
For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
God called him on the road to Damascus. God turned his life around from persecutor to preacher.
Worked (he had won them and planted the church at Corinth)
The were the seal, the fact that the church at Corinth existed.
He had planted the church in service to the Lord.
v. 3-6 Apostle’s Right
v. 3-6 Apostle’s Right
This is my defense to those who would examine me.
Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
Paul defends the rights of an apostle to support
to eat and drink
needs being met
To be married
Apostles and all ministers had a right to be married, Paul was no exception.
Notice, it is a right, a freedom to do so, not a requirement.
He was just like Peter and the other apostles
Barnabas and Paul had full claim to support
Just as all the Apostles.
v. 7-11 Reasoning behind his claim
v. 7-11 Reasoning behind his claim
In the following verses (vs. 7-14) Paul introduces six successive arguments to prove the right of a minister to be supported by his congregation.
1. From the ordinary laws of human justice (1 Corinthians 9:7).
1. From the ordinary laws of human justice (1 Corinthians 9:7).
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
In all forms of work, the worker shares and enjoys the results
vineyard- fruit
flock= milk
2. By analogy, from the Law of Moses (1 Corinthians 9:8-10).
2. By analogy, from the Law of Moses (1 Corinthians 9:8-10).
Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?
For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
God instructed Israel to allow oxen to be free to eat as they worked. Don’t be so selfish for the grain you don’t allow it to eat.
Plowman should plow in hope
Thresher in hope
3. From the obligations of common gratitude (1 Corinthians 9:11).
3. From the obligations of common gratitude (1 Corinthians 9:11).
If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
Spiritual work
sowing spiritual
Reaping material
Paul explains that ministers have a rightful expectation to support from those to whom he ministers. Just as all laborers have an expectation of having their needs met.
4. From their concession of the right to others who had inferior claims (1 Corinthians 9:12).
4. From their concession of the right to others who had inferior claims (1 Corinthians 9:12).
If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
They had supported other ministers and apostles
5. From the Jewish provision for the maintenance of priests (1 Corinthians 9:13).
5. From the Jewish provision for the maintenance of priests (1 Corinthians 9:13).
Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
6. By the rule laid down by Christ himself (vs. 14).
6. By the rule laid down by Christ himself (vs. 14).
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
In the immediate context, Paul, and other apostles, were traveling church planters.
They had the right to be supported by those to whom they ministered.
v 12-18 Not exercising his right
v 12-18 Not exercising his right
Here is where Paul applies the discussion from chapter 8 of limiting your liberty out of love
Just because we are free to do something, even things we have a right to do, doesn’t mean we have to do it!
If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.
For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Paul, as a minister, had a right to have his needs met from the ministry.
It was to be his vocation, his job.
And like anyone else, we earn a living and are sustained by our jobs.
Would you work 8 or more hours a day 5-6 days a week for no pay?
It couldn’t be sustained, unless you had a large wealth
However, Paul gave up that right
He didn’t take support from them
He wasn’t writing asking them for money.
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
Just as the OT priests and Levites were supported from Temple offerings, Christian ministers are to be supported by those they serve.
But like Paul, they don’t have to be!
They can support themselves too.
Real ministers serve God not work just for money.
False teachers then and now make it all about the money
They manipulate and guilt their “flock” into paying more.
Paul sets out the real motivation for preaching the gospel.
For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.
1st Necessity-
God’s call made it a requirement that preach, money or not.
Jeremiah said it this way:
If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
Preachers MUST preach!
IL: From time to time you run into someone who believes a pastor should not receive a salary and use Paul's comment from here in ch 9 as proof. The irony of that is Paul had just gone through a whole dialogue in this passage saying that a pastor should live of the Gospel meaning a salary. He also speaks of the teaching pastor to be worthy of double honor or salary. The Greek word is where we get the term honorarium.
Sadly today, you can hear many say how preachers were only in it for the money and seeing the abuses of some tele-evangelists seems to prove it.
2nd Stewardship
God gave us all gifts of which we are stewards
Paul recognized that.
We must recognize that fact as well
3rd The Gospel
What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Paul sacrificed his right to financial support in order to further the gospel.
Next week, we will see more of Paul’s adjustments for the sake sharing the gospel.
See, Paul wanted nothing to hinder his sharing.
at times he received support from churches, current or former.
at other times, he worked to support himself
What mattered was the gospel
and that should be what matters most to each of us.
That is why at times I have received full time support from churches and at others I have been bivocational. It should never be about salary.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
This text has served to illustrate the principle Paul introduced in chapter 8.
We have rights- liberty- freedom from adherence to rules and customs.
We don’t have to exercise those rights
The issue today, was Paul had every right to receive support from the Corinthians, but he didn’t and didn’t ask for them.
He wanted to put no burden on them and served God for God’s sake.