Preach the Gospel!

Introduction

Jesus is the only Way to the Father. The Gospel centralizes on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus lived as a man. He died on the cross for our sins. He was buried and rose again the third day so that we might have the gift of His righteousness. Romans 4.25 says that Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses and raised because of our justification. Paul did not want to do anything that would hinder the gospel of Jesus Christ (9.12). He was compelled to preach this gospel (9.16). The compulsion of the Apostle Paul is quite unique.

Paul, when he was known as Saul, requested official authority from the Jewish religious leaders to find any who were of the Way, arrest them, and bring them bound to Jerusalem to answer for their supposed heresy (Acts 9.2). Jesus struck him down with a light from heaven. Saul’s persecution of the church is actually the persecution of Jesus Christ Himself (Acts 9.4). Saul the Persecutor becomes Paul the Apostle. Jesus uniquely chooses Paul to bear His name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel (Acts 9.15). Immediately after this calling, Saul “preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God” (Acts 9.20). So, it is safe for us to conclude that Paul’s apostolic ministry to preach Christ is clear and without question.

As a pastor, I am called to preach the gospel as well. God has called me to equip and edify believers for the work of ministry through teaching and preaching (Ephesians 4.11). But I do not have the same explicit calling that Saul or Paul had. The fact that I’m called to preach the gospel might be something that you see in me, but it might not. It is something that I myself feel compelled to do; however, I couldn’t really pinpoint this calling as a crisis in my life. There is no one watershed event that led me to this path.

Yet, now that I am working as a pastor, I have a tremendous desire to be faithful to the task. So, I understand Paul’s desire in our text. I wouldn’t want to do anything to hinder the gospel of Christ. I can’t imagine not preaching the gospel. “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (9.16) This seems to be the heart of 1 Corinthians 9. Paul emphasizes his own unique compulsion with a flurry of rhetorical questions in our text this morning. Verse 1 opens with four of them!

1 Corinthians 9:1–2

1 Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

Paul certainly is an apostle. He certainly is free. Later, he affirms that this freedom means he is “free from all men” even though he makes himself “a servant to all” (v. 19). He certainly has seen Jesus, and the Corinthians are his work in the Lord. He might not be an apostle to others who have rejected him, but he doubtless is an apostle to the Corinthians. He led them to Christ. They are the seal of his apostleship. His ministry among them demonstrates the genuine nature of his apostolic authority. If they reject him, they might as well reject their own salvation.

1 Corinthians 9:3–7

3 My defense to those who examine me is this: 4 Do we have no right to eat and drink? 5 Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? 7 Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?

Paul defends himself among those who are judging his motives for ministry. When we insist upon our own rights, we don’t mean what Paul means. We feel as if we deserve to be rewarded and paid for what we do. As an apostle, Paul certainly would expect to eat and drink. He certainly could have welcomed the gift of a wife to help him in his ministry. After all, Peter had a wife. Paul and others who labored with him shouldn’t have to expect to finance their own ministry. He backs this up with three analogies: waging warfare, planting a vineyard, and tending a flock. The soldier doesn’t finance the war. The farmer doesn’t give everything away and go hungry. The herdsman drinks the milk from his flock.

But Paul isn’t just saying these things. God’s Word makes it clear that these things are so.

1 Corinthians 9:8–12a

8 Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? 10 Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. 11 If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? 12a If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more?

Paul applies a concern for oxen in the Old Testament to God’s concern for apostles in the New Testament. As the oxen plows so the apostle preaches. Both should do so in hope of some kind of remuneration. The principle of supporting those who preach the gospel is summed up in verse 11: “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap material things?” Paul affirms this same truth in Romans 15.27: “For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.”

Evidently, the Corinthians had supported others who had similar expectations. Perhaps others like Apollos or Peter. But while these men should expect to be supported, how much more so the Apostle Paul, the man who founded this church. We expect a conclusion at this point. The conclusion ought to be: Pay what you owe! But that is far from the conclusion.

1 Corinthians 9:12b–14

12b Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? 14 Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.

Paul didn’t insist upon his rights or demand that the Corinthians live up to his expectations of them. Yes, he continues to affirm what ought to be obvious to them. The priests in the Old Testament ate even of the sacrifices offered to God. Just so, those who preach the gospel ought to expect to make their living from the gospel ministry. So, now Paul hammers them about support, right? No, he doesn’t. This leads to a rather jarring conclusion:

1 Corinthians 9:15–18

15 But I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me; for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void. 16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel.

Paul received no material support from the Corinthians and did not write with the purpose of gaining such support. He’d rather die than have anyone make his boasting void. What boasting? The boasting of his weakness so that the power of Christ might be on full display! Paul is simply doing what Christ compelled him to do when he was Saul on the road to Damascus. He cannot boast in what Christ compelled him to do. Indeed, woe comes to the apostle who fails to fulfill his commission. A reward comes to the apostle who willingly fulfills that commission.

During the first century, a steward was a slave that ran the economics of a household. That slave didn’t have a right to anything. The master didn’t owe him anything. Paul viewed himself as such a steward. Still, when he preaches the gospel of Christ, he is free. He preaches the gospel without charge because he does not want to abuse his authority in the gospel. Paul is not arguing for people to meet his material needs because he meets their spiritual needs. He is arguing that he will not hinder the work of the gospel by demanding those expectations be met by the Corinthian believers.

Transition: So, what does this mean today? I think Paul’s defense of his apostolic ministry is very unique. It is unique from its inception to its conclusion. However, there are certainly principles and applications for conduct in our church today.