Sermon Tone Analysis

All Things For The Gospel

1 Corinthians 9:19-27

November 14, 2021

PRAYER

Our good and gracious God,

We come to you now — to hear You speak from Your perfect Word.

O God, please spare us from the words and the thoughts of a man.

Father, please get me out of the way, so that we can see You and hear from You in this God-inspired passage of scripture.

Your law is better than silver or gold.

Your word alone is the lamp to our feet and the light of our path.

It is in your light that we see light.

We join with the Psalmist, who exclaim: “We hope in Your Word”.

And, Lord, our greatest need as we open this book of God is to be fed the Word of God.

We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

So, we humbly ask: please edify us, and strengthen, and help us now, as we worship you in your Holy Scriptures.

Equip us for this day, and this week, and for all of eternity... and make us more like our Lord Jesus Christ.

We pray all of this in His name.

Amen.

Introduction

Well, after a 5 week detour, we are returning to our sermon series in the book of 1 Corinthians.

And, I don’t know about you, but I, for one, am overjoyed to be back doing this type of systematic, expositional study through the text of scripture.

And, this week, we are going to pick up exactly where we left off, as we look at 1 Corinthians 9:19-23… the text that our brother, Jason, just read.

And, at this early stage, it might be helpful to do a bit of a review, so that we can find our bearings in this text:

You might remember that the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthian church in approximately 54 A.D. This was shortly after his extended stay with them — a stay that we can read about in the first half of Acts chapter 18 (in the first half of that chapter).

And, up to this point in his letter, the Apostle Paul has addressed a number important issues that were having a detrimental effect on this young and immature church.

And, if we turn to the beginning of the book, we can see some of these challenges by doing just a quick survey...

You’ll remember that in Chapters 1-4 Paul addressed issues of division within the church.

Some were saying “I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas”.

And, Paul said: No! And, he shows them that they have become captive to empty human philosophy (love of wisdom), and they were, in Paul’s own words, “acting merely human”.

To this, Paul responded by saying: Don’t pledge your allegiance to human teachers.

Pledge your allegience to Christ!

Christ alone is the power of God and the wisdom of God!

In 1 Corinthians Chapters 5 + 6, he addressed concerns about lawsuits and sexual immorality.

Paul says that these lawsuits are a shameful blemish on church — they are a “defeat” already to these immature Christians.

And, furthermore, Paul urges them in 1 Cor 6:18-20 to FLEE sexual immorality — “Run for your lives!”, he says.

The sexually immoral person sins against his own body… and this is one of the gravest of sins, because the body of the Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

To engage in sexual sin is desecrate the very temple of God and to grieve His Holy Spirit.

In Chapter 7 he answered their questions about marriage, divorce, and singleness.

We start to see this expression… “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote” (7:1).

And, then, in Chapters 8 + 9, he addresses concerns about idolatry and about the wise and loving exercise of Christian liberty.

In 1 Corinthians 8:1, he writes to the Corinthians that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”.

And, then in these two chapters, he shows the saints what this kind of sacrificial love looks like.

It is a kind of love that lays down it’s own rights for the good of a brother/sister… and for the glory of God.

As we discovered — just before we took our 5 week hiatus — “Christian freedom is not a licence to do whatever I want to do, but it is liberation to do what I ought to do.”

So, the last time that we were in chapter 9, he showed us that he is not asking the Corinthians to do something that he has not first done himself.

Paul gave up his right to compensation, so that he might preach the gospel to the Corinthians, “free of charge”.

He laid down his rights for their good.

And, he exhorts them to do the same.

So, that is where we left off last time.

Now, as we hone in on 1 Corinthians, chapter 9, and verse 19, Paul is going to continue with this line of reasoning about Christian freedom.

And, again, he is going to use his own witness as a positive example that the Corinthians can immitate.

And, as we study our text today, this is what we are going to find:

Preposition: In this passage (in Vv. 19-23), the Apostle Paul shows that he is fully and gloriously free in Christ.

And, yet, he shows us that he has not used this freedom for his own selfish interests, but to become a servant — a servant for the sake of the gospel and for the salvation of the lost.

Paul gained his freedom in Christ, and then he laid down his freedom that he might save some.

And he invites us… he implores us… he urges us… to do the same.

So, that’s our introduction.

Now, let’s get into our Bibles.

Exposition:

READ v. 19

In our study today, we are going to consider 3 truths/points that arise from the passage.

And, the first point that we stumble upon in v.19 is this:

1. Paul used his freedom to become a servant of the lost.

If you were to read this text in the original language, you would discover that Paul begins verse 19 with a very intentional word choice.

The opening word that he uses in the Greek is the word: “Free”.

And, he begins this sentence with this word to emphatically declare his liberty as a Christian.

He says in v. 19 that he is “Free from all”.

And, this is not a hypothetical freedom.

It’s a real freedom that Christ himself purchased for all believers on the cross at Calvary.

When Christ lived a perfect life, and then died on the cross, and was buried, and the rose from the dead on the third day, he fulfilled all of the requirements of the law.

He fulfilled all righteousness.

He satisfied God’s exacting justice.

He paid the Christian’s debt in full.

And, by payment with his own blood, Jesus freed every man, and woman, and child who has, does, and ever will place their faith in Him.

So, Paul begins verse 19 by reminding us that he is free.

In Christ, Paul is now perfectly free.

Wholly free.

Free from the requirements of Old Covenant Law.

Free from the dominion of the Satan.

Free from the power of sin.

Free from the guilt of sin before a holy God.

Free from a defiled conscience.

Free from bondage to men.

Free from the fear of men.

Free from captivity to false gods and superstitions.

Free from the hopelessness and fear of death.

Free to enjoy the grace of God for all of eternity.

Fully and Unreservedly free.

This was the reality of Paul’s life, and this is the reality that every Christian lives in (whether you realize it or not!).

If you are in Christ, you have a freedom that most people in the world do not even know exists.

To borrow from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians (in 2 Corinthians 3:17):

In Galatians 5:1, Paul says:

As a Christian, when you wake up in the morning, even though you may have a job, and responsibilities, and bills to pay... you are more free than Jeff Bezos, or Bill Gates, or anyone else who is still enslaved to sin, and death, and the devil.

So, here, Paul says: “I am free”.

And, if you didn’t know what was going to come next, you might ask: “What does Paul do with this freedom that he he has in Christ?”

In the second half of verse 19 he says, “…though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant of all, that I might win more of them...”.

Paul intentionally and emphatically declares his own freedom at the beginning of the verse, in order that he might show that he has exchanged many of the benefits/privileges of this freedom, to take up the servant’s apron, and to pour out his life… He says, “that I might win more” (more!) people to Christ!

As long as there are more people without hope and without Christ, Paul would, “I will make myself a servant of all”.

That word for “servant” is actually the Greek word: “Doulos”.

And, it is often said that this word “doulos” might be best translated as “slave” (NASB).