Pastor Tim Patoka 22 Sunday After Pentecost: October 21, 2018 Serve Others With The Gospel 1 Corinthians 9:7-12, 19-23 nd
1) Be Willing To Put Up With Anything 2) Be All To All To Save Some Why do you do what you do? Why is it that you work at a job or volunteer for something or spend your free time in a certain way? I’m guessing it’s because you get something out of it that makes it worth it your while. We all need to provide for ourselves which is why we either work or have someone who works for us. When you volunteer for something, many times you leave feeling better than when you came. When you indulge your hobbies during your free time, I’m guessing you find personal enjoyment in them. After all, if it wasn’t worth your while to do all those different things, you probably wouldn’t do them in the first place. This morning we’re looking at a handful of verses from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians where he explains why he did what he did while in the ancient city of Corinth. And what was he doing you ask? He was sharing the gospel with them, the good news of what Jesus has done for all people of all time. And the reason why he was serving them with the gospel is because of the gospel itself. It was because of the gospel that Paul was willing to put up with anything as he served the Corinthian Christians. And it was because of the gospel that he made himself all things to all people so as to save some. 1) Be Willing To Put Up With Anything The worker is worth his wages. While we don’t read those exact words in our verses, the premise is there. This premise is also found in the secular world. Paul lists three occupations – a soldier, a vineyard planter, and a shepherd – to show this. No one fights in the army, cares for a vineyard, or watches over a flock of sheep, without expecting to receive something for their full-time service. This premise is also found in the Old Testament where Paul quotes from Deuteronomy chapter 25 saying, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” (1 Corinthians 9:9 quoting Deuteronomy 25:4) If God cares enough about simple animals to make sure they get what their work is worth, than how much more is it with humans, the crown of God’s creation? Indeed the worker is worth his wages. The Apostle Paul then applies this to himself. Even though his work of sharing the Bible’s good news of the gospel was of a spiritual matter, he still had the right to expect physical support from the Christians in Corinth. Yet surprisingly, Paul did not exercise this right. Rather he decided to waive his right and provide for himself with his tent-making skills until Silas and Timothy rejoined him from Macedonia as we read in Acts chapter 18. Evidently, Paul knew that if he insisted on receiving physical support for sharing the gospel, he would have been putting up some kind of hindrance to the gospel. Perhaps it would be people writing 1
Pastor Tim Patoka 22 Sunday After Pentecost: October 21, 2018 Paul off as yet another traveling preachers. Maybe Paul was concerned that people would have doubted his motives. But no matter what the actual reasons were, Paul decided it was better to share the gospel in his free time after working a full-time job than to exercise his right of physical support and put up an obstacle to the gospel. As he himself says, “But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 9:12b) nd
Would we be like Paul and be willing to waive our rights if it meant fewer obstacles to hearing the gospel? One of the things I love about our country is that we are a nation of individuals. We are all unique, passionate about different things, and our society encourages that as a sign of strength. And one of the rights we have as Americans is our freedom of expression. But if we’re not careful, our right to express ourselves can become a hindrance to the gospel. What is it you are passionate about besides the gospel? Is it a particular issue, a political party, a person, or something else? When you express those passions, do people have the impression that if they don’t agree with you then it’s pointless to talk with you? If so, then you’ve put up a hindrance to the gospel. Because even if you didn’t mean to, it’s unlikely they will listen to you share the gospel with an open mind. There are other rights we have as Americans or as Christians that wind up with the same result. And when we do so, we show ourselves to be the opposite of Paul. That we are not willing to put up with anything so as not to hinder the gospel of Christ. And that’s a problem because it is then that we are putting ourselves before the gospel. It takes a great person to be willing to put up with anything for the sake of the gospel. Paul did that in Corinth with his tent-making. Jesus Christ also did that while he was on earth. We read it in our Gospel not too long ago, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) As the Son of God, he had the right to receive proper worship and respect. As the Lord of lords, he had the right to give orders to the governors and kings of this world. Yet rarely did Jesus exercise his rights over people. Instead he usually waived his rights and put up with hardships so that he could complete his mission of our salvation. He was shown no honor in his hometown. People came to him for the wrong reasons – for entertainment, to see what miracles he might perform, to see what food he might give away. He was conspired against by the religious teachers of his day. He was sentenced to death on the cross though declared to be innocent by Pontius Pilate. He was abandoned by God himself while on the cross when our sins were placed on him. Time and time again Jesus waived the rights he had for the sake of the gospel, so that he could be punished for all people’s sins, so that he could grant forgiveness to all those who have faith in him. And he did all this for us, for our benefit. And that’s all ours through faith. We have forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. This is the message which empowers us to be willing to put up with anything so that the gospel 2
Pastor Tim Patoka 22 Sunday After Pentecost: October 21, 2018 may be shared with more people. I know it’s not easy to waive our rights. We will want to express our individual passions as we are allowed to do in this country. But we must also realize that Christians are also citizens of God’s kingdom who have been commissioned by their Lord to share this gospel with all people. And if people aren’t willing to listen to us because of how we exercise our rights, then perhaps we need to re-evaluate how or when we use those rights. For the Apostle Paul, he gave up his right of earning a livelihood from preaching the gospel by taking up his tent-making job. And for that time in Corinth it was appropriate. As we approach mid-term elections or hear troubling current events, let us keep our gospel-sharing mission in mind so that we can strike that fine line between expressing who we are as individuals while also keeping the door open to future gospel witnessing. And as we do that, we dovetail on to our second part of this morning’s sermon. nd
2) Be All To All To Save Some In the second half of our verses for this morning, the Apostle Paul summarizes how he continued to serve all people with the gospel for the sake of the gospel. Paul was a well-traveled man who visited most of the known world in his missionary journeys. When he was witnessing to the Jews, he lived like the Jews did. He stayed away from pork and other forbidden food groups in the Old Testament and he worshiped on the Sabbath Day. When he was witnessing to the Gentiles, that is, any person who is not a Jew, he lived like the Gentiles to the extent he could. While he still obeyed God’s law that is still in effect today, he enjoyed the foods they did and used his knowledge of Greek religion and poetry in his conversations. When he was building up the weak, Christians who did not know or were confused about what God’s Word said, he waived his Christian freedom so as not to cause the weak ones to sin against their conscience. Why did Paul go to such lengths to meet with people of all different backgrounds? As he tells us, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:22b-23a) He came to people on their level so that he could share with them the gospel they needed to hear. And although his return on investment would not be the greatest, Paul knew that through his efforts God would save some from their sins. We don’t need to travel throughout the known world to find opportunities to be all things to all different kinds of people so as to save some. In our English as a Second Language ministry, I’m always surprised to see how many different countries our students come from. In the two plus years I’ve been here, we’ve had students from Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East. Look within your families and go up or down a generation, and you’ll notice differences right away. Look across the different neighborhoods of Tucson and you’ll see how drastically the demographics and kinds of stores change. We don’t have to go far to find people who are not the same. But yet we find reasons to take this “be all things to all people so as to save some” attitude and change it to “be convenient 3
Pastor Tim Patoka 22 Sunday After Pentecost: October 21, 2018 things to relatable people so as to save some.” As we look at all those different demographics, we’re going to see things we don’t agree with. Life decisions and personal values. Ways of dressing and manners of speaking. And whether we know it or not, we often make a decision to look over them in our gospel-sharing efforts. nd
I don’t say these things to shame us, but to make us aware of who all the gospel is for. It is amazing to see all the different kinds of people that Jesus had contact with during his time on earth. He personally reached out to the Jews, the Samaritans, and the Gentiles; the white collar, the blue collar, and the beggars; the men, the women, and the children. It was for all the sins of all the people that Jesus came to live, die, and rise. And when you look at the missionary efforts of the early Christian church, you see how the body of believers was made up of people from every walk of life and level of society. And that continues to be the case down to this morning right now. The gospel is for all people. So let’s remember that when we serve others by sharing with them this good news. If you find yourself backing away from people because they’re different than you, remind yourself of how God looks at this world. You are either forgiven of your sins or are not. You either believe in Christ as your Savior or you do not. And no matter what background or language those lost souls may have, in the end they are still lost in their sins. They need to know and believe this good news. And that’s where you and I come in so that we may serve them with the gospel. That will require some effort to become all things while still remaining rooted in God’s Word. We do so not for our benefit, but so that they will at least listen to this precious Word with the hope that they will be saved. But as Paul shows us, there is no better work out there than that of sharing with others the good news of our Savior. May our Lord so encourage us to serve others for the sake of the gospel so that they too may know its good news of sins forgiven. Amen.
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