2 – What It Means to be a World Christian – Part II

by Jeff Fry, Darwin Park Community Church

I.       Intro

A.   Review

B.   This week: we must not demand our rights

II.    We must not demand our rights

A.   State

1.     Read 1 Corinthians 9:19-27

2.     Background

a)    1 Corinthians 8:1- 11:1 is one thought unit

b)    Food sacrificed to idols (1 Corinthians 8:1-13)

(1)  This food was received either by

(a)    Getting the sacrificial food after attending a sacrifice at the temple

(b)   Or by buying the meat on the market which was produced by a meat guild which would first dedicated it to one of the local idols (e.g. goddess Aphrodite)

(2)  Believer has the freedom/right to eat food sacrificed to idols BUT …

(a)    8:9 “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”

(i)      “weak” = those who still have a problem with eating meat sacrificed to idols

(ii)    8:13 “Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.”

(iii)   Thisis the exercise of the principle of love

c)     Some of Paul’s life events

(1)  Paul was converted in a radical way while on the road to Damascus during one of his persecutions of Christians

(a)    Jesus appeared to him and saved him and pronounced that he was chosen by God to preach the gospel of Jesus. (Acts 22:14)

(b)   He was baptized immediately and began preaching the gospel in Damascus.  On threat of death he escaped to Jerusalem.

3.     Paul’s right to remuneration and to take along a believing wife. (1 Corinthians 9:1-12)

a)    1 Corinthians 9:1-2 “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? ² Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord”.

(1)  Some in Corinth were questioning Paul’s apostleship status.

(a)   Most probably some false teachers who Paul sarcastically referred to as the “super-apostles” (see 2 Corinthians 11:5)

(b)   Paul defends his apostleship by:

(2)  But the salvation of the Corinthians was a result of Paul’s ministry and therefore he claimed to be their apostle in the Lord (ie. “I may not be an apostle to others surely I am to you”)

b)   1 Cor. 9:3-6 “1 Corinthians 9:3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. ⁴ Don't we have the right to food and drink? ⁵ Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas? ⁶ Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?”

(1)  “… to those who sit in judgment on me”

(a)   there was a faction in Corinth who were critical of Paul and questioned his apostleship, his authority as a teacher.

(b)   Teachers in those days were judged by how costly their tuition was

(c)   The better the teacher, the higher the tuition

(d)   So, you can see where this left Paul who charged nothing for his teaching of the gospel.

(2)  Paul asserts that he does have certain rights here as an apostle:

(a)   Right to remuneration for his ministry to them (e.g. food)

(b)   To take a believing wife

(c)   Just like others do

c)    1 Corinthian 9:7-8 Examples of those who have such similar rights as Paul

(a)   V. 7 Soldier – serves and gets paid for serving in the army

(b)   Planter of a vinyard (eats of its grapes)

(c)   One who tends to the flock (drinks of its milk)

(d)   So why not Paul too?

(2)  Paul brings up Deuteronomy 25:4 to show that even God supports Paul’s right to remuneration

(a)   “do not muzzle an ox while it is threshing out the grain”

d)   1 Corinthians 9:12 “But we did not use this right.  On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ”.

(1)  Clincher and controlling principle: Paul gave up the right to remuneration in order that the gospel would run unhindered before unbelievers.

e)    1 Corinthians 9:16-18 “Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach.  Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.  If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward.  If not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.  What 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.”

(1)  “for I am compelled to preach”

(a)   Paul is compelled because he was commissioned to preach the gospel by the Lord Jesus when he was saved on the Damascus Road and this calling to preach was tied to his conversion experience.

(2)  “woe to me if I do not preach the gospel …”

(a)   Therefore, if he abandons the call to preach it would be tantamount to abandoning his conversion.  They are tied together because Paul was saved to be a preacher to the Gentiles.

(3)  “If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward …”

(a)   preaching volutarily means those who have decided on their own to preach the gospel without being directly commissioned by Christ to do it.

(b)   supposedly other teachers who come to Corinth to teach are given a reward of a remuneration of some sort for their teaching.  But not Paul.

(4)  “If not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me”

(a)   Paul never volunteered to preach the gospel – he was commissioned to do it by Christ when he was saved.

(b)   Acts 26:12 ff Paul tells his testimony of his salvation to Festus

B.   Illustrate

1.     Church splits

a)    An ugly row breaks out in a church with each side demanding their own way.  For example, worship style is a big splitter.  And it gets ugly and even in front of non-Christians it gets ugly. 

b)    This shouldn’t be – why not give up your right to defend yourself so that the Lord and the gospel is not discredited in front of non-Christians who otherwise will see Christian torn to shreds by each other.

2.     In Les Miserables, the famous French novel, Bishop Myriel, bishop of digne, takes in the peasant convict Jean Valjean who cannot find anywhere that will give a convict lodging.  In the night, Valjean awakens, steals the Bishop’s silverware and makes off into the night.  The next day he is captured by the police – a convict with a rucksack full of stolen silver and the Bishop’s silver no less.  They take valjean to the bishop to confirm the crime but when they arrive the Bishop scolds Valjean for leaving so hastily and without taking the two silver candlesticks which he gave him.  The bishop “reminds” him to take the silver to make an honest man of himself.  Valjean leaves, remembers the bishop’s words and makes good by opening a factory and giving many people jobs, etc..

3.     The bishop could have demanded his rights but he didn’t in hopes that it would save Valjean from a lifetime of imprisonment. 

4.     Note: we don’t give up our rights just for the sake of giving up our rights.  We give up our rights in order to redeem and save others says Paul.  It works towards that end.

C.   Apply

1.     We may say “I have a right to a quiet house” and so we never host others in our house.  But Paul teaches us to give up our right to a quiet house at times and let others invade your private space for a time showing the love of Christ to them “to win some” (to bring them to Christ).

2.     We may say, “Joe Smoe called me up and asked me to cover his Sunday School teaching duty for him again!  Man, that’s not fair.  I should only have to serve in Sunday School once a month.” 

a)    That’s the way we get – we make up rights in our mind and cling to them

b)    By the way if someone agrees to comver for you on Sunday School or worship please be sure to cover for them in the schedule (in other words just switch – don’t make them do double duty).

3.     We demand our rights in our homes and in our marriages too.  Many of our arguments are centered around sticking up for ourselves.  “I have the right to ….”

III.  Conclusion

A.   We can’t stand by the cross and demand our rights. 

B.   Jesus sets the example for us by giving up his life to save us.

1.     He didn’t demand his right to live

2.     he gave it up to save us.