The Word Is Alive 1 Corinthians

The Word Is Alive1 Corinthians Chapter Nine Narrated by Tony Gillon

Chapter Nine • 1 Corinthians 7:1–11:1 - Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter (continues)

Chapter Nine • 1 Corinthians 7:1–11:1 - Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter (continues) • 1 Corinthians 8:1–11:1 – Sensitivity towards those of fragile faith (continues)

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Summary of Chapter Nine • An apostolic right to be paid for work.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Summary of Chapter Nine • An apostolic right to be paid for work. • Freedom for the Gospel.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 1 Corinthians 9:1-27 – • The Rights of an Apostle

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 1 Corinthians 9:1-27 – • The Rights of an Apostle • The right to be paid for the Gospel.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 1 Corinthians 9:1-27 – • The Rights of an Apostle • The right to be paid for the Gospel. • Paul does not seek financial reward.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 1 Corinthians 9:1-27 – • The Rights of an Apostle • The right to be paid for the Gospel. • Paul does not seek financial reward. • An athletic analogy.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? • Am I not free? • Paul offers his own willingness to give up his rights for the spiritual benefit of the Corinthians. This was intended as an example that those with superior knowledge should follow.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? • Paul first encountered the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting (Acts 9:3-5).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Other occasions when Paul was in the presence of the Lord and may have indeed seen him again include: • That night the Lord stood near him and said, ‘Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome’ (Acts 23:11).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows (2 Corinthians 12:2).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • At my first defence no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. • (2 Timothy 4:16-17).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 2 If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • I am to you: • Paul arrived in Corinth during his second missionary journey and spent 18 months with them, establishing the church.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Out of all the churches that Paul had established his primary efforts went into Corinth and Ephesus in terms of time and therefore he considered them to be of special significance in terms of his apostleship to them.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • You are the seal of my apostleship: • A seal made of wax, clay, or various kinds of soft metal would signify either ownership or authentication. Seals in the ancient Near East were used to guarantee the quality and authenticity of a document, such as a letter, or a product such as wine. The change that Paul’s preaching of the Gospel effected in the hearts of the Corinthians shows that his apostleship is genuine.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Paul would later write: • But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first instalment. • (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts(2 Corinthians 3:2-3), thus confirming what he wrote here.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 3This is my defence to those who would examine me.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 3This is my defence to those who would examine me. • This is my defence: • Throughout his work Paul faced criticism from the Jewish authorities, the Romans and other Gentiles, i.e. those who would examine me.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Although his faithfulness to God has stood the test of time and needs no defending, Paul often had to offer a defence against the accusations he faced. • This was not for his personal safety but to ensure that the Gospel he proclaimed was not tarnished.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defence today against all the accusations of the Jews, because you are especially familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews; therefore I beg of you to listen to me patiently (Acts 26:2-3).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves before you? We are speaking in Christ before God. Everything we do, beloved, is for the sake of building you up (2 Corinthians 12:19).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I have been put here for the defence of the gospel (Philippians 1:16).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Interestingly, there are still those today who would examine Paul in order to find fault or error in his life and teaching. • Yet there are few people in history who, despite persecution and provocation, can truly match Paul’s endeavour, determination and success in extending the Kingdom of God to so many different locations and people.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 4Do we not have the right to our food and drink? 5Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Do we not have the right: • Paul used the same word, Greek exousia, for the supposed right of the Corinthians with superior knowledge to eat meals in pagan temples.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • As an apostle whose primary vocation was proclaiming the Gospel and establishing churches, Paul had the right to receive material support from those churches.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • This right is enshrined in the words of Jesus: • Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for labourers deserve their food (Matthew 10:9–10).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house (Luke 10:7).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Paul demonstrated this right elsewhere: • As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children (1 Thessalonians 2:5–7).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate (2 Thessalonians 3:9).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in preaching and teaching; for the scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain’, and, ‘The labourer deserves to be paid’ • (1 Timothy 5:17–18); and, if he were married, the right to travel with a believing wife.

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Accompanied by a believing wife: • Paul was not married but he had a high regard for marriage among ministers of the Gospel: • Now a bishop must be above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher. • (1 Timothy 3:2).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • I left you behind in Crete for this reason, that you should put in order what remained to be done, and should appoint elders in every town, as I directed you: someone who is blameless, married only once, whose children are believers, not accused of debauchery and not rebellious (Titus 1:5-6).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Cephas was the apostle Peter, the only one of the original twelve that was definitely married when he was with Jesus, who cured Peter’s mother-in-law: • Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. (Mark 1:30).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • None of the brothers of the Lord followed him prior to his resurrection: • For not even his brothers believed in him. (John 7:5).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • The Risen Lord appeared, however, to his brother James: • Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:7).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Who later became the leading figure in the Jerusalem church: • After they finished speaking, James replied, ‘My brothers, listen to me (Acts 15:13).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Who later became the leading figure in the Jerusalem church: • After they finished speaking, James replied, ‘My brothers, listen to me (Acts 15:13). • The next day Paul went with us to visit James; and all the elders were present. • (Acts 21:18).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Jesus also had a brother named Judas: • Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? (Matthew 13:55).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him (Mark 6:3).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Who is accepted as being the same person who authored the Letter of Jude, a common form of Judas, where he referred to himself as the brother of James: • Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, who are beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ (Jude 1).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • Barnabas was a Jewish Christian from the priestly tribe of Levi, a native of the island of Cyprus, and an early member of the Jerusalem church: • There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means ‘son of encouragement’) (Acts 4:36).

Three Issues from a Corinthian Letter • He and Paul joined forces on Paul’s first missionary journey, recorded in Acts 13:1–14:28. • However, there was a dispute between Paul and Barnabas over his nephew John Mark, the author of Mark’s Gospel, and the two went their separate ways.

The Word Is Alive 1 Corinthians