A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on February 7, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 Corinthians 9:16-27. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, the ninth chapter:
If I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
If you're going to marry somebody, would you never get to know anything about them? I mean really I wonder how long it takes to get to know somebody? I think it can take even a lifetime, right? For those of us who are married, I would imagine that we're still discovering things about our spouses. No matter if, like me, we've been married for 10 years or fifty or however many it may be. I think even in our personal lives as we go about our daily activities and our work and our see our friends and our family, I think we're still getting to know people. I certainly don't know everything about every member of my family and when we get together, it's certainly worthwhile to talk. We never run out of things to talk about because we're always thinking new things, we’re always discovering new things. It takes a long time to get to know someone and it takes a long time to to get to know where someone is coming from.
When I was in seminary one of the modules that I had to do was a inner-city module and we went out to Chicago from St. Louis and spent a few days near Thanksgiving at a church there in Chicago. We went around to all the different neighborhoods and got to know how the people in those communities really helped shape some of the ministry that that church did and it was fascinating. One of the things we did was we went to a Hindu temple. I don't know if you've ever been to a Hindu temple. The reason we went there was to figure out it is to see a little bit of how it was that the population around that church worshipped. Now they obviously were not worshiping the one true God; they worship false gods. And I'll be honest with you and say that when I went into that Hindu temple, I had never felt more demonically oppressed than in those moments. It certainly is very strange seeing all these Idols set up in that Temple and then thinking that these are gods and giving offerings to these things. It's bizarre, but you know when we went to that Temple we didn't go into the temple and start screaming at everybody to repent and turn to the gospel. We didn't go in and insist on our own way. In fact, when we went there, we were required to take off our shoes, that we walk through there in our socks or bare feet, and it was winter so we went in our socks and and that was fine. We did not offend them for the sake of the Gospel but instead went and formed some relationships with the people who took us in there. We saw how they were doing things and certainly if we were able to keep up those relationships we would hopefully be able to preach the gospel to those that we knew.
Paul here is making a point tonight in First Corinthians chapter 9 that he has basically saying when it comes to winning people for Christ we become as they are. Now that does not mean that we give in to Heathen ways, for indeed We obey God rather than men but where we are able to compromise for the sake of our neighbor, for the sake of their conscience, we give into that compromise. If that Hindu temple makes me take my shoes off and I'm going and being with friends that we had made, I’m going to take my shoes off. Interestingly, if I had been with a weaker brother, a weaker Christian in that moment, it would be worth entertaining, Should I even go lest I offend my brother? These are big questions that we have to ask. How is it that we treat the people in our lives?
We must live in order to bring the gospel to them, in order that they might be saved along with us. Indeed, there’s nothing wrong with going into a Hindu temple. There is no sin in doing that. Paul, last week in our reading, was talking about food being offered to Idols.v The way most people got meat in his day, where he was, was that meat would be offered up to idols, and the remnants, which would be quite. A lot, were given to a butcher to sell for food. Paul said that if it came to it, there's nothing wrong with eating that meat, but if a weaker brother is going to fall out of the faith, then he would never eat meat again. And so it is that Paul continues his thoughts today that, for the weaker brother, we certainly give in to their desires, and for our neighbor, whether they are brothers or not, we try to meet them where they are.
Paul says for the Jews, he became a Jew because they're under the law. He lived among them as if he were under the law even while he was preaching the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was telling them that we're not under the law. We don't have to obey this but in fact because he is under the law of Christ, which is to love, he did all the things that were necessary in order not to offend them. And when he went out to the Gentiles who were not under the law of God, the Torah, the law of Moses that we know so well, he did not live in such a Jewish way as to shove it down their throats. That's why he did not insist that everybody around him be circumcised. It's why he did not insist that no one around him eat crab or pork. In fact when he was among the Gentiles, he lived among them in all the ways that they did. If they ate pig, guess what this Pharisee of Pharisees did? He ate the pig. He went among them and he lived with them in order that he might show them, I’m eating this now because Christ has made it and he has declared all things good and clean in him including myself and it can even be for you that Christ would declare you clean.
You see it is that we are to go out and live our lives among our neighbors treating them in a good way, in a safe way, in a way that allows us to preach the gospel to them. It's not just my job. The pastor's job to preach the gospel. It's the most enjoyable part of my job to declare the free forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ the resurrection of the dead and life eternal with all those who love Jesus. That is the greatest joy that I have. But it is not just my job. It is also your job and it is your job to do so in the lives of those who are around you. It's not just even the people that need to be saved, the people who are lost without Christ, that need the gospel, but the people that you love who are in Christ need it also. Indeed, don't we go around forgiving the sins of those we love, who have offended us when they've done something against us? We make it a practice in our house that when someone does something wrong that we don't say it's okay. It's not a big deal. We ask that the person, the offender, apologize. I'm sorry for doing this, and that the offended is able to say I forgive you. That is a small part of the Gospel but it is something that we all do, is it not? It is something that at least that we should all be doing because when we are able to go out and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that Christ has died for our sin and we shall not hold it against them for Christ does not hold it against them, that is our duty as Christians and it strengthens us into everlasting life. It strengthens us to get through the day. It strengthens our lives together as the family of Christ.
Who are we? Who are we if we do not go out and do this? We are people who do not love Jesus if we do not go out and preach the gospel to those who are around us. We don't love Christ and we have no part of him. I know that's a hard thing to hear but it's true. How long does it take for you to get to know somebody? Quite a while. And if you know someone, eventually you begin to love them, do you not? Not only in your feelings but also in your commitment, to say I am with you, I will be with you as long as I can imagine, as long as I live, whether that be your friends, whether that be your family, whether it be your spouse to be able to look at them and say I love you and I'm going to say it to you so that you know it and I'm going to show it to you so that you know it.
And if we love Jesus, well, we do the things that he asks us as we get to know more and more of him. In fact, don't we go out and tell people about our love for our family and our friends. I love the friends that I have. I love them. I don't have a lot of close friends and but the close friends that I do have I love to the end. Not only do I tell them this but I tell others this because I want other people to love them just as much as I do. Why wouldn't it be the same for Jesus? Why wouldn't it be the same for the Lord who has saved us into everlasting life? Why wouldn't we go out and tell people about him and how much we love him and why we love him that others may love him along with us forever?
This is what Paul is getting to when he says I need to go out and preach the gospel and I need to do it in a way so that ultimately they see Jesus and not me because it is not our duty. It's not from our own will that we go out and preach. It's not our own jobs to go out and do so, but we have been entrusted by Jesus as stewards with his gospel to go out and bring it into the world that he has saved. It is of his will that we go into this world and we love our neighbors. It is his will that we go and sit and serve with them. It is of his will that we should preach to them the good news of everlasting salvation. Why wouldn't we go out? But we must do so in a way that is winsome and we must do so in a way that is not offensive.
In fact, we do it, Paul says, so that when he preaches the gospel, he may not be ashamed. He goes out and lives his life even after he preaches the gospel so that people will look at him and say yes indeed, he loves me. Yes indeed he not only tells me that he loves me because he preaches the gospel, but he shows me that he loves me by living with me, by showing me that he cares about me, that he knows about me, that he knows the things that matter to me. I think this is why Paul remained a tentmaker during all of his missionary travels, that when he would go he wouldn't take anything from the people that he would go and minister to, but instead he would work among them as a tentmaker and people would pay him for his handiwork and not for the gospel, even though it was his right to demand payment. Certainly, in the scriptures, they tell us that we are to pay the ones who bring us the Gospel, that the ox should not be muzzeled as it tramps out the grain, that the worker deserves his wages. It's good and it's good that you pay your pastor, too. We very much appreciate it. Thank you. But Paul here says I'm not even going to take that from you. Instead, I'm going to be a tentmaker among you. I'm going to live the way that you live. I'm going to live in the way that you live. All the struggles of life that you have, I’m going to have them, too. All the ways that you look at the world, I’m going to look at the world that way, too, because I'm going to serve along with you. I'm going to live along with you. And he did this so no one could look at him and say this guy he’s just not living up to what the law is demanding or, this guy, He's not living the way that we live. He doesn't understand Us in any kind of way. He did this so he could be understood, he did this so that Jesus Christ would be seen in his life, and as he did this, he went out and preached the gospel. He became like all those around him so that ultimately he might win the race.
When Paul talks about the Christian life as some kind of athletic events, we should pay a little attention lest we miss his point. Here he speaks of a race. Normally, in a race, you compete against others, but that’s not the Christian life. Here the race is just for you. Each of us has our own race, our own path. This helps us understand that, even as we go out and preach, we cannot save anybody by our will, but a person is saved only by the will of Jesus. And as you go through your life as you run this race, you are going in the way of Christ, you are running in a very specific way. You don't get to share your salvation with anybody else. It's your salvation and you run towards the end. And finally when you reach the end of your race, when you close your eyes for this world and open them to the next you see the crown being placed upon you. You have won the race and all those who enter into the kingdom with you have won their own, but it is a race in which we must run and a race for which we must be prepared, a race in which we prepare our bodies. We beat them into submission. We discipline them that we might be under his control.
The best way to do this is to get to know the people that God has put into your life, to serve them according to your vocations. Again, some of these vocations may be spouse, some of these are friends, some of these our daughter or son, some of these are teacher, some of these are Pastor, some of these are employees, some of these are employer. These vocations are varied and we all have different ones and that is a glorious thing for in this we find that God has put neighbors all around us so that we might serve them. And as we serve them we know them and as we know them we love them and as we love them we preach to them for we desire them to be with us forever. This is the call of the Christian.
Again, we do not do this because of our own will, we do not do this to win our own salvation. Your salvation has been won for you. You are free from your sins in Jesus. It’s true; you who could do nothing have been saved by the Lord of all creation who has come into the flesh. The Lord of all creation who has control over all things, even sickness like we saw in Peter’s mother-in-law, even over the stars in the heavens that not one is lost to him, has you in his hands. And now this Lord of creation who has won for you your salvation calls you into a new way a way of love, a way that the world will not recognize, a way in which we go out and serve other people just as Jesus would in order that, as he would preach to them the good news of himself, we preach the good news of Jesus Christ to those around us in our words and we demonstrate our love for them in our works. There is no better thing than this for the Christian, for now we know that we are living under God's will.
His will is easy to figure out. He's put it right down into the scripture: love God and love your neighbor. There is no better thing than this. It is hard. We will be sinning as we do it. We will find ourselves failing in every single way, but we know that, for ourselves, Christ has come and died for these sins and Christ has redeemed us into eternal life and it frees us then to go out and love and serve even more, for now we have no fear of Hell or damnation, but we know what the end is for us. We know that we shall win that Crown in the race. We know that we shall beat against the Demons of This World by preaching the gospel. We know what our end is because Christ has redeemed us Christ, has redeemed you, and now you are free, my friends. You are free under the law of Christ to Love Without Fear, you are free under the law of Christ to look at your Jesus and bring others to him as often as you can, you are free in every way under him.
What a wonderful thing it is that he has called us to preach where he's called us to serve or he's called us to love or he's called us to our neighbors, where he's called us to our vocations. It is a freeing thing in which we have no fear of death or damnation. We have no fear even of the devil, for our Lord is with us and it is by his will that you live and his will that you breathe and his will that you have your being. And, even now, his will is that you go out into the world to do his Works. What a wonderful thing to be entrusted with, as good stewards of our Lord's creation and good stewards of our Lord's word. May he strengthen us all to go out and do as he would will. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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