Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?

Good morning. I was talking with Doug here just before the service began, and it just dawned upon both of us that it's really important if you have smaller kids to kind of go over some of the words to these songs and things because they may have some rather radical, different understandings than what you are thinking they're hearing. The one Doug was telling me about is what God's first name is. Andy walks with me and Andy talks with me. I know my mom, who of course has been many years since childhood, but she said that she understood the words to the prayer went like this, Our Father who art in heaven, Howard be thy name.

So you've got to watch out about these childish misperceptions of things. Alright, we'll move into the passage here. 1 Corinthians 9, we're beginning with the first 14 verses here. One of the things that happens, we mentioned last week that the big issue topic that Paul introduced last week was this sort of matter of conscience. It was presented to him as, should we eat meat that had been offered to idols? One of the points we made is that may not seem as irrelevant as it might first appear.

But what Paul ends up having to deal with in the midst of it is a challenge to his apostleship. They were questioning it, and it appears it was actually kind of a cultural thing. They'd written a series of questions to Paul. They'd apparently kind of sent him a letter, Paul, we got this question and that one and that one. But in the midst of that, they were also questioning Paul's apostleship. They were saying, well, we're not so sure what role you have, and why do you do this, and why do you not do that? And so they questioned him big time.

As a matter of fact, what we're going to find as we continue through our study of 1 and then 2 Corinthians, he continues to address that issue on into 2 Corinthians. And so it is a big one. He defends his apostleship, humbly, yes, but he does defend it and stands on it. And he continues on with the rest of this letter and into the next one, defending his apostleship.

The fact that they were questioning his apostleship, yeah, it was not a good thing. But the reality is God will make good of it for our sakes. God will work it for good, if you will. because we're going to benefit from Paul's defense of his apostleship. So we might ask the question, why do they question his apostleship? So that question is before us. Let's think about it.

Paul, for one, didn't live exactly the same way as all the rest of the apostles. He had some communication with them, and when he checked in, he found that they were on the same page. But in fact, he lived in some different ways. He was dealing with Gentiles. It appeared that he was not married, at least at this point in time, though a number of the other apostles were. There were other patterns of dress and lifestyle that didn't match with the others, so that might have been one thing to lead them to ask questions.

The other thing, and I think this is a big factor, there were four pagan customs about how the teachers and philosophers of the Corinth and other areas under Greek and Roman influence, how they were paid. And those were these. One, some of them charged fees. They would say we'll charge a fee for this many lessons or this much time. Some of the others had wealthy underwriters who would say, hey, I'll pay for you to go out and teach and spread your philosophy. And so they had funding from a wealthy person or group of people and they were supported that way. Others actually just went and begged, just plain begging, and some, as Paul, worked on the side. So there were those four means that were used. Now, it turns out for each that some supported and some criticized each one of those approaches.

Now, of course, one of the reasons for that is because the folks in the Greek culture love to debate. Of course, you don't know anybody like that, right? They loved to debate and, of course, having people that said, well, that has this advantage and this disadvantage, well, that would be, to them, just sport. But there was also that sort of thing in the Jewish culture.

I heard a story once of a rabbi who was asked a question. Some people were discussing among themselves, a group of them, a fairly large group, among themselves, what was a particular tradition? And so they asked the rabbi, Rabbi, please clarify this for us. We don't understand. What is the established tradition? One of the group says, it's this. And the rabbi says, no, that's not the tradition. And another one of the group says, no, it's this. And the rabbi says, no, that's not the tradition.

So then the whole group went into a big argument and furor. And he said, that's the tradition. And of course what would happen here is they would all argue and debate which was the best way. So one of the reasons Paul would be questioned is it's just sport. It's the tradition. Whether you're Jewish or Greek, the argument is the entertainment, right?

So of course we're going to question your apostleship. We're going to see as we go through this passage and subsequent passages, the qualifications of being an apostle. Who qualifies? Who gets to wear the button? That will allow us to discern a rather important question in our own day.

There are people now, today, who claim to be apostles. The Mormon Church, for example, claims to have official apostles. There is also among groups that are of charismatic background those who claim to be apostles. So are they really the Lord's apostles or not?

We're also going to see why the Lord gave the ministry that he did to the apostles and on what basis he would do so. And finally, we're going to gain some insights into the ministries that the Lord has given to each of us. After all, being an apostle was a ministry assignment. And as we're going to see as we continue through this book, each of us is given a ministry or ministries in our life as Christians. That's God's intent. And so we're going to get some insights on our own ministries from looking at what the Lord did with the Apostle Paul.

Now one of the things that Paul lays out here is that believers in the body of Christ have certain freedoms and rights that go along with the ministries that we've been given, as well as we have certain freedoms and rights simply because we're Christians. At times, we will find, it will be wise to decline our rights and our freedoms. Now, that may sound un-American, and I'm glad you're sitting down. But the reality is, while we are big on our rights and big on our freedoms, and I think probably for good cause in our country, the reality is, as Christians, there may be a time to lay those down, both our freedoms and our rights. We're also going to see that while we who are believers of the Church are not under the law of Moses, How many of you brought your ram to sacrifice today?

It's inspired scripture. The Law of Moses is inspired scripture. Remember, Paul wrote to Timothy. All scripture is inspired by God. That included. We can learn from and draw valuable truths from the Law of Moses that apply to the body of Christ. As a matter of fact, when we get into chapter 10, the whole chapter is from the Law of Moses that is to be applied to the body of Christ. We're going to begin to see that here as we look at this passage.

One of the other things you're going to find out is that what Paul writes here is mostly questions. Paul comes up with rhetorical questions. He's done it before in 1 Corinthians. If you've read other books, oh, for example, Romans. One of the things that he does is instead of just telling you this and this and this fact, he asks questions. Don't you know that? Do you not know this?

And so he asks questions in here repeatedly, in some cases more than one question in a verse. His reason for doing so is not to cast doubt on people. It's not because he doesn't know the answer. His reason for doing so is he wants people to think through the very thought process that he's laying out. He says, I've thought through this. I want you to think through it with me.

So the rhetorical questions are found in, we have the list there, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. All but three verses, basically. And then some of those verses have more than one rhetorical question. But certainly, and keep this in mind, when he asks a question, it is not because he doesn't know the answer. The way the Greek is structured, the right answer is built into the question. So he's not wanting you to think, I have no idea, can you tell me? But rather, I want you to think this through and understand as I do.

Paul responds with six reasons. Count them. He responds with six reasons to their questioning of the financial support for his apostleship. See, in this case, what he's addressing initially, he's certainly going to address later on other issues of his apostleship, but right now it's financial support.

That's the one they seem to be coming up with. The first one that he's going to bring up is custom. This is customary in verse 7. The next several verses is where he's going to draw from the law of Moses. He's going to draw some principles from the law of Moses. No, he's not going to put them under law, but he's going to draw principles that apply to the church that are drawn from the law.

Thirdly, he is going to say there is a reciprocity of physical support for spiritual support. We'll get into the details of that when we get to verse 11. He's going to make reference to other spiritual leaders that they're supporting. and why not support him? After all, he is an apostle, which is a great import in importance in the body of Christ. He's going to give the example of the Jewish priests, how they are supported in their ministry. And then finally, Jesus' own teachings in verse 14 is where he'll end his series of reasonings here.

Now, I do not expect you to read that. Isn't that nice? This is a chart that we'll hand out to you in large scale because it prints out on like an 11 by 17 or something about a month from now. For now, we'll focus on this, which is on page one of your handout, and it's a chart that lists the gifts that were in place during the apostolic era, that is during the era that the Apostles were around.

That was a foundational era and we'll encounter it when we get to chapter 12. There are essentially two lists that are given there. Romans also lists some of those as well as Ephesians chapter 4. So the Apostles the one on the list, that is an apostolic era gifts. One of the things we'll be getting into, we won't cover it all now, one of the things we'll be getting into there is the fact that the Apostles, along with a great many of these other gifts, all these on the list, were gifts that were given for a particular era, largely because the New Testament was not completed. They needed revelation right for the time and for the circumstances to answer the questions that they didn't have the New Testament available to help them answer. And so we'll get there when we get to chapter 12 in a little over a month here.

So what's an apostle? What's an apostle? This word apostle in New Testament times meant a special messenger. A special messenger. It wasn't just a general messenger. Sometimes people have a position where they just, you know, here, take this, send this there, take this message here, and all they're doing is kind of running around passing messages along. This word means something more particular than that. Probably our English word ambassador conveys a similar meaning, not identical, but close.

It's a messenger who is sent with a special purpose in having a delegated authority. That is this Apostle. And when I say that, that's this Apostle with a capital A. When I talk about certainly various people can be sent for a special purpose, but these are ones, as we'll soon see, appointed by the Lord himself. for the Lord's special purpose. Paul writes to the church at Galatia, he says, Paul an apostle, and we have there in parentheses, not sent from men nor through the agency of man but through Jesus Christ, particularly sent by the Lord himself. That's his delegated authority from the Lord himself. We have on page two of your handout, at least I sure hope it's on page two, The necessary qualifications of an apostle.

One of those, and we have a few passages listed here, an apostle had success in evangelism. The Lord particularly blessed them with success in evangelism. Now that wasn't the only thing that they did. There is also a gift of evangelism still present with us now. But they, among other things, had success in evangelism. And they were able to go out both near and far. and give the gospel that people would respond. They also had a capacity to suffer patiently. To suffer patiently. To persevere through trials.

What's interesting, I give a quote there of Acts 9.16.

In Acts 9.16, and by the way, that's the chapter where Paul first becomes a believer.

He is confronted by the Lord. And as the Lord is speaking to Ananias, one of the things he says is that this guy Paul is going to suffer for me. Isn't that an interesting thing? He says, okay, this guy just became a believer and he is just going to be appointed by me, but guess what, Ananias? He's going to suffer for me. That is part of his being an apostle. Received his gift and office by a sovereign decision of God. It wasn't something that he just woke up one day and thought, hey, I know. I won't be a fireman. I won't be an Indian chief or a policeman. I'll be an apostle. It wasn't like that.

It was God's decision to put them in that place. They also had to have been an eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus Christ. The original 12 listed in Acts chapter 1 were witnesses here. But Paul was a witness, as he says here in the first verse, have I not seen Christ myself? The description of that is in Acts chapter 9. Later on in Acts he describes that same event twice. He is an eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, endowed with power to perform signs, wonders, and miracles. Paul himself will put that as a requirement in 2 Corinthians 12, 12. But in addition to that, Hebrews 2, 3, and 4 talks about how these apostles displayed and verified their apostleship with signs and wonders. They also have, in addition to that, an authorization to author and to be a foundation.

They wrote the books of the New Testament, not every single one of them, but all the books of the New Testament are either written directly by an apostle, we have obviously this one by Paul that we're studying now, either written directly by an apostle or sponsored by an apostle. What do I mean by sponsored? Here's Luke who wrote over a quarter of the New Testament. He wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, both, relatively speaking, lengthy books. Who was his sponsor?

The Apostle Paul. One of the reasons that we know that, Paul writes in his letters about Luke, the beloved physician, one that he spent time with. And at certain places towards the end of Acts, Luke writes, not just Paul did this and this person did that, but we, first person. So here's Luke alongside Paul. Similar for other books in the New Testament, not written directly by an apostle. They were sponsored by an apostle. There was an apostle alongside the author. So we have that as true of all of the books of the New Testament.

There was also this verse in Ephesians 2.20, it says the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church. So once the church is founded, God doesn't keep adding more to the foundation. Eight years ago, when I first came here, I wrote this song, and we never sang it, but I thought I'd do it anyway. It goes like this.

Apostles and prophets, they gave us the facts and wrote the epistles, the Gospels and Acts. These are the gifts that our dear Lord gave, the body to build, the laws to save. We're not to be tossed by wind and wave, but growing in Him because our Lord gave. And the next verses evangelist telling the good news to all how Jesus the Savior can save from the fall. And the third verse, the shepherds as teachers equipping the flock, explaining the word were built on the rock.

The Lord, particularly and interestingly enough, in this passage, Ephesians four says that the apostles are a gift. Isn't that interesting? We talk about spiritual gifts and we frequently think of, well, the Lord gave me a gift. But what's clear in this passage is that the apostles are actually a gift from Christ to the church. Isn't that interesting? Not just a spiritual gift that the apostle received from the Lord, but that apostle as a person is a gift to the body.

Starting in verse 1, Paul begins with four questions. Remember I said he had lots of questions? This is one where he's got four. All of them have an implied yes answer in the original language. And he says, am I not free? Paul's not talking about free as in no cost. Matter of fact, he's talking here about supporting him financially, so that can't be what he means. He's talking instead about Christian liberty. Do I not have Christian liberty? liberty as an apostle. But he says, am I not an apostle?

Paul was, according to all the qualifications that we spelled out here in the previous slides, was fully qualified as an apostle of Christ, as were the others. Every single one of those things, when you look at, is he qualified? Did he write scripture? Was he a foundation? Yep, all the way down the line. He fits the qualifications and descriptions at every point.

Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? As a matter of fact, one thing in Paul's case, it was seeing Christ the Lord for the very first time that turned him around. Later on in the book of Acts, he said, when I had a chance, I voted for death for those Christians. All of a sudden, he's willing to put his life on the line, risk death. And yes, ultimately it came to that. He would do so, why? He says, I've seen Jesus our Lord. That's why. He says, I know the truth.

Are you not my work in the Lord? Is not my job founding churches and evangelizing? And have I not done that with you? Are you not the very ones your existence testifies to my apostleship? In verse 2, what if unbelievers think differently? The believers in Corinth were using the same criteria to measure, as did some of the other unbelievers, whether their own church's founder, Paul, was really, truly, actually an apostle.

As believers, we need not be caught up in this world's values. How does this world measure things spiritually? How does this world measure even coming to church? How does this world see it? How does this world view it? We don't have to value things the way the world does, right? God has made it very clear what is true. He's revealed it for us. What the world thinks, the world's opinion, isn't what guides us. And here, it's not wrong to have rights. As a believer, you do have rights.

Paul has them. While Paul does not insist upon and boldly claim all of his rights, and by the way, I'm sure that was one of the things they picked upon, a reason to question his apostleship. Paul, you're not claiming all the rights of an apostle, therefore are you one? He makes it clear that he does have a right to them, along with the other apostles, whether he chooses to exercise the right or not. His rights include to have meals as part of the support of the church body, to be provided for in that way. Secondly, to take along a believing wife. I've got a couple of points here.

One is the apostles could have believing wife. It appears from any evidence we have that Paul did not. First Corinthians chapter 7 that we studied not too long ago, he was speaking as if he was single. Repeatedly he spoke as if he was single. But there's one other thing to make note of. Notice he doesn't just say a wife. What does he say about the wife? a believing wife. It's another indicator. We ask the question, should a believer marry an unbeliever? The answer is no. And so even here you have this qualification to the wife, a believing wife, and to provide for her by the body's support. Thirdly, to be supported and not work separately as Paul sometimes did in tent making or other labors.

And so he did have those rights. Did he always exercise them? No. One of the things that he did is he remained single. Did he have a right to take along a wife? Yeah, as other apostles did. But he didn't claim that right. He also did some tent making, but at times he did not. It was a right not to work that he didn't always claim.

In verse 7, he uses three illustrations of occupations, of people who have a yield from their work or are supported for their work. The one being a soldier, next a farmer actually gives an example of a vineyard, and then finally a herdsman. Paul uses these word pictures here of the soldier, the farmer, the herdsman. Each have an opportunity to receive physical provision in return for their service or labor. He asks, does the soldier serve at his own expense? No. Do not the one working in the vineyard and the one working with the flocks, do not they get a yield from the field or the flocks that they're working with. It's customary for each of those three occupations to be supported for or by what they do. And so he gives that as an example. A return for their service and labor in battle or in the field. In verses 8 and 9, he goes into a three-verse stretch here.

Learn from the law that you're not under the law. Paul made it very clear in numerous places as he wrote, and he's going to do it with the Corinthians, that they are not under law. But still, it is fitting to draw principles and truth from the law. Remember, we completed not too long ago a study in Genesis. Genesis is the first of the five books of the law. It is actually considered a part of the law. Moses wrote it, the one to whom the law was given, and some of the law that the Jews counted on and count upon today is drawn from the book of Genesis. So we studied the first book of the law when we went through that. We drew passages from it and truths from it. We drew principles from it, though we're not under the law.

One of the places that Paul draws from, Deuteronomy 25.4, prohibited the Jews from muzzling the oxen that threshed their grain for them. He says that's the principle there in the Old Testament. What they would do is they would have the oxen be working in the grain, kind of as you see here in the picture, and the oxen, of course, could also eat from that as well. Similarly, people who work in the field with the oxen should work and be motivated, as Paul lays out in the passage, by hope. Not a matter of, we're working here, but I don't know if we're going to eat. But rather instead that there is a yield that they should be able to have access to as well.

Now, he brings in the principle of sowing and reaping. I want to make clear that's not sowing and ripping. Not the same thing. Paul presented the principle of sowing and reaping a few times in his letters and we have a couple of examples here that I passed along. There are others.

But we saw it in Galatians chapter 6 and we see it here in chapter 9 of Corinthians. In this instance, an apostle who is sowing spiritually is due a harvest by reaping in terms of physical support. So it's simply a matter of I sow spiritually, I should have a right to reap. physically. There's a reciprocity in the physical and spiritual realms.

There's also the practice of others. The Corinthians had apparently provided support for other people who had worked among them in various capacities. And they were teaching and perhaps carrying on other labors. Paul writes to them later on in this letter about some of the involvement of others who are being supported.

And Paul says, well, I'm an apostle, and certainly that has a priority in some degree higher than even the ones you're already supporting. So if you're supporting them, it makes sense that you should support me in my apostleship. So there's no good reason why he should be treated differently, is his point here. If that's what you're doing with them, certainly as an apostle I ought to be similarly supported.

Then we have, like priests in the temple, in the temple in Jerusalem, And Corinth did have a significant minority, as I think the best way to put it, of Jews. Those Jews would have a practice and tradition of going back to Israel to go to the temple. And so they would be able to tell the others about, here's how the way it's carried out. The priests in the temple there in Jerusalem were supported by those who participated in the temple rites and ceremonies.

They carried that on. Certainly, those who are working in the church are due similar support. And Paul here was not of the tribe of Levi, that was the requirement for priests, so he's not even trying to get them to abide by the law. He's saying, I'm not of the tribe of Levi, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin, and this is not the temple. But the principle of support applies. They minister in this way, I minister in this way among you, and so that principle of ministry support ought to apply. And finally, in verse 14, Christ also taught this principle. How did he do that?

As he was sending out the Twelve, this you'll find in Matthew chapter 10, also recorded in Luke chapter 10, The Lord sent out the disciples two by two and he gave them instructions about how they were to go out. Go out only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Do not go on a road to Gentiles. But included in that, and I quote here from Matthew 10, 9 and 10, do not acquire gold or silver or copper for your money belts or a bag for your journey or even two coats or sandals or a staff. for the worker is worthy of his support." So Paul is drawing upon that and the similar passage in Luke chapter 10 and saying, that is what the Lord instructed the disciples. I too ought to be able to look for support for the work that I'm doing. As we go through this passage, there's a couple of points I think would be worthy for us to kind of revisit and look at particularly.

In verse 12 of the passage there, it says, Nevertheless, we do not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. Even though as believers we have freedom and we have rights, under grace it may be times for a believer to set aside that freedom and that right in order not to cause a hindrance for the gospel of Christ. We have the liberty to do so, but we set it aside. Why? For the sake of the gospel. Claiming a freedom or a right may at times provide a hindrance to the gospel, and so we set it aside.

Here's something very interesting about grace. Grace may actually require us to do or not do something when the law hasn't even thought of it. Isn't that interesting? There may not be enough laws to cover all the situations that we might encounter. As we step into the culture around us and as we work among ourselves, certainly we have all kinds of freedom in Christ. We're not under law, but for the love of the brother or sister that I'm with, that I'm working with, It may be best to refrain from certain things. It may be best to say, no, not in this circumstance. Do I have the right and the freedom? Yeah. Do I set it aside for love and out of grace? Yeah. That may be called upon. One more thing.

He starts off in the first verse there, Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Put yourself, if it's at all possible, in the position of Paul. He hates Christians. He wants those Christians dead. His living, his breathing, his eating, everything is, get these guys off the face of the earth. Later on in Acts, as we mentioned, he voted every chance, kill them. Wherever he had the opportunity, get rid of them.

Here he encounters the Lord Jesus Christ and is radically changed. Radically changed. One of the reasons that we are gathering together this morning is for our own time of seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, beholding the Lord through his word. Each one of us is called also to see the Lord and to be changed because of it. To see the Lord by beholding him through his word and to be transformed into his image. It's interesting, this word transformed. It's not something that we do. We do the beholding, but the Lord does the transforming.

The Lord is changing us, growing us, into the image of Jesus Christ as a consequence of beholding the Lord Jesus Christ through his word, even as we gather here this morning. You see, the Lord is not particularly concerned that we check off the list that I go to church today. Okay, that's good, right? Matter of fact, You know, as great as it is to have a nice place like this, especially on a cold day, as great as it is to have a place like this to gather, it doesn't warm the cockles of God's heart for us to just gather inside this building because it's some special building. But what the Lord does pay attention to is that we're beholding Him through His Word, that we're looking to Him.

And He says, I will do the transforming. if you'll behold me through my work." He says, I'll do the transforming. We'll take care of that. You do the beholding. Beholding the Lord through His Word. You see, it's the same risen Lord Jesus Christ that Paul beheld that we're beholding through His Word. That's God's intent. That's God's purpose. Have you seen Jesus, our Lord, this morning? I hope so.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at your word here this morning, you've given us insight into Paul's and the other apostles' apostleship, an insight into ministry, an insight even into the way we as believers interact with one another and into the ministries you've given each one of us. And as we take time to be together after the service has ended, there's a service that's just beginning, an encouragement of one another, all of us having beheld you through your word. We just thank you for the honor and privilege that we have and your amazing, marvelous grace. In Jesus' name, amen.