Vintage21 Church

Pastor Tyler · Joined: 08 Feb 2008 Posts: 92 Location: Downtown Raleigh

Here is the passage for this week's sermon (2/17/08). Spend some time in it this weekend:

I Corinthians 9:19-23
19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 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. 21 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. 22 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. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
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Pastor Tyler

Whitney Chambers · Joined: 15 Feb 2008 Posts: 24

I've been stumped by this passage of scripture the few times that I've read it or heard it in the past. Hearing it taught on Sunday helped illuminate more of what God is saying through Paul than I've understood before. The idea of leading a "radical life" has struck me over and over again since becoming a follower of Jesus. But too often I end up feeling like a ball of energy with no direction to head into. And nobody else to go with me.

Though I still don't think I get these verses completely, it seems to me that the idea of community becomes really essential to this idea of "becoming all things to all" as a way of helping people find salvation. It's the idea of me not being able to go it alone, needing support from others doing the same work to help continually guide and encourage as we all go step-by-step in this way.

The examples of Timothy and Titus, for instance, stand out in these guys wanting to contextually and relevantly enter into the culture of the groups they went to live with.

Timothy and Titus and Paul were just individual people that God made much use of to move the gospel to more places. How does the idea of community fit into this?

I certainly can't see any use in considering the group/community effort without first hoping for individuals to awaken to the call Paul is voicing in 1 Corinthians 9. After all, what makes up a group except individuals. But after feeling the pull to become radical or do something radical myself, I've then experienced a frustrating sense of futility from not knowing where to start or who will go with me.

Anyone else? And is a community where God will show us the details of the plans He has?
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Interested in the prayer ministry? Email me: prayer at vintage21 dot com!

Rob Davis · Joined: 23 Jan 2008 Posts: 90 Location: Raleigh, NC

Eric Butler · Joined: 09 Feb 2008 Posts: 56

I've been thinking about this sense of a call to action that I've heard in both of the last two sermons. I've found, for me, that this is integrally linked to how I think about the gospel.

Critically, in my experience, is how complete I think Christ's work is. Throughout the history of the Church there have been movements which say, in essence, "God has a ship prepared to take us away from here, go down to the dock and wait for it to leave." This is a message which stresses that Christ's work is done - the story is over, we're waiting for God to get around to closing the book. It's also one which fails to inspire action.

Recently my reading has introduced me to a different view. It seems that Jesus ties together a number of Jewish expectations and fulfills them, but not all the way. The dead are raised - but very few of them. Disease is healed - but not all of it. Demons are driven away and Satan is dealt a crippling blow - but Satan still walks the earth and his minions still inflict Adam's children. The people have been set right with God, a new covenant has been established, and the Spirit rests on the people - but people still sin, the covenant is still followed inconsistently, and the people listen to the Spirit poorly. The Kingdom of God is here, but it is also coming - here in part, coming in fullness.

When I read the Acts or the Epistles I get this sense of great energy. It seems to me that the apostles saw that God had opened a new chapter, the last chapter, and had asked them to see to it that it was written well. That we live not as those who have seen the end, but as those who are supposed to be working towards the end - the end in which God's Kingdom is over the whole earth. Not, of course, that we can accomplish this ourselves, but that, like Moses, or Joshua, or Elijah, we have been given power by God for God's ends (and that God will, at the end, finish the story in person).

I don't know if I've articulated this well at all, but I find that seeing the gospel in this way introduces a real tension and a need for action. I feel that it reminds us that God has not closed the book because there is work to be done, and the only question we can ask, as God's people, who have been God's agents throughout history, is "what is the work God would have us do?" That it is impossible to see Christianity as a passive thing in this light.