Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Formal Elements / Descriptive Data

Exegetical Outline of Chapter 9:

I.

The Source of Paul's Power in Ministry (1 Cor.

9:1-12).

A. Paul's Answer of Proof of His Calling (1 Cor.

9:1-5).

B. Paul's Answer of Provision for His Calling (1 Cor.

9:6-9).

C. Paul's Assurance of God's Promise for His Calling (1 Cor.

9:10-12).

II.

His Selfless Pattern of Service (1 Cor.

9:13-23).

A. Self-Denial for God's Glory (1 Cor.

9:13-16).

B. Sweet Submission in Service for the Gospel (1 Cor.

9:17-18).

C. Serving All to Save Some (1 Cor.

9:19-23).

III.

Passionate Striving for a Stephanos (i.e., “crown”) (1 Cor.

9:24-27).

A. Saying No to Lusts - for the Prize of the High Calling of God (1 Cor.

9:24-25).

B. Staying on Course - for the Prize of the High Calling of God (1 Cor.

9:26).

C. Self-discipline - for the Prize of the High Calling of God (1 Cor.

9:27).

CIT & Proposition:

1 Corinthians 9

SUBJECT: How does Paul instruct the Corinthian church that a disciplined Christian should serve?

COMPLEMENT: As one who forgoes rights and privileges in the effort to edify the struggling believer and win those outside the faith, as Paul himself did.

EXEGETICAL IDEA: Paul instructs the Corinthian church that a disciplined Christian should serve as one who forgoes rights and privileges in the effort to edify the struggling believer and win those outside the faith, as Paul himself did.

HOMILETICAL IDEA: We can afford to give up our privileges in order to be servants building up the body of Christ.

[Joel C. Gregory, “1 Corinthians,” in The Big Idea Companion for Preaching and Teaching: A Guide from Genesis to Revelation, ed.

Matthew D. Kim and Scott M. Gibson (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2021), 484.]

Sub-intro/Context:

Serving All People (9:19–23)

In this paragraph Paul explains his purpose in denying himself remuneration; he feels that doing so benefits the gospel in Corinth.

He explains that his desire in denying himself is to help all sorts of people to receive the gospel.

He wants to make things conducive to evangelism.

It is important to recognize that Paul is not saying it is right or proper to disobey God in order to advance the gospel (see 7:19; 1 John 5:2).

He is speaking about areas of freedom, not requirements laid down by God.

9:19 Paul explains that his freedom doesn’t relieve him of the responsibility to love.

He has wholeheartedly accepted this and lives his life serving all sorts of people, to win them to Christ.

9:20 Paul explains what the principle of love means when he deals with Jews.

He conforms to Jewish practices in order to not be an unnecessary offense to them.

Thus he conforms to Jewish practices with Jews in order to advance the gospel among them.

He confesses, however, that he is not under obligation to keep the ceremonial observances of the Jewish law (see Col 2:16–17; Heb 10:1, 4).

9:21 Paul explains what the principle of love means when he deals with gentiles.

He doesn’t live like a Jew but lives as gentiles do when among gentiles, again, in order to not be an unnecessary offense to them.

Thus he conforms to (morally good or neutral) gentile practices when among gentiles in order to win them to Christ.

Paul emphasizes that he is not outside God’s law but under “the law of Christ” (i.e., the moral law of God as administered to humanity under Christ; see 7:19; 1 John 5:2).

Paul upholds the law of God (Rom 3:31) and undoubtedly agrees with the psalmist—“How I love God’s law!” (Ps 119:97).

9:22 Earlier Paul told the Corinthians to not use their liberty if it meant hurting weak or ignorant believers (8:11–13).

Here he says he follows the same practice.

Paul conforms his own practices to that of others in neutral matters, not because he is indecisive but because he loves people.

He wants to make a smooth path for the Lord to enter their lives, and he does so by removing whatever obstacles he can remove.

9:23 Paul’s main goal in life is to advance the gospel of Christ and the message of grace (Acts 20:24).

His policy toward neutral matters, or gray areas, reflects this one, overarching, and driving passion.

Paul wants the Corinthians (and all believers) to share this passion and to adopt his worldview; he wants them to practice love for God and others, and he wants them to love souls.

[Douglas Mangum, ed., Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament, Lexham Context Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020), 1 Co 9:19–23.]

Statement of Purpose:

Major Objective: Ethical

Specific Objective: I want my hearers to re-enlist themselves to self-sacrificing accommodation and adaptation toward all that some might be saved by the gospel.

Title:

Serving All to Save Some (1 Cor.

9:19-23)

Informal Elements / Rhetorical Data

Opening Illustration: All Things to All Men

The extent to which sheer frivolity and utterly inane amusement have been carried in connection with some places of worship would almost exceed belief.…

There can be no doubt that all sorts of entertainments, as nearly as possible approximating to stage-plays, have been carried on in connection with places of worship, and are, at this present time in high favour.

Can these things promote holiness, or help in communion with God? Can men come away from such things and plead with God for the salvation of sinners and the sanctification of believers?

We loathe to touch the unhallowed subject; it seems so far removed from the walk of faith and the way of heavenly fellowship.

In some cases the follies complained of are even beneath the dignity of manhood, and fitter for the region of the imbecile than for thoughtful men.

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I doubt there has ever been anyone like Sister Paula in the entire history of Christianity.

She describes herself as “an open transsexual Christian, preaching the gospel… .

Tammy Faye with a 5 o’clock shadow.”2

Sister Paula was born Larry Nielsen, and supposedly became a Christian “in 1950, as a 12-year-old innately effeminate boy.”

After Larry became Paula in a sex-change operation a few years ago, a female Pentecostal televangelist friend urged Larry/Paula to start a television ministry.

People magazine described Sister Paula as fifty-three years old, six-feet-one-and-a-half-inches tall, “built like a linebacker.”3

Can you imagine anything more incongruous or more profane than a transsexual evangelist?

Yet Sister Paula believes she can have a more effective ministry to people in our generation than the typical “straight” Christian using nothing but the gospel.

Sister Paula’s ministry philosophy is fundamentally the same strategy the church marketing experts advocate, though thankfully, none of them would want to see it taken to such an extreme.

The notion that the church must become like the world to win the world has taken evangelicalism by storm.

Virtually every modern worldly attraction has a “Christian” counterpart.

We have Christian motorcycle gangs, Christian bodybuilding teams, Christian dance clubs, Christian amusement parks, and I even read about a Christian nudist colony.

Where did Christians ever get the idea we could win the world by imitating it?

Is there a shred of biblical justification for that kind of thinking?

Many church marketing specialists affirm that there is, and they have convinced a myriad of pastors.

Ironically, they usually cite the apostle Paul as someone who advocated adapting the gospel to the tastes of the audience.

One has written, “Paul provided what I feel is perhaps the single most insightful perspective on marketing communications, the principle we call contextualization (1 Corinthians 9:19–23).

Paul … was willing to shape his communications according to their needs in order to receive the response he sought.”4

“The first marketeer was Paul,” another echoes.5

After all, the apostle did write,

“22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

23 And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.”

Is that a mandate for pragmatism in ministry?

Was the apostle Paul suggesting that the gospel message can be made to appeal to people by accommodating their relish for certain amusements or by pampering their pet vices?

How far do you suppose he would have been willing to go with the principle of “contextualization”?

The Great Non-Negotiable

This much is very clear: the apostle Paul was no people-pleaser.

He wrote,

Paul did not amend or abridge his message to make people happy.

He was utterly unwilling to try to remove the offense from the gospel (Gal.

5:11).

He did not use methodology that catered to the lusts of his listeners.

He certainly did not follow the pragmatic philosophy of modern market-driven ministers.

What made Paul effective was not marketing savvy, but a stubborn devotion to the truth.

He was Christ’s ambassador, not His press secretary.

Truth was something to be declared, not negotiated.