LAUNCH: LIFE PASSION Bible Fellowship Curriculum Passion #3: Missional Living February 2, 2014

Transcription

1 LAUNCH: LIFE PASSION Bible Fellowship Curriculum Passion #3: Missional Living February 2, 2014 Introduction Helping one another trade a checklist faith for real life with Jesus. The more we think about that purpose statement, whether it be as an individual, family, or church, the more we realize that fulfilling it means we change the way we live. For those of us (like me) who process change slowly, the much anticipated next question is, What kind of change are we talking about? How much? As we prepare for the new vision for our church and who we will be for the foreseeable future, these questions long to be answered. In reality, the best way to talk about the change required of us is not how much? but how deep? The change that is the most critical in growing into our purpose is oddly imperceptible. The reason it is so imperceptible is because it does not consist of a certain program change, volume of service, or any other tangible enhancement. It is much deeper, in our core. The change is in the way we perceive the most important priorities of our lives. This is where the trade of checklist faith for real life with Jesus occurs. This is what we mean when we talk about missional living. This week, as we move to our third passion, missional living, the change in our priorities is brought to bear. Priorities is not to mean that we change the order in which we execute the various tasks we need to accomplish. Rather, it redefines what we believe to be the most important driving element in our lives. The drive to complete our daily list of tasks is replaced by our drive to find the opportunities to demonstrate Christ to others that are embedded in those tasks. To help us understand what that looks like in real life, we are going to look at Paul s explanation of his ministry to the congregation at Corinth. In doing so, we see with clarity what the apostle held most sacred about his missionary ministry. Biblical Background The church at Corinth was perhaps Paul s most difficult congregation. The church was composed of both significant numbers of Jews and Gentiles, which not only brought about natural divisions in the church, but also placed tension in the way different groups embraced freedom in Christ. With only the Galatian church as a possible exception, Paul s direct tone and corrective intention toward the wayward church surpasses his other writings in severity of discipline and aggressive nature. Understanding the Corinthian culture offers significant insight into the condition of the church. Corinth was a major commercial hub due to its geographic position along seaports and trade routes. The trade industry brought people groups from across the world to Corinth, resulting in a culture that was a conglomeration of various religious practices, cults, and lifestyles. The

2 wealth and decadence in Corinth led to a prominent immorality to the degree that throughout that area of the world, sexual sin was commonly referred to as Corinthianizing. The cosmopolitan society also led to rampant elitism. One of the primary means of entertainment in Corinth was for citizens to follow itinerate speakers known as Sophists, who made a profitable living traveling from city to city and lecturing on new ideologies and philosophies. The citizens would rank themselves according to the speaker they became disciples of. Within this environment, the Corinthian believers had become likewise severely fragmented. We see in the first chapter that they had begun to align themselves according to the preachers that they believed to be the most gifted (imagine). In addition, they had divided sharply over socio-economic lines. The rich came to eat the Lord s Supper before the poor, leaving nothing for their poor upon their arrival. The church divided themselves in hierarchical leadership according to what spiritual gift they manifested in service to the body. The cultural immorality resulted in adulterous relationships throughout the church, which was greeted with winking approval instead of reproach. The life of Paul stood in sharp contrast to their debauchery and elitism. He was not a powerful speaker by their estimation. He placed no emphasis on privilege and entitlement. Instead, he worked with his hands, bore the physical marks of persecution, and led a disciplined life. The result of such a difference was the Corinthians questioning Paul s legitimacy as an apostle. Not surprisingly, then, Paul spends a significant amount of time in his correspondence with the Corinthians defending his ministry and call to be an apostle. In our passage for this week, we look at one of those moments in 1 Corinthians 9: The Text In the verses leading up to our passage, Paul is exhaustively defending the servant posture he has taken up among the elitist group of believers in Corinth. He also defends the holy origin of his calling. Finally, as he draws his defense to a close, Paul turns his focus to the driving purpose of his life as the primary explanation for the difference between he and the Corinthian congregation. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. (1 Corinthians 9:19) Paul, having spent the first 18 verses of the chapter explaining both what his rights as an apostle should be and why he refused to take advantage of them, now makes clear that he is under no one s authority and bound by no one s expectations. Nevertheless, though he is bound by no one due to the freedom that is his in Christ, Paul claims what the Corinthian believers found so difficult to understand: he made himself a servant. While Paul should have enjoyed privilege and luxury beyond anyone else in Corinth even by drawing his living from them he freely relinquished it all.

3 As though he anticipated the incredulity of his listeners and their logical follow-up question, Paul explains the reason for his radical rejection of his rights so that he might win more of them. The driving purpose of his life is the mission that was given him on the road to Damascus in a personal encounter with the risen Christ. Regardless of what else was at stake and what other factors contributed to his present circumstances, the most important thing was winning more of them. At this point, Paul specifically points out to his listeners who them is. First, he refers to those in the region of Jewish heritage: 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. (1 Corinthians 9:20) What Paul is referring to is the manner in which he conducted himself in the presence of the Jews. As a Jew himself, he knew the importance of acting with propriety and observance with regard to Mosaic law. To prevent his freedom in Christ from becoming a stumbling block, Paul embraced Jewish observance of customs in light of its fuller meaning in the work of Christ. Paul is careful to note for his listeners that the singular reason for his doing this was to win them. He was under no requirement or compulsion whatsoever to do so. But, because his life was driven by his mission, his rights paled in importance to removing the blockades for winning the Jews. Second, Paul turns his attention to the Gentiles. To make his previous point more emphatic, he also refers to Gentiles with regard to their relationship to 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. (1 Corinthians 9:21) This particular distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles in the church s reach emphasizes the factions within the congregation receiving the letter. Instead of referring to winning Jews and Gentiles, which would have been clear enough, Paul focuses the identity distinctive of the two groups on the way they understand worship and observance of religious practices. The Jewish Christians in the congregation would have resonated with the yet-to-bewon Jew. Therefore, circumcision, food laws, and other ceremonies that were critical to Jewish observance would be readily accepted by Jewish believers. On the other hand, the Gentile believers who did not seek to observe Jewish law did not have the same traditions in their background. So Paul approached them differently. While frequently viewed as second-class believers in the early church, Paul makes it clear that Gentiles need not feel that way because ultimately all believers are under the law of Christ. In addition to pointing out the mission of his life and the manner in which he carries it out, then, Paul is also methodically seeking to bring restoration and unity to the splintered Corinthian congregation.

4 In restoring unity, still one group remained to be addressed. The third group that Paul mentioned, the weak, is a bit less obvious in its identification. A careful examination of context can help us with this, though. 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. (1 Corinthians 9:22) We understand who Paul was referring to with this label by backing up to chapter 8. In the discussion of whether or not believers should be allowed to partake of meat offered to idols in pagan worship, Paul separates the warring parties into the strong and the weak. The strong were those who could embrace the freedom that was theirs in Christ and eat the meat in a pagan temple with no sense of wrongdoing. After all, the pagan god was no god at all, so for the strong believer, there was nothing wrong with the meat. The weak, however, were those believers whose conscience experienced burden and conviction at the thought of doing so. Because of their more legalistic scruples, eating the meat in the pagan temple was a significant stumbling block. That meaning of weak is what Paul is implying here. Paul s point is that when he is aware that certain behavior or activity would prevent the winning of others, he will forego those activities and behaviors though he has no issue with them personally. He is more than willing to do so because of his missional approach to life. Paul recognizes that when viewed through the filter of freedom in Christ, all of these are preferences. They are not normative behaviors that must be carried out to be faithful to Christ. That being the case, Paul is eager to lay aside all personal preference for the sake of pursuing the mission for which Christ has called him. In the unlikely event that the Corinthians are unsure what Paul understands missional living to look like, he summarizes it one more time. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:23) Missional living means helping others share with us in the blessing of the gospel. It is as true for us as it was for Paul. The Text in Life Paul offers us invaluable clarity with regard to living missionally. His entire life was lived on the premise that the only thing that mattered was fulfilling the mission of God on his life: leading others to faith in Christ. Everything else was subjected to that. The rights he should have enjoyed as an apostle and a Roman citizen were subjected to his missional approach to life. His ability to draw a salary as a missionary of Christ from those he preached and ministered was subjected to that. His ability to enjoy certain types of food and drink were subjected to that. Everything he did was filtered through living that mission. When we say that one of our passions in missional living, it means that we want to live our lives in such a way that the preeminent thing we see if how God is going to use us each day, in every moment, to bring glory to Him and the gospel to others. It means looking for the way God might be moving in each conversation we have. It means running our businesses in such a way that they are distinctive from businesses that are run by those who don t know Christ. It means leading our families to see how God is at work all around them. It means cultivating

5 relationships with those who don t know Christ so that we might have the opportunity to share with them. One of the most difficult things for us to do as believers sometimes is to differentiate between the aspects of our spiritual lives that are mandates that must be followed to be faithful to Christ, and those that are deeply held preferences. To be certain, Paul was not advocating a wholesale compromise at all costs for the sake of appealing to the culture. Rather, as scholar Craig Blomberg clarifies, in the morally gray areas of life, such as eating food sacrificed to idols, and their numerous cultural equivalents in any era, Paul bends over backwards to be sensitive to the non-christian mores of society around him so as not to hinder people from accepting the gospel. Understand that the preferences that Paul was addressing in this passage were not just habits or expendable observations. If they weren t deeply ingrained preferences that formed a significant portion of each group s religious identity, Paul wouldn t have had to address them so forthrightly. The only way such sacredly held preferences were going to be released was to understand a greater reality that was at stake. That greater reality is unsaved people coming to faith in Jesus it was for Paul and it is for us. At the beginning of this lesson we talked about the best way to describe this type of change was how deep. The preferences that Paul addressed would have had deep roots in each one of the groups. The last thing they wanted to do was uproot them. And we know, incidentally, that since there is a 2 nd Corinthians, that uprooting them took considerable effort. But it is effort well spent for the sake of the Gospel. To be clear, preferences are not necessarily bad. But, just like anything else, when they are allowed to supplant the spreading of the Gospel in importance for the people of God, missional living has taken a backseat to checklist faith. Missional living means that we are aware of how God is moving and will remove anything to be a part of it. That s what real life with Jesus is. Below are some questions that will help you think about this passage and lesson with your group or as personal study: Discussion Questions: 1. If you were going to explain missional living to a friend who had never heard the term, how would you do it? What are the key components you would be sure to mention? 2. What percentage of your relationships is currently with those who don t yet know Christ? 3. When you think about your day tomorrow, what are the things that you know must get done? How does viewing your day through a missional living lens change the way you see it? 4. Paul mentioned the three primary groups he dealt with in Corinth (Jew, Gentile, and the weak). In your spheres of influence, how many different groups do you influence on a weekly basis? What are each group s distinctive customs/habits? 5. Describe the last time a conversation you had with someone unexpectedly turned into an opportunity to share your faith. How did you handle the conversation? 6. In verse 23, Paul speaks of his motivation for missional living wanting to share with them in its blessing. Who felt this so strongly that they led you to Christ? How did that conversation start? 7. How does this missional approach to living color the mission statement you are working on for yourself and/or your family?