Yesterday marked the anniversary of the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision that opened the floodgates for abortion in America. It was on January 22, 1973 that the US Supreme Court handed down its decision that women had the constitutional right to an abortion. Nearly four decades later, the argument rages on — and so does the deaths of little ones. The national abortion rate is now over twenty percent. Just last week it was reported that the abortion rate in New York City is over forty percent. The abortion industry now claims over a million unborn lives each year.
Almost a week ago, we observed Martin Luther King’s birthday. I find it sad that now many people who mark King’s birthday also mourn the legal decision of Roe vs. Wade. Our country tends to be either/or on these holidays rather than both/and. For example, among African-Americans in New York City, nearly sixty percent have had abortions. It’s a tragedy that not many of those who support civil rights for minorities also support the civil rights of the pre-unborn.
Slavery
1. Dred Scott Decision 1857: 7-2 Decision
2. Blacks Are Non-Persons
3. Blacks Are Property of Owner
4. Owner Has a Right to Buy, Sell, Kill
5. Abolitionists Should Not Impose Their Morality on Slave Owners
6. Slavery Is Legal
Abortion
1. Roe v. Wade 1973: 7-2 Decision
2. Unborn Are Non-Persons
3. Unborn Are Property of Owner (Mother)
4. Mother Has a Right to Keep or Kill
5. Pro-Life Advocates Should Not Impose Their Morality on Mothers
6. Abortion is Legal
We believe that every human being is entitled to equal civil rights. Every individual is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Let’s be a church that celebrates life. Let’s be a church that offers care & compassion to those women who have had undergone abortions. Let’s be a people who offer our homes and our lives to needy children for foster care & adoption. Let’s celebrate American Orphan Sunday is next week.
Today’s Scripture
“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.
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:19-27).
Setting the Stage
We are focusing on the letter to Corinthians throughout this year. I’m excited about finishing 1 Corinthians with you. God willing, we’ll discuss divorce, singleness, the resurrection of Christ, idolatry, spiritual gifts, tongues, love, and money in the weeks to come.
In the first four chapters of this letter to the believers at Corinth, Paul responds directly to reports that come from Chloe’s household. In chapters five and six, he is responding to some further reports. Then in chapter seven, he says, “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote…” (1 Corinthians 7:1a). So we can surmise that a letter has come through to Paul. As he handles the things in that letter, you can see he is dealing with a splintered church. Paul adopts a “Yes, but” kind of argument throughout the letter of 1 Corinthians. He turns to one group in the church and says the equivalent, “Yes, you are right but…” And to other group he says, “Yes, you are correct as well but….” He is trying to bring the warring sides together. He is a shrewd pastor. Paul is trying to get both sides to understand that what they insist on is only a partial truth… they circle the wagons around their perspective only. And their partial perspective fails to encompass the whole truth. And so two groups are in conflict in this church: they include the weak and the strong. The strong Christians were debating whether they should give up a questionable practice of eating meat sacrificed to idols. The strong Christians in Corinth were in the habit of deciding issues with one thing in mind: themselves! Their rights, their freedom, their comfort, their enjoyment. Their whole orientation was wrong. Instead of thinking only about themselves, they should have been considering the impact of their actions on their fellow believers. They should have been thinking of their “weak” brothers and sisters in Christ. The weak can be defined as someone who has sensitivities to right and wrong even though the issue itself it is not a matter of right or wrong. The weak think something is wrong even though it is not wrong. The weak are the over-scrupulous.
In the midst of these two warring groups, Paul presents himself as a model to follow. He says in effect, “Strong believers in Corinth, watch me. I don’t do anything to distract from the Gospel.” The strong Christians were to emulate Paul’s example in making all their decisions. They should consider their actions in light of how the Gospel would be affected.
Today’s Big Idea: Remove Unbiblical Obstacles for the Gospel’s Progress
1. You Should Aim to Win Others
The goal is to clear the ground of every unnecessary obstacles that might hinder unbelievers from coming to Christ. This thought is expressed essentially six times:
“…that I might win more of them…” (verse 19)
“…in order to win Jews…” (verse 20)
“…that I might win those under the law…” (verse 20)
“…) that I might win those outside the law…” (verse 21)
“…that I might win the weak…” (verse 22)
“I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (verse 22).
Christians should be obsessed with evangelism. It should be a constant thought throughout our day. The interest in winning others should consume you. The moment a husband is saved, he begins to be anxious about his wife, children, friends, and co-workers. He begins to pray for them. “Anyone eating at the banquet of grace, yearns for others to join Him at the table as well” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon). The Gospel is too valuable for us to keep silent. Our goal must be to win as many people as possible. Not as many are as convenient. Not as many as we can manage.
Again, our goal must be to win as many people as possible. It was the Gospel that made both the strong Christians and the weak Christians into one family called the church. It is the Gospel they should be thinking of.
Here are a few questions for you to consider when confronting a decision: When thinking through the grey areas of life, how will your actions reflect on the expansion of the Gospel? Are you a gospel-dominated person? When people are around you, do they receive the impression that the Gospel is the most wonderful thing there is?
In 1998, eight thousand (8,000) college students were survey in a nationwide research project known as QuEST. One question presented students with the following scenario: “Your best friend comes to you and says, ‘I want to become a Christian, but I don’t know how.’ What would you tell your friend?” Assume your friend wants you to answer the question and not to be sent to a pastor or minister. The most common response suggested going to church or encouraging some religious practice. Only fourteen percent of the students interviewed, mentioned Jesus in their answer.
Are you a gospel-dominated person? You Should Aim to Win Others.
2. You Should be Elastic
If winning people to the love of Christ and away from the wrath of the lamb is the goal, then what’s the method? Paul shows us the method as well as his goals in at least five ways.
“To the Jews I became as a Jew…” (verse 20)
“To those under the law I became as one under the law…” (verse 20b)
“To those outside the law I became as one outside the law” (verse 21)
“To the weak I became weak,” (verse 22)
“I have become all things to all people…”(verse 22)
If you are going out into the suburbs with families or out into the rural areas with farmers, you have to find a way to speak. That is, contextualize the Gospel of Jesus in a way that is accessible and appropriate for people – because cultures are different, even subcultures within cities are different. To be contextual is to be Gospel-flexible. To be contextual is to be Gospel-elastic. To be contextual is the Gospel wearing camouflage. For the tech guys, “I had a blog.” And for the families, I talked about marriage and kids and parenting. For the business guys, I did financial seminars and connected it back to God. For the environmental rights activists, I told them who the Creator was since they enjoy His work so much. Paul says I tried to figure out how to articulate Jesus in as many ways as I possibly could, to as many people as I possibly can to win as many people as are possible.
Paul is not alone in his Gospel elasticity. For example, why are there four gospels in our bible? Because the good news of Jesus’ sinless life, substitutionary death, and physical resurrection were articulated to various cultural groups. Matthew was written to Jews. So, there’s a lot of Old Testament quotes and they trace Jesus back to who? Abraham. Yet when you compare Matthew to John, they’re different. The first three books – Matthew, Mark and Luke – they have about sixty percent of material in common. John is about ninety percent unique and particular to John. So you open it up, it says, “In the beginning was the logos.” Huh? What is logos? John is writing to Greeks who were steeped in philosophy. That at the fountainhead of which is Socrates and Plato and Aristotle and they have this concept of the logos or word that also appears in the Hebrew Old Testament.
2.1 Christians are Different
“To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews” (1 Corinthians 9:20).
Think with Paul along racial identity for a few moments. Paul grew up Jewish. As far as his ethnicity, he was a Jew. But watch this closely, because of his conversion to Christianity, he no longer considered himself Jewish, but Christ. He is now in a third position. He is not Jew or Gentile but Christian.
Christians are different. If you become a Christian, then you’ll lose some of your old identity. If you become a Christian, then you’ll need to flex (like Paul) to reach your own kind. Your first identity is a Christian.
We should not elastic on the message itself. The message doesn’t change: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve” (1 Corinthians 15:1-5).
Here are at least five non-negotiables that we can’t flex on. Five non-negotiables to keep our message fixed no matter the context. All five come from this passage in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5. I’ll list them in form of questions:
1. Who is Jesus? (“Christ” 1 Corinthians 15:3);
2. What has Jesus done? (“4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day” 1 Corinthian 15:4);
3. Why did Jesus die? (“that Christ died for our sins” 1 Corinthians 15:3);
4. How do we know this? (“in accordance with the Scriptures” 1 Corinthians 15:3);
5. How are we to respond? (1 Corinthians 15:1-2).
Can’t we just sort of dismiss these things? Can’t we embrace all religions, all gods, all sacred texts, all perspectives? The answer is no. That the Gospel is always under attack by false teachers. And so the Gospel must be contended for, otherwise we lose the good news of the Gospel.
And Paul has demonstrated that for us repeatedly in 1 Corinthians. He opened in chapters one and two, contending for the Gospel. He’s talking repeatedly about the crucifixion of Jesus, the cross of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the death of Jesus and in the first two chapters, he hammers this repeatedly about the crucifixion, the death and burial of Jesus. And then in 1 Corinthians 15, near the end of the letter, he speaks in great detail about the resurrection of Jesus. So he bookends his argument with the Gospel. He begins with the cross and he ends with the empty tomb. We have no right to change the Gospel.
2.2 Christians are Immersed in the Gospel
“I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:23).
A literal rendering of this verse is “I do all this for the sake of the Gospel so I may participate in the it. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel so I may participate in the Gospel.” Remember, the Gospel is founded on Christ, the One who identified with others for their salvation. To be a believer is to identify with others in evangelism.
3. You Should be Motivated by a Disciplines Love
Evangelism takes discipline: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
Why are not More Christians Passionate about Evangelism? Let me close with a quote from Charles Spurgeon: “It is to be feared that with many church-members the reason of the absence of this passion is that they love ease, and are worm-eaten with indolence. They say, “Soul, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry; why trouble about others?” “Send the multitude away,” said the disciples. They did not want to be worried with them. True, the people were very hungry and weary, and it was a painful thing to see them fainting; but it was easier to forget their needs than to relieve them. London is perishing, millions are dying in their sins, the world still lieth in the wicked one, and sloth calls forgetfulness to her aid to ignore the whole matter. Such people do want to be made uncomfortable, neither do they wish to spend and be spent for the glory of Christ.”
Evangelism takes discipline.
