1 Corinthians 9:16-23

I had to preach this sermon. I didn’t have a choice. There was nothing I could do about it. The words had to come out, they had to be spoken, the message had to be communicated. I had to preach, even if I didn’t feel like it.

And so do you. You have to preach. You don’t have a choice. There’s nothing you can do about it. The words have to come out, they have to be spoken, the message has to be communicated. You have to preach, even if you don’t feel like it.

Or so says this text. Paul could not keep the message of the gospel to himself. He had to tell other people. He had to tell anyone and everyone he met. For Paul, for a believer in Jesus, we must, we have to tell people that Jesus saves humans. We have to, we don’t have a choice.

Except, it doesn’t really seem that way, does it? I mean, we know that we are commanded to go into all the world and make disciples. We know that God commands us to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you. We know that we are supposed to talk about Jesus with people who don’t know Him. We just don’t, well, we just don’t feel like it, do we? It’s hard. It’s scary. We don’t feel qualified. We just know they’re going to ask a question that we won’t know the answer to. We don’t want to look silly. We don’t want to look fanatical. Yes, we’re supposed to go into all the world. Yes, we’re supposed to bring the good news. We just don’t want to.

And when we’re afraid and hesitant, when we feel incompetent, we do a little picking and choosing when it comes to God’s commands. Do not murder, you bet, we’ll obey that one. Do not steal, absolutely, no question about that. Do not covet, well, we agree with that one, even if most of us struggle with it. But go and make disciples? Bring the good news? Tell other people about Jesus? Those are the optional commands, right? There are commands we have to keep, and commands we have a choice about, right?

Wrong. When God commands, we do. When God tells us, we go. And when God tells us to talk about Jesus with other people, that’s exactly what we do, we talk about Jesus with other people. Paul is explaining why he does what he does, here in chapter 9. Some people have accused Paul of being a preacher for the glory, like he became a missionary for the money. They seem to have forgotten about Paul being beaten and stoned and left for dead, because they think he is talking about Jesus for his own financial and personal gain.

And of course that’s not why he’s talking about Jesus. Whether he gets paid or not, whether people listen or not, whether he gets beat up or not, he has to talk. He just has to. God told him to talk. Listen to him in verse 16:

when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach.

Paul simply couldn’t stop himself. He had to talk about Jesus. He had to preach. Now, before we go any further, we need to understand preaching here. Preaching in this passage is not just writing a sermon and then speaking for 20 minutes in a church service. Preaching is not just done by someone who has gone to seminary for 4 years. The preaching here in 1 Corinthians 9 is done by everyone, by every person who has given their life to Jesus. Preaching, here in 1 Corinthians 9, is telling people the good news. Preaching is sharing the cure for cancer. Preaching is showing the way out to other people who have been trapped in a cave-in. Preaching is bringing the best news in the whole world to the people who most need to hear some good news.

And Paul must speak this good news. God told him to do it, and he has to do it. Verse 16:

Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

Paul, just like every one of us, didn’t always feel like speaking the gospel. Paul is human, just like anyone else, Paul felt weak at times. He lost his temper, he would feel hopeless. He got aggravated with fellow missionaries. He got really frustrated with the churches that he loved so much. There were times Paul just wanted to throw his hands up and be done.

But he couldn’t be done. He couldn’t stop. He couldn’t quit. He had to preach the gospel. Bad things would happen to him if he didn’t preach the gospel. We don’t know what consequence was hanging over his head, but there was something, some penalty if he did not keep going. There would be some woe if he did not preach the gospel. There always is, there’s always some consequence, there’s always some form of woe if we disobey the commands of God, and God commanded us to preach the gospel.

But then, because God gave this command, because Paul is not doing it for the money or for the glory or just as a job to do, Paul actually finds a freedom in talking about Jesus. Verse 17:

If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward

If this was Paul’s idea to become a Christian and to go and talk about Jesus around the world, then sure, he’ll probably see some personal benefit, some financial reward. If he’s doing this for his own reasons, his own gain, then he’ll make sure he gets what is coming to him. But that’s where the problem comes. If he’s doing this for his gain, and the gain doesn’t come, if he’s preaching to earn something, and that something doesn’t show up, then Paul will quit. No profit, no preaching. No reward, no witnessing.

But, if he’s not doing this for a reward, if his motivation is not for profit or gain, if he’s talking about Jesus only always because God told him to talk about Jesus, then nothing will ever stop him. God’s command is strong enough to keep him going whatever the outcome. Verse 17:

if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.

I’m only doing what God tells me to do. And what’s the outcome? Verse 18:

What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it.

Without the promise of reward, we’re more free to bring the gospel. If there is a reward available, and then we don’t get the reward, then we’ll stop talking about Jesus. The reward is our incentive, and without the reward, we lose incentive. But if there is no reward, if we do it because God tells us to, and for no other reason, then we just keep talking, in any way and every way we can.

We explain the gospel in a way that makes sense to people, and since no one is exactly the same, the way we explain the gospel is never exactly the same. There’s no cookie cutter, cut and dried way of talking about Jesus, at least no way that really works. When God commanded us to go into all the world, He meant that we come next to people, we get close to people we become part of their lives, and let them become part of our lives. God’s command to bring the gospel drives us to make the gospel understandable, no matter what the person’s background or experience, style or personality.

Paul gives a list in the next few verses to give us an idea of what he’s talking about. Because he was commanded by God to bring the gospel, because he doesn’t need any reward or profit for his work, he’s free to go where he wants and talk to whomever he pleases. But in his freedom, he chooses to talk to everyone, everywhere, about his Lord. Verse 19:

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.

For example, he uses language, he refers to the Jewish customs, he points to the law when he talks with Jews, so that they can understand the good news in their own language, with their own terms. He’ll use the law, even though he has been freed from the law, to point to the One who fulfilled the law for us, the One who kept the law perfectly, the One who gives us the credit for His perfection, Jesus. To people who don’t know what it means to be under God’s law, and don’t see any value to having a law, Paul joins in with their freedom. He uses the freedom that Jesus gave to him, a freedom from the law, to draw people to willingly obeying God, freely choosing to obey God’s law. To the weak, to those who are less mature in their faith, he adjusts his language, so he doesn’t offend. For those who grow afraid of freedom, who live their Christianity in anger or in fear, Paul understands. He talks their language, he addresses their concerns. Verse 22:

I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.

Because he had to. He had no choice. He had to use any possible means to save some, because God told him to.

And God told us to. We don’t have a choice. We are compelled to talk about Jesus with other people. There will be woe if we don’t. And let’s just admit right now that we don’t always feel like it. I would be great if we so loved Jesus that we always needed to talk about Him. It would be wonderful if the good news was SO good that we couldn’t keep quiet. But that’s not always our experience, is it? The good news seems more average, sometimes. Jesus, I hate to say this, is easily forgotten. Our own salvation doesn’t always keep us talking about our Savior.

Which is why God commands us to keep talking. If we share the gospel from our own motivation, or for our own reward, we will stop sharing the gospel at some point. But if we talk about Jesus, if we tell people how to be saved, because God told us to tell people how to be saved, we won’t quit, we can’t quit, it just won’t be possible to stop.

We must preach. And we begin preaching by first listening. We don’t have the right to talk until we’ve let our friend or neighbor talk. We listen for what they value in their lives. We listen to where they put their hope. We listen for what they imagine happens after they die. If we’re not hearing them talk, we can bring up the subject. We can share some of our own wonderings and questions, and let them talk about their beliefs.

And when we’ve listened and heard and really come to understand, that’s when we have the right, actually the responsibility, actually the mandatory obligation to tell them about Jesus. We tell them, first, that our only hope is found in the grace of God. We tell them, second, that on our own we are guaranteed suffering and death, with no hope. We tell them, third, that out of God’s grace, He sent His Son, whose name is Jesus, to die for us, to come back to life for us, to save us from the evil that we do, to save us from the punishment of evil. And we tell them that we are saved, we are rescued, we are healed, we are saved when we believe what we just told them, and when we turn responsibility for our lives over to Jesus. Four things. Grace, to us sinners, through Christ, received by faith. Grace, to sinners, through Christ, by faith. This is what we tell them.

Because we have to. Woe to us, if we don’t. That’s a literal warning. If we don’t talk to people about Jesus, there will be a consequence, a discipline. And while God disciplines those that He loves, His discipline is never fun. Verse 23:

I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

So, let’s figure out first who we need to talk to. Who in our life, in our neighborhood, at work, at school, needs to hear about Jesus? Maybe it’s not really clear. Maybe we don’t know. We have to ask. We have to ask if they know Jesus as their Savior and Lord. We can ask them in a way that makes sense to them. We don’t have to use big, churchy words. Jesus can come up in normal conversation. We match Jesus to where their hope lies. We connect Him to their worries. We bring Him into their lives, and He bring them into His life.

We don’t talk to other people about Jesus so that our church grows. Whether people join our church or not, we talk about Jesus because God told us to. We don’t share the gospel to get a great reputation as very godly men and women. We talk about Jesus because God told us to. We preach, we talk, we share, we explain, we listen, we listen, and then we talk. We have to. We don’t have a choice.