1 Corinthians (Session 16) Chapter 16

well welcome to our concluding section our session on first corinthians we are in session 16 chapter 16 of first corinthians and so as you know i like to call this series uh first californians to emphasize that corinth was not just a geographic label it was also a indictment of sin so uh for what that's worth but okay let's just jump right on in first corinthians 16 verse one now concerning the collection for the saints as i have given order to the churches of galatia even so do ye now he's now concerned the perry d formula that's the way he always opens a topic that was mentioned in the letter from corinth remember all this was a response uh to a letter from corinth and so he's going through a apparently a checklist from that original letter and so the collection of the saints it fascinates me that of course this just introduces to the whole subject of collections and tithing and what have you but it's interesting that the collection for the poor or the persecuted uh christians in jerusalem is what he's correct uh collecting for he's not collecting for himself by the way it's a very important point to understand we'll get to that um but be for the persecuted christians and also for famine and so forth it's interesting that paul and the entire gentile mission were suspect by some of the more conservative elements in the jerusalem church they they were cautious for a lot of good reasons because of the history you know the history there but we always run into verse two that i think has been misapplied by the way upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as god hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when i come it's amazing how many churches use this verse to justify the fact that they have their services on sunday on resurrection day which is fine if that's what they choose to do but it's interesting what he's really saying is upon the first day of the week let every one of you buy him in stores god has prospered him that there be no gatherings when i come in other words he's giving him instructions that when they take their collection they're not doing while he's there or before he did see in other words separately so this is used as a way to justify sunday's worship but i'm not knocking that one way or the other frankly don't misunderstand me but it's interesting that what he's really saying is that i don't want you collecting on the first day of the week when i'm there it's it's it's for what it's worth but the real issue the first day of the week is of course what we call resurrection day and many churches i honor that day as the day that christ was resurrected and he says each one every believer set aside separate from your personal funds the one thing he's saying here is you should set your tithe aside from your personal funds as god is prosperous in other words in direct proportion set aside in direct proportion your personal friends that's what he's saying very simply and that's straightforward that leads us to the whole question of tithing and we can't take that topic up without at least alluding to one of the most interesting verses in the entire bible because god dares you to call his bluff in malachi chapter 3 verse 8 and verse 10. melania says will a man rob god yet you have robbed me but you say wherein we rob thee he says in tithes and offerings then he continues bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the lord of hosts if i will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it that's quite a statement but i want you to notice how he couches that he dares you to put him to the test this is god speaking and prove me now herewith i'm call my bluff he's saying saith the lord of hosts if i will not open the window of heavens and bore you out of blessing how much so there's not enough there would not enough room to receive it that's quite a that's a bold commitment okay and so it opens this whole issue of tithing very controversial area and this is god's direct challenge here in malachi 3 verses 8 and 10. but notice it was instituted before the law this was instituted before the law genesis 14 not genesis 20. and so there are four reasons for the tithe it first of all acknowledges the creator's rights that tenth is his not yours anyway you're just giving him back that which he feels belongs to him one-tenth is his okay that's straightforward it's also the antidote for greed and covetousness it's an antidote for covetousness and aren't we all guilty of that it's a test of our faith it's a way of saying are you serious are you really serious and the other thing it turns out to be the solution to every financial problem that's astonishing but that's the challenge it's the ultimate solution to every financial problem tithing that is of course the pattern in the old testament no contest there the new testament is where some people say well it was an old testament idea no christ does not set aside the test in matthew 23. it's also implied in the even so first corinthians 9 and where paul says lay by him in store in first corinthians 16 that we're looking at and of course it alludes to all these other verses and you can chase those down on your own we won't make a a thing of it here the tithe is more binding us in the new testament than the old because we have more privileges for whom front to whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required that that shoe fits it pinches doesn't it boy you betcha a tenth is all his and the advice from the scriptures to be strict be careful be systematic separate his funds upon arrival like in a separate box a separate many people used to my wife and i used to have a separate checking account just for him just to keep it separate check out or whatever keep records your giving only comes after the return of his tenth you haven't given an offering until you've returned the 10th you can count beyond that you can call that an offer if you like but the first 10 this is in the first place and by the way you say you can't take it with you that's not true did you know you can't take it with you you know how you do that send it up ahead send it up before you get there by investing in the kingdom you can carry it from there but you can build a whole message on that if you like it's interesting that some of the professionals adopt what i would call the portfolio concept see when they give when a professional donor christian that's responsible for allocating christian funds one of the things they do they do not worry about need people come with needs they know they're more needs than you can possibly deal with that's not a criteria what they try to do subtly if they can is identify where is the lord demonstrably in the action is the lord in this project has he proved have you got proof that he really is behind this that's what they look for because they're not trying to help him he doesn't need our help they're just anxious to invest where he's investing i call the poor a portfolio manager likes to at the end of the quarter invest in what was smart to have invested in they like to measure their performance by how they allocated their funds in the past period well that's what a professional donor does too he like he liked to have his money go into things that he now knows the lord was really behind or some people used to quip all the time there's their ministries the lord would like to shut down if the donors would let him you know so and they're being a little bit facetious of course but okay but one of the things that i'm going to use this opportunity to do is to introduce you to a provocative alternative here at coin institute we're pioneering a slightly different concept not the only one just an alternative and there are many alternative places for your tithe and obviously your local church should be your primary focus wherever you're getting blessed is the natural place for it to have your first pro focus that makes sense various ministry outreaches that the lord places on your heart as you go through life certain outreaches certain ministries look at your heart that obviously is is is appropriate to respond to but one of the things you really want to do is make sure your money's going where the lord is clearly in the work let's look for his evidence of his participation and the portrayal of concept is what i call the you're investing where he is blessing but there's another concept that i've become quite enamored with personally and that's a term i'll call the spiritual entrepreneur strange term the entrepreneur his the guy that takes risks is well documented in two areas in the financial world and in the technology world the achievements of the people who saw a vision and really work at it in the financial world starting companies and under great uh odds against him and so forth are are legendary same thing in technology you know the bill gates and steve jobs they they've they've achieved fantastic things by being risk takers in that world but there's a an area where i have i'm not aware of any serious writing doing i there's a i have a lot of literature on the up on financial and technological management but there's an area that's overlooked in my mind that's called the spiritual entrepreneur the guy that takes risks and is really focused on spiritual things what about him and the productive independent operator who's operating undercover the individual when i reflect on my life the people have influenced me most are people who were independent they weren't backed by some particular organization they were for various reasons able to operate personally and independently and they are the ones that had the power in my mind as i look back and in reflecting on that that's been very i'm going to talk about a role call a road less traveled the performance of the entrepreneur in both financial technology arenas is obviously well recognized but the spiritual entrepreneur an independent visionary armed with persistence and commitment let's think about some examples of that it turns out if you look around the most conspicuous example is staring us right in the face and that's paul himself when you study his life you discover he did not take donations for himself took donations for others yes but he was able to provide himself as an independent he was born in a rich family he was born as a a citizen of rome that was a powerful family had the best education in the gentile world tarsus was a rival for alexandria in those days he had the best hebrew education under gamaliel himself so he was he had both gentile and hebrew education as a bar second to none and he obviously came it also turns out see most most of us wouldn't know this unless we've studied the jewish culture but it was required in a jewish family that the the elderly the elder male was required to have a vocation the rabbis insisted that says if you raise a son without a hands-on vocation you raise a thief what they meant by that as life goes on there will be days when you'll have to provide for yourself by your labor and so that was just a style of their culture that if you're the elder male that you had to have a vocation and whatever usually it's especially the family knew a lot about whether it was diamonds or investment or whatever well it turns out he came from celestia celestia was famous for a peculiar cloth coats hair that was woven in a way that made it very lightweight but very waterproof and celestium they called it and it and it lent itself to tent making in those days you didn't have a motel every uh every other corner you if you traveled you often had to travel with you some kind of protection attend and so tent making was a recognized vocation not just the cloth but the arrangements to make it you know serviceable and so he was professionally a tent maker and it's interesting that was a recognized vocation priscilla and a killer that they would meet later are in that profession that's why they room together and so that was his profession just like somebody might be a dentist or an electrician he was a tent maker and so we use that now as an idiom ourselves not realizing that was a very well recognized location in those times in those days and so the spirit fought for notice now he the spiritual entrepreneur receives no compensation he didn't take compensation for his ministry he mentions to the corinthians the thessalonians and others he brags to them after being there several years i never took a penny from you that was he brought his own financial independence to the table as a credential he didn't cost him anything he emphasized the appropriateness of them supporting their minister he never he you know uh you don't muzzle the ox he says you that you it's appropriate to pay the bet but he never took any himself he felt that was he felt that would encumber his ability to administer to them and he he took pride if i can put it that way in that he was financially independent or able to manage that he relied on his vocational skills for his living expenses how interesting it is how many people were now aware of people that really pay their way by vocational skills while although their primary heart and commitment is to the ministry itself and i remember once at one of the board meetings at the calvary chapel chuck smith turned to the board and told a story of two guys he mentioned them by name but one of them was a a missionary with the wycliffe his his his passport said he was a missionary when he went to wycliffe he was a dentist he did the dental work for them he was a qualified dentist but his pastor said he was a missionary and and he actually says he's really a dentist there's another guy in long beach that was a dentist but every night monday tuesday monday through friday he went to five different he led five different bible studies he was really a missionary posey as a dentist his dentist the way he paid his bills but his heart was in the ministry and chuck used that as a contrast and he used that to talk to the board in ordaining me because it was that was when sue atkins wanted me to call on her she was in solitary confinement and you can't enter unless you have ministry credentials so by having being ordained you can marry bury and enter prisons so that's what led to my original way back ordination but anyway so see paul never took the uh donations for himself occasionally for other ministries for usually the church in jerusalem was the one that he was dealing with so we've pioneered something here in ki i want to explain a little bit because we created a thing called the coina parsonage reserve the kpr the coina parsonage reserve and a part the word parsonage by the way doesn't mean just housing the word parsonage is a legal term for any fund set aside to support a minister a missionary in the field and that can be not just housing it can be travel expense it can be whatever his expenses are but according to parsons reserve what do we do what do you do it serves as personal reimbursement of out-of-pocket ministry expenses travel communication internet things or study materials in other words the participants who pool their interests here can draw up on them to the extent they can have it documented that it's a partial reimbursement for their own out of pocket expenses their living expenses they accommodate by their vocational skills but there are other expenses such as travel study materials and there's a way to help participate in that through this reserve and so we invented this reserve and it's been growing so but i want you to know a little bit about the spiritual entrepreneur he's not a novice first timothy 3 6 warns paul warns timothy not to be cautious of empowering a novice because we're talking about people who have achieved the highest honors that we offer namely the gold medallion so what we're going to talk about only benefits someone who's made it all the way to gold he can be doing this while he's getting there but he can't draw on it until he's a gold medallion and by the way he's supervised not by a corporate headquarters he picks three people in the fellowship this club within a club three people that serve as his personal advisory board and they sign an affidavit certifying that he's faithful to the statement of faith and that the expenses that he's calling for our documented out-of-pocket expenses and so so he's not a pawn of an organizational fiefdom we're not creating an entity here and so the board certifies that he's conforming to the fiduciary covenant the statement of faith and the funds provided are special specifically for partial reimbursement for his out-of-pocket expense so there's nobody getting rich here there's no rem no remuneration anywhere here that's important to understand because some strange things have occurred here okay this is a pooled reserve to reimburse out of pocket expenses by people who first of all that are competent what do i mean by that well they're gold medallion holders that speaks for itself they're committed because they really they participate only in proportion of what they put into it there's no free rides here so they they have their own skin in the game so to speak their draw on the pool is in proportion of what they put into the pool and they're accountable to a personal board of their own peers not a corporate headquarters and so there's no corporate freedoms here and it and all the money never leaves the ministry only the earnings are at risk the money itself that goes into this never leaves the ministry it's in there in perpetuity well what's what's been the result we've been running this now for a couple of years and astonishingly it's growing rather remarkably because we also invented a thing called a pledge he can pre-commit a certain amount of funds and pay it monthly and those funds get committed at the price when he declares that so there's an economic advantage to them for doing so but as we look at the role here the the growth has been phenomenal in fact the really important thing here are the uh are the unit values which start at a dollar per unit as the thing grows it's the value per unit that tells the real tale and when we look at that it's astonishing because that money has doubled every 18 months it's not growing at you know five percent per year it's going at five percent per month and that's what's causing this surprising growth of this entity called the coina parsonage reserve which means that's generating substantial funds for him to drop on not from re remuneration there's no no money to him other than it allows him to reach further with his expenses his ministry expenses that's really what's going on here okay the unit values increase to these are increasing for three reasons at least there are the members themselves keep adding to it because that's to their advantage there are non-members that like what they see and what's happening so they throw things over the wall too non-member we call them benefactors they're non-participants but they they're helping and the third thing of course we have those funds are invested but the the amount that the investment returns is trivial compared to these other factors see these factors are individually not predictable but the subsequent unit values are growing substantially well in excess of their original cost which leads to some other opportunities the coinage parsonage reserve the participant donates to it to give him a pool that he can drop on but as time goes by it grows at at various times once a year he can draw up to a limit of 10 percent of his account whatever that is as it grows 10 percent in any one year he can take for expenses assuming he can die as soon as his board documents it for him that makes sense doesn't it there's another little surprise some uh it's that substantial growth growth of it that makes it kind of surprising however for the serious benefactor the guy that sees this happening there's a way for him to to participate in the ride because he can purchase units in the pool if he wants he doesn't donate him yet he purchases them at a at a low price and later on at uh he he in effect can pledge that if he likes he can enter into a interest-free note to commit to a pre-amount of them say a hundred dollars a month for five years or whatever and then he can at his choice donate the units he owns to the pool he doesn't do it right away he lets it grow because under the laws in the us at least in other places you get to write off the value of what you donate on the day you donate it so he buys these things for a dollar he waits 18 months they're now worth two dollars he then can donate him to the pool and get a two dollar donation so he gets his his donations are multiple of of what they originally of their cost that's that's a that's appropriate in terms of the accounting that's applied to that kind of thing so that's what leads to that's there's a strategy there uh for the the iso spirits entrepreneur now it's interesting what we're seeing here then the ability to field individuals that are like a covert ops group operating undercover in a world of encroaching darkness as the world gets darker it's going to be increasingly politically incorrect to be a biblical christian so what we're really doing is growing people who are undercover they're dentists electricians whatever but their real role is ambassador of the coming king they provide their rent and groceries with their vocation but they also incur expenses of travel and study materials and whatever for their ministry and we have ways that this this engine can help fund that part of it this i suspect he may turn out to be the most effective strategist in a world which bible-believing christians are becoming increasingly politically incorrect this is also rebuttal to what jesus says he hates twice in his letters his report the seven report cards that he writes twice he makes mention of something that he hates the deeds of the nicolet and the doctor of the nick what are you talking people the idea of the clergy ruling over the laity is a concept we drew from paganism that was the pagan model which we adopted we still do to this day being a man of the cloth go to seminary and qualify so you can be a member of the clergy not a laity you see that in churches today is he on staff or is he a layman wait a minute wait a minute some of the laymen are better trained than the clergy are that concept clergy laity thing is something jesus said he hates and yet we still perpetuated this is a an end run on that if you will well enough of this let's get back to first corinthians 16 verse 3. paul says when i come whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters then will i send to bring your liberality to jerusalem would you sign who you want and bring the funds where to jerusalem not for him for the church in jerusalem he supported himself by his vocational skills but he did gather contributions for the needs of others didn't hesitate to do that and if it be me that i go also they shall go with me and if it be you know it's interesting that paul's plans were uncertain he indicated that despite skepticism of some that he would come so his whereabouts were apparently controversial to some extent now i will come unto you when i shall pass through macedonia for i do pass through macedonia and it may be that i will abide yay and winter with you that ye may bring me on my journey whethers whoever i go he ultimately went from ephesus to macedonia and then to greece and he stayed there three months his travel plans apparently included illegal which is albania and yugoslavia and also spain but those are somewhat speculative god's people should always have their plans subject to god's will i'm always reminded what churchill said about wills and there's a will i want to be in it but he was kidding but but anyway the no we should always all our plans are tentative because they should be responsive to what got where god is leading that may surprise us people constantly ask me you know should i leave my or leave the united states i don't know where's god leading you that's maybe where he wants you to minister they're going to need ministering always if he's drawing you somewhere else and the safest place to be is the center of god's will wherever that might be so when you're walking with the lord it's important as we say to hang loose for i will not see you now by the way but i trust to tarry a while with you if the lord permit but i will tear it ephesus until pentecost and pentecost will be late may early june probably for a great door and effectual is opened unto me and there are many adversaries yeah if you don't have any adversaries you're probably not where god wants you you should expect that you know great work is never unhindered great work is never unhindered great opportunities usually have very serious difficulties and acts 19 describes how great were paul's adversaries at ephesus there's quite a a layout there if you will if you want to dig into that and he's going to review some of these in a subsequent letter in second corinthians we'll get into some of that because in that letter he's going to just bear his heart how he his real heart for the corinthians they have no grasp of how much he's enduring on their behalf essentially how he always heads for what we call ground zero wherever the center of the action is that's where he goes that's why i went to court at the first place corinth was the crossroads of the the commercial world in those days because of its peninsula structure and so forth it it drew uh all that very analogous to los angeles and southern california in that sense and so on now if timothy has come see that he may be with you without fear for he worketh the work of the lord as i also do so here's this young timothy getting the endorsement as paulus protege and uh that's a whole study in its own right and he spoke earlier in chapter back in chapter four you may recall ascending timothy to corinth timothy accompanied by erastus who went first to macedonia paul points to timothy's timid disposition he's sort of hesitant and his youth he's both young and hesitant and paul deals with that let no man therefore despise him but conduct him forth in peace that he may come unto me for i look for him with the brethren and as touching our brother apollos i greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren but his will is not at all to come at this time but he will come when he shall have convenient time so he's endorsing a policy in effect and this is the last occurrence of the parody you know this allusion to the previous letter and apollos of course was highly esteemed in corinth and had a good reputation watchy stand fast in the faith quit you like men be strong interesting how paul is shifting almost to a drill sergeant with a quick clean watch he stand fast in the faith quit you like men be strong so he uh short orders rapid succession and all verbs in this series are imperatives in imperative sense and not momentary but of continuing present tense continue to watch continue to stand fast to quit yourself like men can continually be strong watchy be on your guard in effect and a determined wakefulness and quit you like men understand no place for cowards or weaklings is what he's trying to say here and be strong that's a passive term there not active it means to be derived from god not your strength his strength let all your things be done with charity and then of course we had a couple of chapters ago chapter 13 really dealt with that thoroughly i think paul continues i beseech you brethren you know the house of stephanos that it was the first fruits of caia and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints it's a wonderful term i like that they addicted themselves i like that i like some of you people as members here have addicted yourselves to ki i love that i love that see a good example is always helpful when paul had baptized him stefanus and all his household that ye submit yourselves unto such and to everyone that helpeth with us and laboreth submit yourselves wow the tendency in corinth is to do the opposite so you've got this tone of correction in these words here see work and toil are not synonymous working implies being productive toiling replies working long and hard in the interest of attaining a goal not quite the same thing and we say that buses always stop at bus stations and trains always stop at train stations i have a workstation all work stops at the store i'm kidding right okay many work but futile paul continues here in verse 17. i am glad of the coming of stephanus and fortinadus and acacius for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied ouch he's thanking them but he's also putting a needle in that they were doing what the corinthians should have been doing they for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied ouch this is the third time by the way he mentions stephanus stephanos for they have refreshed my spirit and yours therefore acknowledging them that are such the deserving should be recognized stephanos agree because one who wears a crown is what the what his name actually means the churches of asia salute you aquila and priscilla salute you much in the lord with the church that is in their house here again is one of these illusions we take for granted the the ecclesia the the assemblies in those days were in homes we think of church in the sense of real estate that's a mistake that's that's that's the the the word church biblically is an assembly committed to studying the lord and it typically was in a home almost everything in the book of acts was done in holmes aqila and priscilla those are incidentally they both were tent makers too it turns out they salute you much in the lord with the church that is in their house and i remember somebody came in the office calvin said there the chewing gum in the sanctuary chuck they had it mixed up the people are the sanctuary not the building asia of course is the proven province of that name asia minor as we would call it the killer was a jew originally from pontus on the southern shores of the black sea and settled in rome when emperor claudius expelled all jews from rome that would have been 49 a.d he and his wife prisca or priscilla as luke calls it uh settled in corinth as tent makers so they split and that's what they did when paul first came to the city he lodged and worked with them we see that in acts 18 mentions that in the first three verses and they were courageous and they risked their life for paul they were real friends they were strong at ephesus they also corrected the understanding apollos had to take correction from them they explained it more clearly to him what the gifts of the spirit were really all about and so forth and that's in acts 18. it's interesting in four of the six places where they're both mentioned prisca's name or priscilla his name comes first in the list women worry about the role of women in ministry well she was obviously very very conspicuous students of paul became founding pastors in the western part of asia minor these were all his students epaphras it was colossal and ephesus and philemon and octopus and cos these were all founding pastors that derived their start from ball shouldn't surprise us but it's interesting he's antrophelous and ephesus and those are the ones we know about there are obviously many others all the brethren greets you greet ye one another with a holy kiss paul frequently suggests that all through his letters a warm greeting should dissolve cliquishness that's part of what he's dealing with in corinth to get that break down those clicks and that's part of his style the salutation of me paul with mine own hand he learned some lessons here those lessons he learned in the thessalonians where he had to write to put down a forgery what we call second thessalonians i like to call third thessalonians because it was a response to a letter that purported to be from paul that wasn't and paul was upset with someone is circulating a letter that uh offended paul he learned a lesson from the forgery there and he finds us signing with his own hand considering galatians six and colossians four he did that he apparently the the the inference that many draw is he had an eye problem maybe that was part of his thorn in the flesh so he had an emanuelens do most of his writing but he would sign it to prove that it was really from him and the last three verses of this epistle has a curse has a petition for the lord's return and the benediction all wrapped up in a couple of phrases a curse a penetration a penetration and a benediction if any man love not the lord jesus christ let him be anathema that's a curse maranatha okay now anathema is a solemn curse is aramaic not greek by the way it's it it had its origin in the early days in judea and we're just we're just guessing what we think it means man lord anna or anna hour and after to come our lord come it's a it's a considered it is regarded as a favorable thing come lord jesus is the flavor of it probably an imperative but that's a inference on our part and so there are other words that we adopt from the jewish vocabulary unknowingly probably abba father we all know that hallelujah that's a hebrew term and amen jewish that's a jewish term and hosanna these are all terms we use loosely as in in christianese if you will but they're really picked up from the from the hebrew and then he wraps it up the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you may love be with you all in christ jesus amen and this is written from philippi by stephanus and fortinadus anachaokus and timotheus so these four brought it from philippi to corinth and but it's interesting paul's last sentiment is love and his last word is jesus praise god let's let's buy our hearts for a word of prayer

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Length: 38min 46sec (2326 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020