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1 Corinthians 9:19-27 ESV
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 compete, 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.

I have been studying the commands of Paul to the churches, particularly those that are of a certain structure that allows them to be translated as continuous active commands.

Today’s focus is found in verse 24, where Paul commands the Corinthian believers to KEEP ON RUNNING in order to someday obtain the prize.

In a general sense, Paul seems to be encouraging the Corinthians to live up to their commitment to Christ so that when Jesus returns they will have been found faithful to him, and will inherit eternal life, and a place in the kingdom he will set up on this earth. That is similar to what he told the Colossians when he encouraged them to KEEP ON WALKING (2:6).

I do not think that is all Paul is talking about here.

Notice that Paul has just spent five verses showing that what motivated him was not just getting saved, but bringing others into the kingdom.

His purpose was evangelism. I think that he was trying to motivate the Corinthians to have the same purpose. He wanted them to keep on running the race so that – along with being saved themselves — they could win others to Christ.

Running the race for Paul meant disciplining himself so that he could accomplish the task that he was called to by the LORD.

Now, here is where I think we often get off track as far as evangelism is concerned: We think our goal is to try to win the people within our sphere of influence to Christ. That is true. But we seldom try to expand our sphere of influence so that we can reach others.

From the moment of his conversion, Paul disciplined himself so that he could expand his sphere of influence to the whole Gentile world.

When he encouraged the Corinthians to KEEP ON RUNNING, it was in that context. He wanted them to adopt his attitude of self-discipline for the purpose of evangelism.

If we want to shake the world and gain a harvest for Christ’s coming kingdom we are going to have to be disciplined evangelists as Paul was.

Paul’s use of the command KEEP ON RUNNING suggests that being a disciplined evangelist is not going to be as easy as falling off a log.

For Paul, it means undergoing a transformation much like enduring miltary boot camp. By the time Paul was finished disciplining himself, he had become “servant to all” (19).

He prescribed the same boot camp experience to the Galatians when he told them not to use their freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but to serve one another (Gal. 5:13). That goes against self-interest. It is hard work.

But the hard work is worth it – not just because you get to win people to Christ, but also because there is a reward at his coming.

Paul called it different things. Here, in verse 24, he called it the prize. He told the Philippians that he presses on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus (3:14).

In verse 25 here Paul calls it the imperishable wreath. Wreaths were the world cups of Paul’s day.

Paul also had this in mind when he told Timothy that he expected a crown of righteousness from the Lord when he comes (2 Tim. 4:8).

And Paul is not the only one to encourage believers by declaring that the disciplined Christian life is worth it.

James speaks of the crown of life. He says that God has promised to give that crown of life (which is eternal life itself) to those who love him. But he speaks of this crown in the context of the painful trials we must endure. The prize will come to those who have stood the test.

Peter talks about the unfading crown of glory. He was speaking about being a good leader in the church. If leaders shepherd the flock well, they can expect an unfading crown from the chief Shepherd when he appears.

What James, Peter and Paul knew was that although you can only enter God’s kingdom by grace, you haven’t entered at all unless you are willing to discipline yourself to keep Jesus’ commands.

Jesus said that a person is not fit for the kingdom if he puts his hand to the plow and then looks back (Luke 9:62). He likened his kingdom to a hard day plowing in a field.

Elsewhere he likened it to a narrow gate and a hard road to travel (Matt. 7:14), and a pearl that cost everything you have to possess (Matt. 13:46).

Paul had set his mind on buying that pearl of great price. Physical and mental conditioning and reconditioning was the price he was going to pay.

He endured that discipline regimen so that he remained fit to reach people for Christ .

I want you to notice two words especially as we reread 1 Cor. 9:27. The two words are the two options, if you will. For Paul, it was either discipline himself so that he would be the kind of person who brought others to Christ, or else he would be disqualified.

Paul encouraged the Corinthian Christians to discipline themselves like he did, so that they could gain the results he expected.
Let me now suggest five critical questions to think about as you try to apply this text to your own life and ministry.

1. What kind of person do I need to become to reach my peers for Christ?
2. How can I enlarge the scope of my friendships so that I can influence more people?
3. What aspects of my life are preventing people from getting close enough to me to see Jesus in me?
4. What activities am I willing to surrender to allow time for me to evangelize.
5. What are my gifts and abilities that I can utilize to influence others for Christ.

Previously we had seen Paul encouraging the church to KEEP ON WALKING (Col. 2:6). That command implied that we believers are expected to live according to their profession of faith. In today’s text he changed the metaphor to KEEP ON RUNNING. That metaphor implies that the Christian life is like a race that requires conditioning , self-discipline and endurance.
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LORD, help us to KEEP ON RUNNING the race that you have set before us. Help us to make ourselves servants to all so that we may win more people to you and your kingdom.

Galatians 2:15-21

“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. 16 Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” 17 But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! 18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law — I stopped trying to meet all its requirements — so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. (NLT)

I’d like to start by reviewing what we have seen so far in our study of Galatians.

In the first ten verses of chapter one, Paul sets the tone of the epistle by saying that he is shocked to hear that the Galatians are toying with a false teaching. He set them straight by proving that there is no other gospel.

He spends the rest of chapter one (11-24) explaining the supernatural way that God revealed the gospel message to him. Since the message did not come from man, man has no business changing it.

He begins chapter two (1-10) recounting his visit to Jerusalem fourteen years after his Damascus road experience. His point was that the Jerusalem leaders endorsed his ministry, and agreed that he had been entrusted with the same message.

Then (11-14) he tells about another visit – when Peter visited Antioch. He found that Peter had gotten out of step with the gospel, and rebuked him for it.

Now we come to today’s text, and the final verses of chapter two.

Scholars differ as to who is being addressed by Paul here. Is he continuing his quotation of his rebuke of Peter, or is he now addressing the Galatians? I think this is part of his public rebuke of Peter.

The point he is making to Peter is the reason he is bringing it to the Galatians. Faith in Christ is a choice. If you make that choice, you should live up to it.

You see, some of the Jews in Jerusalem had become syncretistic. That means that they had blended Christianity with their former Judaism beliefs. They thought that they could accept Christ AND trust in their own ability to save themselves by following the Jewish traditions (works of the law).

The Galatians were being fed the same stuff. But when you add anything to free grace it stops being free.

When we Christians declare our faith in Christ it is in Christ alone, not Christ AND.

When we declare that Christ gave himself for us on the cross we are saying that we were sinners, and that we were helpless to do anything to please God. BUT Jesus Christ was not a sinner. He could do something about our sin problem. He did it on Calvary’s cross. His sacrifice was enough to pay the price to set us free.

How tragic it is then, to have and proclaim this great gospel message, and then water it down by saying that God pays more attention to someone who doesn’t eat pork. Our trust is not in something we can do for God. Our trust is in something He did for us.

Dr. Albert Barnes summed up this aspect of the gospel well.

“It is the declared purpose of God to regard and treat those sinners who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as if they had not sinned, on the ground of the merits of the Saviour.”

His quote does not say everything there is to say about the gospel. But it does cover the key issue that Paul was facing in Galatians.

The issue is how do we live out the truth of the good news of what God has done for us by sending Christ to die on the cross for our sins. People who have put their faith in Christ should trust God to deal with the sin problem his way.

I am NOT saying that believers are under no obligation to prove their faith. What I am saying is that since Christ’s death is the means of our justification, then Christ’s words should be our means of proving our faith.

We should endeavor to live according to the commands of Christ.

Our hope should be based on the promises of Christ.

Paul saw that the Galatians had a serious problem. they had put their faith in Christ, but now they were in danger because someone was trying to convince them to alter that faith. The troublers wanted the Galatians to trust in Christ AND…

But God did not send his only Son to die in our place so that we could trust him AND ourselves.
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LORD, help us to put our faith in Christ alone, and keep our faith in Christ alone.

Galatians 2:11-14 ESV

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

In Gal. 2:1-10 Paul explained that the leaders of the Jerusalem Church had approved of his message to the Gentiles, and affirmed that he had been entrusted with the same gospel message as they were.

This week we look at verses 11-14. Here we see Peter taking a trip to the Church at Antioch, a Gentile church which had served as Paul’s launching point.

A problem had developed at Antioch during Peter’s visit. It involved the Jewish believers, whose conduct was suddenly not in step with the gospel.

Things had actually started out very well in Antioch for Peter. He was “going with the flow.”

It was quite different than Jerusalem because this church was predominently Gentile believers.

But Peter had already learned God’s lesson that he should not consider unclean what God accepts. God showed him that truth through visions in Acts 10-11.

So Peter fellowshipped freely with the Gentile and Jewish believers alike.

But then the troublers came. These appear to be the same kind of troublers that are threatening Galatia, and that’s why Paul brings up this story.

As soon as the troublers came, they insisted on dividing up the church into the acceptable and unacceptable.

Peter had a choice to make. He could continue fellowshipping freely based on what God had shown him, or he could cave in to the peer pressure.

He made the wrong choice. He drew back and separated himself.

Remember, Peter was a respected leader in the Christian church. As such, his choice was not just an individual choice. It was a leadership choice.

Sure enough, the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him.

Even Paul’s good friend and co-worker Barnabus was led astray by Peter’s actions.

Now it was Paul’s turn to respond. He could have done the same thing Peter did, claiming Peter’s authority. That would have been the easy thing to do.

But there was a lot at stake here. It was not just the traditions of men, whether Jewish or Gentile. The truth of the gospel was at stake.

So Paul publically opposed Peter.

Paul was being a good friend here. All of us are able to make wrong choices which deny what we profess. If that happens, may God give us a friend like Paul, who cares enough to confront us.

This story is included in Galatians because the Galatian believers were being threatened with the same false teaching that the “certain men from James” had with them when they visited Antioch.

The Galatians would have to make the same choice that Peter did. They would have to repent and get back in step with the gospel that they profess.

This story suggests a few principles for living like a Christian in any age.

When you and I gave our lives to Jesus Christ, we accepted the gospel of the kingdom, and agreed to live by its principles.

Are we still living by those principles? Have we taken on any new habits and practices since then?

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LORD, help us to examine ourselves to see if we are still living by the gospel that we accepted when we first came to you.

Galatians 2:1-10 ESV
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2 I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. 3 But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in- who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery- 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 6 And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)- those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

We have seen how Galatians focuses on the gospel message. In 2:7, Paul says that he has been “entrusted with the gospel.”

The same is true of you and me. We have been entrusted with the gospel message.

The challenge for us is to keep faithfully proclaiming the gospel as Paul did.

The reason Paul could keep proclaiming the gospel is that he was not ashamed of it. He believed that it is God’s power for salvation (Rom. 1:16).

Of course, God does not want us proclaiming his truth if we do not back it up by living right.

Paul tells the Philippians “…let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27).

Sometimes the things that we do speak so loudly that people can’t hear the words that we say.

The answer is not to stop proclaiming the gospel, but to proclaim it faithfully. Otherwise we will have been running in vain.

Paul asked the Ephesians to pray for him that “words may be given to (him) in opening (his) mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19).

If Paul needed that, then surely you and I do as well. In fact, this should be a part of our regular prayers for each others.

Instead of just praying “God bless so and so” let’s pray that God give so and so opportunities to share his faith.

For Paul, being entrusted with the gospel also meant that he had to speak out against the troublers that he had referred to in 1:7.

These troublers were not just people with a different theological point-of-view. They were espousing an entirely different kind of salvation.

We need discernment so that we don’t get hung up on petty theological differences. If we do that, noone will listen when we seek to defend the gospel.

The fact is – there are a lot of people out there who just do not understand the gospel message.

Paul says that “the god of this world {Satan} has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

There were some unbelievers in Jerusalem who were more concerned with the fact that Titus was uncircumcised that the fact that he believed in Christ. Paul refused to give in to their blindness because the integrity of the gospel was at stake.

For Paul, being entrusted with the gospel meant that he had to use the methods that worked best to minister the gospel.

In 1 Cor. 9, he argued that he and Barnabus had the right to be paid for their missionary work, but that they waived that right and supported themselves because they would “endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 9:12).

We need to stop and ask ourselves if what we are doing is accoplishing the task that we want done. If it is not, then we need to have the courage to change. Otherwise, our traditions might be keeping people out of the kingdom.

Paul had a strategy. He would plant churches wherever he went, and leave one of the missionaries who were with him to continue establishing those churches, and he would continue to stay in touch by e-mail (that is Epistle-mail).

For example, he told the Thessalonians that he “sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith” (1 Thessalonians 3:2). He had also sent Timothy to Ephesus for the same purpose. My point is that Paul’s strategy worked for spreading the gospel.

When he was encouraging the Ephesians to have an active prayer ministry, he reminded them that they should also be “wearing for shoes on (their) feet the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15 NJB).

A strategy is only as good as the willingness of all involved to operate according to the strategy. Paul’s method for reaching the Gentiles with the gospel depended on every believer being eager to spread the gospel, not just every missionary or every minister.

Each of us have been entrusted with the gospel.

Each of us has a sphere of influence to whom we have been called to share the gospel.

No one can reach your sphere of influence like you can. Not your pastors, not your elder, …only you.

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LORD, give us all the courage to faithfully proclaim the gospel you have entrusted us with. Give us the strength to defend it against attack. Give us the wisdom to minister it with methods that work, because eternal lives are at stake.

You have reached the Newsletter of Jeff and Penny Vann, missionaries with Advent Christian General Conference, currently serving in New Zealand as pastors-at-large with the Advent Christian Conference of New Zealand (ACCONZ). We serve as teaching pastors at Takanini Church of Christ, and Christian LIFE Church, Takanini, Auckland.

photo by Jachin Mandeno

Our friend and fellow pastor David Burge continues to struggle with Leukemia, and is in the hospital for treatments often. He is no longer a candidate for bone marrow transplant, and his doctors are now merely trying to prolong his life. Please continue to pray for a miracle -his complete recovery.

Since Jeff and Penny have been here to take on the preaching and teaching duties at David’s church, he has been busy enjoying life with his wife and children. He is also completing a number of writing projects in which he has invested a great deal of time. Jeff is also serving as editor on some of those projects, and enjoying that task emensely.

You can follow David’s progress at this site: http://davidburge.wordpress.com/

photo by Jachin Mandeno

Jeff has been preaching two concurrent series on Sunday mornings. Galatians: The Gospel of Salvation by Grace is taking the Takanini congregation through the book of Galatians (a chapter a month). Keep On is a series of sermons based on Paul’s commands encouraging the churches to persevere in doing the right thing. Presentation slides,notes and .pdf files of these sermons are available at Jeff’s current web log: http://jeffersonvann.blogspot.com/

This month Jeff begins a new course on New Testament Greek which meets every Thursday night at the church lounge. The course is being scaled back to meet the needs of home-schoolers, but is available for anyone who would like to study God’s word in one of its original languages.

So what has Penny been doing? She handles communion almost every week. She is also getting ready to teach a seminar on the Old Testament.

Our Kids:

Naomi, our youngest, is staying the summer with Liz. She is planning on getting a Summer job there but as of this writing has not been able to. Please pray she can find one.

Connie: Is expecting a baby, so we will have another grandchild soon.

Liz: Just finished teaching another year of school.

We plan a short trip to the South Island June 29th-July 2nd to visit some friends we met while Jeff was at Gordon-Conwell seminary. We’ll probably see snow there.

Please Pray:

1)For Penny as she is rarely busy. After so many years of teaching full time,the down time is very hard.
2)The Takanini church as they adjust to two Americans on their pastoral team.
3)David Burge’s recovery.
4)Our safety as we visit our friends on the South Island.