1 Corinthians 16:1-9 Collection For Jerusalem Believers

Alright, we're in a transition phase here this morning. We're moving to the end of 1 Corinthians. I can't wait to get to 2 Corinthians, because it's not that what we have here today is irrelevant. So, anyway, I'm going to handle this by a couple of sections. So we're going to do 4 verses together, and then we're going to do 5 verses together. So we're going to do 1 through 9. And let's begin with the first 4 verses.

Now concerning the collection for the saints. Notice for the saints. This isn't the poor people on the streets, which is, you know, sometimes we feel the need to give to them, too. But this is for the saints. As I've given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also. On the first day of the week, let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there may be no collections when I come. And when I do come, whomever you approve by your letters, I will send to here to bear your gift to Jerusalem. but if it is fitting that I go also, they will go with me.

My next doctrine's over here. Most of Paul's letters, remember, are rich in doctrine. There's certainly some application in the First Epistle to Corinth, but now we're dealing with some personal kinds of things. Paul's dealing with his travels, all the uncertainties related to that. There's a little bit of doctrine here in terms of giving. We'll come back to that.

But is this section really necessary? Well, the Lord must have thought it was, right? Yes, the personal reflections helps to validate the scripture. The idea of somebody's going to be critical of a scripture, saying, gee, all this stuff from God, what is all this stuff?

Anyway, now Paul's putting himself personally into the letter. you know, when we used to write letters before we emailed everything, you know, you kind of would say, how are you? How are you doing? And here's some up-to-date on Aunt Fanny and, you know, Uncle Jim, and here's what I've done.

This is kind of a, if you will, a validation of the reality of this letter being written, I think. And we don't need that. The Bible's got plenty of validation. But I think that's an interesting twist. And I think it's a message to the church going forward that says, And we're going or gone forward, and we get the idea here. This does, I think, relate to us to some extent today.

So Paul's in Ephesus, where his presence was needed, and expected to go to Macedonia, probably to obtain support for, again, the Jews in Jerusalem. And he was not going to go to Corinth on his way, but on his return. But this was not his original intention. So turn to 2 Corinthians, the first chapter.

We're going to be looking at this in more detail. I remember when I came to talk to this with Hal a decade ago, this whole travels of Paul is really perhaps even more outlined past facts, which is a lot in 2 Corinthians. Randy, can you read that? 2 Corinthians 1, 15-17. Sure.

In this confidence, I intended it first to come to you. so that you might twice receive a blessing. That is to pass your way into Macedonia and again from Macedonia to come to you and by you to be helped on my journey to Judea. Therefore I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? For what I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh? So that with me there will be yes, yes and no, no at the same time. Yes, yes and no, no at the same time, sorry. So you get the hint here. I mean, there's an intention here. He's not quite sure what's going to be happening. We'll come back to that in today's lesson. But this raised a question to me in terms of the timing of all this.

And I turned to commentator after commentator and to map after map. And you know what I finally did? I called Vern Peterman. Where else do you go when you really need some help? So Vern sent me these next three slides. And this is courtesy of Vern, because I used it. So the question is the timing. And here's the 1st and 2nd Corinthians timeline. We'll come back to this maybe as we go into 2nd Corinthians.

Paul's first missionary journey is approximately 48 to 49 AD, recorded in Acts 13 and 14. The second missionary journey is Acts 15, 39 through the middle of 18, presumably three or four years later. And the third missionary journey is Acts 18, And the verse is shown all the way to chapter 21. And that's another three years later.

But Paul went to Corinth on his second and third missionary journeys. By the way, if you look at maps online, go to Google Maps and ask for Paul's journeys, there's a lot of discrepancy from map to map in terms of the timing and the places he stopped. So anyway, and we're going to come back to another, I think, uncertainty about all this in a second. So here's what Burns' third slide said. He wrote his first and second Corinthians while on his third missionary journey.

And this is really kind of important to put into perspective here. So here's the map. And I don't know how well you can see this, but the idea is that here he's on his way Here's the journey beginning over here around Antioch. He goes up through Asia Minor, up through Macedonia, down to Corinth over here. See if I have a point. So here he starts here, traverses here, goes through Ephesus, comes up.

So presumably he wrote this epistle in Ephesus. So this is probably where the epistle was being written, on his way to Corinth, but perhaps started here in Ephesus. And then he goes up. through Turkey, or through Asia Minor, into Macedonia, down to Corinth, and then it shows him coming back through Ephesus, and then back to Jerusalem, ultimately. Now, we're going to see what the dilemma is here going forward in terms of the timing of all this. was like a matter of a couple of days and I have trouble reconciling the scripture because remember this is when Paul got booted out of Ephesus I think by Demetrius and so was that, did he get booted out of Ephesus by Demetrius when he was there before he went to Corinth on his third missionary journey?

I don't think so because he's really kind of anticipating to go to Ephesus Because I think the Lord's calling him there. So that presumably relates to the events in Ephesus that must have lasted just a couple of days. Because scripture describes it maybe as a much longer period. But Verbst, he has this Homer list of dates that are reasonably well-documented. And that shows him meeting with the elders in Ephesus for only a short time period.

So anyway, we're not going to have a history lesson here. But I think it's important to put in perspective letters were written during his third journey, began in Ephesus on his way to Corinth, and both letters. By the way, Vern told me that really there were four letters that were written. The first we don't know anything about, and I think the third we don't know anything about. Is that right? I think it's first and third got lost or something. We have the second and fourth, which is first Corinthians and second Corinthians.

So kind of an interesting sidebar. So and support is something he promised. And particularly at a time when the Jewish believers were forced to leave Jerusalem. And actually, this occurred. We don't have to turn to Acts 8.1. It occurred before Saul got converted. So there was pressure against the new church. And the Jews were kind of pushed out of Jerusalem by fear, to some extent. And there was reportedly a famine in Palestine.

So in Acts 11.28, there's apparently really some deficiencies in food stuff. And so all of this really related to a need of the church in Jerusalem, wherein Paul, in fact, was really out there promoting this. And a similar message had been given to the churches in Galatia and Rome. So this is unique to the church at Corinth, but also letters were written to other churches in terms of the need to meet the needs of the Jews who had left Jerusalem, who were in Israel.

And note, this is for the saints, not the poor. I don't know, we were downtown last night. Do you have any change? I do have some, but I don't know what we said. But anyway, it's not for your whatever. Anyway, I mean, the poor have needs, obviously. We could go political here, but we won't.

Notice the first day of the week. And the accountability of each one of you is what Paul said. So each one of us and raises the issue of laying aside. That's present active imperative. You need to lay aside. Are we laying aside? And is this law? Or is this grace? We're going to deal with this in a little more detail.

Storing up as he made proper. The idea here is the amount may differ in each one of us, but it relates to an intention to give is what it does. So on the first day of the week, The intention to give is there. 2 Corinthians 8-12 For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have. So that's each and every one of us.

We can't have an intention to give what we don't have. Although in the gospel account, the greatest gift was the widow, right? You've got to answer that for yourselves. Is this tithing? And if not, what's the principle of our giving? What's the principle of our giving? Absolutely.

So 2 Corinthians 9-10, boy, look at all these rich verses in 2 Corinthians we're going to be coming up against. So let each one give as he purposes, which relates here to a willing mind, and also as he prospers. So the conditions are, how well are you doing, and you've planned, and you've saved, and you're willing.

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. And that's really the principles of giving. If we're giving reluctantly, God doesn't need it really. But the giving we give is cheerful. and we have a lot to be thankful for, so there's no burden here, no law, right?

But the idea here is Paul's expecting an offering and he's challenging the church this first day of the week, you've planned, I don't want to have to come and ask for money. It's kind of like supporting our missionaries, isn't it, to some extent? They come periodically to update us, but the giving of Holly Hills Bible Church is there in anticipation of the ongoing need. Kind of a different scenario.

That there be no collections when I come. He anticipated the need. He doesn't want to have to show up and be begging for money. This needs to be there to support the churches and other things. Notice in verse 1 it says the collection. There is an article before that. He is expecting the collection to be gathered ahead of time so that he doesn't have to come. and plead for those resources.

Whomever you approve by your letters, what do you think that means? Presumably someone designated or could be a couple of people. Is this a church treasure do you think? By the way the commentators are all over the board on this one. This is someone in the Texas says that here he would travel with him back. Yeah.

It sounds like Paul doesn't want to be handling the money. He says, you know, he says he's encouraging them to give in accordance with how they've been prospered. He doesn't want to be involved in the money flow. He says, you know, you find somebody and then they couldn't send it by Federal Express or however they send the money. They couldn't. A person had to carry it.

So for sure. And again, this person, I think Paul goes on to say, this person could stay with him or he could go out alone. I mean, whatever. It's your responsibility to designate somebody in the body then to be responsible for the gifts that were given. All right. Letters were presumably to Paul indicating who was assuming the responsibility of overseeing this matter. I think that's something that happens locally in the body where Paul could turn to, you know, Sam or George or whomever else is hanging out there that's going to be responsible for this. Hey, honey? Yeah?

Wasn't there another, and I can't remember the verses, where he talks about that someone had accused him of either taking money or wanting money. There was some other church where he had People accuse him. I think that's in Second Corinthians someplace. But I just I must say that I remember. Does anybody else recall that section? There was a time when Paul was accused. And he said incorrectly for appropriating funds.

I think there's more text on this in Second Corinthians. And I didn't go there. So I'm just wondering if that's why he's so insistent here that there be someone that they designate. Well, that's in second correctness if we're following the first letter, which is what we're doing. I don't remember where it is.

Roger, do you remember that? I think there was a time when Paul was accused. Wrongly so. Wrongly. But it is interesting is that Paul says, you know, you find someone and he'll validate that your money gets to its intended place. That's pretty, you know, that's pretty... But think about our giving today. I mean, we have presumably all give something to someplace. And I mean, there's a lot of trust, isn't there, in what we give and where it goes.

I'll just share transparently, personally, I don't give the United Way, ever. And by the way, my workplace is on my case regularly about giving to United Way. Why am I not giving to United Way? I mean, as a staff director, personally, these are global letters that go out to academic people at the institution, but I mean, there's a lot of reasons why I don't want to give to United Way. I'd rather give to the Lord for it, but there's still some trust in what we give. All right, but if it's fitting that I go also, they will go with me.

So there's what I just alluded to. So whatever, they can team up. They don't have to team up. But this is someone who's going to be responsible. And I said, isn't this the practical side of life? For instance, it all depends, doesn't it? And may the Lord guide in such decisions to follow. I mean, in other words, there's The practical aspects of living the Christian life isn't to live as robots and be zapped from above.

God gives us a brain. He gives us an experience. And he gives us his spirit to renew us day in and day out by his great grace. And things happen, don't they? And sometimes they work out the way we intended, and sometimes they don't. But God makes no mistakes in terms of the way he works in our lives through the various difficulties.

So this is just an example of the uncertainties in terms of Paul's travel plans, and in terms of whether this guy or group of guys are going with him or not with him. Paul's open to whatever seems to be occurring at the time to realize that God's not monchromatic in our life. We're in fact by faith learning and growing through the experiences that he allows us to traverse.

Any questions about these first four verses? So I think the teaching point here is this is his third journey. The letter began in Ephesus, and he's writing these letters on his way to Corinth. So he's already been to Corinth during his second journey, but now this is the third. And going forward, he's expecting funds to already have been given, so when he gets there, this is an act in progress. All right, let's look at the last five verses here.

Now I will come to you when I pass through Macedonia, or I'm passing through Macedonia. So the idea he's writing this in transit, right? And it may be that I will remain or even spend the winter with you that you may send me on my journey wherever I go. Look at the uncertainty here. For I do not wish to see you now on the way, but I hope to stay a while with you if the Lord permits. Notice But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great and effective door is open to me, and there are many adversaries. Wow. I feel like you're reading a novel here or something. More uncertainty as to what will transpire. I mean, it's there repeatedly in this section. I'm not sure what's going to happen. I'm not sure what the timetable is. Here's my intention.

And again, think about the validation of the personal aspect of this text in terms of what Paul's experiencing individually. Not doctrine, although we can enter in a little doctrine in terms of the giving, but more so in terms of his life experience. Paul's intention was to pass through Macedonia, and presumably he did so, but not momentarily, but during the winter months.

So let's turn to Acts chapter 20 and look at 3 through 6. Okay, somebody read that please. And there abode three months, and when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia, and there accompanied him into Asia, Sophater of Berea, and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus, and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus of Asia, These going before carried for us at Troas. And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came unto them to Troas in five days, where we abode seven days.

Okay, a little bit of geographic history there on his travels. So the idea that The winter months, the question came up in my studies. And again, this related part calling burn about the timing of this. I think the winter months were spent in Corinth. And the reason for the Passover would have been what time? September. Right.

So, you know, Ephesus, you know, in terms of its geography, we could go back a few slides and look at the geography. I mean, So Corinth is up there, and Ephesus is over there. So in terms of the latitude, there's some difference. I mean, Ephesus is a little bit further south, but regular winter precluded travel because of the winds on the seas or whatever. You don't have to speculate about this. But the question is, where were these winter months spent? Were they spent in Ephesus? I don't think so. I think they were spent probably in Corinth.

Note. and if the Lord permits. I mean, it's not true of our lives in general, but if the Lord permits. I mean, not micromanaging our lives, but I mean, our lives go day in and day out, 24-7, and what the Lord permits is the life that he's allowing us to live is in fact, you know, used to his glory. And I just quote a text from James here.

Some now, who you say, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It's even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. So what's the Lord's will for the believer? to be conformed and transformed to the inward Lord Jesus Christ, right? So that's, if the Lord permits, since he permits, really, it's probably a better way to look at this.

All right. Think of your own lives. We make plans, don't we? But then they're changed. And where's God in all this? Well, God's not unchanging. I mean, so many decisions we make just seem so neutral in terms of whatever it is that we turn left here, we go down two more streets, turn left and cut back. I mean, what's the big deal here?

So the Lord permits and realizes that His will will take place either way. Romans 8, 28, 29. look at this a lot, but we'll look at it again. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. I mean, welcome to life, right? So again, We live day in and day out, and we're not micromanaged by the Lord upstairs. But ultimately, he's there to conform us through our circumstances. Why await Pentecost?

This comes up with the issue in terms of the birth. The timing would be right to be part of the Jewish festival, which occurred 50 days after the Passover. So he's expecting to be there at a time where there'd be some festival, kind of Jewish celebration over the Passover, but perhaps weather conditions that may have been more appropriate for that time of the year.

I don't know. You can only speculate on the weather. I don't know about the Mediterranean Sea in those months in terms of weather. Travel would have been more difficult. A lot of this travel was probably not by boat. It was by land according to the missionary journey that was shown. So to go north maybe through Macedonia and Asia Minor would have been more difficult in the winter time because of the sea so much as it's the land travel. The opportunities that awaited him, I think it's stated a great and effective door has opened to me and there are many adversaries. What do you think Paul was anticipating here?

Did the Lord kind of lightning bolt hit him with something that was surprising to him? Well, this is actually old news to him because he's been through that area many times and he's seen the patterns and maybe he's trying to time himself to where he's in the minimum amount of unrest and the maximum amount of service to the Lord rendered. Yeah, he had a pretty good history of what was going on in Jerusalem, didn't he? and not have surprised him. So the opportunity before him was really something the Lord had opened up. And the timing was right. And he expected many adversaries. Acts 2016, for Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

Now the question is the sailing. There's if you look at the route, it's a land bridge. But yet there's probably small parts that were at sea. So anyway, if you look back, it's worse. Actually, you can use this. I just want to look at the map again. I mean, it looks like some of this travel was by sea, but most of it looks like it's by land.

So anyway, he talks about sailing here, and presumably the timing of this, 2016, relates to the trip to Ephesus that we're taking into consideration here. Remember, his third journey began in Antioch and went up through Ephesus and through Asia Minor and Macedonia down to Corinth. He's got to get from Corinth back to Ephesus before he goes to Jerusalem. So it says he decided to sail past Ephesus. Is that on his way, of course? No, apparently not. Presumably it was related to the day of Pentecost.

And after the uproar of Demetrius, the adversary Paul would ultimately leave Ephesus. So this is really covered in Acts 19, 1 through 41. The whole chapter of 19 is about that uproar in Ephesus. And Margaret and I have the privilege of kind of being in the area where this whole thing had ensued. I know Vern's been there, too. Now, the interesting thing here is about the timing of these verses in Acts versus that in 2016.

So that's why this gets a little bit problematic in terms of the writing of the epistle to the Church at Corinth and the events to follow. And that's what I'm saying. At the upper of Demetrius, would seemingly then be prior to his leaving Ephesus the first time to go to Corinth.

But that's not what Homer's history of the timeline was in terms of when Paul traveled. So it's a little bit unclear what preceded what. But the verses in Acts 19 would presumably be before verse 16 and chapter 20. What do you think Paul? Well I think the Lord has opened the door for him to go on this journey and collect the money for Jerusalem. Back to what Tom was saying, I think this was anticipated. He knew the history of what had happened to the Jewish church in Jerusalem. And he knew that that was an area that was not going to be user-friendly in terms of his visit. But he was challenged by the opportunity. And I think ultimately he was aware of what he was getting into.

And a couple of examples of this in Philemon 1.6, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by acknowledging a very good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. So effectual here relates to the spread of the gospel, doesn't it? And that was really his mission. So I think working in a environment where adversaries were present ultimately would still be an opportunity for effectually or effectively spreading the word of the Lord. And Ephesus would be one place. And he tarried there until much of the way of spreading the gospel was accomplished.

So again, the timing, how much time he was there is really what's a little uncertain in terms of The history is pointed out by Homer, who theoretically left him in that place for just a short time. So I don't know. But it would seem that he tarried there longer than just a few days. So I think there's some uncertainties there. Somebody may have the answer. And inadvertently, your dad and I discussed it at length yesterday, but it wasn't really substantially clear exactly the timing of this Ephesus-Corinth connection back and forth. All right, well, I think next week, who's teaching next week? Randy is. Randy is, OK. Thoughts? Yeah, Randy.

You didn't mention it, but Paul said in the first verse, he said, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. I don't recall you mentioning the Galatians. Yeah, where he's very concerned that the church look after one another and that money be raised for the taking care of those who are in need. What I think is interesting is that you mentioned that the church should be looking after their own. And I work downtown, so I get asked all the time for money. If we're taking care of our own, There may be surplus to reach outside, but that taking care of our own is one of those things that requires humility in all parties. As a giver, as a recipient, as a steward, there's humility there. The Holy Spirit is important in our lives and that's an important thing.

Paul said in Galatians 2.10, they only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I also was eager to do. And clearly in this letter, he's eager to do it. I think that takes leadership and spirit led behavior ultimately to get that accomplished. Maybe we can talk more about giving if we want to, but again, it has to be a right heart.

Any of the giving, but I think Paul really had set the stage for the importance of giving to meet the needs of the ministry. Other thoughts here at all? I'm probably being a little confused on the timing here, but maybe it's not so critical that we understand, but I'd just like to put that in perspective. If there are multiple maps of the journeys of Paul, it really indicates that everybody else isn't perfectly clear on the timing of all this.

I probably should have printed out Hohner's list of That wasn't surprising to me. So, Randy, how much scripture do you cover next week? Actually, it's 10 through 24. He has less to tell. And then we're done. Right. And actually he gets he gets into doctrine again. So he does. He sprinkles some doctrine in there. It's not to say hi to this person. All right.

Any other thoughts about today? So, take home message, the need to support the ministry, the need to plan in advance and giving according to what the Lord has given us, in a position to provide as we prosper. The first day of the week thing, I think the idea was people are gathering the first day of the week and that's a time to bring your resources together and get to the treasurer or whomever and he or she today could also be responsible for that. I think beyond that, the uncertainties in terms of the travel, I think we can leave where it's at because there's certainly no agreement among many people exactly what the timetable was here. But I think that's irrelevant.

I mean, Paul's called to a ministry. Things aren't easy. As we think about our own walks here, some of the uncertainties that lie before us really relate to life in general. But we must relate each and everything that comes up to growing us through grace and truth in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, I think it's neat to kind of see Paul kind of really be transparent in all the uncertainties he had to deal with. He knew where he was going, he knew what the purpose was of him going to Jerusalem. It wouldn't be easy, but yet he's called there. But yet, how he's going to get there, what the timetable was, wasn't entirely clear. So I really don't have much more to share about today.

How did they travel? On camel, on caravans, or horses, or how did they travel? Did some walking, I suppose. Lots of walking. It would have been really expensive to have livestock. Your traveling costs would go pretty substantially. Probably just by foot, mostly. Or by boat, obviously. If you could possibly find a boat that went between point A to point B, that's a lot faster than you walking.

I mean, if you look at the map in terms of the travel, it's not it's not clear that sometimes you can kind of die. You know, obviously that last part certainly is, you know, if you went around the land, they'll take you a long time to do that bottom part of the LV rather than going. That's the way it went initially. Yeah. Well, it's going across the water there and came back and then down here. Yeah.

So that could relate to the season too, couldn't it? It's not entirely clear whether the season played much of a role here, but that's speculated by some as having some impact. All right, well, let's close. We're done a little bit early, but I don't think there's too much more here to discuss.

Father, we're thankful for the word. We use it to understand how the early church really relates to our lives today, and the scripture It's all there for edification. We're thankful for the personal nature of this section of scripture that we might see the uncertainties that we all have as we walk day in and day out, but that you work in those to bring glory to yourself. So we're thankful for the message to follow upstairs. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.