Variant Strains

A few years back, after the boys were being born, I remember in the hospital that they kept saying to us both, you need to get the flu shot. You need to protect the babies. So we got the flu shot, and then we got hit with the flu so bad, it was brutal.

And we were both, I'm pretty sure Holly got it first, is my memory correct? Holly got it first, and then I got it. That means it was not my fault. And then it was so bad that we were laid up for days.

I don't even have a memory who took care of the boys or whatever, but they survived, so we did that. And to tell you the truth, after that happened, you see, what they do is give you a shot for what is most likely the strain of flu that is going to hit. And we got hit with the one that was not most likely.

And to tell you the truth, after as brutal as that was, it's hard to want to get a flu shot again. But your doctors are probably going to tell you to get the flu shot. And it doesn't mean that that wouldn't have helped if the strain would have come along.

It's just that there were variant strains. Now, when we're talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ during this series, talking about the good contagion, meaning the gospel is the good contagion, and that we need to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others, think of it like this, that some people hear the message of the gospel and they think it's stale. They think it doesn't do any good.

They think, been there, done that, so I don't need this anymore. So, the gospel has to be taken to the world with variant strains. The message of Jesus Christ doesn't always have to be shared in the same way in order to reach different people in different places, in different settings, in different circumstances with different backgrounds.

Now, Paul talks about how he did this, and maybe how he did it pretty extremely. How he came up with variant strains of sharing the gospel. Now notice how I say that, that it's not variant strains of the gospel, it's variant strains of how to share the gospel, that the message of our Lord Jesus Christ does not change no matter what the setting is, but how we present it, we need to be a little creative on.

Who's feeling creative? Thank you. One person feeling creative. My worst class in school, art.

But there are creative ways that we should come up with that Paul's going to tell us about some of the things he did, and it should spur us to think about some of the things we are called to do. We stand as you are able, our scripture today is from 1 Corinthians 9, chapter 19 through 23. We're going to hear about Paul's variant strains.

For through him I am free from all. I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became 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. 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. 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. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. The word of God, inspired by God, for the people of God.

Thanks be to God. Amen. You may be seated.

Paul starts this off by saying, though I am free from all. And he has a conversation before, saying nobody pays him to share the gospel, so he's not adherent to what anyone else says, so he can be very clear that he's speaking for Jesus. So he's not subservient to what anybody else would have him say, but he's saying, I may be free, but I've made myself a servant, that I might win more of them.

Why would Paul do this? What's the why? To win some for Jesus. You're going to hear that message a lot, to win some for Jesus. And how does that work, that if you're free from all, you become a servant to all? Well, in, Mark Taylor says that the image of 919 shifts to a slave who accommodates his surroundings, a slave who does what he needs to do.

Mark 10, 45 says, Jesus said, for the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many, that if we're going to serve God, sometimes we have to serve in places and in situations that are not, either not comfortable, or not around just church people. Did you know even new converts after a few years, how many non-church people there are surrounded by? Almost no one, after you've been involved in the church for a while, just because you guys are so cool, everybody starts really liking hanging out with church people. And of course, we're all trying to grow in our faith, to become more like Jesus, to become more holy, and to become more of who God is calling us to be, so we surround ourselves with people who are like-minded.

And that is what we need to grow in our faith. But Paul is saying, we are also called to have something in our lives that is beyond the church, where we share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Acts 18, verse 3, Paul goes into the city of Corinth, who he's talking to here, and it says, he left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew named Aquila, and a native of Pontus, recently came from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.

And it says, as he went to see them, and because they were of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tent makers by trade. And then he went around the city and taught in the synagogue, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks every Sabbath. So, what Paul did to support his ministry was he was a tent maker, and he hung out with other tent makers.

Now Priscilla and Aquila were not Christians, they were not believers, they were Jews, so Paul hung out with them, and when he hung out with them, he got to know them. And they got to know him as a fellow tent maker, and they worked together, and sometimes when you work with someone, and you do something, and you both have that in common, and they get to trust in you with that, then they're more open to hearing about the gospel. Instead of just walking up to someone and saying, hey, sinner boy, hey, sinner, you need Jesus.

How effective is that method? Bill don't do that anymore. That's what you did to me when you met me. What he did was he found something in common with them and worked through what was in common.

Now if you think it's difficult, and you shouldn't be doing any, have any interest or do anything outside the church, think of the ultimate one who became a servant in Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 7, 14 it said, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call his name Immanuel. Immanuel, does everybody know? Matthew interprets that for us, it means God with us.

Immanuel, El is God, the with us God, it means God with us, that Jesus chose to be with us. I mean, he was, can you imagine life in heaven sitting on the throne room and coming down here and having the vulnerabilities we have? In fact John explains that a little further when in John 1, 14, Earl read 9 to 14 to give you the context of all that, of the word being in heaven and the word coming down to be with us and it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt with us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the Son, of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.

And when it says the word became flesh, the Greek word is carne, like carne asada, I shouldn't say food things, none of you are going to think about food, carne asada, which carne is often interpreted as flesh, but it's like the meat on the bones. So the theology that comes out of here is the incarnation and the incarnation of Jesus Christ that said although he became God, he didn't grasp it, he came in the flesh so God would come and be with us in our sinful, dirty, smelly, impure world. He would come and be with us.

Why did God do that? What did Jesus say? Why did the Son come for God so loved the world, that he loved us so much that he came to be with us? So if God can come and be in the flesh so he can walk among us, experience the same temptations we have, experience the same fragile things we have in these human bodies, even unto death, then why can't we be with people who don't know Jesus Christ? Why can't we do that like Paul did? Now if you go on in 1 Corinthians, we started in chapter 9, but let's move over to chapter 12 where he is talking about temptation. And in verse 12, 12 and 13 he says, not that we dare classify ourselves or compare ourselves with some of those who were commending themselves, but when they met us, we were by one another and compare themselves by the one another. They are without understanding.

But when he talks about their boasting, he says that we will not boast beyond limits but will boast only in regard with God. God assigned us to reach even you. That it was following their call, God assigned us to reach even you.

And when he said that, he was saying also, he also says, be careful not to fall. And then in Galatians 6, 1, when he's talking about going to people who have sinned and restore them back into the faith, and he said, but you too be careful that you are not drawn into their same temptation. Be careful of that temptation.

So I bring up those verses to say Paul said that even though we go to people who have sinned, go to people who don't believe, we don't give up the gospel just so they'll like us. That's not the point. The point is to show them love like Jesus showed us so that they know their love and they're more open to hearing the gospel.

They get to know us on a different level than just us lecturing them or something like that is what Paul is saying. So in verse 20 he goes on and he says to the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law.

Though not being under the law myself that I might win those under the law. He's talking about the law of Moses. Basically he's saying, but I don't have to.

I don't have to follow everything in the Old Testament because I am under Christ. Because I have the law of the Spirit. But I choose to be with them, I choose to worship with them, I choose to follow traditions so they can know that I love them and know that I am with them.

And know, build enough trust up so he can share the gospel. Why did Paul do it? Same reason. So I can win some to the gospel.

Now if we go on to verse 21, he says to those outside the law, I became as one outside the law. Not being outside of the law of God but under the law of Christ that I might win those outside the law. Now if you're talking about winning someone outside the law and it's becoming someone outside the law, it's saying as a Christian when you go into circles where not everybody's Christian or maybe nobody is Christian, it doesn't mean you leave Jesus behind.

It means you take Jesus in there with you and you build upon what you have there. Like Paul did with Priscilla and Aquila with the tent making. Why did he do that? So he could win some of the Gentiles for Jesus.

He's realistic saying not everybody is going to agree, not everybody is going to receive Jesus and sometimes it's hard to share Jesus. Who thinks it's hard sometimes to share Jesus with someone who's not a church person? Because they're going to say what? Get out of my face. I don't want to hear this.

You're an idiot. I've never been called an idiot for sharing the gospel but I feel like sometimes that's what they're thinking. I heard a song last week and I couldn't find what the song was but the words said, Jesus ain't scared of the mess in me.

Right? That no matter what we did, no matter what we have done, that we're not too far beyond the love of Jesus Christ. So why would we, as those who work in the image of Jesus Christ, not be too scared of the mess in someone else so we can share the love with them? Here's an interesting one. In verse 22 Paul says, 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. Now, your gut is going to tell you when you see someone who is weak. That's someone who he's talking about being weak in the faith.

But weak in any way. That they're weak in the faith like he's talking about Jews and Gentiles and believers and non-believers and those under the law and those not under the law. So sometimes, you know, they would go in and the church would be formed and then people called Judaizers would come and tell them they need to take on the full law, they need to be circumcised, they need to do all this stuff.

And the weak would say, oh, I guess we were wrong that it was all about Jesus. And so they would do this and they would weaken in their faith. And there were many things that would cause people, in their communities, some of them were so big with temple worship for other gods that that would infiltrate into the church and then other people would pick up those same practices they were used to and they would have that weakness.

So when Paul says I became weak, normally when someone is weak, what do we think is going to help them? It's us being strong, right? If you're weak, I'm going to be strong for you. But Paul says, for the weak, I became weak. And your initial thought might be, what good is that going to do? They need someone strong.

They need someone who is solid in their faith and to draw them back in. 1 Corinthians 12 speaks to that. In 8 through 10, Paul says, for there is given through the Spirit, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians.

Paul says he was given a thorn, a weakness, something that kept him and he prayed three times for God to take it away from him. And then the Lord said to him, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest in me. When Paul says he became weak, now there's something that happens, this weird phenomenon in the church that happens that when we get around other church people, we tend to pretend that we have no flaws and no imperfections and no things that drag us down, no temptation, no giving in to any temptation. And we look around and we think, man, I need to tell everybody how perfect I am, especially if they're messing up.

I'll tell them the way to do it. Paul says, to the weak I became weak, meaning he became weak. He became vulnerable.

When they were vulnerable, he was vulnerable. He says, I am not perfect. In so many of his writings, he says, I was the worst of all sinners.

How is that going to win someone to Jesus? Hey, you can be with Jesus because I was the worst of all sinners. But Jesus' power is made perfect in our weakness. When we come before Christ and we admit who we are and how we have fallen and what we need to do differently and where we are weak, then Christ will work within us.

If we have too much pride like the religious leaders in his day, too much pride like so many of the people did in their day, then Jesus doesn't have it. We're not going to let him do the work. So in that weakness, Paul says to the weak, I became weak.

Oh, you're struggling with this in your faith? Let me tell you what my struggles are. But I need Jesus in all of this. Let me tell you how, what horrific things I have done and I thought it was for God.

But then Jesus came into my life. Let me tell you what I'm struggling with today. I'm tired, my body's hurting, I got these strange things going on that keep me from sharing the gospel so much.

But in all that, it's all about Jesus. So Paul is saying to the weak, don't turn to me and look at me. He's saying, I'm weak too.

We all need Jesus. We need Christ in the midst of this. I became all things to all people that he knew of.

There wasn't anyone he wouldn't hang out with, with the hope of building a relationship with them and eventually sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Knowing some were going to laugh in his face. Knowing some were going to call the authorities and try to have him beaten and arrested.

Knowing some were going to just outright reject him as being crazy. Then there were a few that accepted Jesus. So he would be a servant to all.

Why are we called, who specifically are you called to become for the sake of the gospel? Who are you called to become? What kind of things do you like that as long as you don't make them idols, they are great places to get to have conversations with other people? Sports. I don't know why I always start with sports. Oh yeah, it's because I like sports.

Sports, politics, work, books, hobbies, community interests, all these things. Things you have that you could find groups and you could be a part of and eventually share the love of Jesus with them. After they know that you care about what they care about.

That you're interested in some of the things they're interested in. Now in the cohort that I've been a part of with the Awaken Network that is for church plants. This last week I got into, I can get it from the Global Methodist Church, Mission Insight.

And with Mission Insight I have, I looked up for a seven mile radius around our church. And it told me about the concerns people have. What are their felt needs? Now the number one significant concern five years ago, this was in 2025, five years ago it was on health.

Why do you think five years before 2025 health was such a major concern in the Johnson County area? Now it's just back down to normal. Of all the concerns, money was the biggest concern. Preparing for retirement, how you're going to make it in retirement was 41% by far bigger than any other felt need or concern people had in our area.

Data, financial matters still way above everything else. Reaching our goals, being successful. And then satisfying, having a satisfying job career, that's more normal with some of the others.

But financial concerns are the big ones. How can the church be a part of the financial concerns the community has? What can we do? Okay. And this was interesting for me because we think of if there are such a small percent in our area, which is around 20 to 25% now that go to church regularly, we think they don't know anything about Jesus sometimes.

But this says, regarding their beliefs in God, the top agreement showed that God is love and invites the world into a loving relationship. The highest percentage of people around us said this about God. That sounds pretty good, right? Depends on the definition of love.

And so that's part of the church's job is to talk about what God's love means and how that works in our lives. Second, I am open to learning more about God. How many of you have found that to be your experience when you talk to someone outside the church? They say, yeah, I'd like to learn more about God.

Depends on the approach. It depends on the variant strain we're using. Fourth, I believe God is present in all world religions.

So mixed in with that is some stuff that, you know, they could really use the church to help them walk through. Is God present in all those religions? Well, if you follow them directly, they're not going to lead you to God in Jesus Christ. So then when it comes to beliefs about Jesus, this was eye-opening.

People in church do not behave as Jesus would behave. That means they have some idea of who Jesus is and how he would behave. That means we're probably talking about a majority of people who have been hurt by the church and have walked away from the church.

Second, Jesus was, I put in quotes was because I thought it was interesting wording instead of is, both divine and human. Most people in our area, whether they go to church or not, believe Jesus is divine and human. That's pretty cool.

That's not something that has to be convincing. Third, I am open to learning more about Jesus. Now it's one thing to say you're open to learning more about God, but to say they're open to learning more about Jesus.

But then fifth, 65.33%, which means all those others were higher, agree that belief in Jesus does not require participation in a church.