1. If you know your Bible, you know that the apostle Paul made tents (cf. Acts 18:1-3). Personally, I believe this is the best way to start churches and it is the way I started this church.
2. Paul brings out here in I Corinthians 9 that as a Gospel preacher, as a church-planter, as a missionary, he had the right to receive financial support from God’s people.
3. He was free to set aside that right – and he sometimes did – but the principles he brings out here, with the exception of the first one (9:1), would apply to all full-time Christian workers today.

1. PAUL SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BECAUSE HE WAS AN APOSTLE
2. BECAUSE THIS PRINCIPLE HOLDS FOR ALL WORKERS
3. BECAUSE OF OT DOCTRINE
4. BECAUSE OF OT PRACTICE
5. BECAUSE OUR LORD TAUGHT THIS

I. HE WAS AN APOSTLE (9:1-6).

1. There are many "churches" today with their own "apostles." They are really nothing but cults. Let me give you a few reasons why there are no apostles around today.

1. An apostle was a man sent from God. These bogus apostles today are not sent from God. This can be easily proven by their false doctrine, sinful lives, etc.
2. Apostles, together with the NT prophets, laid the foundation for the NT church (Eph.2:20). The foundation is no longer being laid. Suppose you are a carpenter and you are looking for work. Your specialty is building the concrete forms. A friend tells you that they are building some new houses down on Elmont Road, next door to the old "Friendly’s" restaurant. So you run down there but you are much too late. They are no longer laying the foundation.
3. One of the qualifications for being an apostle was a personal experience of seeing the resurrected Christ (Acts 1:21,22; 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39-43).
4. Also, the apostles were given the ability to perform special signs and wonders to confirm the message that they preached (Heb.2:3,4).

2. Therefore, as an apostle, Paul had the right to receive support from the people to whom he ministered (I Cor.9:1-6).
3. The word "power" (9:6) means "right." Paul had the right to receive regular support from the Corinthian believers but he chose not to use this "power" or right (cf. 9:12; II Cor.11:7-9).
4. Paul was unmarried (Peter was married – vs. 5; cf. Mark 1:30); but if he was married, his wife would have the right to be supported by the church.
5. Paul had the right to "lead about" (9:5) a wife but he did not exercise this right. He also had the right to devote his full time to the ministry, as the other apostles did (cf. Acts 6:1-4). Paul did not have to make tents.
6. However, Paul and Barnabas worked at making tents (I Cor.9:6; cf. II Thess.3:7-9).

II. THIS PRINCIPLE HOLDS FOR ALL WORKERS.

1. Next Paul goes on to show that everyday experience teaches us that a workman deserves some reward for his labors (9:7).
2. If a man is drafted and sent off to war, the government pays his wages. The man who plants a vineyard gets to eat the fruit. The herdsman has the right to drinks the milk from his animals (9:7).
3. Here is Paul’s point: in the secular realm there is a principle – a day’s pay for a day’s work. This same principle applies in the spiritual realm.
4. If anyone should question Paul’s reasoning, and argue that he is using human illustrations, and that things are different in the Lord’s work, Paul says, "Say I these things as a man? (i.e. "Am I using human reasoning?") So he reminds them that the law of God teaches this same principle.

III. OLD TESTAMENT DOCTRINE.

1. Keep in mind that the NT was not complete yet so when we say "OT doctrine," we mean "Bible doctrine" (9:8).
2. Paul quoted Deut.25:4 to prove his point (9:9; cf. I Tim.5:17,18). It would be cruel for a farmer to bind the mouth of the ox and prevent him from eating the grain. After all, the ox is doing the work; the ox is treading out the corn.
3. "Doth God take care for oxen?" (9:9). Paul is teaching a spiritual principle: the laborer has the right to share in the bounties. The ox had plowed the soil in preparation for the sowing, and now he was treading out the corn that had been harvested.
4. Paul had plowed the soil in Corinth. He had seen a harvest from the seed he had planted. And it was only right that he enjoyed some of the fruits of that harvest (9:9,10).
5. When we receive spiritual blessings, we should in turn share material blessings (I Cor. 9:11; cf. Rom.15:25-27). Those who teach us the Bible have the right to expect us to support them (cf. Gal.6:6-10).
6. I use the word "us" intentionally because pastors should support other preachers (missionaries, evangelists, Spanish pastors, etc.), and pastors should tithe. The main purpose of the tithe is to support ministers, not the building fund or other things, important as they may be.
7. Pastor Bell used to say that when you go into a restaurant to eat, and it is time to pay the bill, you do not go down the street to another restaurant to pay. Yet some Christians do this when they do not give their tithes to their own church.
8. And some are even worse than that because they do not tithe at all.
9. As I said earlier, Paul made tents in order to support himself as a church-planter (and I think this is still the best method). But he also received financial support from other churches (cf. Phil.4:15,16; II Cor.11:7-9).

IV. OLD TESTAMENT PRACTICE.

1. The OT believers paid their tithes in order to support the priests and Levites (9:13; cf. Num.18:21,24).
2. "Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel" (9:14). Paul is saying that this same principle is still in effect. If the OT ministers under the law were supported by the people to whom they ministered, should not pastors who minister under grace also be supported?

V. OUR LORD TAUGHT THIS.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ frequently spoke about money. And He clearly taught "that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel" (9:14; cf. Luke 10:7,8; Matt.10:10).
2. It is unfortunate that Christians, who are supposed to follow the teachings of our Lord, oftentimes miss this important principle – a principle that goes back to Abraham giving his tithe to Melchizedek, "the priest of the most high God" (Gen.14:18-20).
3. And then this principle was incorporated into the law under Moses. And then we see in the NT that it was taught by our Lord and the apostle Paul.