Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
In case you were always wondering what a rhetorical question is, here are four of them from Paul to the church in Corinth. It is obvious that he does not wish an answer but to make a point that, of course, the answer is “Yes.” Paul has rights as an apostle, as evidenced by his Damascus Road encounter with the risen Jesus in Acts 9. He is the apostle who planted the church that this letter was addressed to. To top it off, Paul cited the church itself as the seal of Paul’s apostleship. This harks back to the beginning of the letter when some followed Peter, as an apostle, and Apollos, not an apostle, rather than Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.
Come to Cape Community Church tomorrow to see what store Paul placed in these rights of an apostle. We will learn the priority Paul placed on the gospel of Jesus Christ and the spread of that gospel. We will learn where the gospel should rank in our lives as opposed to our jobs, money, and relationships. Come and see how we can be free to deny our rights in a world that demands their rights.
Dear Lord, thank you for the right to become slaves of Christ. Help us to claim this right before any of our others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church