Guarded Authority, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. God's power and glory are often made most evident in our weakness, but we tend to avoid situations that reveal our areas of frailty.

Instead, we seek comfort, safety, and control. Today's passage from 2 Corinthians 11, 22 through 33 gives us a portrait of Paul's dangerous and sacrificial ministry as he attempted to spread the gospel through Gentile regions. Paul counted all his accomplishments as worthless in light of Jesus, and his weakness takes on value because it points most clearly to our great Savior.

Let's listen in. The Scriptures open now for the exposition of God's Word. We're going through 2 Corinthians, and as we pointed out before, Paul's letter, the tone of Paul's letter takes a striking turn in the last four chapters of this letter. Chapters 10 through 13, Paul is dealing with the issue of authority.

The word is exousia. It is the issue of authority, spiritual authority. Paul's authority is being challenged.

He has people in the church. Paul founded the Corinthian church, but now that he has moved on in his missionary work, there are those in the church who consider the apostle Paul as a rival for influence in the Corinthian church, and now they're calling his authority into question. The issue here then is authority. The first message from chapter 10 focused on what gospel authority is. Paul said, it's not about me, it's about the gospel, and that was his ambition, was to spread the gospel of Christ. So it's gospel authority.

Last week we looked at the issue of guarded authority. Those within the church who made ministry about themselves. Those who are in the world claiming the name of Christ and yet they make ministry about themselves, and therefore they have to guard their authority. They're all about building up their own reputation and building their little kingdoms. Paul says that's not what the church is about.

That's not what the gospel is about. Beware of those who make ministry about themselves. We come now then to what will be a five part series called genuine authority. Genuine authority. We're going to look from Paul's example, we're going to look at five characteristics of genuine spiritual authority.

Let me just review them for you briefly. So you will know what the whole series of it will be all five Sundays here in this month of August. The five characteristics of genuine authority are first of all, our focus for today, sacrificial ministry. Secondly, characteristic of genuine authority is one who speaks truth. Thirdly, and with genuine authority there is sufficient grace. And then genuine authority has the characteristic of sincere love. Lastly, genuine spiritual authority includes strong exhortation.

This is the series for this month, these five weeks as we go through chapters 10, 11, 12, and 13 of 2 Corinthians. But the focus for today is sacrificial ministry. It's like Paul says, you guys want to talk about bragging rights? You guys who call yourselves apostles, you who call yourselves leaders in the church and you want to talk about bragging rights? Paul says, I don't really want to get into that because it's not about me. Paul never once questioned his call and his authority as one who was specifically called and commissioned as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Not once did he question that or doubt that. But he says, I'm not going to stoop to the level of comparing ourselves with each other while I have these credentials and you don't.

He's not going to do that. He could get into bragging rights a la Philippians 3 verses 5 and 6. You remember what he said there of the stock of Israel, Hebrews concerning the law. He was a Pharisee concerning zeal. Never any question about that concerning the righteousness which is in the law. He was blameless. He was the poster boy of spirituality and spiritual authority. And yet what did Paul say about that to the Philippian church?

What things were gained to me, these I counted loss for Christ. It's not about me. It's not about my credentials, he says.

Whether it's pedigree, popularity or prowess, so what? That's not what it's about. It's not about the gifted one. It's about the giver. And Paul made that abundantly clear. So as he talks about these things, he's saying, I'm being foolish in talking about this.

He uses a little bit of satire in the middle of it. But Paul made it clear that the real point of this was, he was an instrument in the redeemer's hands. It wasn't about the giftedness of the instrument. It was about the giver.

It was about the master and Paul himself was but an instrument in the redeemer's hands. So these other guys wanted to talk credentials. They wanted to talk about accomplishments. You know, anytime a guest speaker is introduced, you know, you have this long list of all their credentials and accomplishments and all of this stuff.

And Paul says, it's not what it's about. You want to hear my accomplishments? Let me tell you what my accomplishments are. Here's my list of them. And what a list it is. What are his accomplishments?

In labors, more abundant, in stripes, this is verse 23, above measure, in prisons, more frequently, in deaths, often. Those are my accomplishments. Five categories of accomplishments, if you will, we talk about today that the Apostle Paul said, let me share my list with you. One of my accomplishments has been discrimination. I've been really, really discriminated against. I've been put in prison. I've been driven out of town. What he says at the end of the chapter, he talks about the incident in Damascus. The governor, he says, was guarding the city with a garrison, desiring to arrest me.

There is a warrant out for his life. And he says, I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands. Now think about it, that's a pretty serious demotion, isn't it? Here he was, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, the poster boy of spirituality and Judaism. And then he had come to Christ and now, where is he? He's being secretly gotten out of town, let down from the wall in a basket. Now how's that for pride?

That's a pretty significant demotion, isn't it? He was discriminated against by the Jews, by the Gentiles, by people in the city, by the people who were false Christians. They claimed Christ only so that they would be able to speak against him.

There were plots against his life, all sorts of discrimination. Secondly, Paul got a drumming. What do we mean by a drumming?

What do you do with a drum? You beat it. Paul got lots of beatings. What he says again, verse 24, from the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. 40 stripes minus one. Do the math, it's 39, last time I checked.

Five times, 39 stripes. Think for a moment. Just try to imagine that, okay?

Just try to imagine that. That's pretty severe. It's pretty severe. Not only that, by the Romans he was beaten three times with a rod and then one time he was actually stoned, left for dead. Some of these incidences are recorded in the book of Acts, some of them are not. Some of the incidences that are recorded in the book of Acts are even beyond what is recorded here. So it's even more than this that he had to endure. Besides the beatings that he got, there was just general danger in the ministry. Shipwrecked. How many times was he shipwrecked? And for a day and a night he was left floating in the deep in the ocean until he was rescued. Traveling perils, robbers, hostile environments.

You know, at what point does one say, I didn't sign up for this? What would that point be? Not only was it just general dangers, but there was deprivation. Sleep deprived often, often didn't have enough food to keep him going.

But these weren't the most important things. Sometimes he said we just didn't have enough coverings. We ended up getting cold where we had to sleep at night. It was cold. These were things that happened from time to time.

They would come, they would go. But then Paul said there's something that was constantly troubling him. He was disquieted.

He was disquieted. Look at verses 28 and 29. Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches.

I am weak and I am not weak. Who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation? You can hear the deep passion of the apostle there. His deepest concern was for the churches. The churches that he had founded, people that he had discipled. And a good example is the Corinthian church itself. What do we know about the Corinthian church?

There were no false teachers coming into the church. There were people bringing in their past and there was syncretism of secularism and spirituality and all kinds of misbehaviors in the church. Questions would arise because of what the false teachers were presenting and there were problems, behavioral problems with people. Paul was constantly, daily, concerned, burdened with that about the church.

The weaknesses of some people. Some were made to stumble into sin and Paul said he would burn with indignation. Whether it's the indignation against the sin itself or it's indignation against the one who would cause the brother to stumble. Yes, daily Paul had a deep, intimate identification with the people in their messy lives. And true, genuine spiritual authority comes through sacrificial ministry where you identify with people. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him. The one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.