Sincere Love, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.

Helping others to follow Jesus can't be done purely out of self-will. It requires love—the power to love beyond what man alone can produce. For this kind of love, we must look to our Savior, who has loved us, spending Himself so fully for us on the cross. Today's message, titled, Sincere Love, comes from 2 Corinthians 12, 11-19.

Let's listen in. So he begins with his giftedness, not just an apostle, but the apostles were granted gifts, miraculous gifts, as an authentication of the truth. And he says the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you. And he says at the end of verse 12, there are signs, wonders, and mighty deeds, three things. They're not three different kinds of things.

They're three different titles, three different words for the same thing. They were miraculous gifts that apostles were granted, because the apostles were entrusted by Christ to propagate truth, but to establish truth in the church. They could not do, as you and I just did, turning your copy of the scriptures to 2 Corinthians.

They couldn't do that. But Paul was speaking with apostolic authority, and to authenticate that apostolic authority, there were miraculous signs, as he calls it, signs of an apostle. So signs are to authenticate new revelation, which is a pattern which we see throughout scriptures, anytime new revelation is given, there are signs to authenticate that it is indeed truth coming from God. Wonders is another word for them. It inspires awe. It gets people's attention. And then the mighty deeds attributes power to where it belongs. God is doing this. We're not show-offs.

We're not doing something just to get a rise out of you. This is God's doing. There is something very interesting to notice here also. It's something that can be easily missed in the English translation. But when you look at the Greek, he says in verse 12, the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance. Paul writes that in the passive voice.

Passive voice means that the subjects are being acted upon. So here's what Paul didn't do. He didn't go to the Corinthians and say, I want you to notice the things that I did. That's not what he said. He said the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you.

That's in the passive voice. So he's being as indirect about that as he can without being forceful over them. He's saying, you know, I did these miraculous signs, but you guys are questioning my authority.

What's up with that? That's not what he did. OK, he said the signs of an apostle. In other words, God was working through us. We are but instruments in the master's hands. We are the apostles. He granted us these gifts.

God was working through us. He authenticated his truth that he was giving. The point was not the gift, but the gospel.

It was not about his mastery, but the message. And this is very consistent with what the apostle writes in his first letter to the Corinthian Church in Chapter 13, which is commonly known to us as the love chapter. Love, that word love is agape. It means godly love, the kind of love that God has for us. But as he's writing in the context of discussing gifts in the Corinthian Church, Paul says, if I have the greatest gifts, but I have no love, I am nothing. Remember that gifts minus love equals nothing.

It does not accomplish God's purpose intended for those gifts. And so Paul makes it very clear here that he did so with love. One writer puts it this way. This is very good.

Listen to this. It is only when we look to the crucified one in the eye that we recognize the abyss of selfishness, even of that which we are accustomed to call love. There is no element of self-serving in love, in acts of love, in exercising the greatest gifts.

If there's any element of self-serving in it, then that gift has lost all of its authority and all of its value in God's economy. So Paul and his ministry, he's pointing out here that influential ministry comes through these four elements of sincere love. What does sincere love look like? Well, let's look at Paul's example.

Sincere love looks like, first of all, patient perseverance. If there is sincere love in your ministry, and by the way, I'll mention this a few times as we talk about ministry and ministers, I'm not just talking about ordained people. I'm not just talking about Dwight and myself, those of you who are headed for ministry.

That's not the only place where authority exists. If you are in Christ, you are a minister. If you are in Christ, you are a minister, because ministry, I'll mention this later on, ministry, very simply put, is helping others follow Jesus. That's what ministry is. Whether in the church or outside of the church, whether you're working with believers, helping them follow Jesus, or working with unbelievers, helping them to learn to follow Jesus, to bring them to that point where they become Christ followers.

Ministry is helping others follow Jesus. If you're going to have any believability or God influence in that, there has to be sincere love, and sincere love is patient perseverance. Paul says the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance. That word, all perseverance, means utmost patience.

The Greek word is hupomone, which means the capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances. And yes, Paul had extremely difficult circumstances with all the stuff that was going on in the Corinthian church, yet he persevered. He persevered in exercising his gift, not only the sign gifts, but also the teaching, the faithful teaching of the word of God. You want to see what that looks like, turn to, not now, but sometime, turn to 1 Thessalonians and read 1 Thessalonians Chapter 1 there and how Paul describes the nature of his ministry with the churches and his faithful perseverance there, his gentle touch in that faithful perseverance. Sincere love means staying with it, staying with it, staying with it is an act of love, even in difficult circumstances.

Are you ministering to someone? Are you in relationship with someone with whom you are helping them follow Jesus or maybe you are leading them to become, hopefully leading them to become a follower of Jesus? Stay with it as an act of sincere love, even if things get difficult. Staying with it is definitely an act of love.

Why is that? Because it's not about you. It's about something, the gospel. It's about someone, God himself, far, far greater than you.

Staying with it is an act of love. Rodney Stark authored the book, The Rise of Christianity, in which he describes how Christians arose from a small group to become a dominant force of the Roman Empire in a very short time, actually. He presents contributing factors, including two great epidemics that broke out during the first couple of centuries, first few centuries of the church. In those epidemics that broke out, if those who were affected were cared for, there was a good chance that they would survive. But often, when a member of the family contracted the disease, the other family members left that person uncared for. And left their homes for places not affected by the disease.

Why did they do that? That's a very good question, because they didn't want to get the disease. They were concerned about themselves. Here's where the Christians made a difference. This is our heritage as the church. The Christians did not leave. The Christians cared for their own family members and also cared for those who are left behind in the church. Who are left behind by their own family. Stark points out that the willingness to suffer in order to care for the sick had a part to play in large numbers of people in the Roman Empire turning to Christ.

Staying with it is an act of love. Let's move that up to a little closer history. In 2011, New York Times editorialist Nicholas Kristof wrote a column praising the work of many Evangelical Christians. Kristof begins by noting that at times, Evangelical leaders act hypocritically.

We've seen that, haven't we? And they don't reflect Christ. However, he also goes on to write this. He also goes on to write this, in reporting on poverty, disease and depression, I've seen so many others. Evangelicals are disproportionately likely to donate to charities, mostly church related. More important, go to the front lines at home or abroad in the battles against hunger, malaria, prison rape, human trafficking or genocide. And some of the bravest people you meet are Evangelical Christians who truly live their faith. I am not particularly religious myself, says Kristof, but I stand in awe of those I've seen risking their lives in this way.

Staying with it is an act of sacrificial love, sincere love, sincere love, which brings authority to the message that we have, the message of God's love in helping others follow Jesus, whether that's corporately or individually, sincere love. The second element of sincere love is a Godward relationship, a Godward relationship. Paul says in verse 14, I do not seek yours, but you. He says a third time now I'm going to come to you.

I'm going to come. He says, I don't want to be a burden to you. He says, I don't seek yours, but you.

That's a good line, isn't it? That's what sincere love is. Insincere love seeks what you can get out of somebody else. Your affection for them depends on what you can get out of them.

That ultimately is not love. 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 AM.