Well, please turn with me, if you would, to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. We'll spend a few moments today considering verses 12 of chapter 1 through verse 4 of chapter 2. 2 Corinthians 1 1 verse 12. through 2, verse 4. For our boast is this.
The testimony of our conscience. that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity. Not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand, and I hope you will fully understand. just as you did partially understand us.
That on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you. Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first.
so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh? Ready to say yes, yes.
and no-no at the same time. As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory.
And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But I call God to witness against me. It was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy. for you stand firm in your faith.
for I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I cause you pain, Who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice. For I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain.
but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. Let's pray. Father, you have sent your only begotten Son into the world. to save sinners. He is the image of the invisible God, and in him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
It is through the Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, that we know the hope of salvation. And you have confirmed that gospel through the witness of the apostles. whose words You inspired and preserved that we might read them and believe them to the saving of our souls.
So, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the apostles. Thank you for your Son, by whom all the rich. Graces from you are poured out on our lives. and through whom we say amen.
Truly, it is in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen and amen. By way of reminder, and in case you were not with us last Sunday, the reason for Paul's second letter to Corinth had to do with a growing strain in the relationship between Paul and the Corinthian church over a visit that was supposed to have happened but never did. Paul's visit to Corinth was delayed by a conflict that erupted between Paul and Corinth, the nature of which we don't fully understand. Instead of visiting, as had been Paul's intention, he sent them a letter.
Scripture describes it as a severe letter, a painful letter.
Well, this letter sent the Corinthian church into a tailspin of speculative doubt about Paul's character and office as an apostle. The Corinthians were already entertaining loyalties to a new breed of super apostles who were false teachers proclaiming a false gospel. We'll meet them later. These super apostles bore all the marks of success and credibility, at least in the Corinthians' estimation. while Paul, on the other hand, seemed to lack the marks of credibility.
Well, needless to say, this attitude on the part of the Corinthians did not help their receptivity of this severe letter from Paul, a letter which, by the way, is lost to history. A bitterness was growing. False doctrine was taking root, and Paul, as a faithful apostle, needed to intervene.
Well, his intervention is what we know as Second Corinthians, an apostolic letter from Paul to the church. In which, among other things, he defends his call and sincerity as an apostle.
Now, there are many lessons for us to learn through this interaction between Paul and Corinth. One lesson is that it's often the little foxes that spoil the vine. unchecked conflict Over seemingly insignificant matters can easily spin out of control and become insurmountable. in our navigation of relationships within the church within the church. Division is not always due to some horrendous heresy or some heinous sin.
It's often the consequence of mere rumor. uh or assumed motives or hurt feelings.
Now, I don't think we like to admit that we're that sensitive, but sometimes we simply are. and it behooves us to admit it as early as possible before molehills grow into mountains. The main body of this letter of 2 Corinthians begins here in verse 12. Where Paul begins to set right the distrust and the disdain that had begun to infiltrate the Corinthians' view of him. And he begins to set things right, ironically, by boasting about his apostleship.
To this Corinthian congregation who put so much stock in the appearance of outward success, Paul boasts. not of his credentials or talent or effectiveness, but of his sincerity and transparency. In a congregation that loved Polish and eloquence and intellectual cleverness, Paul shines the spotlight on his own weakness and boasts about it. He's saying, What you see is what you get. There's no pretense, there's no trying to impress.
He says in verse 12, Our boast is this: that we have behaved with simplicity. and with godly sincerity. Simplicity means with pure motives or true motives. Sincerity means with transparent, visible motives. Paul had nothing to hide.
He wasn't trying. to impress. He had no ulterior motives in his interaction with the Corinthian believers. Therefore, what he said and what he did was true. He wasn't flattering or lying in order to try to gain a following.
Someone who's trying to impress puts his best foot forward. Paul conscientiously did not do that. In fact, he acknowledges in 1 Corinthians, I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom. And all this was on purpose. He goes on to explain: I did this so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Paul didn't want Corinth impressed with Paul. He wanted them overwhelmed by the power and goodness of God in Christ. And so he intentionally avoided doing and saying impressive things. He stuck with truth and transparency. That was the substance.
of Paul's boast. But then notice that even in his boast about his own sincerity, he credits God with his sincerity of character. It's right there in verse 12. This simplicity and sincerity is not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God. Earthly wisdom was something that The Corinthians admired, so Paul pits that quality against the grace of God.
He's telling Corinth that they were valuing the wrong thing. They were valuing earthly, man-centered strength over and above God's strength, God's grace on display in weakness. As we'll come to find out, Paul's rivals in Corinth, these super apostles, were braggadocious men.
So, Paul essentially fights fire with fire. He fights the boastfulness of false teachers with boasts of his own. Only Paul's boasts were anti-boasts, if you will, in that they pointed away from the talents of Paul and pointed to the God of Paul. God was the source. of his boast.
What then was the ultimate outcome of Paul's boasting?
Well, it was to be nothing less than full success. Verses 13 and 14. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand, and I hope you will fully understand that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us. as we will boast of you. If Paul is a true apostle, then the churches he plants are true churches.
If Corinth is a true church, then it is evidence that Paul is a true apostle. And the day of the Lord Jesus, he says, which is another way of saying the second coming of Christ, the last day, the judgment day. Will bring to full light the authenticity of the Corinthian church and thus the authenticity of Paul's apostleship. They will boast of each other. They will confirm each other.
That authenticity was just as true in the first century as it will be on the day of the Lord, but it was obscured. By trial, by struggle, by hard feelings and emotional pain. What would one day be abundantly clear was in the immediate not so clear. Paul didn't seem very apostle-ish to them. And truth be told, they weren't acting very churchish either.
So Paul had to assure them of the sincerity of his apostleship by pointing them to the day when they would be each other's boast, each other's evidence, proof of sincerity on the last day. But for now What would one day be made plain was currently obscured. by layers of hardship and Setbacks. And you know, it's not uncommon still for the most important God-centered realities to be obscured. beneath layers of hardship and setback.
An individual Christian might Be dismissed and overlooked as a spiritual nobody without acclaim, without gifts, without influence, but the last day will reveal him to be a prince of God in God's court. A genuine, authentic covenant family might be broken. and seemingly unmendable in the here and now. But the last day will reveal a family of saints. A local church may be struggling to stay financially afloat.
It may be torn asunder by division and infighting, and yet on the last day, shown to be a faithful congregation of souls redeemed. by the blood of the lamb. We see now through a glass that's only dimly lit, but one day we will see face to face. We don't know yet what we're becoming, but one day there will be no doubt what we will have become. You cannot judge a book by its cover.
You need to judge it by its author.
Well, neither can you judge the church by its sinners. You need to judge it by its Redeemer. Corinth is an example of our Tendency to boast in all the wrong things. We have a tendency to admire all the wrong heroes. We have a tendency to measure success.
by all the wrong metrics. We look at intelligence or charisma and we say that's an effective person. We look at popularity and fame and we say that's an important person. Instead, we ought to measure people and circumstances by the importance and value that God places on them. If God says an apostle is true and sincere, we need to listen to that apostle.
If God says, my church is the apple of my eye, Well, then that's the group that we need to be a part of, that we want to be in. That's the group we need to keep in good standing with. to be enamored with what the world says is important. To the neglect of what God says is important is like the child on Christmas morning who's more enamored with the packaging than the gift. Paul's ironic boast was intended to realign Corinth's priorities and affections with what God values and with what heaven will one day make evident.
And this admonition is not just for Corinthians in ancient Rome. It's for us today as well. We ought to live today with an eye toward the last day, the day of our Lord Jesus. Prize today what will be prized on that day. Make today's priority those things that will still matter on the last day when Christ returns.
Build your home around those things. Build your church around those things. Pursue your career in light of those things. resist the urge to give undue priority to something simply because Everyone else makes a big deal of it. We don't need to be driven by a value or an opinion simply because everyone else is driven by it.
Earthly wisdom is still earthly, even if the whole world is captivated by it. We need to glory in in the cross. We need to make Christ and Him crucified. Our boast. Paul makes a transition in verse 15.
He says, Because I was sure of this. That is because he was sure of the fact that one day Jesus would reveal the glory and splendor of that which was currently. hidden by suffering because I was sure of this I wanted to come to you But it didn't work out, so Paul launches into a more specific defense of himself and his apostleship. The Corinthians were offended, wrongly offended, but offended nonetheless. And so Paul's only recourse was to give a defense of the validity of his apostleship.
He had to address this perceived failure.
So he does this not by touting himself and his importance. I was just too busy to get to see you, Corinth. Everyone needs me. Nor by making excuses. The Ephesians just wouldn't let me go.
In fact, I was in jail and couldn't have come. No, Paul defends his apostleship by asserting his subjection to the sovereign providence of God. Providences that, for the Christian, are always good and positive yeses in Christ. It's a Christ-centered defense. In verses 15 through 22, Paul says in verse 15, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace.
In other words, a second apostolic visit. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. But none of that happened the way that Paul had wanted it to happen, and this providential interruption led Corinth to assume the worst about Paul. that he was unreliable or that he didn't care for them like an apostle should. Paul continues in verse 17.
Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes, and no, no at the same time? In other words, was Paul just a people pleaser who said what people wanted to hear with no real intention of following through? Of course, he wasn't. Verse 18, as surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no.
Well, then why didn't he come to Corinth? Verse 21. Because God's plans overrule man's plans. even apostles' plans.
Now we can argue with God about that. And we can get bent out of shape when God overrules our plans for our lives. But what we need to recognize Before we charge the throne of heaven with a water pistol of complaints and personal grievances. Is that verse 21? All of God's plans for His church are good and right and intended for the well-being of His children.
Paul says in verse 21, it is God who establishes us, apostles, with you, the church, in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
Sometimes a parent intends to do something nice for their children, and it ends up not happening. Their yes becomes no. This doesn't mean the parents are unloving or unfaithful. It means that there is a higher providence that circumvents the parents' control of a given situation. Paul's point is that when it comes to God's children, This higher providence always has their best interests and well-being in mind.
Paul's intended yes Was turned into a no by nothing less than God's heavenly decree, but God's heavenly decrees are always best. What perhaps feels like a disappointing no to a Corinthian is ultimately a gracious yes in God's grand scheme of things.
Now, maybe we're all thinking, you know, these Corinthians were a bunch of whiny Christians. They were getting all bent out of shape over Paul being providentially hindered from visiting them. But oh Christian. We get bent out of shape by far, far less, do we not? I knew a lady who broke fellowship with a church because the leadership would not condone an illicit movie that she liked.
I knew a couple who became disgruntled that the congregational prayers in corporate worship were being recited too fast for their liking, and they left the church. We are often prone to magnify the significance and impact of circumstances we don't like. And this has always been the case. How often did God have to tell Old Testament Israel to stop murmuring and grumbling? Paul had to tell another congregation, the Philippians, to do all things without.
complaining. We are by nature prone to gripe about and amplify all of the no's of life that we don't like. But if we could learn to see every circumstance, every challenge, every unexpected setback through the lens of a generous and positive providence. We could begin to realize that Romans 8:28 is not just some religious cliché, some spiritual coping mechanism. No, it's actually true.
All things Both the yeses and the noes work together for the good of those who are called according to God's purpose. Another way of saying the same thing is verse 20. All the promises of God find their yes in Christ. Christ is God's yes. This was Paul's whole point.
Corinth, I meant to come to you. You wanted me to come to you. In God's grand scheme of things, that desired visit did not happen. But life's disappointments and griefs and setbacks and trials don't change the fact that God the Father has sent God the Son to save those who put their faith in Him from an everlasting hell. If God's love for us has gone to the extreme of sending his Son to die for us, can we not trust that everything God providentially allows in our life is motivated from grace and mercy and goodness?
All of God's promises, all of His providences, all of His laws, all of His thoughts towards us are always yes. Verse 19, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes, for all the promises of God. Find their yes. in him. To say that Christ is God's yes.
doesn't mean that through Christ the Christian gets everything he asks for. It means that everything Christ asks for on behalf of the Christian is granted. By God the Father, and is a gracious blessing, a divine yes. to the believer. Even the circumstantial no's are providential yeses.
Even the circumstantial no's are providential yeses. But not only is Christ God's all-encompassing yes. He is also the church's heartfelt amen. Christ is the church's amen. Look at the latter half of verse 20.
That is why it is through him. through Christ, that we utter our amen to God for His glory. An amen is an expression of agreement, of confident like-mindedness with another. When we say amen to something a preacher says in a sermon, we're expressing wholehearted, enthusiastic agreement with it. We're saying that's true, and I believe it with all my heart.
The Christian's Amen, then, is a confession of glad submission to the providence of God in Christ. If everything that happens to us is for our good, then we ought to say, Amen. Thank you for doing it the way you did, God. And we ought to say that to every circumstance. even the unexpected, undesirable circumstances.
like apostles not showing up when we thought they would. like people not responding that the way we thought they should. How do we do that? How do we absorb the disappointments and delays of life? How do we absorb the misunderstandings?
and hurt feelings of others. We do it through Christ. Remember what God has done for you in Christ and view your difficult circumstance, whatever it is, through that lens. All trials and sufferings are put into perspective by the divine yes. that has saved us from hell.
If the triune God has done what verses 21 and 22 say he has done. How can I panic? Or complain or lose heart when someone is late for an appointment. or when my car breaks down or my job job is is cut or To fill in the blank with whatever circumstance has got you all up in arms about life. It ultimately is a yes from God.
A good and gracious providence because God has already answered yes. to the ultimate providence of salvation from sin. And so we see in polls explanation of the why behind his disappointing delayed visit. That Christ is the reason God's disposition towards us is yes. And Christ is the reason that our disposition towards God is amen.
Everything that happens to the child of God happens for his good. Therefore, everything that happens to us is reason to trust and rest in the will of God. to say amen to God's good providence. Maybe we should just stop here and ask ourselves: what do I see as a threat to God's grace reaching me? Any threat I identify will come down to either my doubt that God can and will bless me.
Or a doubt that I can and will receive God's blessing. Blessing, Christ addresses both threats. He is God's, yes, I will bless you. He is my amen, I receive and rest on that blessing. The church really does not depend on unpredictable schedules of busy apostles.
Or on fickle, easily offended church members. Brothers and sisters, the church depends on the triune God who guarantees the ultimate triumph of his church.
Well, Paul's opening defense of his apostleship and his reassurance to the church at Corinth of the sincerity of his love. Concludes in verses 1.23 through 2.4. with a patient Method, a patient method. Verse 23. But I call God to witness against me, it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.
Had Paul come when he had originally planned, that visit would not have been pleasant. It would have been a face-to-face confrontation that would have not been pretty, given Corinth's wrong disposition towards Paul. A letter. Even a severe letter like the one he wrote would have been the more gracious method of dealing with the fracture. John Calvin said that Paul delayed his return visit in order to give Corinth more time for repentance.
More time for repentance. That's just like God does with us, isn't it? Peter says in 2 Peter 3:9, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. When God delays, it is for us to have more time to repent.
Leaders are not to lord it over those in their charge, as Paul says in the last verse of chapter 1. No, they are to pursue the joy of those in their charge.
Sometimes this means delaying visits, sometimes it means writing severe letters. Chapter 2, verse 3. I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those. who should have made me rejoice. for I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all.
Sometimes pursuing the joy of others means extending your own anguish of heart. Even at the risk of being misperceived, in order to buy time for those you love to repent. Verse 4. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart, and with many tears, not to cause you pain. but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
This patient sacrificial method that Paul models for us as he. Waits for Corinth repentance is the same method that God employs in dealing with us. And it's the same method that we will have to employ time and time again in our dealing with fellow sinners. It's for fathers as they lead their homes. It's for mothers as they raise their children.
It's for church officers as they shepherd and guard the church. Spiritual authorities and leaders will be misunderstood and resented, even at times, for doing the right thing, the unselfish thing. Be ready for that and don't lose heart when it happens. And this method of patiently waiting for the Lord's yes in Christ to be made evident is a two-way street. It demands something of those leading, as well as something of those who are being led.
Peter says in 1 Peter 5: I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples. to the flock. Likewise, the writer of Hebrews says to the flock, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
On July 10th, 1999, I stood at the front of a church and watched my soon-to-be bride walk down the aisle to my side. where together we took vows before the Lord and to each other. Vows which affirmed that everything Laura and I would do or say or think from that day forward until our deaths. would be for the good, the well-being, the benefit. of the other.
Over the last 26 plus years, the fulfilling of those vows has sometimes been a most enjoyable bliss. Other times, it's been through tears and difficult conversations. It's involved working our way through misunderstandings and navigating words that were said in haste or actions that were carried out thoughtlessly. pursuing the well-being of each other. has often required the forgiving of each other.
And the laying down of our aspirations and our preferences and our desires. But through all of it The good, the difficult, the unexpected. The yeses and the noes, we are for each other. Imperfectly, yes, but for each other. Friends, 2,000 years ago, God sent His only begotten Son into the world.
to lay down his life for the church. Three days after his resurrection, God raised Jesus from the dead, and in that resurrection, demonstrated that for all eternity, he was committed to bringing to pass that which would only and ever be for the good and the blessing of his bride. Yes, there would be difficult times, times of chastening, times of. Purifying and purging and pruning and mending, but all of it, every bit of it, would always only and ever be for the good of his bride. I don't know what your emotional state is this morning.
I don't know what burdens you carry in your conscience, in your mind. I don't know what past failures are plaguing you or what future worries rob you of sleep and peace at night, but this I know. All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus Christ. Do you know him? You need to know him.
Do you love him? You need to love him. Do you trust him? You need to trust him. This is our hope.
This is our confidence. Through providences, both the bright ones and the dark ones create. Christ is God's eternal yes. Let's pray. Father, what a sweet hope we have.
To know that in Christ we are accepted by you, forgiven before you. and made to be your beloved children for all eternity. When our plans Derail when our relationships crumble, when our sinful flesh gets the best of us, even then. Lord, especially then. May we run to Christ and remember that your promises will keep us.
Your protection will guard us. Your love will never leave us. And through Christ, we say in faith. Amen. Mm.
