Please turn with me this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. We'll be spending a few moments considering verses 5 through 17. A passage of scripture that acknowledges the imperfections of the church while at the same time asserting the full and guaranteed victory that belongs to the church in Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Verses 5 through 17.
Now, if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me. But in some measure. Not to put it too severely. To all of you. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough.
So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him. for he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow So I beg you to Reaffirm your love for him. This is why I wrote that it might test you and that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.
so that we would not be outwitted by Satan. for we are not ignorant of his designs. When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord. My spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there.
So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. But thanks be to God. Who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one, a fragrance from death to death.
to the other a fragrance from life life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like so many. Peddlers of God's word. But as men of sincerity, As commissioned by God.
In the sight of God, we speak. In Christ. Let's pray. Father God of all truth, open our eyes. To understand what you've spoken in your word.
May our reverence for your word be deep. May that reverence Reveal itself in the way we heed your word. And in the way we proclaim your word to a lost. Dying world. When life's circumstances seem to contradict what you say is real and true.
Would you give us faith? To believe what we cannot see. Give us Perseverance to endure to that day when all will be revealed. We need you now, Holy Spirit, to illuminate our minds and bend our hearts. to the perfect and holy will of God.
I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The allure of greatness is an ever-present temptation for many of us. We want to know that our lives matter, that our beliefs are accepted. We want to be a part of something important, something big, something profound.
It's easy to feel a sense of waste when we have to spend our time and. energy on things that go unnoticed or don't seem to amount to much. easily despise and downplay the day of small things. Perhaps the events of the last few days have brought with it a sense of mundaneness to your ordinary life. There are Christian voices out there speaking loudly and being heard by the masses, famous people, gifted people.
Incredibly intelligent apologists who have fame and a platform and seem to be making a huge impact for the advancement of truth. and justice. What does my little ordinary life Amount to. I go to work, I support my family, I go to church on Sunday, but who notices? What major cultural shift is my humdrum life bringing about?
From all outward appearances, my Sphere of influence is more of a dot than a circle. Maybe I've missed the boat. Maybe I need to dream bigger, aim higher, do more.
Well, maybe, but maybe not. Corinth struggled with the same set of thoughts and assumptions. They loved notoriety. They loved influence and fame and a public place. Platform.
A wide reach. They were embarrassed by smallness, by the appearance of failure, by the lack of visible results. In fact, a huge part of their problems with Paul stemmed from this very attitude. They wanted impressive, but Paul was unimpressive. There were super apostles out there changing the world, making a difference.
But Paul was preoccupied with Church order. and evangelism and holiness in the church. Discipline this unrepentant church member. Restore that repentant Christian. It didn't seem to the Corinthians that Paul was on the winning side of the culture wars.
He was preaching a message of life through death. A message that frankly doesn't sell very well in the Roman Empire. Quite honestly, it doesn't. Sell very well today, either. In fact, it's a message that has never sold very well.
We don't like Defeat and death. We like triumph. We like victory. We like to win. But things are not always what they appear to be.
We know the rest of the story, don't we? We know that Paul was indeed on the right side of history. He was the true apostle. He was the man whom God would use to write the greater part of the New Testament and establish the early church on the heels of Christ's ascension. In spite of how things appeared to be, Paul and his message of death through life.
Rather, life through death. was at the center of what God was doing in the ancient world. And that message, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is still at the center of what God is doing in the world. No matter how things appear to be different. Our text this morning is full of a number of apparent incongruities, paradoxes, if you will, that obscure the truth or maybe make the right path seem like a futile path.
How then are we to know how to navigate these paradoxes of life? How are we to see through the distortions of our own ambitious hearts? and see our way down what what Jesus calls the narrow path.
Well, we navigate these treacherous roads the same way Corinth navigated them. We devote ourselves to the apostles' doctrine. That is we hear and heed the Word of God. Corinth was busily following its intuitions. or following the sensibilities of the culture.
But those impulses were misguided and wrong. Paul comes in and says, do things this way, Corinth. But then he adds the theological basis for doing things his way. And it's because Paul's way is Christ's way. And Christ's way always ends in triumph.
even when it appears to be a dead end or a lost cause.
Well, things in Corinth seem to be truly a lost cause. Our text begins with a tense situation between Paul and Corinth. Apparently, during Paul's previous visit to Corinth, an influential person in the church resisted Paul's apostleship and swayed many others in Corinth to do the same. The church evidently failed to take action. Thus giving implied support to this dissenter.
After the visit, Paul had written a severe letter to Corinth in which he addressed Corinth's failure to correct the dissenter. Corinth eventually complied with Paul's instruction in that severe letter, and in fact they overreacted to Paul's instruction. And so it was this overreaction that necessitated Paul's correction in our text today. And the first paradox that we see is that sin's damage reaches beyond just. the offender and the offended.
Sin in the body affects the whole body. This dissenter had sinned directly against Paul. But it had caused pain in the entire church family at Corinth. Verse 5.
Now, if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure, not to put it too severely, to all of you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Likewise a little Offense. offends the whole church. Perhaps a Corinth excused the dissenter's sin by reasoning, well, that's between him and Paul.
What do we have to do with it? What they had to do with it was that their inaction. was essentially a rejection of the apostleship of Paul. with far-reaching ramifications. The church as a whole needed to step in and decisively correct the unrepentant sinner because the church as a whole was being injured by this one man's rejection of Paul.
And so the paradox has to do with how far sin, if left unchecked, can reach and do damage within the church. The sin of one person affects the whole body. But not only is sin's damage broader than perhaps we. intuitively realize it's often deeper in its damaging effect than we realize. Several of Paul's comments highlight areas that are brought into tension within the church when sin is left to fester.
For one, it obscures the balance between punishment and forgiveness. Sin obscures the balance between punishment and forgiveness. Look at verse 6. For such a one referring to the offender. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough.
So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him. Initially, Corinth had allowed this man's sin, whatever it was, to go unchecked. When Paul scolded them for it, they responded to their credit with church discipline. The problem though was that their discipline was excessive.
So, lack of discipline is bad, but so is excessive discipline. And herein lies the paradox. Church discipline can be a good thing, it can also be a bad thing. We don't want to excuse sin and not deal with it swiftly and thoroughly, but neither do we want to excuse unforgiveness and gracelessness. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that the purpose, the goal of church discipline is the restoration of a repentant sinner.
If that ever ceases to be our goal in dealing with offenses in the church, we've lost sight of the gospel. We might appear to be a church that loves holiness. when in actuality we've just embraced a graceless gospel. How do we know the difference? How do we strike a righteous balance between judgment and love?
The same way Corinth did, we listen meticulously to God's instruction through his apostles. Through his word. In the latter half of verse 7, We encounter another incongruity between the way things seem and the way things really are. When the church fails to restore a repentant sinner, we're putting him in a place where, in Paul's words, verse 7, he may be overwhelmed. By excessive sorrow.
overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. We want to feel sorrow over sin. We want repentant Christians, unrepentant Christians, to feel the weight and remorse of their sin, but there's a right way and a wrong way to sorrow over sin.
Sorrow that never finds its way to the hope of the gospel is not godly sorrow. We may think our disciplinary work is doing great things in someone's heart because they're so distraught or miserable over their sin. But again. Misery over sin is not the goal. Christ did not atone for sin so that the sinner could just go on feeling miserable for all eternity.
No, he atoned for sin so that sin could be washed away and remembered no more. That's the goal, that's the aim. When an offender truly repents, the offended are to truly forgive and restore and love. Verse 8, I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. Let sorrow do its work but also let love do its work.
Next, we see that sin in the church creates tension between leaders and the congregation. This was true of Paul in Corinth. It's often true of church congregations and their leaders today. Look at verse 9. For this is why I wrote that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.
When Paul wrote his severe letter to Corinth, admonishing them to discipline the unrepentant offender, his motive was not merely to make sure that the offender was disciplined, it was also a test of Corinth's subordination to Paul's apostolic authority. Would they obey? And from the larger context of 2 Corinthians and even some clues that we pick up from 1 Corinthians, this matter of submission to apostolic authority was the real root issue that needed fixing in Corinth. The dissension between Paul and Corinth over this church member's discipline was really only a symptom of a greater dysfunction within this congregation. Their relationship to Christ's authority over them in the person of Paul was on rocky ground.
That's what needed fixing more than anything else. And it's incredibly interesting to me that this Broken relationship did not only have a negative effect on Corinth, It had a negative effect on Paul. Look at verses 12 and 13. These are some of the most candid and revealing verses about Paul that you'll read in the New Testament. Verse 12.
When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was open for me in the Lord. My spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there.
Remember, Titus had delivered Paul's harsh letter and was supposed to rejoin Paul to give him a report on how Corinth had received that letter.
Well, when Paul arrived at the meeting place, Titus wasn't there. And so Paul, it seems, assumed the worst. uh that perhaps Corinth had not received His severe letter with humility and submission. What's amazing is the deep emotional impact that all of this had on Paul. Look at verse 13.
My spirit was not at rest. because I did not find my brother Titus there.
So I took leave of them. And went on to Macedonia. Paul acknowledges that even though God had opened a door of effective ministry in Troas, and that the substance of that ministry was even Christ-centered preaching, gospel preaching, he was so distraught with anxiety over the issues going on at Corinth that he could not effectively minister there and had to move on. Paul is a real apostle. Doing legitimate God-ordained ministry, but he's so troubled by broken relationships with the congregation in Corinth that he can't even minister the way he should.
This tells us several things. First of all, it makes us realize that apostles with a capital A, we're not Spiritual Giants, supermen, heroes without vulnerabilities and weaknesses. They were human. They were fragile. They succumbed to discouragement like the rest of us.
From all outward appearances, the work in Troas was a wash. It was a failure. And Paul was failing in his calling as an apostle, it appears. At least that's the appearance of things, but remember from last week. In Christ.
All of God's providences are, yes, even the negative providences. God works through imperfect. people doing imperfect things. It's another paradox in the kingdom of God.
Well, there's one more incongruity that this passage highlights, and it's that sin in the church. Confuses the difference between spiritual maturity and playing into the enemy's hands.
Sometimes we think we're doing the Lord's work. We're doing hard things. like exercising church discipline. When in actuality we're being outwitted by the enemy, the devil. Verse 11.
Paul admonishes Corinth to forgive and restore this repentant offender so that, he says, we would not be outwitted. by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs. Satan's tactic is to exploit offenses in the church. Either by ensuring that those offenses are not addressed with biblical church discipline or by stoking the fires of resentment and unforgiveness long after an offense has been dealt with. But to these Corinthians who loved cleverness and human wisdom, Paul warns them that there is someone, an adversary, who is far more clever than they are.
Someone who can easily outwit. unsuspecting Christians if they're caught unaware. The Corinthians thought, look at us, we're doing so well. We've obeyed Paul, we've disciplined this dissenting sinner among us, we're doing the hard work. of confronting sin and rooting it out.
But what they didn't realize was that in their zeal for purity, they were running the risk of crossing lines into a graceless Christianity. They were at risk of playing into the hands of Satan, who loves nothing more. and to keep the church fractured and in disarray.
Well, from all outward appearances, things seem bleak in Corinth. Lines that should have been clearly delineated were obscured. They were either not confronting sin enough or they were confronting it too harshly. They were on rocky ground with Paul, the apostle, whom God had raised up to establish them in Christ. And even Paul himself was so discouraged and burdened by the Corinthian church that he was finding it difficult.
if not impossible, to carry on his. apostolic work effectively. What a failure. What underachieved potential this was all shaping up to be? How could God be in this?
How could this situation possibly be part of God's new covenant that promised to one day reach to the ends of the earth and redeem souls from every tongue and tribe and nation? Maybe we feel the same way this morning. We look at the church and Perhaps doubt that she'll ever become the beautiful, blameless bride that scripture says she'll be on that last day. I read a most disheartening post online last week that was giving thanks to God for. Using political pundits and YouTube shorts to do what the church and the preaching of the gospel had supposedly failed to do.
He was giving the Internet and its influencers credit. for bringing about a renewed interest in biblical truths and morality. but at the expense of the church.
Now don't get me wrong. God can use any means he chooses to convey his truth, and we should heed that truth whenever and however God conveys it to us. even when it's said through the mouth of Balaam's donkey, But when the church Is deemed irrelevant. When the church is deemed irrelevant and unnecessary in the grand scheme of things because something supposedly more credible and effective has come along, brothers and sisters, that would be a judgment, not a blessing. That's something to be grieved over, not celebrated.
Things looked bleak in Corinth. But appearances are not always what they appear to be. Paul in faith looked beyond. the immediate mess of things and saw the evidence of things not seen. He says in verse 14.
But thanks be to God. Who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession. And through us. spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. Paul is describing an ultimate triumph that comes about through an immediate defeat.
Verse 14 seems to be describing a Roman victory procession in which a general who had been victorious in battle. would parade his defeated enemies through the streets of Rome as an act of triumph and glory. In Paul's analogy, God is the victorious general and the redeemed saints are the defeated enemies, being publicly paraded as an act of triumph and glory, God's glory.
Now here's another paradox. How can Paul give thanks to God for defeating him? Why would this crushing of the saints be a cause for rejoicing?
Well, this scene only makes sense in light of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. That's why Paul in verse 14 includes that most loaded and profound prepositional phrase in the New Testament. In Christ. God in Christ. Christ leads us in triumphal procession.
Through the atoning death and resurrection of Christ, death becomes life. And all who die with Christ live with Christ. To be conquered by Christ in the sense that Paul is using it here, in the sense of one's sin and death being defeated by Christ, it's a kind of defeat that brings ultimate victory. The Christian journey. ends with a glorious victory, but that path begins with dying.
First, Christ dying for the atonement of sins, but then every believer dying to his own autonomy, to his own ability to save himself, to his own glory in order to be united to Christ. If, like the Corinthians, we are allured by a healthy and wealthy and famous gospel that is a display of temporal power and success, we will not know the life that comes through death. One theologian said, we are known by our heroes. Corinth was starstruck by super apostles who preached a message of personal glory. and pragmatism but a message that obscured the cross of Jesus Christ.
Paul, on the other hand, was preaching Christ. and him crucified, and nothing but that. Because he knew that it is only through the death of Christ that a person truly finds life. and glory. What appears to be an immediate defeat leads to an ultimate triumph.
But not only do Paul and the saints who come after him. Experience the privilege of the ultimate triumph of Christ's cross, they also have the privilege of putting that triumph on display before a watching world. To make this point, Paul uses another analogy. That of a fragrant offering. Verse 14.
Through us, God spreads the fragrance. of the knowledge of him everywhere. When these defeated Roman enemies were marching through Rome, It brought glory to a victorious general. When Christians, defeated and chained to their Lord and Savior, are paraded through the world for all to see, it brings great glory to the Lord. Unbelievers see our union to Christ and they can't help but notice the incongruity of it all.
These defeated foes are happy. How can this be? These former enemies of God are now glad to be slaves of God. How can this be? It's another paradox, an enigma.
The world sees this enigma and is either irresistibly drawn to it or disgusted by it. The saints' union with Christ. is simultaneously a fragrance of life to some and the odor of death to others. Look at verses 15 and 16. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved.
and among those who are perishing, To one. A fragrance from death to death. to the other a fragrance from life to life. Notice there's only one fragrance. One message being proclaimed by the lives of those who belong to Christ, but that single message has two very opposite effects: life for some, death for others.
Now we should take note that both of these effects bring glory to the victorious God who is leading the procession. God is glorified whether the message of redemption is received in faith. To the saving of one's soul, or rejected in rebellion to the destruction of one's soul. This dual effect of the gospel is not a flaw of God's triumph over sin, it's a feature. Because either way, through redemption or through judgment, God is glorified because God is the victor.
The question is, which group are you in? Are you among those for whom Christ's triumphal procession is irresistibly alluring? You want what the saints in Christ have because their joy, as paradoxical as it may seem, is real and lasting. Or are you among those for whom Christ's triumphal procession stinks like death? It reeks of human failure and humiliation.
Friend, there is no third group. Christ is either life and redemption to you, or He is death and judgment. The last paradox of our text is found in the latter half of verse. 16 and verse 17. in which Paul acknowledges that as an apostle he is simultaneously sufficient and insufficient.
He says verse 16. Who is sufficient for these things? It's a rhetorical question that expects an answer in the negative. Nobody is sufficient for these things. No human being who has been defeated by God in Christ is capable of adequately representing this great God and proclaiming to the world His greatness and majesty and mercy and kindness.
No one is sufficient. And yet verse 17. We Bearers of the gospel. Ambassadors of Christ, heralds of the good news. We are not, like so many, Peddlers of God's word.
We're not selling a fake elixir with our amazing salesmanship abilities. No, we are, Paul says, men of sincerity who have been commissioned by God. And therefore, it is in the sight of God that we speak in Christ. Paul asserts the grounds of his sufficiency as an apostle. And in fact, Of the sufficiency of any Christian who would proclaim the gospel of Christ.
And those grounds are: first, the sincerity with which we preach the gospel. We're sincere because we've actually been changed by it. Secondly, the commission of God Himself. We are legitimate bearers of the good news because God has commanded us to bear witness to it. And thirdly, because it is not ourselves or our greatness or our intelligence or our arguing skills, our virtue that we proclaim.
It is in Christ and of Christ and for Christ that we speak. He who bears those marks is truly sufficient for these things. And all of this really gets to the heart of the matter. Paul was sufficient and effective, and you and I are sufficient and effective only insofar. As we do what we do, not for the praise of man, but for the glory of the one who leads us in his victory march.
Corinth saw itself as an audience sitting in judgment of Paul's performance. And in their estimation, Paul came up short. What they failed to recognize, however, was that Paul wasn't on stage before Corinthian critics. No, Corinth was on stage before the tribunal seat of God, and God's judgment would be final. Paul was merely a backstage prompter of God giving Corinth the authoritative instructions of an apostle on how they were to perform in such a way as to please their divine audience.
It was not their place to sit in judgment of what they thought of Paul. It was their place to obey Paul and so please God. And what was Paul saying? He was saying Receive and rest upon Christ alone as He is offered in the gospel. And show that same grace to others that you yourself have been shown.
Forgive the repentant sinner. And restore him to his place among the people of God because that's exactly what God has done for you in Christ. If Corinthians would listen. They would discover in Paul's gracious words a fragrant aroma that would lead to eternal life. If not, they would find Paul's words to be the stench of an eternal death.
Friend, things are not always what they seem.
Sometimes the things we esteem and prize so highly are but vapor and dust. The things that go unnoticed. And at times, even despised by the world as ineffective or irrelevant, or just a lost cause. are the very things that God says will bring life. and happiness.
and peace. Quarants could know the difference by hearing and heeding the apostolic witness given to them. You and I can know the difference. by hearing and heeding. That same apostolic witness that's given to us.
Friends, that witness is not our cultures, sensibilities. of right and wrong. It's not our own intuition of what is effective or ineffective. That witness. is the eternal inerrant authority.
authoritative, sufficient, living, and powerful word. of God. Follow that. Believe that. Order your life according to that.
And you will find life and ultimate triumph in the end. You know, Corinth in the end did listen. They did become an established church and a faithful witness to the glorious redemption of Jesus Christ. What's interesting and a little bit amusing to me. Is that they even got the renown and acclaim that they so desired?
They got their fame. only they became famous for the unlikelihood of their salvation. They are known for being that church. The church that Despite its incredible dysfunction, Jesus could still redeem. What appeared to be a lost cause would prove to be far more than doable.
by the Lord himself. Brothers and sisters. The Lord has not changed. He is still the God who can redeem Corinthians. And if he can redeem Corinthians, he can redeem you and me.
Let's trust him. Let's persevere through the paradoxes. And let's joyfully embrace the stigma that comes with being counted among those. whom Christ leads in his triumphal procession. of victory.
Let's prank. God, you are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And we are yours and Christ is ours through the Holy Spirit. May your church persevere through the highs and lows of History to that day when there will be no more pain or suffering or death. When all will be made Manifest because the day will disclose it.
But until that day, keep us faithful. Keep our eyes ever fixed on Jesus Christ. The author and the finisher of our faith. who for the joy before him endured the cross. and is now seated at the right hand of God on high.
And it is in his name and by his blood. that we march onward. Amen. Yeah.
