So this is II Corinthians for Beginners lesson number three in the
series. The Apostolic Explanation is the name of the lesson and we're going to
cover II Corinthians chapter 1 verse 12 to chapter 2 verse 11.
So in our series so far we've talked about the general background of the
city of Corinth itself explained that it was promiscuous place, a very prosperous,
many idols, pagan worship filled that place. We've also examined
the people, the church that was established there, made up of Jews and
Gentiles. And of course we say that, it kind of rolls off our tongue
well there were Jews and there were Gentiles, but in that time to
put together in the same assembly those who had been converted to Christianity
from Judaism and those had been converted to Christianity from
paganism and to take these two groups and merge them into one assembly was
very difficult. And the letter written to the Corinthians
underscores the problems that these people were having not only in living a
Christian life but just getting along together okay. We've also reviewed the
way the book was divided mostly instruction about Christian conduct in
life and worship, I'm talking about I Corinthians, we reviewed
I Corinthians before we we went into II Corinthians talked about the
things that Paul taught in that first letter. Next we talked about the events
that took place between the writing of the first and the second letters and
it's important to know this because you can't make sense of what Paul is writing
about unless you know what the problem was and the problem was that Jewish
Christians began to try to discredit Paul and introduce new teaching in
order to draw people after them. So last week we began the second letter by
describing how it is personal and subjective in nature, it deals with what
it's like being an apostle. An unusual epistle, most epistles are here's the
problem, here's the teaching, this is what you need to do, Paul doesn't
talk about himself a lot, but in this letter he does.
Since apostleship is the issue, his apostleship being challenged
by others since that's the issue, Paul talks about apostleship. They're
attacking his credibility as an Apostle, he answers them in
II Corinthians saying, you want to attack my apostleship, let me tell you
what apostleship is like, let me tell you what apostleship means and how you live
this life as an apostle. So this particular letter has six parts, five of
which deal with apostleship. And so last time we did the introduction, then Paul
talks about the apostolic experience chapter 1 verses 3 to 11, the
apostolic explanation in other words he has to explain some of his decisions to
these people. Apostolic ministry here he really gets into you know what does it
take to be an apostle, what does an apostle experience. Apostolic fellowship.
His apostleship defended in the last part of the epistle.
So our lesson last week dealt with the introduction and the apostolic
experience which we said was suffering. Remember I said in a word if you had to
kind of summarize a job or a ministry or something what word would that be and
when we came to the experience of an apostle if you had to summarize it all
in one word it would be suffering. Which we said suffering and the benefit
of this suffering being the comfort provided by God, in other words the
main experience of his apostleship was the suffering he had to undergo to
exercise his apostleship, the positive thing that came out of it he
explains to the Corinthians is the comfort that he receives from God as he
suffers doing His work. So today we're going to look at the apostolic
explanation, now this is an interesting insight into the relationship of Paul
and this group of people almost 2,000 years ago. Communication you
ever get into a kind of a not a debate but it kind of you get sideways
with someone and when you finally sit down and talk to them and
they said it turns out to be, oh I thought you said this about that no I
didn't mean that I meant this over here oh I misunderstood you know it's always
a misunderstanding, misconception of what the other person said and then you kind
of run with that. Well this is what happened here
and Paul will explain this. So in chapter 1:12-23 he responds to a charge of
insincerity; people are saying he's insincere. The Corinthians it seems were
saying he was insincere even lying because he had made a change in his
travel plans. It wasn't over some doctrine, it wasn't over some important
theological concept, he had made a change in his travel plans and hadn't told them
and because of that they began to charge him with being insincere and those who
were against him kind of took this and they they ran with it. I mean
you think getting mad at the preacher for silly reasons is new, the old saying
'we had preacher for lunch.'
Well they had preacher for lunch back in those days too.
So let's do a little bit of background here about the travel plan, you're going to
have to stay with me here okay because he gets a little convoluted, so here's
the original plan, once Corinth was established okay once that church was
established the original plan: so he's in Ephesus and he plans to go to
Corinth first, then travel north into Macedonia and then returned to Corinth
and receive help from them in order to make it back to Judea. So the church has
already been planted, he's moved on from there, he's in Ephesus planning to go
back to Corinth, up north back to Corinth
get some financial help from them, go back home to Judea. This was his intended
plan before he heard about the trouble in Corinth and wrote the first
Corinthian letter and in this letter he describes a change in his travel plans
without mentioning his original plan. Okay so I Corinthians 16:5-9
describes only the new travel plan that he had, not the intended
one which is this one here that I've showed you. So he only describes the
revised plan, here's the revised plan: so Paul sends a letter to Corinth and then
he stays and continues to work in Ephesus, he eventually leaves Ephesus and
he travels not to Corinth but he goes north to Macedonia and while he's
traveling in the northern part of Macedonia he falls ill and while he's
there he writes the second letter to the Corinthians, during the interval between
the first and the second letter the Corinthians find out about his original
travel plan and they accuse him of duplicity because he changed his travel
plans without telling them. This is why the
second letter or in the second letter he explains what his original plans were
before he changed them and we'll see that in a minute. So in this passage he
also defends his honesty against this attack. So we need to kind
of understand what's going on as we go into this passage, all right so
two travel plans, an original plan that he didn't tell him about, a secondary
plan that he informs them on, they then find out about his original plan and
begin to accuse him of duplicity. So let's pick it up II Corinthians 1:12,
"For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our
conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in
the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially
toward you." So first of all he states that his conscience is clear, he's not a
hypocrite, when he says fleshly wisdom you're not a hypocrite that's
fleshly wisdom, say one thing do another, say what you say in order to get your
way that's fleshly wisdom. His conduct: where and when he travels and what he
does while he travels, his conduct he says is guided by God and is proper in
the world and in the church, in other words the disbelievers see my conduct
and they have nothing to charge me with and in the same way you brethren who
observe my conduct you have nothing to charge me with because my conduct is
directed by God, as the conduct of an apostle should be, that's what's
not written there. Verse 13 and 14, "For we write nothing else to you than what you
read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the
end; just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to
be proud as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus." So the information
about his travel plans in his letter was what they were using to charge him with
fickleness and insincerity. So he asks them to accept his word in
total not just that some parts are good and some parts are insincere, in other
words everything I write is true not just the doctrine I'm writing you, not
just theological ideas that I'm proposing to you, even the
details are true, when I'm going here, where I'm going there, why I make a
change, all of that is true, so you can trust me he says in the big things the
big important matters, the big teachings but you can also trust me in the small
things, if you're faithful in little things you're faithful in big
things. He also confirms that what he writes is true and accurate and they
have a good reason to be proud of him as he is of them even though some have
wavered in this matter. Verse 15 he says, "In this confidence I intended at first
to come to you, so that you might twice receive a blessing;" So he uses the word
confidence as a word bridge, Paul's writing style was such that he would
write about a subject and then he would introduce a word and that word
was like a stepping stone to another idea
and that's how he many times would build his epistles his letters; talk
about one thing mention a key word that has something to do with what he's
talking about but it also helps him get into another topic. So he's
saying you have confidence in me as I had confidence in you
when I originally traveled to you so he says the first,
he says you'll be twice blessed the first blessing was his first trip
and what was the blessing on the first trip? Well he brought them the gospel,
that was the blessing, salvation was the blessing. Had he not gone to them they
would not have heard the gospel, but he came to them the first time and he
preached to them, they were converted, the gospel was the blessing. Now he had
intended to come a second time, that second time would also be a blessing,
more teaching. In verse 16 "that is," he says "to pass your way into Macedonia, and
again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be helped on my journey to
Judea." So here is where he explains his original travel plan which was not
mentioned in I Corinthians. So verse 17, "Therefore, I was not vacillating when
I intended to do this, was I? Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to the
flesh, so that with me there will be a yes, a yes and no, no at the same time? But
as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no." So Paul claims that his
original plan was done in good conscience and as an Apostle of Christ
he's not a vacillator, he's not a hypocrite, it's not insincere, his yes is
yes, his no is no, nothing has changed. He goes on he says, "For the Son of God,
Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us-by me and Silvanus and Timothy-was
not yes and no, but is yes in Him." So now he goes back to his work among them, the
preaching and the teaching, the miracles, the giving of gifts,
there was no vacillation here, there was no duplicity here, it was always yes, and
yes to Christ, yes to blessing them, yes to providing for them
gospel, yes for giving them gifts through the laying on of hands. He's
saying to them, what is your problem? Some of you are able to perform
miraculous deeds, some of you are speaking in tongues, others of you are
able to interpret tongues, some of you have the knowledge of the faith given to
them through the Holy Spirit, all of you possess the Holy Spirit, all of you can
look forward to the eternal life what exactly is your problem here, how have I
harmed you? I changed my travel plans. So he says in verse 20 says, "For as many as
are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our
Amen to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ
and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts
as a pledge." So God never wavers in His promises. When
God says yes it's yes. Well this same God has sent us to proclaim, in other words to
amen, that's the term he uses, this same God has sent us to proclaim these
promises and through us reveal the glory of these promises: the gospel, the
miracles. Again the underlying idea here is think about what I have done
among you, examine yourselves and see what God has done in you and through you
through our ministry and ask yourselves has all of this been done by a hypocrite?
He tells them you know we, meaning the Apostles, we not only the Apostles but we
meaning Paul and his workers Silvanus for example, we and you the
Corinthians have been united in Christ. We've been sealed in other words
guaranteed, our salvation is absolutely guaranteed, how? Well God has given us the
Holy Spirit as a promise. The point here being but not expressed, that God's
messengers do not lie or do not act in insincere ways, the idea
being God entrusts these powers and this responsibility to give all of this
to you, He doesn't entrust that power that
ministry to people who are unreliable, insincere, hypocrites. They've been sent
to preach the gospel, to confirm it with miracles, to bestow spiritual gifts; they
haven't been sent by God to lie and cheat and especially over something as
inconsequential as travel plans.
Now in verse 23 he's going to begin to explain why he did change his plans.
The idea is he owes them no explanation. It's like when
you're your kids grow up and you have babysitters the
phases they go through, and you leave them with the babysitters bye have fun with
Judy and you get a couple of hours of respite, a little
break from the kids, then as they get older you ever notice some of you who
have teenagers you're about to go out they don't need babysitters anymore you
know they're old enough to take care of themselves but now they're saying where
are you going? Well when are you going to be back? You
guys going to eat out? I want to say that's none of your business. It's
the same thing here, Paul has birthed this church now they're saying
where are you going, how come you didn't tell us you? I remember some of our
children once, we stayed out late 11:30 at night that's late you
remember when you were younger when you were 20 you know used to leave the house
at 11:30 to go out, anyway we we came back at 11:30 and I remember I
think it was Julia I'm not sure but I'll blame her this time, and she said where
have you been? What do you mean where have you been none of your business
we can come in anytime we want remember we're the parents, we're the ones who pay
the rent. Well it's the same thing happening here, same thing. So he says
he did change his plans, this he doesn't deny, but there was a good reason
for the change in plans, it wasn't based on deceit or
fickleness. He begins to explain in verse 23 he says, "But I called God as witness
to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth." In other words he
didn't come immediately but he changed his plan in order to spare, them to spare
them what? To spare them pain, pain. His first letter was harsh, his first letter
was demanding, if he would have shown up in the middle of their trouble he would
have had the authority and the power to discipline them but he wanted to spare
them. Remember what was going on here in I Corinthians, there was divisions,
people were fighting with each other for power and position, there was even a man
in the church who is living with his stepmother, in other words
cohabitating with his stepmother. And Paul harshly denounces that brother in
what he was doing and he also rebukes the entire church for their attitude
towards this, they were just ignoring it, well you know this is the times are
like that people don't look down on that anymore. I mean the same
today, you know gay marriage sure why not we're an enlightened society.
Well you know the Greeks thought they were an enlightened society and so the
some guy living with his stepmother, sure we're enlightened. So
they're going through all of this and he's sending a
letter rebuking them and warning them so he says I didn't want to come right away
while you were in the middle of all of this business, while you were sorting out
your behavior while you were kind of responding to what I had written to you
I didn't want to show up in the middle of that. Verse 24 he says, "Not that we
lord it over you over your faith, but our workers with you for your joy; for in
your faith you are standing firm." So he's not trying to be authoritarian or bossy
his purpose is to work with them to obtain the joy possible in the Christian
faith and he doesn't doubt their faith; they believe they're just immature,
they're just immature, that's the problem, they're children in the faith, they're
children spiritually, they're spiritual children in their conduct. So
we get to chapter 2 he says, "But I determined this for my own sake, that I
would not come to you in sorrow again. For if I caused you sorrow, who then
makes me glad with the one whom I made sorrowful? This is the very thing I wrote
you, so that when I came, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me
rejoice; having confidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all."
And then in verse 4 he says, "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I
wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you
might know the love which I have especially for you."
So his letter caused pain both to the Corinthians and himself, he did not like
rebuking them; I go back to my example of parents, what parent enjoys disciplining
their children, what mother or dad gets enjoyment out of spanking a disobedient
child or taking away a privilege or saying all right you know the big
weekend you know that's done you're grounded. I mean no parent likes
to do that. Same here, he said I saw your behavior I wrote you a letter to
rebuke you, you think I was happy to do that?
You were sorrowful and I was sorrowful. So it came, both of them were
suffering. He also tells them how difficult it was for him to write that
first letter and so he didn't want to be there before this had taken place and so
he changed his travel plans to give them a chance to sort things out. Well let's
keep reading verse 5, "But if any has caused sorrow, he has cost sorrow not
to me, but in some degree-in order not to say too much-to all of you. Sufficient
for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on
the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one
might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your
love for him. For to this and also I wrote, so that I might put you to the
test, whether you are obedient in all things. But one whom you forgive anything,
I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I
did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be
taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes." So here he's
talking about that man who was having that illicit relationship with his
stepmother, that was like the crescendo and he was
instructing the church to discipline this man, to separate from him, to
disfellowship him, and now apparently in the second letter he's received news
that this man has repented after being disciplined by the
church, and now he's saying to them you beat him up
pretty badly, you disciplined him severely and now that he's repented of
this okay let's go in the other direction, let's bring him back,
let's help him to recover his place in the church in his place in
Christ. So again Paul uses a word bridge to include another idea, he speaks of his
own sorrow at writing the first letter to them especially in reference to that
man involved in an incestuous relationship with his stepmother. In
I Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1 he refers to a man having sex with
a stepmother, and I say stepmother because in the text it says his
father's wife, so if it's his father's wife it means it's his stepmother. So he
was appalled not only at the sin but as I mentioned before he was appalled at
the indifference of the sin by the church, they were just letting it slide,
and he demanded that they discipline him and if he refused that he should be
disfellowshiped. So in II Corinthians he refers back to this situation and it
seems that the church followed his instructions and so concerning this he
says several things in the passage that I've just read to you. First of all the
offense was against the church not Paul the Apostle, it threatened them
not him. You know that idea, there's sin in the camp, back in Deuteronomy 23 in the
Old Testament one person was sinning, was disobeying God, and the entire assembly
the entire camp was being punished by God and God says to Moses
there's sin in the camp, get the sin out of the camp, well there was sin in the
camp in I Corinthians, I mean of course everybody's a sinner but there are some
sins that are so egregious that they're dangerous. I mean
if a man can have an incestuous relationship with his stepmother and the
church lets it slide why couldn't a man have that kind of
relationship with his daughter, why couldn't a woman have two husbands, well
why not let two men have a relationship, why not have two women have
a relationship? I mean where do you go from there?
So yes there's always sin, all of us are sinners, but there are some sins that are
very dangerous and this was one of them. So the majority, it wasn't
unanimous, but the majority of the church was willing to disfellowship this man
and this punishment if you wish this discipline was sufficient. So they
now had to reverse their behavior now that the man repented, they had to
reverse their behavior so he wouldn't become discouraged; now he needed their
love and their support. Sometimes it's okay to discipline
but sometimes you know we shoot the wounded, we shoot the wounded. There are
many images of the
church and a lot of times we refer to the church as a family,
but sometimes the church is a hospital and there are a lot of sick spiritual
people in the church that have illness, the sin sickness to a lesser or greater
degree and we come here for healing. Hearing God's Word, receiving the love of
the brethren, being encouraged, and sometimes that's not happening in
the church. We tend to kill the wounded instead of helping them to
recover. So in this sense he's saying okay you've done enough now enough
discipline now it's time to kind of bring this person back and he says very
interestingly, the command I gave you, that was a test to see if you
would obey. If they have forgiven he says he also forgives so that Satan not
cause division in the church. All right so Paul explains one of the
things that he did for which he was being accused of insincerity his answer
or his explanation is twofold: one, he is not a liar he's an Apostle. Apostles are
sincere and their work and power and authority speak for themselves and this
should be the answer that actually every church leader ought to be able to give,
as an elder, as a deacon, as a minister we ought to be able to say I certainly like
everyone else I'm not perfect but I'm working sincerely to serve the Lord.
Secondly he tells them he did change his plans but it was done to spare them a
painful visit, that's the explanation and one that is in the character of an
apostle and in the character of love, I did it out of love I was supposed to
come but if I came when I was supposed to it would have made matters
worse so I held off a bit to give you a chance to sort things out on your own
and when I saw that things seemed to be sorted out then I came. So my coming, his
point is, so my coming would be a blessing to you and not an occasion of
pain. So the fact that they handled a delicate matter properly and responded
to his letter without his presence was proof that his decision to delay in
order to measure their maturity and spare them pain that was the correct
decision. So this passage reveals a very common
and painful problem Paul was experiencing and actually leaders in the
church have experienced ever since and that is: their motives are constantly
questioned. I can't speak and I do not speak for the elders
but as a minister in a leadership position I can tell you how discouraging
and frustrating it is to learn that church members accuse the minister or
elders whoever it is of evil motives. That probably is the most discouraging
thing to deal with. For example that the preacher
does what he does because of pride or lust for power; or if he neglects to say
or do something well it's because of favoritism or laziness; or
that when someone is left out or forgotten or offended the minister
actually did it on purpose as if at our ministry meetings when
Marty and Mike and myself get together to talk about what do
we talk about, well we don't talk about the weather, we talk about church things
how to do things, who needs help and so on and so forth but
you know we don't get together and say okay who can we offend this week, I'm
really looking forward to offending brother Joe yes sir boy you really I can
light his fuse watch me maybe I'll pen something into my sermon
that'll light his fuse, really? No. I used to tell people there's never,
so people would walk out and sometimes and among you
here and people would shake hands thank you brother Mike you know some boy you
really stepped on my toes today, oh you were talking to me today, and I go okay
good, repent that's my answer, repent then. But there's never a name
on the bullet, preachers don't write sermons with names,
okay this paragraphs for this guy, this paragraphs well that could, no. It's too
general there are too many people, that type of close in work, that type of
surgical work spiritual, that kind of work is done one-on-one in counseling or
perhaps in a small group or a class where there there's an opportunity
for feedback and you know discussion, but service and sermons and
general ministry have to be general in nature because you're talking to so many
people at once sometimes people feel oh he was talking to me well
good maybe that particular lesson has more meaning for some than others. Well
that's just the way it works. A minister can handle the sorrows and the
crises in everybody's family year after year after year. A minister can minister
to the dying and help resolve disputes that never end and most times and
rightly so people in the church think well that's his job he gets paid for
doing that gets paid for doing funerals, visiting hospitals, listening
watching families fall apart through divorce, he gets paid to do that, but should
there be a mistake or a glitch somewhere an unavoidable circumstance or conflict
and we're always ready many times to assume the worst about his motives. And
I'm saying all of this, am I getting personal, well yeah of course I'm getting
personal, but Paul was getting personal in his letter and I'm getting
personal because this is what Paul is doing in the letter, this is what
he speaks of here in his letter to the Corinthians and that's what I
want to leave you with. Most men go into preaching or ministry because
they love the Lord and they have a burden for the lost, that's usually the
thing that's pushing them into ministry and women more and more going into
ministry mostly into missions and teaching in the churches children's
ministry. It's the same spirit moving these people to go into ministry,
they love the Lord, they have a burden for the lost. I remember myself
sitting on a subway and listening to, this as many years ago before I
before I went into ministry, but one of the things that moved me and I
was sitting there in the subway listening to two girls talk in French in
Montreal of course and you know they were talking loud enough that I, there
was no eavesdropping, I think they wanted everybody to and they were
just talking about going out to clubs this Friday
and you know we're going to go to this club dance and blah blah blah and my
boyfriend well I think my boyfriend's going to be moving in and she must
have been no more than nineteen years old or something like that and they were
talking about their boyfriends moving in the other ones were saying well you know
yeah that didn't work out we lived together six months with him we broke up
and had an abortion. And I was listening to them talk and in my mind I
was saying, these girls are lost they do not have a clue they are
absolutely clueless about life, about God, about the Holy Spirit, about what life is
really about, about death, if they face death that very moment they wouldn't
know what to do or what to say, not a clue, and in my mind I realized in the
city that I lived in three and a half million people there are a lot of these
clueless people wandering around, no notion, no understanding, nothing about
God. And I remember that moment as clear as a bell in my mind and it was that
was the beginning of, I remember thinking somebody oughta tell these
people, and then later on in my prayers I'm not saying God appeared
to me, He doesn't work like that anymore, but the thought came into my mind, well
you're a somebody, what about you. If you know the truth why don't you do
something about it and that was the beginning, that was the beginning
of my long journey into ministry and now well 40 years nearly next year be 40
years full-time ministry and I still remember that image from the very
beginning. So without more detail try to remember as Paul explains here those who
minister to you, I mean there are bad apples we
read about that in the paper, the media loves to report on the
minister who is falling, ran off with one of the member's wives or
something of course that happens, but most ministers they do what they do
because they love God and they love souls and they care about them. Okay all
right well that's the content of this particular section of II Corinthians,
we're going to continue next time. I encourage you to, I always ask
you to read ahead because I don't always read the entire passage so read ahead
2:12-7:16 and we'll pick it up next week at this
point. All right thank you for your attention.
We're done.