We begin II Corinthians for Beginners. This is lesson number 1 and we're going
to start with a review. In order to understand II Corinthians
it is assumed that everyone has read I Corinthians, but you can't make those
assumptions always since there's no guarantee for this and being familiar
with I Corinthians is really necessary to understand
II Corinthians we're going to begin this class with a short review of Paul's
first letter to this particular church. So just some background information some
introductory material this morning and then as we go on we'll go into the
text. So let's talk about the the city itself: city of Corinth in 146
BC the Roman general Lucius Mummius crushed a Greek bid for independence from Rome
by completely destroying the city of Corinth. So we begin our look at
Corinth by remembering when it was completely destroyed by the Romans.
A hundred years later Julius Caesar sent a colony of veterans and descendants of
freedmen to rebuild the city and in time the city of Corinth grew to great
importance, it eventually became the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire,
it had a population of about 600,000 people and for that time that was an
enormous city to have that many people, it was also a city well
suited for trade and commerce because of its three seaports and its location on
the isthmus between northern and southern Greece. It became eventually the
Roman capital of the Greek district of Achaiah so because of its location it drew
a mixed population of Greeks and Romans, Egyptians and Jews who all came there to
to trade, to do business. Corinth was a wealthy city given to commerce and art
and entertainment. The Isthmus, that's hard word to say, I want to tell you, the
Isthmus Games were held here, these were second
only to the Olympic Games. The winners received a wreath or a crown made of
leaves actually two kinds either celery leaves or pine tree leaves. Paul refers
to this practice in I Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24 to 27 when he says,
"Everyone who competes in the games exercise self-control in all things." So
writing to the Corinthians, when he's talking about the games they understood
he was talking about the Isthmus Games. He says, "They then do it to receive
a perishable wreath," the wreath we just saw, "but we an imperishable."
And so he's talking here about Christians competing for a crown that is
imperishable of course meaning the crown of eternal life. But that's
that reference that famous passage based on the experience of the Corinthians and
the sport games that they had at that time.
The people there held to many pagan gods and there were many temples and pagan
practices that went on; the two main gods Poseidon who was the god of the sea I
think I've got a slide for him there we go
and so they had many different gods Poseidon as I mentioned. It was also the
center for worship for Venus the goddess of love and there were a thousand temple
prostitutes free to strangers. The Corinthians
did not know the meaning of morality or chastity or purity they were an
extremely immoral society. The term to corinthianize meant to prostitute or
to desecrate something so common in the vernacular you know or rather their
behavior was so well known that it became common in the vernacular of the
day to use their name when we wanted to refer to something that was not good or
or immoral. The Greek writers of that period said that if even a Corinthian
were portrayed in a play he was always shown as being drunk, they never had
positive image of Corinthians in any of the literature. So the church there was
established in Corinth in about 50-51 AD by Paul when he was on his second
missionary journey, he was assisted by Priscilla and Aquila, a couple of
Christians who had fled Rome and settled in Corinth. Paul also traveled with
Timothy and Silas. You can say Priscilla and Aquila, Aquila and Priscilla, Aquila
was the man Priscilla the woman. Another worker who helped build the early church
there was Apollos who has taught the gospel more perfectly if we remember in
the book of Acts by Aquila and Priscilla. So the story of the establishment of the
church is found in Acts chapter 18 and instead of summarizing it it's a pretty
good summary so I thought we'd just read it, "After these things" he meaning Paul,
"after these things he left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named
Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come
from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the
Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he
stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent-makers. And
he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying
to persuade Jews and Greeks. But when Silas and Timothy came down for
Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly
testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when they resisted and
blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, 'your blood be on your own
heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.' Then he left there and
went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house
was next to the synagogue. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue,
believed in the Lord with all of his household, and many of the Corinthians
when they heard were believing and being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul in
the night by a vision, 'Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not
be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for
I have many people in this city.' And he settled there a year and six months,
teaching the word of God among them. But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the
Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment
seat, saying, 'This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.' But when
Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, 'If it were a
matter of wrong or a vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to
put up with you; but if there are questions about words and names and your
own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be judge of these matters.'
And he drove them away from the judgment seat. And they all took hold of Sosthenes,
the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment
seat. But Gallio was not concerned about any of these things. Paul, having remained
many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria,
and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea a he had his hair cut, for
he was keeping a vow. They came to Ephesus, and he left them there. Now he
himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews."
A couple of more verses, "When they asked him to stay for a longer time, he did not
consent, but taking leave of them and saying, 'I will return to you again if God
wills,' he set sail from Ephesus. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up
and greeted the church, and went down to Antioch."
So Paul establishes the church there in Corinth made up of Jews who have left
the synagogue but who face anonymity from or animosity rather from their
Jewish countrymen for leaving. Everyone in the early church had
somebody against them; there was a price to pay. It wasn't just, now
I'm a, I used to believe this over here which nobody cared about
anyways and now I believe this over here which nobody cares about anyways. Which
is kind of like what happens to us many times, we don't really
believe anything we're not firmly attached to something in particular and
then for some reason begin to read the Bible, someone shares the gospel with us,
we become interested in Christianity, we follow through, repent, baptized
we begin our growth in Christ. But I mean nobody burns our house down, we don't
lose our jobs because we've become a Christian, if we go to our
our of work mates at work and during a lunch break so what's going on and
somebody will say well I was baptized on Sunday I became a Christian,
well what do you think the reaction will be, you think people will take
their trays and get up and walk away? Well no, they'll go that's nice,
good for you, or really why did you do that and make
kind of or someone say well I oh yeah you were baptized I was baptized as a
young boy you know and this church or that sure it's not going to be shaking
the world. But these people in in first century they had somebody
against them every group had something. The Jews their Jewish family and their
Jewish friends and their fellow believers rejected them, they abandoned
not only their religion, in a sense they were abandoning their own culture
and I'll tell you something for many people it's much more difficult to be
rejected culturally than religiously.
Religiously it's up here it's in here.
Culturally it's how you eat, who you talk to, the holidays that you keep going over
to I remember when Lise and I first became Christians both of our families
they always planned stuff on Sunday mornings, on Sunday morning we're all
going to go over here well before we used to go but a Sunday morning it's
we had services Sunday morning and we were polite and excused ourselves,
we'll catch up you guys later, but her mom dad lived like 40-50 miles
from our house with the four kids and we never made it for the lunch.
Easter Sunday, Easter Sunday in the morning we roll the eggs at lunchtime
the big lunch everybody's over yeah they didn't
understand why I as a minister couldn't drop everything on Sunday morning and go
roll the eggs and be there for dinner after all the family was all there why
can't you be there? And believe me that's just the small thing in comparison to
some of these the people here in the Corinthian church. The Jews suffered
terribly for having abandoned their religion and for many it seemed their
own culture, very difficult. The Greeks had a background in sexual immorality
and paganism, for them it was very difficult to complete, to change,
at least for the Jews they're moral standing was similar.
As they became Christians they didn't have to become more or less moral
as Christians the standards is what I'm trying to
at the standard for morality and personal conduct as a Jew was similar to
the standard of personal conduct and morality for a Christian. But for a Greek
oh boy that was a real life change because of the lifestyle. Most of the
people were poor and were from the lower ranks of society, Paul talks about that
in I Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26. So there were great social, cultural and
religious differences, nevermind between the Christians and
what they had left behind but between the Christians themselves. If you had
grown up as a Jew your whole life you had been taught not to associate with
Gentiles, in its most extreme form you know if a Gentile was coming your way
you would cross the street so their shadow would not intersect with your
shadow, and now what were you supposed to do? You were sitting right next to them,
they were touching you, you were breaking the loaf and you were eating from the
same loaf at communion, you were calling each other brother, sister. We read in
Romans where Paul says greet each other with a holy kiss right. Of
course in those days that meant the women kissed the women, the men kissed
the men there was no the men kiss the women as many times we do hear in a
greeting in a friendly greeting. But can you imagine a Jew who had grown up in a
Jewish religion greet each other with a holy kiss, oh I have to demonstrate
physical affection to the one that.
So they had a great challenge in these churches especially first Corinthians as
a model church. Paul, as Acts tells us, supported himself in his work by working
with Aquila and Priscilla they were tent-making. Little research if you dig
down deep tent making not necessarily the canvas but they made the leather,
there was a leather spot there in the tent where the loop would go through to
tie it down, they were kind of leather workers okay. So he worked with them and
this is an important point to remember that he worked with them, that he earned
his own living for a time, that's important to remember when we get into
the text of II Corinthians. The Greeks had great pride in their intellectualism
and their oratory powers they also were argumentative and clannish. All
information we get from I Corinthians 1 and 2. I corinthians doesn't
describe the Jews much, but we already know how self-righteous and legalistic
and bigoted they were, so this church faced serious unity problems; putting all
these people in the same church. We also know that they usually met in homes,
public halls or schools whenever it was safe to do so usually in secret. Church
buildings that were erected strictly for church meetings, that
doesn't happen till around the 2nd century. So we don't know how big the
church was, interesting isn't it, we know how large the church was in
Jerusalem at the beginning thousands and thousands of people Luke
writes about the church in Acts 3,000 and 5,000 so and so forth.
But after those numbers there isn't any church where we're given their number. We
have no idea how big the church at Ephesus was, we have no idea how big the
church at Corinth was, we have no ideas we get no numbers, they
could have been a thousand or they could have been a hundred. So the letter of
I Corinthians was probably written in the winter of 54 to 57 AD, roughly
three to five years after the church in Corinth was established. Paul had been
with them initially for about eighteen months, which was a long time for him. He
didn't usually stay that long in one place, so this means that he's now been
away from, in other words if it was written three to five years after the
church was established it means he was there for about eighteen months or so
and he's been gone for several years. So at the time of writing Paul was in
Ephesus, we know that I Corinthians 16:15-18. And several events moved
Paul to write this letter to this particular church. First of all he had
received a report about the affairs of the church from close family who were
members of the church, he had also received a letter from the church asking
him questions. That's why I Corinthians such a great epistle because
it answers so many questions about normal church activity well normal
and abnormal church activity. He had urged Apollos to go and help them
resolve their problems but Apollos had declined. I always find that so
fascinating here's a servant of the church Apollos, spoken well of by
Paul and others, and Paul says you know I'd like for you to go there and do this
and he says you know what I'm busy, I'm busy he said I can't do it. Isn't that
like real life, doesn't that happen in ministry, it's not a fairy tale, people
are busy, people have stuff to do, even 'ministers.' He was busy, not now he
said, I'll go but not now. He had received news Paul did had received news from
several brethren from Corinth who had brought him a gift from that
particular congregation. A gift for his birthday? No, a gift, he had to eat, he
needed support like many many missionaries they raise support so that
they can continue working, same thing here. A couple of interesting facts about
I Corinthians, next to Romans it is Paul's longest letter, it's also the
most varied in content a lot of the letters that you read from Paul have a
kind of one particular theme. Colossians for example that
Jesus Christ is God, He is the divine Savior and that letter really focuses.
I Corinthians is lots of different subjects in it. The letter also
contains the strongest rebukes against individuals and groups, and this was a
Corinthians now, here you have to kind of have some mind games to hold all of this in,
this was actually the second letter that he had written to them we learned that
in I Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9 but the first letter was lost and we have no
record of it, so we're reading a letter entitled I Corinthians and we find
out that I Corinthians is actually the second letter that Paul had written to
these people the first one being lost, so I Corinthians is actually the second
letter, II Corinthians actually the third letter.
Alright so try to keep that in mind. I Corinthian probably gives us the
the clearest picture of life and problems of the local church in the
Gentile world in the first century. Best letter to give us a view of
this. The concern of I Corinthians was not doctrine or theology: who is God?,
or the nature of salvation or when will the end of the world come or
what will happen at the end, it's not concerned with
doctrine, it's concerned with pastoral theology: how should Christians act?
How should we treat one another, how should we conduct ourselves to
make a good witness. These people here were weak, immature, divisive Christians
who needed a mature leader to show them how and why to lead a Christian life in
the proper way. The complication was that they were also a very gifted
church, they had powerful spiritual gifts well some in the congregation had
powerful spiritual gifts but they were using them improperly so the letter is
divided into a discussion of nine vital concerns for this church and
Paul tacks on an introduction. So you've got the introduction and then the
vital concerns that he talks about remember I said varied topics so
concerning division, concerning leadership, concerning immorality,
concerning marriage, concerning freedom, worship, concerning gifts, the proper use
of gifts, concerning resurrection, and then concerning the collection financial
support of the church. This is I Corinthians. So like a good elder he
shepherds the confused and the disobedient, this church had plenty of
both, by teaching them what the Lord requires in different areas of Christian
life, what does Jesus, people used to wear that yellow band there: what
would Jesus do? Well this is almost like a what would Jesus do letter, what would
Jesus do if he had the spiritual gift, well if you know with the spiritual gift
what would Jesus do to worship, how would He worship, so on and so forth. Now
there's no absolute agreement about the order of these events but something
resembling this occurred between the writing of the first letter,
I corinthians we're talking about here and the second one that Paul writes
to these brethren. So the Corinthians received the first letter okay this
letter here we're talking about I Corinthians, they received this letter
and they take care of most of the problems that are mentioned in this
letter. Now certain Jews come into the church and they begin to stir up trouble
which makes necessary Paul's visit that he talks about in chapter 2 verse 1. This
would now be his third visit to these people. These people were doing several
things, these people when I'm talking about these people I'm not talking about
the Corinthians I'm talking about the Jews, Jewish Christians who had come into
the church and began teaching and stirring up trouble. And the type of
things that they were doing for example they were presenting themselves as
Apostles, like Peter was an Apostle or Paul was an Apostle or they were
presenting themselves as Apostles. They were stirring up strife and division in
the church, they were criticizing Paul and they were challenging his authority.
If you want to divide a church don't go to the members and stir them up I mean
that helps, no no go straight to the top start with a division among the elders,
you have two elders get those two elders to argue with each other you have five
elders get three of them to really begin a campaign or a war against the other
two elders, if you can divide the eldership dividing the
congregation well that's easy after that. So that's what they were doing
they were going not after the leaders in the local congregation they were going
after Paul, the one who had planted that church and they were questioning his
authority, his teaching, really this Paul really you're listening to him you're
not even here.
They tried to build up a following for themselves among
established churches but they were not evangelistic. They taught circumcision
was necessary for salvation, they also had to keep ceremonial laws, in other
words they weren't going out to try to convert people who didn't know
the gospel, no no they were coming in to people who are already Christians and
trying to get them to follow their personal leadership. And they also
criticized Paul for receiving money for his work, you know that gift that the
Corinthians sent this was a subject of their criticism and in the church people
very sensitive about money, how it's spent, who gets it, how much they get. So
this is important to note because Paul refers to all of these accusations in
II Corinthians. So the problems were resolved, Jewish teachers
come in begins stirring up trouble, Paul had written I Corinthians from
Ephesus and then he left Ephesus to travel to Macedonia in order to collect
money for the churches there, we read about that in chapter 2 chapter 8. During
this trip he falls ill, so what I'm giving you here is a timeline of events
and these are important if you're going to understand the accusations and the
arguments in II corinthians. So he falls ill, during this time Titus arrives in
Macedonia and gives Paul a report of the effect of his first letter to the
Corinthians. So he's traveling, Titus comes, that hey you know that letter you
sent I Corinthians, that letter let me tell you how the church reacted to
that.
On hearing of new problems, what were the new problem, well the new problems were
the Jews coming in, it wasn't bad enough that they were using their
spiritual gifts improperly, it wasn't bad enough that a man was having sex with
his mother his stepmother, that wasn't bad enough those things were
taking place that he had written about in I Corinthians, no no now these
these Jews come in and start causing trouble and this is what Titus tells him.
So he writes II Corinthians and he gives it to Titus and says all right go
on back bring this letter back to them.
Later Paul will visit Corinth again for a few
months and during this time will write the letter to the Romans and perhaps
also the one to the Galatians. we know about that in Acts chapter 20 verse 2
and 3. And then his stay at Corinth will be short-lived as a plot will be formed
against him and he will have to escape by changing his plans. Now this is church
stuff going on not just a plot to denounce him or to undermine his
teaching, no these guys they played hardball, we don't like you we
want to get rid of you we want to take over your position so we're going to
kill you. Not enough to destroy your reputation no
no we just want to take you out. So during this time we see Paul's work as
an Apostle include the very real tasks of caring for the needy,
the collection that he was taking he was gathering money to help
the needy in different churches, he was also teaching in person and through his
epistles, he was mentoring and training Titus for example mentoring and training
that young evangelist, he was resolving disputes and divisions,
II Corinthians was written for that purpose, and he was preaching and
planting churches: Macedonia and Corinth. So II Corinthians is an
epistle that talks about the life of an Apostle, whereas I Corinthians is aimed
at the members and would we study I Corinthians
what we're studying is similar problems that we have today: division,
pride, immoral behavior, that stuff keeps going generation after generation and so
I Corinthians is very helpful because it addresses the same problems that
continue from generation to generation. II Corinthians however is
fascinating because it gives you insight into the Apostle the work of the Apostle
what is it like or what was it like to be one of Jesus' Apostles in the first
century. So II Corinthians is a subjective book unlike I Corinthians.
I Corinthians teaches the church how to do things and what to think about
things and how to conduct yourself and so on and so forth, II Corinthians
reveals what it is like to be an Apostle. So the book is centered around Paul's
experience as an Apostle and II Corinthians can be outlined in the
following way: there's a brief introduction and then it's all about
being an Apostle, the apostolic experience, the apostolic explanation, the
apostolic ministry, the apostolic fellowship, and then apostolic defense,
defense of his apostleship, imagine what it's like to have seen
Jesus, heard Jesus, to have been called in a miraculous way
to have performed miracles, to have written material given to you by God, to
have been beaten and flogged and imprisoned and robbed and you know all
manner of trial and difficulty in your life, having given everything to your
ministry imagine and then people come along and say well you're no apostle,
prove to us that you're an apostle, who says, could you imagine?
I mean I think I would just melt in rage if it were me I would just melt just
like butter in the microwave and yet we see the true apostolic spirit in
II Corinthians. A fascinating fascinating very personal epistle, more personal than
any other epistle that he wrote, there are always sections in different
epistles where Paul reveals himself talks about himself a little bit but
II Corinthians is really an appeal to understand what it's like to be an
apostle. Okay so there's our little introduction so we have some background
material. I'll give you the dreaded assignment read I Corinthians, if
you're a daily Bible reader put up your schedule there if you can
manage it put that aside or add to it read through I Corinthians, get
familiar with the scene and then II Corinthians chapter 1 verses 1 to 11
that's the material we're going to be covering next Sunday. So I thank you
for your attention and if you have any questions let me know. All right God
bless you, we'll see you next time.