Alright, so we begin our class, II Corinthians for Beginners, this is lesson
number two in this series, The Experience of Apostleship and you can open your
Bibles with II Corinthians chapter one and we'll cover verses 1 to 11. Well
in the introduction lesson last week we've talked about I Corinthians and I
gave you some basic information about Corinth and its people as well as the
church and the background of these two letters. A couple of key points if you
didn't have that class, if you haven't seen that class just to catch
you up with all of us. Corinth the city itself, a cosmopolitan and wicked city
filled with sexual immorality as well as pagan worship. It said that Paul established
the church there and it comprised of both Jews with their religious
background as well as Greeks with their philosophical and pagan religious
background. So these two groups brought together in this one
congregation. The first letter was sent as a response to the problems that this
church was having several years after its formation. The problems were ones of
conduct and attitude, personal conflict between one group and another group.
People were rising up leaders if you wish in the church, rising up trying
to gather disciples after themselves after their own teaching so that church
was experiencing that type of divisiveness. And this letter was sent, I Corinthians,
seems to have answered many of their questions on the topics that they
brought up for Paul or with Paul and it also seemed to have settled a lot
of the disputes that they were experiencing. After a while Jewish
Christians from Corinth began to attack Paul and his motives, his credentials and
his work in a bid to establish themselves as the new leaders of that
congregation and they begin by teaching that you needed to be circumcised in
order to become a Christian and threatened to divide the church over
this issue. This was not a new issue, for those of you who studied the book of
Acts with me you know that early on in the church this was a problem. Jews many
of which were Pharisees who were converted to Christianity tried to bring
into the church the idea that in order to become a Christian you had to become
a Jew first, in order to become a Christian you had to first be
circumcised, adhere to the precepts and principles and customs
of the Law and only then could you become a Christian. Their idea of course
was that Judaism came first Christianity was an offshoot if you wish of Judaism
so it all made perfect sense to them that first you became a Jew then you
became a Christian. And in Acts 15 the the Apostles and the elders gathered in
Jerusalem to discuss this matter and they recognized the danger of this
teaching, they wrote a letter to the church in Antioch confirming that
circumcision was not necessary, that the church was open to of course all people
Jews and Gentiles and the entry into the church was the same for both: that they
confess Christ, they repent of their sins, they were baptized, they remained
faithful. And I remember in teaching that book and at that time saying the problem
was settled in Antioch for a time but it continued to rise up throughout the
years after this period and we see it right here in I Corinthians. And
so the next letter to the Corinthians will deal with these
troublemakers, these Jewish Christian teachers who are promoting this
type of teaching and their own leadership. So Paul in II Corinthians
is going to deal with these troublemakers and the
charges that they're bringing against him.
II Corinthians, very much is a personal letter, a subjective letter and
it deals with what an apostle should be and what an apostle should do rather
than what the church should be and do which is what I Corinthians is about.
so I Corinthians is about the Corinthians it's about the church
itself and the members of the church how they should conduct themselves and what
they should believe, their personal conduct, not only that but their conduct
during public worship, a lot of discussion, the role of men and women in
the church and so on and so forth. II Corinthians deals with what is it
like being an apostle and it focuses on that because the
problem is leadership; people are coming into the church trying to establish
their leadership, they're trying to displace Paul in his position as leader
and so he's going to, basically in II Corinthians he's saying oh you
people want to be leaders so let me tell you what being a leader is all about, let
me tell you what it means and what leadership demands of an individual
who aspires to the position of leadership, especially the position of
apostleship in the church. So today we're going to look at the introduction and
what Paul says about the experience of being a leader in the church as I said
in this case the leader as an apostle. So Paul's opening statement gives insight
to the problems that he is facing with this congregation, namely the personal
attack and division over his authority as an Apostle which must have been very
galling after everything that he had been through to establish this particular
church and to maintain this particular church. To turn around and have to
actually defend himself to this particular church about
leadership must have been especially difficult for him. So let's begin the
text he begins by saying, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God," no
wasted words in II Corinthians, not a long epistle but no wasted words. You
need to understand that letters in those days were written in a reverse style
of than today. In other words, the signature where we say you know dear Joe
blah blah blah yours truly Mike; well the yours truly was at the
beginning and the salutation you know dear Joe that was at the end so they did
it in reverse. Here in this opening statement Paul uses the signature to
establish his credentials: who he is, not just yours truly Paul, it's
yours truly the Apostle who is an Apostle by the will of God, that Paul. You
see so he's an Apostle of Christ. The term apostle in its generic form meant a
messenger but it was used in a more formal way to mean an ambassador or an
official messenger, not just any messenger but a messenger from the king
if you wish. So Paul is saying here he's not just any messenger he is an
ambassador, a special messenger sent by Jesus Christ Himself. Also in those days
you did not refer to yourself as that, you did not refer to yourself
in the church as an apostle unless you were the one of the men specifically
chosen by Jesus. So there were many messengers you know Barnabas that we use
a term he was an Apostle Barnabas, but that is in the generic or general term
he was a messenger, he was a missionary, he was a messenger. But when
Paul uses the term apostle he's saying I'm not
just a messenger, I'm a special messenger, I'm an
ambassador specifically chosen by Jesus Christ. Although he doesn't say it Paul
distances himself and establishes the critical difference between himself and
the so called apostles that were causing all the trouble in the church. And that
is that he was appointed by Christ and they were self-appointed.
All of that in the beginning you have to read between the lines what's going on
but that's what's going on. Here I am Paul I'm writing to you and I, who am I,
I'm an Apostle of Christ. The ones that were bothering them the ones that were
spreading this false doctrine, the ones that were challenging Paul and
calling into question his authority were calling themselves apostles, even super
apostles, you know more qualified than Paul. So Paul, he puts a
line in the sand in his opening statement. This underscores a very
important principle in the church: there is no commission without commendation. No
commission without, in other words you are not an apostle, an elder, a deacon,
you can't have any of those positions unless you are commended, you
are sent by someone in authority in the church. No position without permission,
that's just another way of saying it. You can't appoint yourself an elder, you
can't say one day you know I'm a pretty good carpenter I think I'm going to
start calling myself a deacon and I'm going to start repairing stuff in the
church which is all very good, but you can't call yourself a deacon. You can't
appoint yourself to the position. No position without permission, no office
without ordination. Ordination is just another way of saying commendation or
permission. An ordained minister is not a minister who went to school and got a
degree that's getting the degree is not your ordination, the
ordination or the commendation or the the sending into service is done by
those, the leaders in the church, and if there are no elders than by the church
itself. So no commission without commendation, no position without
permission, no office without ordination. We need to remember that it's a very
important very important concept for the organization and the functioning of the
church especially in places where the church is not very strong, where you
have a lot of mission churches or small churches that may not have elders or may
have only one, well not just one but may have only two elders okay. Now in the
Old Testament everyone was required to worship, of course I mean the Jews, right
everyone was required to worship, everyone was required to serve and obey
God, however those who did specific tasks like the priests and the Levites they
were appointed to these tasks by God at first and then through genealogical
succession. Levi didn't say to himself, I like you
know I like the experience of worship and I love all of that I think I'm going to
be a priest, as a matter of fact since I'm the first one to have that idea I
think I'll be the high priest. Well we know that that's not the case. The Lord
assigned these tasks, He chose the ones who would do it, which tribes, which
persons, He's the one that laid out the qualifications, He's the one that
assigned the people, He's the one that even gave Moses the
responsibility of ordaining if you wish Levi and his sons. Now in the New
Testament we see Jesus selecting and anointing with the Holy Spirit
the Apostles and then they appointed deacons and elders and then the
elders appointed evangelists who then raised up elders who would then repeat
the cycle. It's a beautiful cycle in the church. Elders in the church
commend those who will be evangelists and send them to the work; evangelists
plant churches and they train the entire church for service but
specifically they raise up men Titus right, Paul tells them appoint elders
in every city. That term in the book of Titus, appoint, meaning
to raise up, to select and train and give experience to
these men so they will raise up and serve as elder,s so the evangelists when
there are no elders that's his responsibility to find those men who are
qualified, who have the desire to do this work, raise them up, set them as elders
and the beautiful thing is those men who are elders help the church to grow, they
shepherd the church, the church grows, ohp they see a young man there that has some
potential, has a calling in the Lord, encourages and trains that young man to
go into ministry and he becomes an evangelist what does he do or a
missionary, he goes up and plants a church and what does he do when he
plants the church well he helps to establish elders and the cycle goes
round and round. That's the New Testament way of establishing, organizing, raising
up a leadership and continuing that leadership from generation to generation.
Again, there are no self-appointed preachers, no self-appointed teachers,
deacons, elders, missionaries, none of them.
When I became a preacher in 1979, decided I was going to go into the
work full-time supported by the church we had no elders in
Lachine, a small mission church, but the church together decided that I did have
the skills to do this type of work and they wanted to encourage me and so the
church through prayer and through the laying on of the hands commended me into
the work of ministry, of preaching. That was my commendation, they did it. And
the elders that oversaw that mission work, who were in Texas at the time, the
elders who supported the preacher whoever that person would be they agreed
with what the church was doing so I didn't appoint myself as a preacher the
church with the blessing of the elders who were overseeing that
particular mission work sent me into the work and it's the same for everyone else
when we hire a preacher it's not just the signing of a contract
that sends them into the work, when they begin they go upfront
right if you remember and the elders are there and the commend that man into
the service of ministry for this particular church. So in every case these
people are chosen and trained in the same way and they are appointed or
commended or ordained all the same word to their work by the leaders in the
church. Now the point in this first verse is that Christ Himself has appointed
Paul to his Apostleship but no one had appointed these other leaders, they had
just appointed themselves, the ones making trouble in Corinth.
Paul is saying, I've been ordained by Christ Himself, who ordained you?
Continue reading verse one b, and he mentions, "and Timothy our brother." In his
signature he includes Timothy who was originally sent ahead of the first
letter to prepare them for the arrival of his teaching, we find that out in
I Corinthians 4:17. And then he continues first verse still, "To the church of God
which is at Corinth with all the saints who are
throughout Achaia:" It's amazing that with all that they have done and continue to
do Paul refers to them as God's church. I mean if you've read through
I Corinthians you know that they are weak, they're sinful, they're immature, they're
ungrateful and yet Paul still refers to them as the people of God. This should be
a reminder to us when we're ready to quit the church because there's
one or two people who don't measure up to our standard of holiness, well that
person over there that man over there I you know the way he lives or I don't
know whatever his bad habit is or unvirtuous action people you know
decide well this church is full of hypocrites so they quit the
church, or they don't receive the type of service or love that they feel they need
and it could be a legitimate need but they're not receiving what they need,
quit the church, find some other church maybe and yet this church here I don't
know if any one of us would ever want to place membership in, I Corinthians
or not in I Corinthians but in the Corinthian church with all the problems
that they were having, I don't know if I want to place my membership there. And yet
Paul still still refers to them as the church of God. He also includes others,
other churches in Achaia in the greeting since he presumes that
his letter will ultimately have a wider circulation than just in the Corinthian
church and that's the way things were done at that early stage of the church's
life; in the first century letters were circulated from one place to
another. Verse two he says, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ." So he begins with the blessing upon them
for God's favor and peace. It's a sign of his kindness but also of his position
because the greater always blesses the lesser. He
gives the blessing because he is their teacher, he fathered them into Christ
through his teaching and through his ministry. And so he offers them
a genuine blessing. Now if you would or could summarize the experience of being
a parent or being an engineer or being a teacher in a single word what
would it be? I mean the first word that comes to mind let's say you're a police
officer, perhaps the first word I don't know caution, caution first word that
comes to mind if you're a police officer, why? Because every time you get a call
you don't know what you're getting into, a car with a broken
taillight could turn into a gunbattle and has many times. I would think you
know caution. I remember once the alarm went off here
at the building as I was coming in and a police officer was parked in
the parking lot and I drove in, maybe the wind rattled the window
and it set off the alarm he was there and I parked the car in my normal space
and he was just a couple of cars over, so I saw him there I get
out of my car and I just start walking towards him and he rolled down his wind
and said stop, just stop right there, and I stopped and he asked me
who are you and dadada, and for me I figure what's the problem here I'm
the minister yes he doesn't have to be afraid of me, but then I realized of
course he doesn't know who I am he's not going to allow me to go to his car
and stick my head in his car and talk to him that close. So caution if you're a
teacher I don't know first word: dedication. You
have to be dedicated I mean it's such hard work, it's so demanding and the
rewards, the financial rewards are just not there.
Salesperson, if you're a salesperson or a sales representative one word: stress
especially if you're a sales person working on commission, very stressful, you
have quotas to make, numbers to reach, if you don't produce you lose your
job it's stressful, one word, stress. So why am I saying all this, Paul is saying
in the passage that the ministry of apostleship in a word is: suffering. You
want to compress all the experience one word:
suffering. He is saying in this passage that the ministry of apostleship is
about suffering. Verse 3 he says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our
afflictions so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction
with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
Notice here there's no whining about the suffering that he has to endure. We know
from other passages that Paul has been whipped and stoned several times,
imprisoned, he's been mobbed, there have been several plots organized to murder
him. This very letter is written to people who are criticizing him and
trying to destroy his work. So what he does is concentrate on the comfort that
God supplies for him throughout these sufferings, he doesn't focus on the
suffering he focuses on what God is giving him what God is providing him to
enable him to make it through the sufferings. The suffering is there as a
mainstay of his apostolic ministry but it is the comfort of God that Paul
focuses on. The comfort he receives from God enables him to do two things, number
one: it enables him to give praise and honor to God for the comfort that he
provides through the trials. In other words he's saying the majority of my
communication with God in prayer is thanksgiving. If I were to analyze my
prayers that I offer to God on a daily basis I
would say the majority of them are for thanksgiving. I give thanks for what He
gives me that enables me to deal with the discomfort and the suffering that I
experience as an Apostle and especially the suffering that I experience because
I'm an Apostle. I mean sometimes you suffer just because you're human right,
sore back, sore knee, indigestion, that's just being human. But the things
that he suffered were not just because he was human, there may have been some
of those, no, the things he was suffering were mainly caused by his
apostleship and so his prayers were not in the majority, dear God fix this guy
and settled that situation and don't let them get me and don't let them kill me
and oh god I'm so tired of carrying this burden and no whining. Majority of his
prayers were praise. How wonderful you are God that you are able to comfort me
despite all of these things that go wrong in my life and in my ministry.
So he praises and honors God for the comfort that He provides him. And
secondly the fact that Paul has something to offer to others who are
suffering also and that is the comfort that God gives to him, he passes
on. This is a long way of saying he is able to empathize with other Christians
who are suffering, again not because they're just human, they're suffering
because they're faithful Christians. He, a well-known famous in those days, Apostle,
miracle worker, inspired writer is able to empathize with the lowly Christian
who's not a deacon or an elder or a teacher or an apostle or a missionary he
or she is a member of a church offering his or her service quietly as most
Christians do and yet he's saying I'm able to empathize with you because in a
way I'm suffering the same type of things that you're suffering. In
verse five he says, "For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in
abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ." So he comments
on the fact that his trials never outweigh his comfort in Christ. The
troubles are never greater than God's ability to provide strength and help in
time of need. That's a very comforting idea even if you're not
suffering because a lot of times the suffering is anticipated, we're so afraid
that something's going to happen that will be overwhelming, we're
afraid that we'll have a disease or something that we won't be able to work
and support our families or take care of our children or even worse we're afraid
that something will happen to our children or who we'll lose a mate and
how would I survive without them. We suffer
anticipating bad things happening to us even when they're not happening to
us we're suffering the consequences of maybe they might be happening to us.
Here Paul is saying what a great comfort to know that no matter what happens to
us God can and does provide enough and more to bear under whatever may take
place in our lives. And he was living proof of it because his own
personal suffering, I mean you couldn't go through and you know investigate
every case but I think everybody who was looking at him saying wow
I may be having it tough because I'm a Christian but nothing like what he is
going through, and even to this day right can any of us say we have suffered in
the same way that Paul has suffered specifically for our faith how many of
us have been stoned or whipped three or four times, how many of us have been
mobbed, how many murder plots against ourselves because we're
Christians?
So in verses 6 and 7 he says, "But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and
salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in
the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our
hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our
sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort." So in these verses he
explains how his experience as an Apostle is related to the Corinthians,
remember he's writing to the Corinthians. You're not an apostle in a
vacuum, the purpose of apostleship was to bring people to Christ and everything
the apostle experienced was somehow related to this charge. In these verses
Paul says that everything in his life serves his ministry, both the suffering
and the comforting, both of these experiences serve his ministry. If he
suffers he does so in order to defend and proclaim the faith so people like
the Corinthians can receive Christ and His salvation.
And on the other hand if he is comforted then he has something to offer them when
they are suffering. Perhaps some of them who were loyal to Paul were being
attacked also and suffering some of the same things he experienced.
Maybe these false teachers, these these super apostles who are coming in trying
to take over maybe not only were they attacking Paul but they were attacking
people who were trying to defend Paul but did not have his skills, let's put it
that way. His hope is that they remained faithful to Christ, like he is, despite
the trials and in so doing share the sufferings and the comforts of Christ
like he does and like every other Christian also does or should do. Verses
8 to 11 keep reading, "For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our
affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our
strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death
within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises
the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He
on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, you also joining in
helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on
our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many." And so in
this section he gives a concrete example of his suffering and comfort that they
all can relate to: while he was in Asia he was threatened with death, we don't
know from what from disease or persecution we don't know, but he says
he sincerely believed that he was close to death and that there was no hope he
was despairing, but God saved him even when he had given up hope
and he was comforted with this knowledge that God rescued him
and the brethren prayed for him. He also was comforted by the fact that God was
honored by the prayers of thanks offered up by those who were grateful that he
was saved, grateful that he was healed or whatever the situation was. So after this
introduction of his experience as an Apostle, Paul is going to go on to
explain why he comes to them again in writing, so this is his introductory
passage here having to do with the praising God for providing comfort in
times of suffering, things that they can relate to by watching how he lives his
life faithfully before God. So this first passage gives us insight into Paul as an
Apostle, and from this we get insight into Christian leadershi.p Apostles are
our pattern for Christian leader; you know we say in the Bible in the New
Testament there are patterns for things: how should we take the communion, well
there's a pattern for that, what elements to take, when to take, who takes the
communion, why we should take the communion, there's a blueprint in the New
Testament that teaches us all those things. How we should be baptized, I'm
picking the two things the two 'rituals' that we do in Christianity; well
how should we be baptized, well the Bible has a pattern for that if
you read through the New Testament you find out why people were baptize,d how
they were baptized, who was baptized, when they're baptized so on and so forth we
have a pattern for that. Well in the New Testament we also have a pattern for
leadership okay, and the pattern for leadership is seen not only in Christ of
course but seen in the Apostles. Christ gives us the ideal for who we can become
as people, He's also the Son of God, but Peter the Apostle and Paul the
Apostle, these were ordinary men and so in their lives we aspire to
follow their pattern of leadership. So in this brief passage
there are contained too small but important lessons for church leaders.
Lesson number one: leadership involves suffering. Whoever is responsible is
visible and whoever is visible is vulnerable. The day you say okay I'll be
in charge of that, you don't even have to be an elder if you just take on a
project, mowing the lawn let's just say I'll be in charge of that you know I've
got a mower I know all about mowing, the moment that you are in charge,
the moment that you provide a measure of leadership you become visible oh he's
the guy in charge she you know we don't discriminate if a woman wants to mow the
lawn that's fine, but that person all of a sudden is visible and because they're
visible they're vulnerable. Why, because everybody who drives by,
especially the members, they're going to be checking out the lawnif the
grass has been cut, if the hedges have been trimmed, if the
clippings have been picked up, if it's a good job, why, because they know who is
responsible. When they see the lawn they see brother or sister or so and so. So
those who lead in the church, elders specifically and deacons and ministers
and teachers, those who lead in the church or anywhere for that matter will
always be attacked, will always be underappreciated, will always be
disappointed, it comes with the territory. Whoever takes on leadership
must be prepared to experience suffering because it's part of the job it's in the
job description we rarely mentioned that. A lot of times men aspire to
leadership in the church and the the Bible says that's a good thing,
they want to shepherd the flock, a good thing, want to serve the Lord with their
leadership skills, a wonderful thing, and then they're surprised if there's pain
involved. Well we should give new elders for example a job
description, well you know you'll have a shepherding group that you'll need to
take care of and then two meetings a week to discuss
church matters and we want you to do this now you know and then there should
be another you know ABCD your share of suffering, your share of suffering that's
part of your job description, well what kind of suffering? Well people
criticizing you openly, people judging how well you raise your children, people
anticipating that your children should be better than everybody elses children
because or better behaved because after all you're an elder, it's just part of
the job, and what I'm saying is don't be surprised I'll never say well let me let
me show you how to eliminate the suffering from the role of leadership
because it can't be done. The perfect leader, the perfect one yeah
they killed Him, so if the perfect one was murdered you can imagine what's
going to happen to the imperfect leaders that follow behind. It's as if there
is a pool of suffering associated with Christ and His church and when you begin
to lead you contract to experience a share of that suffering. That's
the first lesson that we learn about leadership from Paul through this letter.
Second lesson: leadership draws a person closer to God. The beneficial part of
suffering is that it shows you excuse me is that it draws you closer to God or it
breaks you, one of the two. Church leadership will draw you closer to God
or it will break you, one of the two. Paul rejoiced not in his suffering, he was no
masochist, he rejoiced in the comfort that he experienced as he drew closer to
God because of his suffering. Don't we see that in families, a child is
where are you going I'm going outside to play come here you didn't say hi to
Daddy he's home from work, you know yeah hi dad I'm outside to play
and then you fall out of the tree and you fracture your arm
or something and you're crying and you're hurt and you're hurting,
where do you want to be at that moment? Yeah dad comes outside, he scoops you up
in his arms, he holds you in his arms and he dries your tears and he says okay and
and you stay in his arms and the car ride to the hospital he
holds your other yeah we draw closer when we suffer it's the same thing in
the church, our suffering, not just leaders but I'm talking about leaders
here, leadership and the experiences of leadership draw us closer to God, not
just the sufferings but the successes. When we see someone we have worked with
and prayed for and encouraged and taught we see them developing and growing in
Christ and becoming stronger and stronger and bolder
what a wonderful reward that is, that's that's part of your mission as a leader
in the church. The comfort is simply a greater assurance of His presence
because you sense it in your prayer life and your study life and your ministry in
your emotional life as well as in your suffering. The reward of leadership in
the church is not the same as the reward of leadership in the world,
the reward of leadership in the world is privilege or money or power or fame. The
reward of leadership in the church is God Himself, I mean we're all going to
heaven but like Moses the leaders get a glimpse of it first and that glimpse is
both their comfort for the trials that come from being ahead and it is also
their motivation to keep leading you see leaders have seen the promised land,
they've seen it in their prayers, they've experienced that in their spirit. If this
is so let us always remember therefore to pray for our leaders both secular and
church for they bear a greater burden than the rest, and let us encourage and
cooperate with their efforts especially in the church since their work is done
because of the love for God that they have and the love for souls that they
have and not the love of power or money. I think of our longest-serving elder in
this congregation brother Harold I have not seen him grow rich during his
30-40 years serving as an elder of the church. And let the leaders be aware
of their responsibilities and lead with diligence knowing that along with a
great reward a stricter judgment also awaits, and let us all submit to our Lord
and leader Jesus Christ and all that He requires of us because He has told us
His yoke is easy and His burden is light and I think that was just another way of
saying He comforts us in the Christian walk. Okay well that's enough for
II Corinthians, we're going to stop at this point, good section to stop, I'll give you
a reading assignment for next time because we don't always read all the
passages: II Corinthians 1:12-2:11
read that over and be ready for the
thoughts and ideas we'll discuss next time. Alright thank you for your attention
we'll see you next time.