Severe Mercy

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Severe Mercy

2 Corinthians 13

January 30, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • 2 Corinthians 13

Audio Transcript:

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Would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's word? Heavenly father, please remind us that it is not possible to be incidentally a Christian, just a bit. You demand to be first or nothing, and we are not to keep you in balance with the rest of our life, but to keep you first, primary at the center, preeminent. Lord, we thank you for being merciful and gracious, slow to anger, bounding, and steadfast love and faithfulness. Keeping your steadfast love for thousands, for giving inequity and transgression for sin, and thank you that you will by no means clear the guilty unless they repent and turn to Jesus Christ and I pray this for each one of us and I pray this in Christ's name, amen. I pray that 2 Corinthians has been as much of a blessing to you as it has for me.

Today, we're close closing our sermon series through 2 Corinthians. Next week we're starting our sermon series through Romans. So, I'm praying, I'm fasting. I'm preparing, I feel the weight of Romans. Romans is one of the most powerful books in all of the Bible and it's one of the most powerful books in world history. It has changed the world like very few books have, so we'll be starting that next week. The title of the sermon today, as we look at 2 Corinthians 13 is severe mercy, and the title of the sermon comes from Sheldon Vanauken's book, A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy and Triumph, and the story's important because of how CS Lewis ministered to this couple and brought them to the faith, and then Sheldon wrote about it later, but it's a story of the love between Sheldon Vanauken, calls himself Van, and Jean Davis, Davy.

They fell in love at 19 years old. They were both pagans and that's what they called themselves. They knew nothing of God, everything they saw, beauty in the world, everything they saw that delighted the heart, the mind, the soul, everything they saw, they just attributed to the natural realm and they loved each other as no ordinary love. They wouldn't let it be so. They even created a shining barrier to protect their love from intruders, and then they get married and they went to college, and then after college they went to grad school in Oxford. In Oxford, they met CS Lewis and with CS Lewis they met a lot of very thoughtful Christians and they were converted and they discovered that Christianity isn't compatible with this exclusivity that they promised to each other. They loved each other with a great love, but they realized that God demands a greater love than that.

And, what happened is Davy started... So, Van's wife started growing her love and affection for the Lord and Van started to resent her faith. He said, "I did no, I thought, resent her for being a Christian. I resented her for acting like one, for going a church without me." He says it's practically unfaithfulness. So, while Van wrestles with his own faith, Davy contracts a virus, it destroys her liver. It led to a protracted illness, after some time she died. In the rest of the book, Van is wrestling with why would a loving God allow this to happen? Why would a loving God take his spouse? And, letters between him and CS Lewis helped him work through his faith, and in the letter, CS Lewis wrote the following. He said, "The root cause of your struggles is the fact that you've made love for a person, an idol. That's the root cause of everything, and it's killing your faith."

And Lewis wrote, "You have been treated a severe mercy." And by severe mercy, he means when God deals with us harshly, just on the face of it, you look at the facts, and you're like, "You know what, that was harsh," but God does it all the time. And, God does it in order to save you from a greater severity that is to come. It's a severe mercy. It's a severe love. God does this with Moses. No, Moses, you will not see the promised land. God does it with David, no David, you will not build the temple. He does it with Jonah, severe mercy to be caught in the fish. Peter, get behind me, Satan. Paul, God just stops him and says, "You're mine." Paul had no choice in the matter. You are becoming a Christian, severe mercy could be argued.

And Lewis wrote, "You have been brought to see that you were jealous of God. So from us, you've been led back to us and God, it remains to go onto God and us." And Vanauken writes toward the end, "That death, so full of suffering for us, both suffering that still overwhelmed my life was yet a severe mercy, a mercy as severe as death, a severity as merciful as love." This is the God of the Bible. If you don't understand that God often does send severe mercy for his children, for our sanctification, to strengthen us, to empower us, to cleanse us from sin, and to grow some maturity and fruitfulness, if you don't understand that, you don't understand the God of the Bible. It's everywhere. Romans 11:22, "Note then the kindness and severity of God. Severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you providing you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off."

Those are severe words. If you reject God, there is a point where that's it, you're done and we should fear that, and we should fear coming even close to that because God will bring severe mercy. So, today we're at 2 Corinthians 13. Would you look at the text with me? 2 Corinthians 13. "This is the third time I'm coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others and I warn them now while absent as I did when present on my second visit that if I come again, I will not spare them. Since you seek proof that Craig is speaking in me, he's not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you for he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God, for we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God."

"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith test .yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test. I hope you'll find out that we have not failed the test, but we pray to God that you may not do wrong. Not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth, for we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason, I write these things while I'm away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down."

"Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort. Comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss and all the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus and love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." Amen. This is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. We'll just walk through the text verse by verse, four points, the frame of our time. First, live by the power of God. Second, examine yourself, is Jesus in you? Three, do nothing against the truth, everything for the truth. And finally, the final greetings. So, number one is live by the power of God. Verse one, "This is the evidence..." Excuse me. "This is the third time I'm coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses."

Paul has written the second letter to Corinthians. He's done everything he possibly could from a pastoral perspective, inspired by the Holy Spirit. He has given them the Gospel. He's given the hard words of rebuke and warning, and now he's saying, "I'm coming and I pray that God's word will do its work and that it will lead you to repentance. If I come and the church is in order and everyone is living a repentant life in the church as members of the church, then we're going to have a wonderful time of fellowship. If not, we're going to have to put the church in order." And, here he begins to talk about church discipline, and if you don't understand church discipline and most likely it's because you haven't read the word or you've grown up in an American church, it's one or the other. Any other churches, any other colleges, they're like, "We get church discipline." Koreans get it, Russians get it, Slavs of the Ukrainians definitely get it.

American churches? No, you can't discipline me. I want to be on the roles. I don't want to attend church or give or serve, but just in case this does anything and get me into heaven, I'm in, sign me up. Those are most American churches. That's not us because we love the Bible, and we actually do what the Bible says. We read it and we do it, and the Bible talks about church membership. And one of the biggest... A lot of people are like, "Give me a verse for church membership." Church discipline, Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians five, it's everywhere. The fact that Christians are to hold one another accountable, that we are in a family, and in a family when someone's not doing well, the family gets together and the family chats. That's what church membership is. If a brother sins against you, go to him and if the brother repents, you've gained your brother.

And if the brother doesn't repent, now you got to bring the church in, and the whole point of church discipline is to bring a person back to a restored relationship with the Lord and with the brother and sisters with the church. That's what St. Paul here is talking about. So, if you're not a member of a church, most of you here are. If you're not a member of a church, that's the camera, you should join a church. It's in the Bible. I tell people, I don't think you're a faithful believer if you are not a member of a church. I don't. Who's keeping you accountable, your roommates? We need accountability, we need church. This is why we practice it. It's in the Holy Spirit. So, none of what's about to happen is going to make sense unless you understand that's a biblical category.

We have sermons galore online. Go to the membership section. We've explained all of this. We've built the theology for it. We've done the work. We just assume it's true. So, St. Paul says, "Look, I don't want to do the church discipline part. I've already done the discipline, which is the positive discipline of telling you the truth and hopefully you get yourself in line with the truth, and if not, you repent where you're not in line with the truth and then there's order in the church." The word for evidence here, he says, "Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses." Here he's talking about the fact that in the Old Testament, if a charge is brought against a person in the community of faith, you have to have at least two or three witnesses, and it's not just witnesses who write something. Here the word for evidence is the word stoma and stoma just means mouth.

And, this is really important to understand that the charge has to be brought in person. If you have a charge against someone, you go to that person in-person and you speak to them. You look at them in the eyes and you tell them the truth and like, "Hey, you're sinning here. Here's the verse that you've transgressed. Here's the commandment that you've..." You've got to look them in the eyes. This is crucial because we live in a day and age where there's a lot of keyboard warriors and both keyboard on your computer and on your phone, just keyboard warriors, where it's like, "Church discipline off my phone." No, you got to go to the person and you got to talk to him. There's something that happens when look eye to eye, when you look someone in the eye, and when there's two or three people and you speak from your mouth, that's what's going on here.

And, any charges must be brought together, and the reason why Paul does this is because he's creating order in the church. An order has to be created in an orderly way, which a lot of people don't understand today. A lot of people look at the world out there and they're like, "Everything's wrong. We're going to fix it with more chaos." That doesn't work, that's not God's way. The way that God wants to fix chaos is through a very orderly way, and this is what the Lord does. The word for charge here is a word, like if you have a word against someone, don't speak it behind their back, speak it to them one on one, first of all, and then there's the two and three witnesses. Verse two, "I warned those who sinned before and all the others and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present in my second visit, that if I come again, I will not spare them."

All right, what does Paul mean here? I will not spare them. Whatever he means, it's got to be something that you want to be spared of. So, whatever he's talking about, this thing, I want to spare them. I've given them a warning, a warning, a warning, a warning, but there comes a time where if you persist in your unrepentant sin, you will not be spared. He speaks about this in 1 Corinthians 4:18-21. "Some are arrogant as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you soon if the Lord wills and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love in a spirit of gentleness?"

So, he's saying there's two weapons at his disposal, tools if you don't want to use the word weapon, gentleness, spirit of love and gentleness. That's the rule. That's the rule, that's how we are to pursue relationships with one another, and in particular, when it comes to a person in authority over another person, we as Christians, the general rule we operate from is this, gentleness, spirit of gentleness and love, but there's a rod here. What's he talking about with a rod? He's talking about corporal, physical punishment in the church. Most likely not, but whatever it is, it is contrasted to a spirit of gentleness. And in context, St. Paul talks about severity and not sparing, and he's talking about in the context of ecclesial authority. He is in apostle.

He is one of 12. He is an apostle, and he is in a role over the church that he has planted in authority and he says, "There's a spirit of gentleness and not gentle. There's a spirit of severity." And, Paul has warned time and again that there ecclesiastical consequences for unrepentant sin, and we call that being disfellowshipped or being excommunicated. So, a person becomes a member of the church and the person begins to live in unrepentant sin. What do we do? First, we just follow Matthew 18, go to them one on one. If the person repents, then that's it. Church discipline is only for unrepentant sin. If the person does not repent, then you get the elders of the church, now you got two or three, and then you call the person to repent this again, and you go through that, and the church is praying for the person.
If the person does not repent at that point as the church, we say this person is not a member of this body. This person is not walking in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot say that we see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in this person's life, and we believe that membership is only for regenerated believers and regenerated believers live a repentant lifestyle. St. Paul says, "I will not spare them." And, here the word for spare, pheidomai, it's used in the following context. Acts 20:29, "I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock."

So Paul says, "I need to spare you from something worse." If you are living in unrepentant sin, and we leave it as is, this leads to the destruction of the church from within. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. If, the church spares unrepentant sinners, they open themselves up to not being spared by Satan and his false teachers. Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" God did not spare his son Jesus Christ, not so that we can continue living in sin, and thanks be to Jesus. We go to heaven because he died on the cross for our sins. That's not how it works. God did not spare his one and only son to redeem you from sin, to save you from sin, to free you from sin, so that you walk in a life of freedom on a daily basis following the Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, church discipline is crucial for the purity and the witness of the church and for the power of God to pour out in the church. And, I don't think enough people talk about this. In the Old Testament, it's clear. There's this clear pattern that when there's someone in the community of faith that's living in unrepentant sin, God withholds his power. Look up the of Achan, this guy in the Old Testament. God said, "I'm calling you people of Israel, kill everything. Do not take a thing." And, Achan decide to take some stuff for himself and hid it in the tent, and then the next time they go to battle people died because of this one guy's greed, and then the guy gets stoned, he and his whole family. It's in the Bible.

God hates sin. God has a blazing fury against sin, and I will tell you if you want to see the power of God in this church, and a lot of people ask, why aren't there more miracles today? Why isn't God doing more miracles and healing? He is, the question is, why isn't he doing more of it? Why isn't he doing more of it? Could it be because there are Christians in his church that are secretly living in sin and loving it. So, God calls us to repentance. This is a church discipline sermon. The discipline comes proactively, first of all. If you're living in sin, repent of it. Leave that sin, draw near to the Lord. 2 Peter 2:4, "For if God did not spare angels when they sin, but cast them into hell and committed them to change of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment."

So, it's better not to be spared from church discipline than to not be spared from hell. 2 Corinthians 13:3, "Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you." The charge against St. Paul was, "You're so weak. In person, you're just a weak dude." And St. Paul is like, "Well, because everything that I'm doing, it's not me, it's the Holy Spirit through me. It's the power of God through me." So they were like, "Where's your power? Where's your power? Where's your power?" And he's like, "Look at the church, look at the church, look at the church." And then here he's like, "Look, you think I'm weak? You don't think that Christ is speaking through me and in me? Just wait." That's that's his play. He says, "But watch God's powerful among you, watch."

And, here what St. Paul is doing, this is fascinating, he is saying to everyone who's raised their hand against St. Paul, the anointed of God, he's saying, "Be careful. Be careful raising charges against me and see if God doesn't show up in power and rebuke you himself." That's what he's saying. Well, the question that he's preempting, the criticism he's preempting was, "How do we know that Christ is speaking through you, Paul? Who are you to judge us? Who are you to judge our church?" And St. Paul says, "Okay, watch Jesus bring power." And when the people of God gather and the power of Christ is among them, 1 Corinthians 5:4, "When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, my spirit is present with the power of the Lord Jesus."

This is fascinating. Paul knows who he is. He knows his calling. He knows his integrity. He knows his resume, and when people criticize him, he didn't respond to the full force defense of himself, of his skillset, instead he lifted it up to God. He follows the pattern of Romans 12:19, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for is written, 'Vengeance is mine. I will repay,' says the Lord." Okay, you want power? Power will come.

2 Corinthians 13:4, "For he, Christ, was crucified in weakness, but lives in the power of God for we are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God." This is very, very, very important. This is a crucial word for the church today, crucial. I just spent a week in a doctoral class at one of those powerful seminaries in the nation, at Westminster Seminary, and I had a professor. I shall not name him, but I've already let him know everything in my papers, my final papers because I'm at the point in my life where grades don't matter. What are you going to do? You're going to give me a B?

He said the following. He said, "Christians should aspire to weakness." To weakness? I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Christians should aspire to weakness in every aspect of their life. That's what the Bible teaches." I said, "That's literally not what the Bible teaches." I was like, "Why should we pursue weakness?" He said, "Because Jesus went to the cross in weakness." I was like, "Yeah, but he didn't stay there." He didn't like that part, my professor. He also didn't like the part where I asked him if he's a pacifist, which makes sense because if you're a pacifist you write that kind of theology. Thanks, Edgar. I love the guy. It's not true, man. It's not true. Jesus isn't on the cross, he's no longer weak. He did the weakness thing. He's no longer weak, he's no longer crucified. He lives, he reigns, he rules in power and in glory.

Yes, we are called the weakness in that we humble ourselves completely. Lord, I am nothing. I can do nothing apart from you, nothing. That's my weakness, and that's also my strength because now I walk in the power of God, for we are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. Therefore, Christian, it is your duty and you're calling to live with God in power on a daily basis.
You wake up and you say, "God, fill me with power. Give me the power of the Holy Spirit. I am today more than a conqueror. You have won the ultimate war, you have, you have, you have, but there's a battle today. Lord Jesus, fill me with your power." That's our duty. Matthew, 22:29, Jesus answered them, "You are wrong," talking to the Pharisees, "Because you know neither of the scriptures nor the power of God." Know the scriptures, and by doing so, you will know the power of God. Obey the scriptures, you shall know the power of God, and only by the power of God's spirit can those who are dead in sins be regenerate, resurrected to a new life.

Paul is ready to exercise his power and authority to judge the unrepentant sinners in the church. One last word before I continue to point two, because we have the kids here today, and my kids are here, my daughters. They're tremendous, they're awesome. Let me just talk about love gentleness as the rule when you have authority. I'm a father, I have authority over my children. God gave me that authority, and then there's a severity part of raising children. There absolutely is, and if they did not know that there's a severity part in the repertoire of my love for them, they would not be as delightful as they are today. Have you met my daughters?

They are delightful. If people meet them, they're like, "How did you do that? How did you do that? Were they born that way?" I say, "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They were not born that way." They never are born that way. They're born as little degenerate sinners. They need to be parented, and the severity part, scripture does teach. So, I don't care if we're in Boston, I don't care if it's 2022. I'm just going to say it, because that's where I am in my ministry if you haven't noticed, yeah, I spank my kids, just a little bit, a little spanky-spanky on the tush. I don't call it corporal punishment it sounds too like, "What are you doing, corporal?" It sounds too corporate. It's just a little spank just in the tush, just a little bit when they're a baby, just on the diaper, they got the cushioning, just a little bit, so they know that it's in their repertoire. Baby, I love you. No, you shall not play with the knife.

What's more severe, let her play with the knife or a little on the tush? The flesh all of a sudden wakes up and like, "Yeah, you're right. I don't need that knife." It's true, there is in all of authority, the rule of gentleness, love, but there is a severe part everywhere. In your job, even if you have the nicest boss, he can also fire you at any point, so it's just there. That rod part is always there. That's what St. Paul is getting at. Number two is examine yourself, is Jesus in you? Here what St Paul is doing is turning the table on these false apostles, these false teachers who accused St. Paul of not even being a believer. You're not even a Christian. So St. Paul says, look, verse five, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you failed to meet the test."

The word for examine here is peirazó, and this is fascinating because word for exam or test is also the same word for tempt, peirazó. Sometimes it's used as Satan is the one that's tempting, sometimes it's used that God is the one that's testing. This is very important. Every time Satan sends a temptation, it's also a test from the Lord to see, are you going to pass the test? Are you going to reject the temptation? Are you going to get stronger? Are you going to learn something from this? And St. Paul here says, "Hey, examine yourselves, give yourself a test." So, watch yourself, in particular when the temptations come, am I in the faith? In particular when the tests from God come, but we ourselves are to test, test yourself to see whether you are in the faith.

How would you pass if you gave yourself a little pop test right now, a pop exam whether you are on the faith? The question is, am I a Christian? The question is, am I a Christian? Well, if you were giving yourself a test, what would the questions be? What would the questions be? This is a very, very important exercise. If you think that you are a Christian, give yourself a test. First of all, you've got to figure out what questions need to be on that test. St. Paul only gives one. He doesn't say, here's this confession of faith, I want you to memorize it and I want you to articulate it. He doesn't say, here's Bible verse that I want you to memorize them. He doesn't say, here's some good works to do a test whether you're in the faith. He doesn't say, give X amount of finances or money to an organization.

He doesn't do any of that. He says, test and examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you? He's asking one question. St. Paul's, test, exam. Are you in the faith? All it says is, is Christ Jesus in you? Is Christ Jesus in you? That's the question before us. Can you answer, yes, Christ Jesus is in me? The son of God is in me by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is in me. Is Jesus Christ in you? The super apostles have been demanding proof and St. Paul's like, "All right, the most important proof is, is Christ in you?" If Christ is in you, well, that's verifiable proof of the fact that Paul has authority from God. And, are you a Christian? If so, you should be able to confidently say, "Yeah, Jesus Christ is in me. He is in me."

I wake up and I have affections for Christ. I wake up and I want to do things for the Lord. I want to study the word. When things get hard, and when I sin, and there's temptations, all of a sudden my conscience just awakens me and says, this is wrong. Is Jesus Christ in you? Paul leaves this question up to the conscience that Jesus Christ is in the center. That's the exam. Do you live like Jesus Christ is in you? And, there should be fruit of the Holy Spirit and he says, "Unless indeed you fail to meet the test." And, that's too nice of a translation. He's like, "Oh, if Christ isn't in you, then you didn't meet the test." The word here in the Greek just means disqualified. If you do not pass this test, what hangs in the balance is not just GPA or just the letter grade, it's your eternity, your eternity, your soul hangs in the balance between heaven and hell for all of eternity.

So, make sure that you are not disqualified. Make sure that you meet the test. 2 Timothy 3:8, "The word is used just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith." Titus 1:16, "They professed to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good word." That's the same word. If Christ is in you, then you should be able to point the spiritual fruit produced by God through you. That wasn't me, that was the Lord. Follow the date of your life, examine yourself to see whether your faith is genuine.

And, then when you begin to examine yourself and that's Matthew seven, you start with yourself, that's the spec and the rod and all, when you begin to examine yourself, now you can begin to examine the teachers in the church. Revelation 2:12, "I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false." So, this is a very important exercise. Do test yourself, examine yourself, ask the question, am I in the faith? Is Christ Jesus in me?

It doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian, by the way. It doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian. I tell people I live like an Armenian, I might lose my salvation, I don't know. I sleep like a Calvinist. God's got me. It's all good. I study the Bible like a Baptist or a Presbyterian, I'm not sure yet. I pray like a Pentecostal, I worship as a charismatic and I do evangelism like a Jehovah's Witness. That's my that's my whole... But, we are to examine ourselves. We are to examine to see whether... Especially, church before holy communion, I don't think enough people talk about this. It's clear in scripture. When people trifle with holy communion, God sometimes kills them. That's a fact.

1 Corinthians 11:27, "Whoever therefore eats of bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why so many of you are weak and ill and some have died, but if we judge ourselves truly would not be judged, but then we are judged by the Lord. We are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world." And in that text later he says, "And that's why some of you are sick, and some of you have fallen asleep, and he's talking about death.

It's when believers living in sin, a seared conscience, approach the table as if God doesn't care about sin and they remember the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what it took for God to pardon us from sin. God does not take too kindly of that. That's where severity comes in and I've seen this happen. I've seen this happen in my life in ministry. I've seen Christians who just mess with sin, mess with sin and pretend that everything's fine in their Christian life, and all of a sudden, God just takes them.

So Christians, if you're wrestling with sin, wrestle it, but also win by the power of the spirit, whatever it takes. Put it to death, get accountability, share your struggles, repent of sin, turn to the Lord. Next time we partake in communion, come prepared. Verse six of 2 Corinthians 13, "I hope you'll find out that we have not failed the test." Paul says, "Examine yourself before you examine the Christian." Paul's been examined himself his whole life. So, he's not saying he's failed the test. Obviously he hasn't, he's done everything he possibly can to not disqualify himself from the race that is the Christian life and ministry. 2 Corinthians 13:7, "But we pray that God may not do wrong, not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed."

St. Paul says, "If the unrepentant sinners in the church repent and turn from sin, tremendous, Paul, can't wait to bring them back." He doesn't want to use his severe authority, but if they haven't, he says, "Then they have to take action." And, the lesson here is that St. Paul is willing to do the hard thing. He doesn't want to do this, he doesn't want this emotional toll, he doesn't want people to not like him, he doesn't want to say hard things. He wants to be buddy-buddy, fellowship, everything's great, but that's not loving sometimes, and sometimes you have to speak the truth and the lesson here is that spirit-filled leaders care more about what's best for the person they're leading, the person under their care, than how the person esteems them. Third is, do nothing against the truth, everything for the truth. Verse eight, "For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth." This is an incredible verse. This is this week's memory verse.

This is the one, this is the memory verse. In particular, in a day and age where there's so much fake news and lies, just lies, lies, lies, lies all around us, we should have people that care about truth. Truth from holy scripture and truth in the world, we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. Do you do anything against the truth? Is there anything you do that doesn't support the truth? And, it starts with our relationship with the Lord. Jesus is the truth, and if there's any place in your life that you are not following Jesus completely, then you are not walking in the truth. You're not abiding in the truth, and when Christians are living in sin, they're not living for the truth, but against truth and Paul is coming back to reestablish the truth. In verse nine he says, "For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for."

That's his whole goal. The word for restoration, it's a building term, it's a construction term. It's like if you get an old house and you got it and you restore it to its original beauty, that's what he's talking about. The restoration, now we care about the restoration of the believer. That's what St. Paul says. It has to do with a process of perfecting, maturing to make someone completely adequate for something, a cause to be fully qualified. 2 Timothy 3:7, the same word for restoration is used, "That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Restored, perfection, complete, that's the same language. 2 Corinthians 13:10, "For this reason I write these things while I'm away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down."

He says, "I don't want to tear down. God's given me authority. I want to build you up, whatever is missing in your life. I don't want to come with severe or harsh authority." That's the same word that's used Titus 1:13, "This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith." So Paul says, it's there. I want you to know that it's in the repertoire. The severity of the authority is in the repertoire, just as long we're on the same page, so that when I come to you and gentleness, you actually appreciate it. That's what he's saying. So, how does this supply at Mosaic? Well, for most of you, if you already know me, the severity's there. It takes everything from me to not be severe sometimes because you got to do the hard work, this sinful anger is there. So, the severity is there, that's the point. The point is it's there.

Most of the time it's gentleness, but once in a while when someone is in a spiritual stupor... And by the way, this is how I respond if I'm in sin and someone's like, "Hey, Jan. I think you're sinning. Here's the text." I'm like, "I don't even think you really believe I'm sinning. Do you even believe? Can you just yell at me, please? Just yell at me, God." That's the way I operate. All the most influential people in my life are people that yelled at me, from my coaches to stern teachers and... But it's there, that's what St. Paul is saying. "I don't want to use it," he says, "I want to build you up." To build someone up means to assist them with the construction, the completion of their life, whatever is missing. The goal is always to build up, not to tear down.

And, God sometimes does tear down and he does inflict pain, he does bring severe mercy. Sometimes people ask me like, "Pastor Jan, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?" My response is so that people finally ask, "Hey, how could God be allowing this?" Good, we are finally talking about God. What did it take for you to finally start talking about God, a little pain and suffering. God often sends severity here, pain here, harshness here to wake us up and see as the Lord says, God's megaphone to a deaf world. Isaiah 19:22, "The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will have return to the Lord and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them." How often does this happen? God strikes, God brings pain, inflicts pain, so finally people cry out, "God, please heal us." And, he does.

And, ultimately he wants to heal us for eternity and that's through Jesus Christ. Point four is the final greeting and this is verses 11-14. Paul finishes the letter with a final charge consisting of five imperatives into promise. Beginning with verse 11, "Finally, brothers, rejoice, aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you." What a text. And then he says, "Greet one another with a holy kiss." All the saints greet you with a holy kiss. Now we got to do something with this because we live in a place where nobody wants to shake hands, holy handshake, no. The holy fist bump, can you do that, a holy elbow tap, a holy something? What's he talking about? What's going on here? Well, what's going on in the Greco-Roman world, you were not allowed to call anyone a brother or sister unless they were legally your brother and sister.

So, Christians in public could not be like, "Hey, brother," because then they'd get arrested and killed. So, what they did was they created this language of like, "We're going to show affection in public with a holy kiss that we're brother and sister, we're siblings." That's the history behind that. The thought behind this is that we as Christians, we are brothers and sisters. We are brothers and sisters. So, when people try to treat church as just some corporate gathering where you you come in, you hear a lecture and nobody talk to me please, and then you bounce, and just to do it again a month later, if that's the extent of your Christian life, then you don't understand one of the most beautiful things about Christianity, is the family aspect. And when you really love another Christian and you haven't seen them in a long time, there's something inside where you want to show affection physically and they back then, they did a holy kiss. Am I saying to bring it back?

I'm saying they did it. What I'm saying is they did it. What I'm also saying is it was holy. So, anyone that's a pervert and is like, "Ooh, bringing back a kiss." It was a holy kiss. I submit to you, let's start with deepening the relationship first, and then we'll get to showing the affection, okay? A lot of people are like... No, we just met. You haven't gone through the membership process yet. We just met, dude.
So, we're working through that. 2 Corinthians 13:14, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." If you have this, you have everything. Jesus Christ, our Lord procured the grace, God, the father, in love sends his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the one that gives us the fellowship. He is the council of the comforter. He is the helper. He is the one that binds our souls together. We together have fellowship when we are bound by the Holy Spirit on the same mission and we are on the same ship, so to speak. In our membership meeting, we talk about the fact that church is a battleship, it's not a cruise ship. When you're on a battleship serving brothers and sisters, you experience the deepest level of fellowship that you will ever experience, thanks to the Holy Spirit.

We started with Sheldon Vanauken's book, A Severe Mercy. I'll just finish with a quote from there, "Though I wouldn't have admitted it, even to myself, I didn't want God aboard." This is when his wife became a fervent believer and he was wrestling with his own faith. He said, "I didn't want God aboard. He was too heavy. I wanted him approving from a considerable distance. I didn't want to be thinking of him. I wanted to be free like a gypsy. I wanted life itself, the color and fire and loveliness of life. And Christ now and then, like a loved poem I could read when I wanted to, I didn't want us to be swallowed up in God. I wanted holidays from the school of Christ." I wonder, are you ever tempted to treat God like this? Whenever you are, I just want you to remember that it's a good thing that God did not treat us like this, that God didn't just give us just a little bit, just to have a little bit of relation.

God, went all in because that's what it took to save us from our sin. There's an infinite chasm between us and God. Every sin, every transgression leads to eternal separation from God, and there's only one way for that separation to be bridged, for us to be reconciled with God, and that's through the severe decree of God the father. God the father gives a severe decree to his son Jesus Christ. Jesus, my son, my beloved son, whom I'm well pleased. I'm sending you on a mission to live that perfect life that not one of these people could have lived, and then to die a death atoning for the sins of all the elect. I'm calling you to be crucified, and that's not even the worst part. The most severe part is as Jesus is being crucified, physical anguish, he's experiencing the wrath of God being poured out on him.

Severity, that's God's harshness. It's also his mercy. That's the only way for us to be saved from our sin. Jesus on the cross submits to God the father. He dies, he's buried, he's resurrected, and now for you to become a Christian, for me to become a Christian, for us to have our sins forgiven, come to the Lord, submit to him, submit your life to him, submit to Jesus for your whole life. Not just a little bit, submit your whole life to Jesus Christ. If you're a Christian, submit your whole life to Jesus Christ. If the not, I am warning you, he will send severe mercy. I'm trying to prevent you from that. Why? Because that's how much he loves you. With that said, would you please pray with me?

Heavenly father, we thank you for this time and the holy word. We thank you for this rich text. Holy God, we repent of all sin. We turn from all sin, from folly, from pride, from self-righteousness, from self-sufficiency. We are nothing apart from you and we pray Holy Spirit, continue to empower us, each one of us. Continue to cleanse this church from any sin, continue to cleanse our membership from any sin, so that we can be a church that it is holy, zealous, on fire for you. And I pray through us, Holy Spirit, do mighty works here in this church and amongst this community, in this city, in this state, and beyond. And, we thank you for all of this in advance. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.

Christlike Authority

January 23, 2022 • Shane Sikkema • 2 Corinthians 12:11–21

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning and welcome again to Mosaic. If you're new, my name is Shane, one of the pastors here, and we're so glad to have you with us today. We would love to connect with you. As we mentioned earlier, if you'd like to connect with us, a great place to start is to fill out that little connection card in your worship guide. And if you turn that in at the Welcome Center out there, we've got a gift that we'd love to give to you to thank you for being with us today. One quick announcement before we begin, there is a membership class happening today right after this service. So, if you are interested in membership, we would love to have you join us for that. Lunch will be provided that's going to be happening downstairs. So, we're getting really close to the end of our sermon series, Prodigal Church. We've been going through Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. And for much of this letter, what we've seen is that Paul has been trying to win the heart, the soul of this prodigal church. That it seems in his absence that some false teachers have crept into the church and they were leading people astray. These were not just wolves in sheep's clothing. These were shepherds... wolves in shepherd's clothing that they were presenting themselves as teachers, as authorities. In the church, Paul sarcastically refers to them as super-apostles, because in reality, they were satanic apostles that the enemy had sent in to divide and to conquer the flock. And here near at the end of his letter, for the last couple of weeks, we've seen Paul is resorting to do something that he's been reluctant to do which is he begins to boast. He begins to defend his apostolic authority and present his case for why it is not only authentic but far superior to that of these false teachers, and his desire is not so much to defend himself as it is to defend this church that he loves. That these false apostles, they've won over some of the people in this church by boasting in their strengths. They've been boasting in their wins, in their gifting. And so, Paul begins to boast as well, but instead he boasts in his losses. He boasts in his sufferings. He boasts in his sacrificial love, and he wants the church to learn. He needs us to learn that you cannot judge spiritual authority by outward appearances. And these super-apostles, they were very eloquent. They were well-spoken, well-dressed. They were successful. They were influential. They were connected, highly educated. They had fans. They had money. They had charisma, but you can have all of those things and not even be a Christian. And so, don't be deceived that there are going to be plenty of people in this world, motivational speakers, spiritual gurus, leaders of false religions, who know how to draw big crowds to themselves, but this doesn't validate them as somebody truly worthy of being fouled. And so, instead of boasting in his strengths, Paul chooses to boast in the things that, from the world's perspective appear to be weaknesses, but these weaknesses are windows. They're like curtains that are being drawn back in order to show that the true power and authority of this man was not coming from himself. That Paul's power and authority, it was the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in his life and in his ministry and this is what validated him as an apostle. And so, what we've seen is, in many ways, to the world Paul appears to be almost pitiful, foolish. And yet to those who are being saved, Paul looks like a man who loves the church, who's willing to lay down his life, sacrifice everything for this church he loves. It shows us that he's a lot like Jesus Christ. And so, we're going to be talking about authority today. Before we begin, we need to address something and that is this, how do you feel when you are told to submit? If I were to tell you, "Submit to my authority," most of us say, "Yeah, that doesn't make me feel very good." Why is that? Why is that our gut reaction is just bristle or to push back against that sentiment? Is authority inherently bad? Is submission inherently bad, or are these things inherently good? There's a scene in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where the children are in Narnia. And if you remember, Narnia is this place that's under the watch of this evil witch and she's caused it to be a place that's described as being always winter but never Christmas. Rumors have begun to spread that Aslan who's the Christ figure of the book was on the move, and one of the signs of this is that in some places, the snow of winter is beginning to melt. And at one point in their journey, the children are actually found by Father Christmas, and he gives them presents. To Peter, he gives a sword. To Susan, he gives a bow. He gives them these gifts, but this is what he tells them. He says, "These are your presents. And they are tools, not toys. The time to use them is perhaps near at hand. Bear them well." What's the difference between a tool and a toy? Toys are for pleasure, but tools are for a greater purpose. Toys are for our own amusement, but tools they're meant to build, to fix, to repair, to design, to create order out of chaos. So, what does this have to do with authority? Well, first of all, authority is a gift, and none of us have any legitimate authority in and of ourselves. Do you remember when Jesus was standing before Pontius Pilate, and Pilate says to him, "Don't you know that I have the power to release you or the power to crucify you, the authority to crucify you?" And Jesus answered him in John 19:11, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above." Authority is a gift from God, but it's not a toy. He doesn't give us authority to be used for our own pleasure, selfish ambition, or amusement. It's a tool. And as with any tool, even the very best of tools, it can be used improperly to cause harm, to cause destruction, but its intended purpose is to bring life and beauty, to create utility and value. And think of it like this, authority is like a hammer. And yeah, you can beat people over the head with it but that's not what it's made for. It isn't designed to beat people up. It's designed to build... to beat people down. It's designed to build people up. It's designed to help create a world in which things are as they ought to be where humanity is flourishing under the good authority of God, the Father. And so, Paul, throughout these letters, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, he's hammering this over and over that he wants the church to see and to acknowledge and to submit to his authority. He's hammering this not to beat them down. He's hammering it to build them up. I saw this a couple of weeks ago in 2 Corinthians 10:8, he says, "Even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed." In our passage today in Chapter 12:19, he says, "Do you think we've been all along have been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved." Today, we're going to be looking at 2 Corinthians 12. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up, we'll be looking at verses 11-21. And we're going to be talking about authority, we're going to try to glean some principles of what Christ-like authority looks like. Because we all need to learn to submit to authority, but we all need to learn how to wield authority as well. Paul's primary focus in this text has to do with authority in the church, but all of us are going to be given opportunities to wield authority in one way or another throughout our lives. And so, therefore, we all need to be prepared to do that in a Christ-like manner and so as we talk about these things today. This applies to pastors, to leaders in the church, but this also applies to husbands and wives, parents over their children, employers over their employees, managers over their teams, teachers over their students, officials over their citizens. I'd say this even applies to our own personal stewardship of the resources that God has entrusted under us, under our authority, our time, our talents, our treasures, the self-control, the discipline, that we exercise even over ourselves in order to put our own lives in order under the authority of Jesus Christ. And so, it doesn't matter how big or small, I want you to try to think and identify, "Where has God given me authority? What are those spheres of influence and authority that God has given to me and how can I be faithful in those areas? How can I be more like Christ with those responsibilities?" Because Jesus said, "If you're faithful over little, I will put you over much." So, three points for our sermon today is number one, a Christ-like authority is evidenced by the Spirit. And second Chris-like authority is expressed like a parent and third, Christ-like authority is foolish yet effective. So, if you have your Bibles, you can follow along. I'm going to pray for our sermon, and then we're going to just work through this passage one section at a time. So, if you would, let's spend some time in prayer. God, you are a good father and we thank you for your good authority over our lives. Jesus, all authority in heaven and on earth is yours, and you have shown us the power and goodness that true authority has not by domineering us but by dying for us. God, give us the faith to joyfully submit to you, to the authorities that you have placed over us, and to ourselves wield whatever authority we have been given in a godly, in a Christ-like manner. And we thank you for your word. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to us today through your word, and that by it we as your church would be strengthened, built up, and useful for you and for your kingdom and glory. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen. Point number one, Christ-like authority is evidenced by the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 12, looking at the first couple of verses 11 and 12, Paul says this that, "I have been a fool. You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with the utmost patient, with signs and wonders and mighty works." And here in the first couple of verses, we see two signs that validate Paul's authority over this church. And the first is something that is specific to Paul and to his apostolic ministry, and the second is more general and it applies to all of us as well. And so, first of all, Paul's apostolic authority was evidenced by signs of the Spirit. And this is why Paul, he really shouldn't have had to defend himself before this church. He says, actually, in verse 11 that, "I ought to have been commended by you because you've seen the evidence of the Spirit in my ministry firsthand." Back in 1 Corinthians 9, he says, "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? And are you not my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. And this is my defense to those who would examine me." Now, the Corinthians had witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit in Paul's ministry firsthand and they owed their very existence as a church to it. When Paul first arrived in the city of Corinth, we see this in Acts 18. We're told in verse nine that many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Don't be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent for, I am with you, and no one will attack you or harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." And he stayed there for a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. After this, Paul goes a little bit further on to the city of Ephesus, and we're told that he continued there in Acts 19:10 that he continued there for two years, so that all the residents of Asia's entire region heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul says, "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not in ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." They had seen the Holy Spirit validate Paul in his ministry that he truly was a capital A apostle. And we need to understand this is something that was unique to the early church that there are no capital A apostles. Today, if you meet someone who claims to be one, they probably belong in that category of the super-apostles that Paul was refuting. What this means is that leadership in the church today, it doesn't need to be validated by miraculous signs and wonders like the apostles, but Christ-like authority in the church today is evidenced by how authority submits and obeys the apostles, their example, their teaching, and the writings of the New Testament. That when the apostles in the early church were writing the New Testament, they weren't just recording their opinions. This was the Holy Spirit-inspired word of God. And so, how does this apply to us? Well, first, for those in authority like myself as a pastor, any spiritual authority that I have over the church is thrown out the window the minute that I stand in defiance of Jesus Christ or stand in a place of judgment over God's word. Second, if you go to a church where the pastor is claiming to be an apostle like Paul, claiming to speak new revelation that is equal in authority to Scripture, or where the pastor is rejecting the authority of God's word, you need to call that pastor to repentance and or you need to leave that church. That legitimate authority over the church needs to be under the authority of Jesus Christ, the living word, and under the authority of Holy Scripture, the written word. So, Paul's apostolic authority was evidenced by signs, by wonders, by miracles of the Holy Spirit, and He had seen the risen Christ with his own eyes and was called by him to be an apostle. Second, Paul's Christ-like authority was evidenced by humble and confident submission to Christ. That true Christ-like authority is marked by submission to Christ's authority, and that this submission, it's a humility that leads to obedience that results in bold confidence. It's a humility that isn't harrowing. It's a confidence that isn't conceited. And that might seem paradoxical but this is why Paul can say what he says in verse 11. He says, 2 Corinthians 12:11, the second half of the verse that, "I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles," that's a very bold and confident thing to say, "even though," he continues, "even though I am nothing." He's extremely humble as well. He goes on to say that, "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you and they were done so with the utmost patience." He's confident. He was humble. In 1 Corinthians 15:9, he says, "I'm the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of the God that was with me." It's confident humility. It's humble confidence, and it's hard to describe but you know it when you see it. You see it in Jesus Christ. You see it in the apostle Paul. You see it in godly leaders who are walking in the Spirit. And the thing is, when you see it, it's usually not quite what you would expect. I'll just give you a quick example from my own life. Before we moved to Boston, my wife and I, this was actually almost 20 years ago, early on in our marriage, we volunteered at the youth group, the youth ministry of our former church. We were the young hip 20-somethings who led the worship team for this ministry of seven-year 80 high school students. One day, this guy shows up and he wants to volunteer in the youth group. And right now, we realized we have a problem, because this guy was not young and cool. He was very old and very gray. We were in the Midwest. And if you know the Midwest, everybody has a super thick news anchor accent. This guy had a very thick Southern accent which really made him a stick out. And then, on top of that, he was very overweight. He's a big guy and picture like a mixture between Santa Claus and Colonel Sanders. That's who we're dealing with. And he we found out he was actually a colonel, a retired colonel from the military. And the point is on the outside, he did not look like the kind of person that you would be looking for in a youth group volunteer. He wasn't hip, he wasn't cool, but he didn't care. So, he just starts showing up, he starts serving, starts hanging out, and he just starts engaging everybody. He loved to eat. And so, he and his wife, they just started taking people out for lunch after church, teens, the leaders, didn't matter. Pretty much anybody that they came in contact with, he'd just say, "Hey, we're going to eat. I'm buying, and you are coming with me." And my wife and I, we were on the receiving end of this a couple of times. So, you sit down to lunch with this guy. You order your food. And all of a sudden, 45 minutes go by and you feel like you just got mauled by Jesus. You feel like you just sparred with a lion, and he was so... it's hard to describe. He was tough, but he was super tender. He wasn't bringing up the teeth and the claws. He wasn't trying to be mean or intimidating, but he lets you feel his spiritual weight and strength. And so, on the one hand, he was very humble. He just exudes this deep genuine love and concern and care for every person that he talked to. And when you're with him, his presence was very comforting. It was very encouraging, and you would drop your guard and then without even asking, he would just start digging into all the details of your life. "How's your devotion time? How's your prayer time? How's your marriage? Well, let's talk about those super-secret sins that you need to repent of." And just with this incredible boldness and confidence, just starts asking all the awkward, hard questions. He was so bold, and he was so gentle at the same time. He just loves Jesus. He loved life. He loved people, and he's probably the most confident and at the same time the most humble man that I've ever met. His name was Jim. Eventually, Jim moved down to Texas. And a few years after that, unfortunately, he passed away. And you would not believe just the outpouring of people not just from our own church but from all over the country like he was in the military, he moved around a lot. You would not believe how many lives had been impacted by the confident humility of this man. Here's the thing. He was never given an official position of authority or leadership in the church but that didn't stop that Christ-like authority from just flowing out of it. It was commanding. It was powerful, and it was inspiring. On the other hand, it wasn't anything what you would expect to find if you were looking at outward appearances alone. It was clearly the power of the Holy Spirit in a man whose life was fully submitted to Christ. These false apostles, they had been boasting and winning people over with their gifting, with their eloquence, with their outward appearances of worldly success and charisma, and none of those things are bad. They're just not, any of themselves, good evidence of the Holy Spirit's power. You can have all of those things, and you can even appear to be quite godly on the outside and still be way off the mark. Paul put it like this in his first letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 13:1, he says, "Listen, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind, does not envy or boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It doesn't insist in its own way. It's not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." If you remember the story of King Saul in the Old Testament, he was described as a man who stood head and shoulders above everyone else. He was big. He was strong. He was handsome. He looks like a king. David, on the other hand, was the least of his brothers, the youngest, the smallest, the runt, the one that was easiest to overlook. And yet, Saul was a fool, but David is described as a man after God's own heart. Soul's strength eventually failed the nation, but David's faith toppled giants. And if you remember the Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel, 16:7, he says this, he says, "Listen, the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." When you read the New Testament, you get the impression that Paul probably wasn't much to look at. If you saw him walk into the room, you might not think, "Oh, there's the guy that's going to change the world." You might not notice him much at all. Historians have actually... an early Christian document that gives one of the only physical descriptions of Paul. This is not in the Bible, so don't take this as scriptural gospel truth, but it was probably handed down through some oral tradition. In the Acts of Paul and Thecla, Onesiphorus describes Paul like this, he says, "He was a man of small stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of friendliness. For now, he appeared like a man, and now he had the face of an angel." On the outside, he's just a man. On the inside, he was a man after God's own heart, who loved this church, whose heart was in beat, in rhythm with the heart of the Father and He cared for this prodigal son, this prodigal church as if it were his own child. And that brings us to point number two that Christ-like authority is expressed like a parent. 2 Corinthians 12, continuing in verse 13, Paul writes, "For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong. Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?" Paul's authority over the church was parental. It was like that of a father over a son. And when you compare this to the false teachers, it shows us that Paul did something really important. That Paul avoided some of the biggest temptations that authority brings and that these false apostles had fallen for. Satan hates God's authority. And so, it should be no surprise that he would aim to twist and distort and tempt people to misuse their authority and does this in a couple of ways. Satan tempts us to misuse our authority by exploiting people through flattery. Secondly, by abandoning people through abdication and thirdly, by domineering people through coercion, and Paul avoided all of these things. First of all, Paul, he refused to exploit them through flattery. 2 Peter 2 warns that false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep." Earlier in his letter, Paul described the super-apostles as peddlers of the gospel. They were driven by greed, and they were twisting the truth in order to exploit the church. Paul, on the other hand, did not come to take. He had come to give. He says, he's not after their money, he was after their hearts and after their souls. 2 Corinthians 12:14 says, "I'll not be a burden for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents but parents for their children, and I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?" And Paul's playing some 4D chess here. On the one hand, he's rebuking them, but he's rebuking them by reminding them of how much he loves them, of how much he is willing to sacrifice for them that he loved them with this parental fatherly love. What this meant was he was very patient. He was gentle. He was meek, and he was generous toward them. But it also meant that he refused to flatter them with false words. He wasn't just going to tell them what they wanted to hear. He loved them enough to speak the truth, to correct them, and when necessary even to rebuke and to discipline them. What's interesting is we see Paul express this same fatherly sentiment to another church, in another letter to another church. This time it's to a church that was in pretty good standing however. They were walking in obedience and faithfulness to Paul and to his gospel. And this is 1 Thessalonians 2:5-12, and look at the similarities here. He says, "For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labors and toil. We worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we were proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory." Because we nurtured you with the gentleness of a mother, and with the strength of a father, we pleaded with you. We exhorted you. We encouraged you. We charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God. It's the same heart for both of these churches, it's just these different circumstances. I think Paul would have much rather written to the Corinthians the same encouraging words that he wrote to the Thessalonians, but unfortunately the Corinthian church was in need of a lot more correction. And this brings us to the second and third temptation of authority which is how do you respond when people aren't responding to your authority? And typically, what happens is two things. First, we're tempted to abandon them through abdication and third, to domineer them through coercion. And I'm not going to say too much about point number two, but there is this temptation that when people are resistant, when things get hard, that we just write them off, just walk away and abdicate our authority and responsibility, and Paul doesn't do that. But the other temptation is to just flex the strong arm and to dominate your people into submission. It's like fight or flight kicks in. And the question is, how does Christ-like authority respond when people are insubordinate? When they need correction, or if they are rejecting your proper God-given authority? And what we see is that Paul doesn't run away from the problem, but he doesn't come to them as a tyrant. He doesn't come to them as judge, jury and executioner. He comes to them first as a father, father whose heart is broken and aching for a wayward child. And again, this is in contrast to the false teachers, because we know that the false teachers were exploiting the church. We also know they were domineering the church, and we saw this just a few weeks ago in Chapter 11. In 2 Corinthians 11:19, Paul says that, "You gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves. For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you," he's talking about these false teachers, "you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or even strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that." They'd been domineering the church. And Paul knew that there was sin in the church and he knows that it needs to be confronted, but he's not going to confront it by just rolling into town and smacking people around as tempting as that is to do sometimes. Paul understood that Christ doesn't call us to domineer people through threats, through violence, through coercion. 1 Peter 5:1-4 says, "I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." On the one hand, Paul doesn't want to domineer the church. On the other hand, he can't just remain passive and indifferent, that the sin that is at the root of all of this, it's tearing the church apart, and so something needs to be done. And so, he's preparing to visit them, to come to them again. But as he does, he's coming as a good father, as a father who loves them, but also as a father who's ready to discipline them if that's what they need, ready to exercise proper church discipline toward those who refuse to repent. And we really see his heart in this matter in the last few verses of our passage today. Continuing on in Chapter 12:19-21 says, "Have you been thinking all along that we've been defending ourselves to you? It's in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I fear that perhaps when I come I may not find you as I wish, and that you may not find me as you wish. That perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of their impurity, sexual immorality, sensuality, and the sensuality that they have practiced. Paul's coming, and he's coming with a heart that's breaking. Because no father enjoys disciplining their children, and yet no loving father can neglect the discipline of their children either. He needs to be tough, but he desires to be tender. He needs to be gentle, but he also needs to be truthful. And we see this over and over again. 2 Corinthians 2, he wrote and said, "I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you." He instructed the Galatians in Chapter 6:1, "If anyone is caught in any transgression, that you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness." He taught his disciple, Timothy, 2 Timothy 2:24, that the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. And God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escaped from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will." That true love and discipline, they go together. That parental authority it is patient and it is gentle, but it's not apathetic or passive or indifferent. That it confronts sin precisely because it cares. Most people are familiar with the parable of the lost sheep, right? The shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep in order to go and to search and to save the one? Fewer people are familiar with Matthew 18, where Jesus gives the instructions for how to handle matters of church discipline. Very few people are familiar with the fact that those are actually the same passage but talking about the same thing. This is in Matthew 18:12-21. "What do you think," Jesus says. "If a man has 100 sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So, it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." And then, immediately after that, he begins going into the instructions for church discipline. "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. And if he listens to you, you have gained your brother." He says, "If not, then you take two or three witnesses. If they still won't listen, you bring it before the whole church." But you get the idea that before giving the instructions for how to do church discipline, Jesus gives us the heart of why to do church discipline. It's a shepherd's heart. Luke's gospel actually includes two more parables. He talks about the parable of the lost sheep, but then he tells the parable of the lost coin. And he concludes with the parable of the lost son, the prodigal son that this series is named for. Paul is preparing to come as a father, and he's preparing to exercise church discipline if he needs to. He's doing that precisely because he loves this church so much. He understands that these people that are walking in unrepentant sin are in danger, that they need to be brought home. A lot of people have a hard time with this. I'm talking about church discipline, talking about correcting, rebuking, things like this. It's hard because it doesn't feel good, but a good parent is never content to merely see their child feel good. A loving parent longs more than anything for their child to be good and to do good. And deep down, I think we all long for this kind of leadership. We all look for this kind of authority to be exercised over us as well. I grew up in a church that was very good at the gentle, loving part. It was not so good at the speaking the truth in love part, the calling people to repentance and challenging them to grow apart. And so, on Wednesday nights, I would go to youth group as a teenager and from very well-meaning people, I would hear this message of, "You're special. You're great. God has a wonderful plan for your life," and I would walk away just confused. I'd feel self-righteous. I'd feel unchanged, unchallenged, and uninspired, which is boring as I didn't get it. If I'm so great, then why do I need to go to church? If I'm so great, why do I need a savior? And almost every other night of the week, my best friend and I would go to taekwondo. And the instructor, just picture like a shorter, much louder version of Jean-Claude Van Damme. He was amazing, but he would lose his voice almost every night just shouting instructions at us, running us through these drills, and he wasn't afraid to really push us to the very limits and the challenges. On our very first night there, he made me spar with him. And he kicked me in the face, and I'm not proud of this. This was the late '90s. At the time, I had just a few weeks before just gotten my eyebrow pierced. He kicked me right in the face, rips at half, and there's blood everywhere. He apologized. But then he's like, "Okay. Go clean yourself up, and get back out here because we're not done." And he worked us hard. But very early on, he made it clear that he cared about us as well. He worked us hard because he saw potential in us even if we didn't see it in ourselves, and he expected us to live up to that potential. Not just at the gym, at home, in our school. He was always asking us about our grades. "Are things going well at school? Are you staying out of trouble? Are you respecting your mom and dad?" And if he found out that we were slacking at school or we were getting in trouble at home, he would discipline us. We would be doing lunges and push-ups all night long, and he came to be this authority figure in my life that I really looked up to. He was firm. He taught me respect and discipline, but he wasn't domineering or coercive. I always knew that he genuinely cared about me as a person, and he was trying to get the best out of me as his student and it inspired me. It made me want to rise up to whatever challenge that he put before us, and it helped us to accomplish a lot more than we thought that we could. Now I shouldn't have had to go outside the church to find a good example of good authority to learn humility and confidence, respect, self-discipline, things like this. But by God's common grace, I found that and it did do some good in my life. Still, it would have been so much greater if his good authority had actually been a godly authority, not just one that taught me to follow him but one that taught me to follow Christ, to submit my life to the one who is truly worth following. That's really the chief end of what our authority is all about, to lead others to follow Jesus. Christ-like authority, on the surface, it might seem backwards. But when you see it in action, even if it's imperfect, you begin to realize that it's inspiring. It's actually surprisingly powerful and effective. And this brings us to point number three that Christ-like authority is foolish, but it's also effective. I had a friend who pretty early on in their career wound up with two bosses. It was like the movie Office Space, right, the TPS reports, all of that. And they had these two bosses and the two bosses were very different as people and in their leadership style. I'm going to call the first boss, give-a-second Boss Take. Take was all about getting stuff done, very impersonal. "Here's your work. Get it done. Is it done? Okay, here's some work. Tell me when it's done." And you pretty much only heard from them if they needed something or if something was going wrong. And when things went well, they would take all the credit for themselves. If things were going poorly, they would pass all the blame on to others. The other boss was Give, and Give was always investing in them, giving them advice, helping them plot out a career path, helping them build on their strengths, and pointing out their weaknesses so that they could work on those as well. And when things went well, they would share the credit with their team. If things went poorly, they would take responsibility themselves and then use that as opportunities to help their team develop and grow. Now, which of these two bosses do you suppose produce the best results? I mean, you don't have to think about it very long. It should be pretty obvious that the best results actually came from the leader who served, from the one who gave, who sacrificed what seemed like hours of their precious time investing into the people under their authority. When you have a boss that takes, you're only going to give. You're only going to put forth enough effort to keep them off your back or to make sure that you don't get fired. But when you have a boss that gives, you get excited to give yourself. You want to give your best. You want to work hard. You want to go the extra mile. And it's authority. It might seem backwards, but it's surprisingly effective. It's powerful. This is the leadership that was modeled by Jesus Christ, and so it was imparted to his disciples. And it's really it sparked a movement that completely transformed the world. The Empire, Rome, took the world by the power of the sword through coercion, and Jesus gave his life. He took the sword for the world, the Christianity won over the world through the power of the cross. On the one hand, 2,000 years later, one of those empires fell long ago and one is still standing and will never fall. Coercion can change people's actions, but only the love of Christ can change people's hearts. Cohesion can overpower an enemy, but the gospel can make an enemy into an ally, into a brother, into a friend. So, Paul was not afraid to exercise this self-sacrificing Christ-like authority because he knew that it was powerful. He knew that this had the power to transform this prodigal church. He knew that it had the power to transform the world, and he knew this because he'd already seen it transform something far more stubborn and rebellious. It had transformed his own prodigal heart. He talks about this in his letter to his disciples, Timothy. 1 Timothy 1, beginning of verse 12. He says this, "I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. He's called me under his authority even though formally, I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." He says, "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of all ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. As we think about these things, my prayer for us today is that we would all come to have the humility of Paul, to know just how patient and merciful and gracious Jesus Christ has been toward us so that we live our lives in just gratitude and obedience to Him. My prayer is also that we would come to have the confidence of Paul, to know that we have been called and we have been appointed into the service of the only God, of the king of all ages. That all authority in heaven on earth belongs to Jesus Christ, and he has sent us out in his name with his authority to preach the gospel and to make disciples of all the nations. And my prayer for us today is that the power of God would be made perfect in our weaknesses so that we, individually and together, as a church would have more and more reason to boast not in ourselves but to boast in the Lord, but to boast in his power and all that he has done in and through us as a church. I'm going to close today by reading the words that Paul wrote at the very beginning of his first letter to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 1, beginning in verse 18, Paul writes this, "For the world of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us we're being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand sign and Greek seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'" Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your good authority over our lives. We pray that you would humble our hearts to teach us to fully submit to you and to walk in the confidence of knowing that we've been sent in the name of the one to whom all authority and the heaven and earth belongs. God, we thank you for saving us, for appointing us into your service, for bringing us under your authority. And we pray, Lord that you would keep us from the temptation that authority brings, that the authority we have would be used for your glory. Be faithful to you that in our faithfulness, it would produce a fruitfulness that we see your power at work. So that in our weakness, the power of Christ will be on full display. So, now to you, the king of all ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Christ's Power Manifested in Weakness

January 16, 2022 • Andy Hoot • 2 Corinthians 12:1–10

Through Many Tribulations

January 9, 2022 • Jan Vezikov • 1 Corinthians 11:16–33

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning, welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, one of the pastors here along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. If you're new or visiting, we're so glad you're here with us. I pray that you get connected. We do that officially through the connection card and the worship card if you fill out legibly. Just redeem it at the welcome center for a little gift. And then we'll also send you another gift in the mail. A couple housekeeping things. The 16th, next Sunday, we have a baptism seminar. If you have not been baptized as an adult and you'd like to know more, it's right after the service with lunch provided. And then on the 23rd, we have a membership class. We take membership seriously. Church is a family, membership is how we know that you are in the family that is Mosaic Boston. We also have a baptism today. My daughter, Melana, she's four, she's really excited about the baptism. She came up to me yesterday, I had no idea what she was talking about, she's like, "When's the next time you're going to dunk a person in the bathtub with their clothes on?" Had no idea what she was talking about. She said, "Baptism." I told her, "There's baptism tomorrow." She's like, "Yeah." So, we have baptism after the second service. We'd love to have you join us. Also, every time it snows for the first time, I give a public service announcement about how to flourish in Boston in the winter. This is important. I don't see anyone else doing this, this is important. Here's what you need, three things to flourish in Boston in the winter. Number one, you need a nice pair of waterproof boots. Necessary, very necessary, with good grip on them, very important. Number two, you need a good winter coat, preferably with a coat that has a little fuzzy trim, which keeps the wind out. That's important. Number three, you got to take your vitamin D. You got to take your vitamin D. I don't know why, I have to say this. None of the government officials who are supposed to care about our health, for the past two and a half years, no one's talking about this. Take your vitamin D. There's not enough sunshine in Boston, take your vitamin D. And take care of your immune system. God gave you an immune system. Work out, eat good food not the processed junk. Okay, that's my public service announcement. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy Word? Heavenly Father, thank you for this incredible word that you have prepared for us from your servant, Paul. We thank you for his personal example of being willing to sacrifice everything, go through whatever suffering to get the message out, to get the message to your elect. I pray you use us in the same way. Make us a people who no matter what the sacrifice, no matter what the suffering, we're willing to go through it because there's nothing more important than building your kingdom, than helping people be transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved Son. And make us a people who are strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Strengthen us, strengthen us in every aspect of our life so when the time comes to sacrifice we have more to sacrifice and we can endure more suffering. We pray that you bless the preaching of the holy word, and I pray deep in our hearts, give us a true realization, the preeminence of Christ, that there's nothing greater than Christ. I pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 today. We're continuing our Prodigal Church season two series. A few more sermons left in this series. The title of the sermon today is Through Many Tribulations. The early church understood that when you get saved, you get saved to a life of following Jesus Christ, and that life includes tribulations. Acts 14:21-22, this is where that text comes from, "When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying, 'Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.'" As we look at what's going on in the world, one of the things that I'm praying about the Lord deepening in our body is a sense of discernment, to discern what's true and to discern what's evil, what's false, what's lies. And this is what St. Paul does in this letter, in the second part of the letter, he wants to deepen a discernment in the people of God to know, to know when they are being bamboozled. When we ask the question, "What in the world is going on?" you got to ask a few timeless, helpful questions, and this comes from ancient philosophers. The questions that come from Latin, cui bono? cui bono? Who benefits? Who's responsible for a certain event in any crime investigation or in politics, in any event? There's a high probability that it's the person standing to gain the most from it. Cui bono? Who benefits? The second one is an extension of the first is, cui prodest, who profits? We know the term, "Follow the money." It was first used by Roman philosopher, Seneca the Younger in this play Madea, were Madea says to Jason, "Cui who gains by a crime committed it." And then que malo is who suffers? Used in conjunction with que bono and que prodest, you figure out who will benefit and who will suffer as a result of a certain action. And this one who suffers is crucial to discerning in particular the motivations of our leaders. Because Jesus Christ talked about leadership. He said, "Whoever wants to be the greatest among you has to be the greatest servant." Meaning whoever wants to lead the people has to be willing to suffer the most. These are questions that are helpful of discerning a person's motivations. Why does a person do what they do? Why do you do what you do? What drives you? What motivates you? I'm not talking about hypothetically, theoretically. If you're a Christian, what motivates you, not what should motivate you? What does today, what does in the season of your life, what motivates you? If you're not a Christian, what motivates you? And will it matter in five years? Will it matter in 10 years, 20, 30? Will it matter from the perspective of eternity? These are all things we're wrestling with here from 2 Corinthians, 11:16-33. Would you look at the text with me? "I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool so that I too may boast a little. What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not with the Lord's authority, but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast." By the way, Saint Paul makes a lot more sense if you imagine him as an Italian. It just makes so much more sense. "What I'm saying with this boastful confidence, I say not with the Lord's authority, but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves. For you bear if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I'm speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. I'm talking like a madman, with far greater laborers, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys; and danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea danger, from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is a daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I'm not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I'm not lying. At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands." This is a reading of God's holy and infallible, authoritative Word. May you write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, beware leaders who sacrificed other for self. I know it's beware of leaders, but be beware leaders sounds more ominous. Follow leaders who sacrifice self for Christ, and then emulate leaders who decrease so Christ increases. First, be aware leaders who sacrifice others for self. In the second part of the letter, Saint Paul is battling for the very soul of the Corinthian church. He's battling against false teachers. The people aren't Christians. He says earlier in the text that they're actually Satan's servants, doing everything they can to pull people away from Christ. They can't pull people away from Christ. Satan and these servants try to do everything to keep the people of God from faithfulness, which is the key to usefulness. The lesson learned in this text, they don't just apply to spiritual leaders. These lessons that we draw from the text, they apply to all leaders, anyone who you follow, anyone who you listen to, anyone who you obey, anyone who influences how you live on a day to day, who influences the decisions we make. What he's saying here is, "Beware. Beware of blind obedience to authority just because they're authority figures." And the context, this 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workman, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguised himself as an angel of life. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds." See, the thing with Satan is he's in it for himself. He doesn't want to obey anyone. He doesn't want to take commands from God. Satan's servants, willing or unwilling, these same servants are in it for themselves just like Satan. What does Satan promise Eve and Adam at the very beginning? He promises them life without God. He says, "You'll be like God, meaning you can decide for yourself what's good and what's evil, what's right and what's wrong." These so-called super apostles came into the church after Paul left, and they started building a following boasting about their credentials, their worldly credentials. And St. Paul here answers those boasts. He answers those super false apostles. 2 Corinthians 11:16, "I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little." What Paul is about to do is he's about to attack the very heart of the power of the false apostles. He's going to dismantle their authority with his own "foolish boasting". Because the problem was the Corinthian church had become enamored with the idol of sophistication. The false teacher said, "Hey, Paul's not here, let's build up the church." And these people who are educated probably in Old Testament scripture, probably have even doctorates from Jerusalem, they're looking for a job and they come in, "Oh, here's some religious people. Let's make this a job. Oh, let's reach some more people. Yeah, Paul's tactics, they don't work in reaching the masses. Let's soften the gospel. Let's not talk so much about sin. We're in Corinth. Let's not talk about gender. Let's not talk about sexual boundaries. Let's not talk about marriage is one man one woman. Let's not talk about any of that. Let's just talk about that God loves you and He has a tremendous plan for your life to live any way that you want," which is coincidentally the plan of Satan. "Let's not overly focus on scripture. Let's meet people where they are. Let's present the message in a more sophisticated way where it doesn't really touch people's lives but they walk away like they got some kind of spiritual teaching." In Roman culture, they valued strength and success. So these false teachers boasted in their worldly wins, their credentials, their speaking fees, their influence, their following, their commendation and letters of recommendation. And Paul isn't about to boast in his wins, he's about to boast in his Ls, his losses. He's about to present a catalog of suffering. He uses the same rhetorical technique that his enemies used with one difference, he flips it on its head. He does the upside down of what they were doing just to show how foolish it is to say, "I've come to tell you about God, how great God is," and the whole time you're talking about how great you are. 2 Corinthians 11:17, "What I'm saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would but as a fool." Now, this is a challenging verse, and this is really important to understand the question that's raised by godless, pagan, biblical scholars. They used this verse to build a case that Paul didn't write scripture. Therefore, we don't have to listen to Paul. Which is false. And we have another apostle who knew Jesus before Paul knew Jesus, Peter in 2 Peter 3:14-18 talking about Paul. "Therefore, beloved, since you were waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patients of our Lord at salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matter. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures." What does he call the writings that Paul Graphe, he calls them scriptures. "You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the era of lawless people, lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now until the day of eternity. Amen." So this was scripture. So what does verse 17 mean when he says, "Look, I say not as the Lord would, but as a fool."? What he's revealing is this internal battle with the Holy Spirit. As he's writing, he knows that the Holy Spirit is flowing through him. He knows these words aren't his. He knows these ideas aren't his. He's just a vessel of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's writing through him. And the Holy Spirit gets to this verse and He's like, "Paul, this is what you're about to do. Write it." And Paul says, "No, Lord, I don't want to boast." And the Holy Spirit says, "Write it." And it pained Paul to do this because he didn't see an example of this kind of boasting from Jesus Christ. Yet, God tells Paul to do it. Paul wanted to imitate Christ in everything. Twice in the epistles of Corinthians he says, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." But sometimes, to battle Satan's most effective strategies you must reveal how foolish these strategies are by employing the same technique just upside down. He doesn't want to fight them on their own terms, but he has to because God said so. Do we have an example of Jesus debating people in power? Yes, of course we do. But when it counted the most, Jesus Christ did not answer His accusers. 1 Peter 2:23, "When He was reviled, He had not reviled in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to Him who judges justly." Jesus didn't defend Himself when He stood before Pilate or Caiphus, unjustly accused, on purpose. Why? Because He was here to fulfill a very particular mission, and that mission was to die for the sins of the whole world. It had to be this way. Paul, and us sometimes, are forced to honestly, reasonably, fairly defend ourselves sometimes for the preservation of the truth. When this happens, we're not happy about it. Paul's so humble, he has no desire to defend himself. He's not doing it for himself, he's doing it for the benefit of the Corinthian church. He's so reluctant to boast even in suffering because he hates it. He resents it. But he must do it to expose just how foolish these false teachers are. Proverbs 26 is really helpful to discern what's going on in this text, verse four and five, "Answer not a fool according to his folly lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes." So which one is it? Do I answer the fool, or do I not answer the fool? There's a lot of fools around me. Am I answering the fools? And he says, "There's two ways of dealing with a fool. First, ignore, rise above the fray, refuse to condescend to the level. But second, sometimes you got to answer the fool according to his folly. But do it better than they did." And Paul, he'd much rather talk about Jesus. However, since the false teachers waged personal attacks, he defends his integrity while simultaneously undermining their influence. And also, through this, he shepherds the church and teaches them how to develop discernment. Verse 18, "Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. For you gladly bear with fools being wise yourselves." Now here St. Paul brings in a little sarcasm because sarcasm often is powerful. He's a big shot, super apostles. He's boasting in the worldly accomplishments. Paul had more. But they didn't know God. And they didn't know the wisdom of God. They didn't know the gospel of God. We learned earlier in the text they were preaching a different Jesus with a different spirit, with a different gospel, thinking themselves to be wise. They were fools. They present themselves as philosophers and theologians, but they didn't know God. And then Paul brings in this phrase, "being wise yourself", this biting sarcasm. Sarcasm is basically saying the opposite of what's true. What he's saying is, "Well, aren't you something? Aren't you guys so smart? I left you guys, and you are so intelligent, you are so educated that you put up with these fools. The Corinthian church thinking themselves wise were acting foolishly, and Paul publicly calls out folly when necessary. "You're saying you're so smart. You put up with fools while they exploit you and they plunder you." Verse 20, "For you bear if someone makes slaves of you or devours you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that." The sophists and itinerant philosophers and teachers of that day were known for taking advantage of people who were less informed, less educated. And what did they do? They had the same goal in mind as Satan does, they wanted to enslave people to man-made rules. "Here's my rules, follow them." To devour them financially, to extort, to exploit, to take advantage of them using not love but entrapment, using them not loving them. The phrase "put on airs" here is these are people who push themselves forward, lifting themselves up as they push everyone else down. "Strikes you in the face," he says. Is this just humiliation, where you strike someone in the face with verbal abuse? Or is this physical abuse? Well, there are examples in the early church that these false teachers did abuse people physically. They brought that in from their understanding in Jerusalem. St. Paul later talks about the lashes that he got. He was physical abused, to dominate to humiliate. Cultish behavior. It's all typical behavior of Satan servants. They're like leaches, suck life out of the victim. This is tyranny. That's what he's addressing here. Jesus never taught us to accept that tyranny is anything other than sin. Yes, he taught us to turn the other cheek, but turn the other cheek has nothing to do with physical abuse. Turn the other cheek has to do with being willing to forgive a person who has abused you. So if you are being physically abused, it is not our duty to remain in a position where we are physically abused. Scripture teaches against that. Paul never intended to make disciples of themselves, only disciples of Jesus. And the enemies of the gospel always seek to make disciples of themselves with the intention of enslaving. Verse 21, Paul says, "To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that." Too weak for what? He said, "We were too weak to take advantage of you." Obviously, he's saying, "We didn't take advantage of you on purpose. And these people are coming in, they take our kindness as a sign of weakness." He said, "Whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I'm speaking of as a fool. I also dare to boast of that." What he's saying is in effect, "These people took advantage of you. We could have if we wanted to. We didn't. I was too weak to enslave anyone," he was basically saying, "devour your resources and abuse you." Scripture often talks about this understanding of spiritual authority as service not domination. 1 Peter 5:1-5, "So I exhort the elders among you, the pastors, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ," the apostle Peter says, "as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not dominating over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility under one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Matthew 20:25-28, the words of Jesus Christ, "But Jesus called them to Him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. "Beware leaders that sacrifice others for themselves," Jesus says. No, the true leaders, spiritual leaders, and any true leaders, these are foundational keys to leadership. You lead by service. You lead sacrifice. And this is point two, follow leaders who sacrifice self for Christ. And 2 Corinthians 11:22, "Are they Hebrews?" So Paul here now is giving us his resume. "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I." The false teachers made a big deal of their authentic Jewish background, their pedigree. They knew the Hebrew language. So they were religious, they knew the Old Testaments scriptures. Israelites. They brought in the theocratic name of God. This is Israel. And they are offspring of Abraham that they would inherit the messianic king. Paul is a disciple of Gamaliel. He's a Pharisee of Pharisees. He played the same card just better. He had the right ethnic, religious, educational background. He gives us this in Philippians 3:3-11. "For we are the circumcision, we worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. "But whatever gain I had, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." He continues in 2 Corinthians 11:23, "Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I'm talking like a madman," he knows this, this is nuts what he's doing, "with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, and often near death." You see that switch, you see what he's doing? "I am a great servant of Christ." And right here he could have talked about his greatness. He could have talked about how many people became Christians through his ministry, how many churches he planted, how many political figures he spoke truth to. He could have done all... how many miracles God's done through him? "No, because I'm a better servant of Christ, now let me tell you about how much I've sacrificed: greater labors, more imprisonments, countless beatings, and often near death." Here, this isn't hyperbolic. He's giving us a true list of his sufferings. The Apostle Paul here elaborates on how much he has sacrificed for the name of Jesus Christ and the mission of Christ. The false teachers came in, they said, "You're following that guy? The hand of God is not on that guy. Obviously, God has cursed that guy, look how much pain He's gone through. If God blesses a person, if God's hand is upon a person, they're rich, and they're healthy, and they're good looking, and they never have any suffering. They never have suffering." Saint Paul says, "No that's wrong." He didn't view suffering as a curse from God, he viewed suffering as an honor, as a blessing from the Lord. That's a gift from God. Also, Paul, he is a smart guy, and the deeper you study, the more you swim in the waters of Paul's writings, you realize just how intelligent he was and how the Holy spirit's using him. The false prophets came into the church for real profits. They didn't come to the church to help the people, they came to the church to make money. And they called Paul a hack who didn't charge a speaking fee because no one would pay even if he charged. That was the accusation. And Paul says, "You want my invoice? You want to know how much you cost me? I'll give you my invoice. I'll give it to you." I've got lots of stories about my daughter. One of my daughters, I won't say, she gave me three coupons for Christmas for 15-minute massages. It was nice. It's nice. And I've got the gong thing, the T.J. Maxx version. And I got this little spikey thing that you go put in your head and you're like, "Whoa." And then she did it for 10 minutes yesterday. She's like, "You got 35 minutes left." Which is funny to me. Imagine if she was an infant and I was like, "All right, I changed your diaper once. You got two more changes left." Do you want my invoice of what it took to get you here? That's why he finds this so ludicrous. So as you read this, you got to ask what drove St. Paul to make these sacrifices. Verse 24, "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one." The 40 lashes was the maximum allowed by the law of Moses, and the Jewish authorities of that day said, "Let's do 39," using the rabbinical principle of fencing the law so that even if you miscount, you don't go over 40. So 39, 40 minus one. So 195 times he was whipped. Was it just leather straps? We're not told. When Jesus was whipped, it wasn't just leather straps. It was leather straps, a little pieces of sharp bone at the inner rock to tear his flesh off. 195 times. Most likely, his whole back was covered in lacerations. 2 Corinthians 11:25, "Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and the day I was a drift at sea." The rods were the Roman form of beating. Paul was beaten both by the Jewish and Roman authorities. Though, he was a Roman citizen, he should have been legally protected from the physical beatings. But the local petty tyrants didn't always obey their own laws. And St. Paul did appeal to Caesar. He said, "What you're doing here is wrong." He did fight unwarranted tyranny. He spoke up against it. The beatings and lashings weren't just painful but meant to humiliate, to dishonor. Paul here boast on something that was extremely humiliating, but he doesn't mind doing it because he doesn't esteem the opinion of people that much, because he esteems the opinion of God infinitely more, is infinitely more precious. He continues, verse 26, "On frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, and danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, and danger from false brothers." In the Roman empire, because of the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, they built tremendous roads, transportation infrastructure that sprawled all around the empire, and they had thousands of ships sailing. You could travel to most parts of the Roman empire, although accessible, the travel wasn't easy. St. Paul suffered much, especially because he had such a controversial message. Anywhere he went, he would just share the gospel. In 2 Corinthians 11:27, "In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure." Paul poured himself out in every single way imaginable on behalf of the gospel. He left nothing in his tank. He left everything on the field. 2 Corinthians 11:28, "Apart from other things, there's a daily pressure on me of my anxiety for the churches." He just described a catalog, a litany of suffering that any one single predicament of these that he mentioned, any one of them would cause most modern Christians to throw up their hands and quit in despair and say, "No, no, no, no, no, this is not worth it. This whole Christian thing isn't worth it. Right, you said that all I have to do is repent all my sins and I go to eternity. I did not sign up for a life of suffering." Well, that's because the American church has been preaching a half gospel for decades. "You come to Jesus, all your sins are forgiven." Yeah, you come to Jesus, all your sins are forgiven. That's awesome. But now you're a servant of God, and God gets to tell you what to do. God gets to call you wherever God wants to call you. God gets to create a plan for you because He's God. And the only thing that you are allowed to say, dear Christians, is "Yes, sir. Yes, sir, where would you send me, Lord? How much do you want me to sacrifice, Lord? I'm all in." None of this, "No, I'm just going to live a comfortable life." And do nothing. Satan's servants has crept into the American church to make us flacid, just to do nothing for the Lord, nothing of consequence. Paul said, "Apart from all of this apart." You're like, "Yeah, I've been through some stuff." And the whole time he says, "I've had the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for the role the churches." Instead of despairing, Paul emerges victorious because he knew if God has allowed this suffering to happen in my life, He has a purpose for the suffering, to spread the gospel, to expand the kingdom of God. He suffered physically. He also suffered emotionally and spiritually. This is the concern for the church, for all the churches. Pastors know this. Spiritual leaders know this. It's a spiritual anxiety. In Philippians 4, he says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, present your request to God." Don't be anxious about the wrong things. Do be anxious about the right things. We should be anxious about the health of our souls. We should be anxious about the health of the souls of our loved ones. We should experience the spiritual anxiety, this heartache for the souls of the people around us. And Paul did. He was concerned with both the church planting and church vibrancy, starting churches, but then growing them in healthy maturity. Verse 29, "Who is weak, and I'm not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?" I spent all week trying to figure out what he means by the word weak. He calls himself weak here, and then in verse 30, we'll get to it. He just gave us a list of stuff that any half verse would kill most any one of us. He calls himself weak. Here he says, "Who is weak? And I'm not weak." Here he's talking about empathy. He says, "When people that he led to the Lord are weak in their faith, when they're suffering, he suffers." This is called empathy. When you feel the pain of other people, this is empathy. Is it weak to experience empathy? Is it weak to experience empathy? No, it's not. It takes an incredible strength to experience empathy, to empathize with another person in their suffering. And the more people under your care, the more strength you need to empathize with every single one of them. More strength you need to bear the weight of a beloved person's suffering. When people suffered, he suffered. And the second phrase is, "Who is made to fall? And I'm not indignant." It literally reads, "Who is entrapped into sin, and I do not burn?" When people fell from the faith, when they sinned, Paul burned with indignation for their souls. I wonder as you read this list, do you have a resume or a catalog of suffering or sacrifice for the Lord? Every faithful Christian should. Like if need be, to make a list of how much you've suffered for the Lord. Because every Christian knows that because Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself for me, He calls me to sacrifice myself for Him. You should have a catalog of suffering. You will have a catalog of suffering. If you continue to faithfully follow Jesus Christ and say yes to every single one of His commandments, you will grow this list, this resume. Every Christian will. In particular, in the time that we live. We need to be wide awake and know that persecution might be around the corner for Christians. It already is in many parts of the world. We need to be ready. Three is, "Emulate leaders who decrease so Christ increases." This phrase comes from John the Baptist. John the baptized from John 3:30 says, "He must increase, I must decrease." John was losing his disciples to Jesus Christ. And one of his disciples said, "Aren't you worried that Jesus is going to have a bigger following then you? He's like, "No. I came to point everyone to Jesus Christ. I don't care about my following. I don't care about my platform. He must increase, I must decrease. 2 Corinthians 11:30, Paul says, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness." Paul knew that when he is weakest Christ is strongest. When he is weakest, he can't but trust in the strength of Jesus Christ. He knew he couldn't do a thing for the Lord without the Lord's power. 2 Corinthians 3:5, "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. Our power comes from God." This verse I have to deal with just a little bit, because I've been wrestling all week, "What in the world does he mean by showing my weakness?" In particular, in the context, the guy got beaten how many lashes? 195. Three times beaten by rods, shipwrecked a night and a day in sea, cold, exposure. So how are you not dead, bro? That's my question. That's my question. How did you get out of this thing alive? That's my question. Obviously God. Obviously God. Obviously God. But scripture nowhere doesn't say, "Hey, hey, Christians, be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might and never do anything in your life to get stronger. Remain weak. Hey, Christians, remain weak spiritually, remain weak physically, remain weak financially, remain weak, remain weak, remain... " Do you see that in the Bible? That's nowhere in the Bible. So what does he mean by weakness? Well, it's a spectrum, right? The weakness and strength is a spectrum, and every single person, they're in a different range on the spectrum. If you lift, which you should, every Christian should be as strong as you possibly can in health wise, immune system, it's good for you. You should lift. And when you have an off day in the gym, like that off day is different for different people. I've lifted with people and they're like, Yeah, I feel really sluggish today. I've been sick for like four weeks, and I barely got out of bed." And then they put on four plates on each side, the big ones. The weakness is different for people. And the stronger you are, the stronger your weakness is. And, and this is important because in the context, what is Paul doing here? What did we start off with? He's engaging. He's doing battle with the false teachers, the servants of Satan. He's going to war with them, and he clearly wins. After this argument, he gets clear that he won. So he's using his weakness as a way to overcome his enemies. This is really important. It's really important because I do believe that there's an attack on the church today. The attack is coming from everywhere, and it's on all humans, but it's on the church in particular. The attack comes through a lie through the narrative that Christians should be weak by definition. "Oh, you're a Christian, you should be weak in every aspect of life." We should be weak physically, financially, socially, relationally, intellectually, educationally, spiritually. Weak, Christians should be weak. Should Christians be weak? No. No. Is it okay for a Christian to be weak? Yes, it's okay. Sometimes it's children, it's baby Christians. Sometimes you're sick. Yes. This is why we, the stronger, are called to help the weaker. The stronger you are, the more you can help those who are weaker. But if you are weak and you have the ability to get stronger, should you get stronger? Of course. Right, this is as clear as day. I don't even know why I have to say this. Also, don't judge a person's strength from your starting line, judge a person's strength from their starting line. You're like, "Oh, I don't know what your starting line is." Then get to know the person. But we are to grow stronger. And by the way, this attack to make people and people in the church weak, the attack is specifically targeting men. I don't know if you noticed this. Satan specifically targets men, and he specifically targets Christian men. The Christian men should be weak because Christian men don't do anything for the kingdom. What is weakness? Weakness is a lack of strength to protect yourself. That's all weakness is, it's a lack of strength. Is that what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 11:30 when he says, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness."? I don't think so. What's he mean by weakness? How is he weak after just giving us a catalog of suffering that would kill any of us? Is it weakness to suffer so much? No, of course not. Well, this is what the world and the false prophets, this is what they would all say, that it's we weakness that you allowed yourself to suffer so much. That's what the world says. It's weakness that you put yourself in a position to be hurt. That's what the world says. Well, the world doesn't understand what true love is. Isn't it true strength to sacrifice yourself, to be willing to suffer for the one you love? Yeah. Choosing the way of suffering for the one you love, yeah. This is the way of the cross. This is choosing the way of the cross and walking in it daily. It takes the greatest amount of strength that today I'm going to deny myself. I'm not going to do what I want. I'm going to do what's best for my beloved. Was Paul weak? No, he wasn't weak, he was meek. And there's a difference. He had the strength to choose to put himself in a vulnerable situation for the sake of others. It's not just a catalog of suffering but of sacrificed, and he sacrificed a lot. Just like Jesus Christ. Jesus standing before Pilate, was Jesus weak? No, He's not. He was meek. At that moment, He could have killed Pilate. He chose not to. "I could kill you, but I'm going to die for you instead." That's true power. In that case, He chose to lay aside His strength to take on the bigger enemy. By the way, this is how Paul started the whole argument, 2 Corinthians 10:1, he started the whole argument challenging the false teachers, he say, "I, Paul, myself entreat to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I'm away." He said, "I am entreating you by the meekness of Jesus Christ." Not the weakness of Jesus Christ. Weakness is having no strength, meekness is focusing your strength. It's why Christians like from the outside Jesus did look weak. Many Christians from the outside, you do look weak. We look weak. But it's not weakness, it's strength under control. That's what meekness is. One of my favorite verses in all of scripture is Numbers 12:3, where it says, "Moses was very meek, more than all people who are in the face of the earth." Moses was very meek. I find that interesting because it's kind of parallel with what Paul is doing here. Who wrote the Book of Numbers? It was Moses. Moses was the most meek person. As he's writing, he's like, "Holy Spirit, you sure? He's like, "Yeah, yeah, write that." Moses also killed a guy with his bare hands and buried the corpse in a desert. Was he weak? No, of course he wasn't weak. Weak people can't be meek by definition. If you have no strength to keep in check, then you can't even be meek. Meekness assumes strength. My message is we need more meek Christians and fewer weak Christians. So if you have the ability to get stronger, get stronger in every single aspect of your life, in particular men. Women, you guys are crushing it. Keep growing in strength. Keep growing in the Lord. Keep getting stronger. Men, you need to be leading the charge and growing in strength, because it is our job to provide and to protect and to build so when the time comes we're ready to sacrifice self to protect. And the more you have to give, the greater sacrifice you could make. We're called to sacrifice self for others. Is it weakness to risk pain to self because you love one another? No, it's the greatest power. It's the greatest strength. That's why self-denial is a superpower. This is my message, I just pray that all of us gets stronger in every aspect of life. It starts with being stronger in the Lord and the strength of His might. But I've noticed that when people are strong in the Lord, every other aspect of their life just gets stronger. The closer you are to the Lord, the more filled to Spirit you are. Correlation causation, I'm not sure. Everything, you just get stronger relationally, stronger marriages, stronger parenting, stronger children, stronger finances, just stronger all around, stronger mental health, stronger physically. Because you understand when you work for the Lord, full tell all the time. You have to figure out how to get your energy up and to work as hard as you can, and so when persecution comes, you are hard to kill, just like St. Paul was. You can't kill the guy. And obviously, protected by the power of the Spirit, and then we're invincible until the day the Lord calls us home. 2 Corinthians 11:31, "The God and the Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I'm not lying." St. Paul here as he's finishing the chapter brings in an oath. He preempts the story that he's about to tell, and he brings in an oath to make sure that his detractors are listening. And then he starts his story. "At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me." So Paul concludes this catalog of suffering by describing one particularly humiliating experience in his life. He was a young, accomplished scholar under Gamaliel, a rising star in the religious world of the Roman Empire. He was a genius, and he was zealous, willing to do anything and everything for his God. So he took letters of recommendation and he's on the road to Damascus to go persecute Christians, to arrest them, and ultimately to execute them. And then on the way, Jesus Christ meets him on the road to Damascus, the resurrected Christ, and blinds him with His light. Paul gets saved. Now this hunter of Christians becomes hunted by his own colleagues. The dissident has to be eliminated. St. Paul here talks about the time when he was in Damascus and he knew that his colleagues were here to kill him, and that he, by the help of Christians, he's lowered in a fish basket like a child to escape his former colleagues. In the next chapter, he's going to recount how he was lifted to the third heaven. He got to experience spiritually... Very few people have ever experienced. Before he recounts how he was lifted to the heavens, he recounts how he was lowered in a fish basket, like the lowest of the low in the middle of the night, just weak and vulnerable. And 2 Corinthians 11:33, "But I was let down on the basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands." Paul headed toward Damascus a Pharisee, and he leaves a humbled Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. He embraces his suffering for Christ. "This is my weakness," he says. "My weakness is that I love Jesus Christ so much that I'm willing to experience whatever suffering the Lord appoints for me. That's my weakness." His weakness was his love for God, which is actually his strength. And that's why it's upside down. Is this your weakness, dear Christian, a love for God that overcomes everything? Or do you have a weakness for an idol instead? Well, then, you won't be effective. We're called to be like Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, Isaiah 53, "He is the suffering servant." Our Messiah, the king of kings comes to die in a cross for our sins. He's humiliated, scorched, beaten, bruised, bleeding on the cross to procure our salvation. The only thing you have to do is be justified. Yes, it's true, it's true, it's true. Repent of your sins and follow Jesus Christ. Repent, follow Jesus. Repent, believe. Repent, believe. Repent of your sins. But just know that if God has appointed you a salvation, He has also appointed you to make sacrifices for Him, for His kingdom. And all we who faithfully follow Jesus Christ in this life, we will suffer. That's a promise. Or wants to lead a holy life will suffer. We shouldn't seek suffering, but we also shouldn't be surprised when we do suffer. And we must resolve today to remain unflinchingly faithful in the faith of any adversity. I'll close with the words of Jesus Christ, Luke 9:23. "And He said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ. You called Him to live a life of holiness. You called Him to take on the ultimate enemies of Satan, sin, and death. And Jesus Christ, you wrestled in Gethsemane, and you cried out, "If there's any other way, let this cup of suffering pass from me." And there was no other way, and Jesus, you went to the cross, and you bore the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin. You bore our deaths and you took on the hell of Satan and demons. And did that so we would not have to. But then you also call us a life of following you, of taking up our cross daily, a cross of self-denial, of saying no to self, saying yes to your plan, saying yes to service and sacrifice. I pray that you strengthen us in that Holy Spirit. Empower us like you've never empowered us before, and use us to spark a revival in this region of the nation and beyond. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.