Trudeau is the 23rd and current Prime Minister of Canada.
He came into office in 2015 after what is regarded as a landslide victory.
Overwhelming majority of people supported him as Prime Minister.
During his first three years as Canada's Prime Minister,
he did very little wrong in the eyes of his supporters.
More recently, his popularity has dropped so far,
it looks like in the upcoming elections, his party will lose its majority.
From pop star popularity to looking like losing his majority in less than four years.
And the one reason is a secretly taped phone call.
This man who had a rock star following among progressives for championing clean government,
was using his power according to this phone call to let a major Canadian firm avoid criminal charges on bribery and fraud.
He even demoted his Attorney General who was standing against him on this issue.
And since the news broke of this, nearly two-thirds of Canadians,
two-thirds supported him and now two-thirds are disapproving of the job that he's doing.
He championed transparency and the end of corruption in government.
And now for all the rhetoric, he appears to be no different than anyone else and his popularity has plummeted.
How can he be trusted when he says one thing and there's evidence of him doing something totally different?
And so two-thirds of Canadians are now saying this man lacks integrity.
And we're abandoning him.
That's the core issue as we jump into our passage today in 2 Corinthians.
The Corinthian church and those who are influencing them away from Paul
are saying that the Apostle Paul says one thing but does another.
He said he was coming to Corinth and he didn't show up.
And so the rumor is circulating that Paul's heart's divided.
Yes, he loves them and wants to see them and bless them,
but no, maybe not as much as he loves his own convenience or he loves some other church.
That is, is Paul's heart a yes and a no?
Is it divided?
It's divided towards the Corinthians.
And so the relationship with this church is a breaking point.
Paul is the, is the apostle who started this church at Corinth.
You can go into Acts 18 and read all about that.
The gospel was preached.
People became Christians.
Deep friendships were made.
Bonds of Christian love were formed.
And when Paul moved on to his next part of his journey, his opponents moved in.
And they started to drive a wedge between Paul and the church.
They criticized both Paul and his message.
It got so bad that the church he founded started to believe that the apostle Paul was worldly,
insincere, cowardly, weak, a theological deviant who preached a false gospel.
And the apostle Paul is now seen as the imposter.
A false apostle, corrupt and only in the religious business to exploit people.
He's seen as a fake, someone who talked tough in letters, but was a wimp in person.
And this church is in danger of walking away from Paul and walking away from the authentic good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
They can't see it.
That's what's at stake for them.
And so Paul's fighting for it.
Now, the major thrust of what he says to them in this section right through to chapter 7 is,
trust me because I am the authentic apostle with the authentic gospel.
Paul's defense of his character here takes us right to the heart of what it means to be a Christ-like leader,
but also what it means to be a Christ-like follower of Jesus.
Now, I don't want to spoil the surprise, but his basic answer is,
trust me because I imitate Christ.
My life aligns with Jesus' life.
My pattern for life is Jesus' pattern for life.
My life authentically displays his message because it follows the pattern of Jesus' life who gave him the message.
Now, the great beauty of this passage is that it doesn't just call us to an impossibly high standard of living,
which it does,
but it throws us back to rest in Jesus who has met that standard for us and empowers us to live it.
This is such a great passage for us, I think, on a number of fronts.
Firstly, because in Australian culture, we pride ourselves on pulling down our leaders.
It's part of our DNA, if you like, a tall poppy syndrome thing.
It's probably in our DNA because of our convict heritage.
Our history didn't start with a search of bold new lands to form new communities.
We started with a search for a new jail to hold people, the criminals.
That's where we began as a country.
And it means that we are very quick to judge leaders and impute motive.
We are horrendous for it in the political stream, but it's basically right through life.
Secondly, it's important because we do live in a time where there is a great deal of institutional skepticism,
and especially in regard to the church.
The failure of leaders who are held high and respected, who have fallen, spectacularly has eroded trust.
There are many instances where the Christian church has spectacularly failed the integrity test.
And this world needs to experience Christians whose life and lip are in sync because they will not even hear the beauty of the Christian gospel
until they see attractive Christians and attractive Christian churches.
And so in this passage, Paul highlights three marks of his life and ministry to show that it's authentic.
They are also three marks of an authentic follower of Jesus.
So first of all, in verses 12 to 14, he says that he has a transparent sincerity.
So if you've got a service outline, you can see my three points there.
If you want to go on the app, it's there in front of you.
But either way, have the text in front of you.
You're going to need it.
Two Corinthians 1, verses 12 to 14.
Now, this is our boast.
Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially in our relations with you with integrity and godly sincerity.
We have done so relying not on worldly wisdom, but on God's grace.
For we do not write to you anything you cannot read or understand.
And I hope that as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
So, strangely, Paul starts his defense of his character by boasting.
Seems a little odd.
Odd way to start.
Not what I would do necessarily.
Not so obviously.
Most of us would start with boasting more subtly than this.
Doesn't appear to be a good way to start.
That's because for us, boasting has an entirely negative connotation.
Is there any such thing as good boasting?
Positive boasting?
And yet, most of the time that Paul uses the word boasting in this letter is, in fact, a good thing.
For Paul, boasting centers on what God has done in Jesus for us and in us.
It's about boasting in God's grace and its work in his life.
Everything he says here is based on the premise that he is what he is by the grace of God.
Not because he's nice.
Paul's identity has been totally reshaped by his encounter with the Lord Jesus.
He has been rebooted by the grace of God in Jesus.
His world view, his decision-making processes, how he relates, have all been completely realigned and reorientated by the unconditional love that God has extended to him in Jesus.
He is not perfect.
That's not what he's saying.
But he is deeply different.
Deeply different.
It's expressed so well by John Newton, the author of the classic hymn Amazing Grace.
He stated,
I am not what I ought to be.
Ah, how imperfect and deficient.
I'm not what I wish to be.
I abhor what is evil and stick to what is good.
I'm not what I hope to be.
Soon, soon, I shall put off mortality and with it all sin and all imperfection.
Although I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor hope to be, I can truly say that I am not what I was once.
A slave to sin and Satan.
I wholeheartedly join with the apostle and declare by the grace of God.
He may have added,
I boast by the grace of God.
I am what I am.
By the grace of God, Paul is saying here,
I have a clear conscience in front of you, Corinthian church.
Now, in the New Testament, the conscience is the highly sensitive, if somewhat unreliable instrument,
that convinces us of the gap between the way that God designs us to live in the Bible and how we are actually living it.
We've all got a conscience.
Every one of us.
Some of it's seared.
Some of it more sensitive.
And some of us, we even give them names, like mine's called Natalie.
Our conscience is set off when we don't live in line with what we believe to be right.
Our conscience can easily be desensitized and hardened through sin as we habitually ignore sin,
as we habitually ignore our conscience being pricked through the word of God.
Notwithstanding, when we become Christians, the Holy Spirit immediately, immediately starts to do a repair job on it.
With the result that it's actually possible to have a clear conscience in specific situations and specific issues.
If we examine ourselves honestly before God, in the light of his word, and I did joke when I said Natalie, but I am serious.
Before God, in the light of his word, and in the presence of others,
it is possible to speak with a quiet confidence and a real humility about our life like Paul does.
The burden of a troubled conscience is a weight, a weight to carry on the heart.
You don't have to live long at all to start accumulating that weight.
We can all think of situations where in the quietness of our hearts and our minds,
we wonder if we're being, it could have been different if I had acted differently or spoke differently or behaved differently or my attitude was different.
We wonder if that situation might not have turned out the way that it did.
As a Christian leader, it isn't hard to second-guess yourself and to second-guess your conscience,
partly because your life is on display.
What is particularly hard is when others join with you in second-guessing yourself.
I think that's particularly difficult.
You become very aware that people are assessing your every decision.
And apart from those things, there is the burden for people's souls.
I'm very mindful that I make decisions that impact on people's lives.
And I live a life that negatively or positively impacts the clarity by which people see the beauty and the integrity of Jesus.
I'm very conscious of that.
Not just gathering on Sunday, but even doing my shopping in Westfield.
Even walking from here to school.
There's not a moment in my life that I'm not conscious of the fact that my life is on display
and people assess the beauty and the integrity of Jesus by me.
The New Testament makes it clear, this is also a weight on it,
makes it clear that Christian leaders will be judged more harshly for their lives.
So the thing that I look forward to about resurrection,
my own resurrection in Jesus when I die,
is the immediate weight that I carry,
that immediately, in that moment, in a twinkling of an eye,
that weight and that burden that I have for the glory of Christ
and for the good of the church and for the souls of people being gone.
I'm loving it.
I'm looking forward to it.
You're looking forward to fixed bodies.
And, you know, I look forward to that more than I look forward to not having an insulin pump attached to me 24-7.
I have a rip about that.
It's the burden.
Boom, gone.
Standing perfected in Christ.
No longer carrying the weight.
And yet, with that burden,
you and I can enjoy it right now in measure.
Have a look at verse 12.
I want you to look at verse 12 with me.
Paul writes here about his conduct in the world.
Now, the word he uses for conduct here is a very specific word.
It's a big picture word.
Big picture word.
He's not saying here,
guys, I've got a clear conscience on every single thing that I've ever done,
ever said, ever imagined.
He's not saying that.
He's not suggesting for a moment that he's managed to reach a state where he is so good,
he doesn't do anything wrong anymore.
He's saying,
Corinthian church,
step back.
Step back and have a helicopter view.
Look at my life.
Look at every area of my life.
Step back and see it is in sync
with the gospel.
He's saying,
I have a transparent sincerity,
a godly sincerity.
What you see is what you get.
There's no mask where I'm hiding my relationship with Christ.
What you see in me is truly me.
He's not saying for a moment that he needs to grow and he needs to change.
He needs to repent.
He's not saying that at all.
He's saying that if you take a look at my life broadly,
you will see that I am in step and moving forward with the word of God.
There's not a quarter of my life that you can't overturn and see.
There's the gospel influencing it.
Jesus is the one who produces in us this straightforwardness,
this integrity and wholeheartedness that isn't always trying to impress
or trying to manipulate or trying to dominate
or trying to flatter
or trying to constantly make excuses.
Now, this is, I know, one of those really obvious statements,
but I think I should say it anyway.
The advantage of sincerity is that by its very nature,
it's very hard to fake.
That's an obvious statement.
It's not possible to fake sincerity.
We may not be able to describe the elements,
but we know sincerity when we see it.
I'm so glad that I see it in this church.
I talked about Nick earlier,
but we were recently celebrating a servant of St. Paul's,
one of our servants here,
and people were asked to submit words
to describe this person and what you appreciate about them.
I wasn't asked,
but when I was hearing the words being described,
the one word that dropped into my mind immediately
was integrity.
Integrity.
I don't know if you've met those people.
I've had two very significant mentors,
one at the moment,
he's 75,
my previous mentor is now in his early 80s,
and I sit with them and I just go,
I want to be you.
I just,
not what you do,
but your character just oozes integrity.
Don't you want to be that person not known for what you do
or what you've got,
but who you are by the grace of God?
The second mark of Paul's authentic Christian life
is in verses 15 to 22.
And here he displays a dependable flexibility.
This is the section where he talks about his travel plans
and the issue that's kind of come up
and the imposters are trying to push on the church
and saying,
you know,
this is where Paul lets everyone down.
He answers passionately in verses 17 to 18.
Was I fickle when I intended to do this
or do I make my plans in a worldly manner
so that in the same breath,
I say both yes,
yes and no,
no.
But as surely as God is faithful,
our message to you is not yes and no.
In other words,
what he's saying here is our planning and our preaching
are not fickle.
They are not double-minded.
They are unified.
They are yes to you.
Our life and our ministry is a resounding yes,
yes,
yes to your joy,
yes to your holiness,
yes to your faith and your hope
and your love and your peace and your power.
Paul's focus,
he says,
is for the good of the church,
grace had shaped a God-shaped dependability in Paul.
You could count on him to spend himself for the good of the church.
You can count on him to put the gospel and its priorities first.
And he says this inevitably means there's a need for flexibility
because times,
there are times when priorities need to be reordered and shifted
so as to serve the gospel.
Now this is not an excuse for being disorganized or unreliable.
It's actually a sign of instability to either not make plans
or to make plans you immediately regret.
And Paul's saying here,
I am utterly dependable.
My yes is my yes.
It's not a yes,
no.
I immediately thought of this passage of the Vicar of Dibley.
You know,
I don't know if you watch this show.
Don't recommend it for its ecclesiology or for its theology.
But parish council,
and there's a man there,
I forget his name,
always goes,
no,
yes.
Yes,
it is no.
So why is Paul and gospel people,
why are they so dependable?
Because God is dependable.
Look at verse 19.
For the son of God,
Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us,
by me and Silas and Timothy,
was not yes and no,
but in him,
it has always been yes.
For no matter how many promises God has made,
they are yes in Christ.
Paul's saying,
I'm not divided.
My heart's not divided for you,
because God's heart is not divided for you.
If you belong to Jesus by faith,
then everything God could possibly give you for your good,
he has signed over to your account in Jesus.
Ephesians 1,
every spiritual blessing is yours in Christ.
Present promise.
Now,
all of God's purposes and plans and promises in the Old Testament,
to save a people for himself,
to make them his forever,
find its fulfillment in Jesus.
He is the only one.
Jesus Christ is the only one,
who ever lived a truly authentic life.
He was sinless.
He drew people to himself,
because of his outstanding character and power.
In his time and throughout history,
many people have attempted to find fault in his life and failed.
Many people have attempted to do it.
Only two people,
I've said this before in history,
have lived such exemplary lives,
that their own contemporaries started to ask not who they are,
but what they are.
Jesus and Buddha.
And Buddha spent a great deal of his time convincing people,
I am just a bloke like you.
But not Jesus.
Only Jesus declared that he was much more than human.
Jesus declared that he was God himself,
coming to this world,
to rescue us from our constant sin and failure.
Jesus,
people in his time,
they loved him for who he was,
and for the good that he did,
but they hated him for what he declared about himself.
As God the Son,
as God the Son,
he took on flesh,
became like us,
jumped into all of our brokenness and our sin and our rebellion,
to rescue us.
He obeyed the Father.
He kept saying,
yes,
yes.
He declared,
not my will be done,
but your will be done,
Father,
in the Garden of Gethsemane,
right before his arrest and execution.
He's obedient and he's faithful and he is dependent in taking the sin of the world to the cross.
That's why all the promises of God find their fulfillment in him.
He is the yes,
because he said yes to them all.
All the promises of God for the good of his people focus in Christ.
He confirms them,
he secures them,
and as it were,
he purchases them for all who belong to him on the cross.
Every single sinner,
every single one of us who doesn't have a clear conscience,
who comes to Christ with all of our needs,
finds God coming to them in Christ with all of his promises.
When a person,
when a sinful person meets the Holy God in Jesus,
what they hear is,
yes.
They do not hear,
try harder,
pull your socks up.
They hear,
yes,
do you love me?
Yes.
Will you forgive me?
Yes.
Is all my guilt and shame wiped away?
Yes.
Will you accept me?
Yes.
Will you change me?
Yes.
Will you give me power to serve you and obey you?
Yes.
Will you keep me and uphold me and restore me when I fail?
Yes.
Will you show me your glory in your presence forever and make me whole and new and clean and lift every burden from my life?
Yes.
Does it help if I say it a bit louder?
Will that push it down into your soul and set you free?
All the promises of God,
all the blessings of God in the heavenly places are yes in Christ Jesus.
He is the decisive yes to all who believe.
And verse 21 declares that God hasn't just told us to be like Jesus.
He has intervened powerfully to make us like Jesus.
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.
He anointed us,
set his seal of ownership on us and put his spirit in our hearts as a deposit,
guaranteeing what is to come.
In other words,
because God has declared a decisive yes to me in Jesus,
my determination with the strength that he gives me is to say yes to him in every area of my life.
There's not a stone unturned where he ought not be a yes in my life.
That's what it's saying there.
God enables us to obey and commit and follow and get up when we fall down to stand against the accusations of Satan,
who's constantly whispering on the air,
you're not worthy,
you're not worthy.
Paul is saying because God has declared a decisive and eternal,
eternity altering yes to me in Jesus,
I delight to live in such a way that I'm constantly saying yes,
yes,
yes to him.
Paul's saying to this church in Corinth,
you look at my life,
you point out one area in my life where I'm saying a no.
No.
And he's saying sometimes that means plans will change
because I'm saying yes to him.
That's the only reason the plan will change,
because I'm saying yes to him.
The third Jesus-like mark of Paul's life and ministry,
and therefore for the Christian life,
is 1.23 to 2.11.
There's probably two in here,
but I'll make it one,
because I'm running out of time.
It's a robust love.
This is getting to the core issue of why Paul didn't come back to Corinth,
when he said that he would.
23.
I call God as my witness,
and I stake my life on it.
That's pretty serious.
That it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.
Not that we lord it over your faith,
but we work with you for your joy,
because it is by faith you stand firm.
Then down to chapter 2, verse 4.
For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart,
and with many tears,
not to grieve you,
but to let you know the depth of my love for you.
You see, Paul knew that if he showed up again,
what he was going to have to do in that moment
was he was going to have to confront and correct them again,
and at a time when they were still healing
from the previous wound he inflicted on them,
his previous painful visit,
as he describes it in this letter.
Verse 24 says that his real aim
is that they taste the real and solid joy of the gospel.
That's his aim.
He chose not to come
because it would negatively impact on their joy.
Paul is urging them here to see the seriousness
and the satisfaction of the gospel.
He's urging them to see both its gravity
and its gladness.
That's what robust love looks like.
If you love the people of your church family,
those who you are sitting beside,
who you are serving and serving with,
then you are preoccupied with
and even weighed down by
the responsibility of leading,
pushing, prodding them
into joy in Christ.
And it includes loving them enough
to say hard things
about the choices
and the attitudes
and the actions that they make
that are deflecting them
from real joy in Jesus,
which is God's yes to them in Jesus.
when you have a brother and a sister in Christ
where in an area of their life,
they are not overturning a rock
and they're saying no to Jesus
and you ignore that in their life,
it's revelation
that you don't love them.
That's what Paul's saying.
Paul had thought about his change of itinerary
lovingly and carefully
because he's working for their great
and lasting joy in Jesus.
Instead of showing up,
he wrote a gut-wrenching,
heartbreaking,
tear-stained,
love-soaked letter.
The 16th century French theologian
and church reformer John Calvin
is very perceptive
in what he writes about these verses.
He says,
he writes,
there are many noisy scolders
who display an amazing favor
in denouncing
and raging against other people's faults
and yet are untouched at heart
so that they seem to take pleasure
in exercising their own throats and lungs.
But it belongs to a godly pastor
and I would add there
to a godly Christian too
to weep within himself
before he makes others weep.
To suffer in his own secret heart
before he gives any open sign
of his wrath
and to give himself more grief
than he causes others.
That's authentic ministry.
That's authentic Christian living.
This is the robust love
that God has shown us
and the robust love
that he calls us to live out
amongst each other.
We see further evidence
of this robust love
in verses 5 to 11
where Paul addresses
a situation in Corinth
where a member of the church
had sinned spectacularly
and publicly
and hurt Paul enormously
but also hurt the whole church.
And the amazing thing here
is a tough old Paul
who insisted on church discipline
now says to his brothers and sisters
guys enough's enough.
He wants this whole church
hurt by sin
to experience the healing
of repentance and forgiveness.
And so Paul's robust love
does not mean that sin
is swept under the carpet.
It doesn't mean that
well to love them
is kind of just to ignore the issues.
He says issues are brought out
they're dealt with.
That's what happens on the cross.
Full display of a sin of the world
is on the cross
as God loves us
in an unimaginable way.
You see discipline
has the goal of repentance
and restoration
and deeper
and authentic relationships.
So Paul is
neither taking the easy way out
and ignoring sin
nor is he self-righteous
and condemning the sinner.
The lack
it's a mark of Christian
this is a mark of authentic Christianity
mark of authentic Christian leadership.
The lack of church discipline
the lack of holding each other accountable
to gospel priorities
allowing sin to reign unchecked
giving permission to bad behavior
turning grace into an excuse
for leniency
and inactivity
and coasting
is a sign
of a lack of
love for God
and for each other.
It flows out of a shallow grasp
of God's
love for wretched sinners like us
and what it cost him
to restore us into relationship
with himself.
And we allow it to reign
ultimately
because we are not sure
that we have a yes
or a no
from God.
Friends,
our greatest need
your greatest need
my greatest need
in fact I would say
this world's greatest need
is to look
to the Lord Jesus
to follow
the Lord Jesus
to enjoy
the Lord Jesus
to rest
in the Lord Jesus
as God's
decisive
yes.
God's
decisive
yes.
So
firstly
can I encourage you
to pray for your leaders
pray for me
pray for
your leaders
in this church
that we would do
just that
pray that we would
walk closely with Christ
and make that
a priority
higher than anything else.
A Scottish pastor
Robert Murray
Michelle
famously said
that what my people
need from me
more than anything else
is my godliness
my godly sincerity
my walk with Christ
whatever your
expectations
are of me
if that
is not
your highest
expectation
can I encourage
you to have a
gospel priority
with life
whatever you
think that my
role is
and the role
of your leaders
are
if that
expectation
is not
primary with you
can I encourage
you to rethink
your gospel
priorities
pray for us
and plead
with us
that we might
commune with Christ
but
for you
are you living
in the fullest
enjoyment
of God's
yes to you
in Christ Jesus
have you
said
yes
to all
of God's
yes to you
I'm not
asking
whether your
theology
is sharp
I'm not
asking how
long you've
been at church
or whether
you're part
of a community
group
or you're
serving
or I'm
asking
have you
said
yes
is there
any of God's
yes to you
which you are
saying no
or maybe
or a not
now
that is
have you
fully surrendered
to him
that is
is there
inconsistency
in your life
I'm not sure
of you have
thought about
this but
in Exodus
20
where we have
the 10
commandments
and if you've
been around
church for a while
you're familiar
with those
third command
do not take
the name of
the Lord
in vain
we automatically
think well
that's about
swearing
it's got
nothing to do
with swearing
at all
nothing to do
with that
whatsoever
it has
everything to
do with
saying he
is my God
and living
totally
different
that is
what it is
to take
the Lord's
name in
vain
is to
align
yourself
with him
but not
live it
in life
that's what
the third
command is
it's about
his glory
being at
stake
right now
think of
one area
of your
life
a particular
circumstance
a sin
a relationship
that you are
currently saying
no
maybe
actually
not now
think of
one
look to
God's
decisive
yes to
you in
Jesus
until it
changes you
to be like
Jesus
leave behind
the no
and the maybe
and the not
now of
your unbelief
pledge
yourself
to a
holy
dissatisfaction
until you
know
the fullness
of your
yes in
Christ
Jesus
and your
joy
overflows
I'm going
to invite
Nick up
he's going
to play
for us
and sing
to us
in the
background
while we
take this
moment
and let
it sit
I want
you to
pull out
your device
your paper
your notepad
take your
service sheet
grab a pen
that one
area of
your life
that circumstance
that sin
that relationship
potentially you've
been saying
no no no
to Jesus
on that issue
for 20
30 40
years
it might be
a maybe
it might be
a not
now
today is
the day
to decide
to pledge
yourself
to a
holy
dissatisfaction
in that
area
until you
know
the
fullness
of
your
yes in
Christ
Jesus
and overflow
with joy
I don't
know the
full details
of this
song but
I believe
Sam wrote
this song
that Nick
is now
playing
and we
only discovered
it this
morning
and I
went
yes
let's sing
that
and you
reflect
when he's
done
we'll move
on but
right now
it's time
for you
to reflect