WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.339 Well, good morning. My name is Tommy. I'm a pastor here at Church of the Advent. 00:00:11.179 --> 00:00:15.860 I'm delighted to be here. We're in a series that Jeff started last week, 00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:21.320 looking at Paul's letter to the Corinthians, the second letter that we have in the Bible, 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:27.699 what we call 2 Corinthians. And really, this is a series that is all about power. 00:00:27.699 --> 00:00:35.740 And I think power is a pretty relevant topic for us today. As we look, for instance, at what is 00:00:35.740 --> 00:00:43.439 happening right now in Ukraine, a lot of that is about power. We've had this ongoing conversation 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:49.920 in our society about cultural power, who has it and who doesn't, and what people are willing to do 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:57.120 to get it. As we think about the imbalance of power and privilege that sits behind a lot of injustice 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:05.359 in our society, or even as we think about our own personal power, our own personal sense of efficacy, 00:01:05.739 --> 00:01:12.539 and how that can be so easily tied to worth. You know, D.C., for those of us who live here, is 00:01:12.539 --> 00:01:21.359 unabashedly a meritocracy, where you really are worth only as much as your resume might indicate. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:29.859 So, power is a big recurring central theme in life, in our society. And this is a series all about power 00:01:29.859 --> 00:01:39.079 and the fact that the gospel turns power and weakness upside down. Because when we look at the gospel, 00:01:39.379 --> 00:01:48.060 God's greatest display of power, God's greatest display of glory, God's greatest display of majesty 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:57.439 and might, His greatest victory occurred through a man who became like a servant to all people, 00:01:58.060 --> 00:02:05.219 and who is subsequently mocked, humiliated, rejected, and ultimately crucified like a common criminal. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:14.699 And so, what that shows us, what the gospel shows us, is that true power, true spiritual power, 00:02:14.699 --> 00:02:21.259 often looks like weakness in the eyes of the world. So, that's what this series is all about. 00:02:21.459 --> 00:02:26.780 And we're going to begin to see these themes emerge as we dig into the meat of this letter, 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:32.000 beginning in chapter 1, verse 12. We're going to go through chapter 2, verse 11. This is admittedly a 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:38.359 larger chunk of text than I normally like to preach at any one time, but it all holds together, 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:44.960 and I hope you will see why. Because we begin to see the inversion of power and weakness 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:53.160 put on display actually in Paul's own life. So, we see three things happening here in this passage. 00:02:53.320 --> 00:03:00.640 First, Paul sets an example of power and weakness being turned upside down. He sets an example of 00:03:00.640 --> 00:03:04.600 this in his own life in the way he boasts to the Corinthians. We'll look more at that. 00:03:04.599 --> 00:03:11.460 And then he explains why he does what he does. Why does he live this way? And then finally, 00:03:11.579 --> 00:03:16.819 he then offers an exhortation to the Corinthians to follow the example that he has set. So, 00:03:16.859 --> 00:03:21.219 that's going to be our outline. Paul's example, Paul's explanation, and then finally, 00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:25.699 Paul's exhortation to the Corinthians and then to us. Let's pray. 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:33.719 Lord, we thank you and praise you for your word. We thank you and praise you for your presence in our 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:39.620 midst. We thank you and praise you that even if it feels like things are spiraling out of control, 00:03:39.699 --> 00:03:44.759 you have history and us firmly in your grip. We pray that you would speak to us this morning, 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:55.780 not merely as followers or servants or skeptics, but as friends, as children, as a loving father 00:03:55.780 --> 00:04:01.819 would speak to his most beloved children. Lord, we need your words in us this morning. We pray this in 00:04:01.819 --> 00:04:09.340 your son's holy name. Amen. So, first of all, Paul's example. It says in verse 12, 00:04:09.659 --> 00:04:16.860 for our boast is this, and I think actually this controls the entire passage. He says this and then 00:04:16.860 --> 00:04:21.939 he kind of unpacks it throughout our passage. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:28.159 that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:35.780 but by the grace of God and supremely so toward you. Now, what we need to understand is in Corinth, 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:41.600 boasting was pretty commonplace. It was very, very typical to be with your friends having lunch and 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:47.520 to be boasting about all of the things that you were most proud of. This was a glory culture, and so 00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:53.520 glorifying yourself was expected. That's how you built a name for yourself and built reputation for 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:58.539 yourself. So, at first, it sounds like Paul is going to be doing the same thing. Well, here's my boast. 00:04:58.699 --> 00:05:04.680 Here's our boast. Here's what we have to offer. But then, if you look at the actual content of his 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:10.299 boasting, you realize what he's doing. He's taking the entire concept of boasting, and he's turning it 00:05:10.299 --> 00:05:17.979 on its head. He's turning it upside down. He says very unexpected things because he's boasting about 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:23.900 things that no Corinthian in their right mind would ever boast about. When most people boast, 00:05:24.120 --> 00:05:30.520 if you think about it, when most people boast, most people want to put the spotlight on the things 00:05:30.520 --> 00:05:35.500 that make him look good, right? People want to put the spotlight. You kind of want to minimize the 00:05:35.500 --> 00:05:40.560 things that are embarrassing, and you want to spotlight the things that make you look impressive. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:48.240 But what Paul does is the opposite. He is actually spotlighting things that make him look weak. And 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:54.860 this is the content of his boast. Essentially this, he says, here's our boast. We behaved in the world 00:05:54.860 --> 00:06:01.959 with simplicity and godly sincerity. And I just want to look at what he's talking about here. First, 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:08.079 simplicity. Now, you say, what's the problem with simplicity? I like simplicity. You have to understand 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:14.159 that Corinth was a lot like Washington, D.C. This is a vibrant cosmopolitan center of commerce, 00:06:14.159 --> 00:06:20.419 and people immigrated to Corinth from all over, hoping to make a name for themselves, hoping to find 00:06:20.419 --> 00:06:29.419 their fortune. And so the culture was one of ambition and competition and self-promotion. Sounds a lot like 00:06:29.419 --> 00:06:36.479 where we live. So Corinth was the kind of place where you might have been valedictorian and class president 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:43.120 in your village. And then you come to Corinth and you realize that valedictorians are a dime a dozen. 00:06:43.840 --> 00:06:50.920 Class presidents and state champions are a dime a dozen. And all the things that made you a hot shot 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:58.960 in your village don't count for anything in a place like Corinth because everybody you meet is more 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:05.739 impressive than the last. And so Corinth is a place of competition and self-promotion. 00:07:07.060 --> 00:07:14.899 And yet Paul is, even though it says in 1 Corinthians, the first letter, that Paul is actually 00:07:14.899 --> 00:07:18.759 intimidated when he first comes to Corinth. He actually says that when he first comes to Corinth. 00:07:18.899 --> 00:07:22.719 He's intimidated. He's like, these people are brilliant. They're culturally sophisticated. 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:27.340 What am I going to look like when I say the message that I've been sent here to say? 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:33.120 And yet what he ultimately does is he's faithful to his calling. And he comes into a place like Corinth. 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:38.940 And instead of trying to sound sophisticated and impressive, Paul simply shares what he has seen 00:07:38.940 --> 00:07:48.520 and heard in Jesus. There's no rhetorical pyrotechnics, no fog machines, no laser shows, just the simple 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:55.319 truth of what he has heard and seen in Jesus. And he highlights that. He says, you know, I'm willing 00:07:55.319 --> 00:08:01.000 to look foolish in order to preach the simple truth of the gospel. People scoff at that kind of simplicity. 00:08:02.099 --> 00:08:09.039 Nevertheless, he does it. And then we see in Paul, we see sincerity. Paul is sincere, meaning he's honest 00:08:09.039 --> 00:08:14.919 and transparent, even though it makes him look weak. And we see this in a couple of ways. Jeff preached on 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:21.340 the first last week. We see that Paul is transparent about his suffering. He's transparent about his suffering. 00:08:22.340 --> 00:08:28.900 You know, in a culture like Corinth or in a culture like DC, it can be very tempting to act like everything is 00:08:28.900 --> 00:08:36.800 okay, even if it's not. Right? People say, hey, how you doing? And we say, I'm fine. I'm fine. You know, in the 00:08:36.800 --> 00:08:44.200 addiction world, what they say fine stands for? Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. Right? Oh, you're fine, 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:49.600 are you? But why do we say that? Why do we say I'm fine? Well, it's because deep down, I think most of us 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:57.360 are afraid if we really admitted the honest truth, I'm not sure if I'm doing okay. I had a really hard 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:05.120 time getting out of bed this morning. I'm filled with anxiety. If we really began to say that, then 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:09.140 people would think that we're weak. That people would sort of look at us and say, well, they obviously, 00:09:09.139 --> 00:09:16.139 you know, he or she obviously can't handle life. There's not cut out for life in a place like this. 00:09:17.019 --> 00:09:22.919 So most of us don't really admit when we are struggling. It's just not done in certain circles. 00:09:24.019 --> 00:09:29.659 And yet Paul, back in verse 8, he says this. He's willing to admit that when severe persecution 00:09:29.659 --> 00:09:34.819 broke out in Asia, listen to what he says. He says, we were, I was so utterly burdened beyond my strength 00:09:34.820 --> 00:09:41.920 that I despaired of life itself. I despaired of life itself. He's honest about that. 00:09:42.700 --> 00:09:46.680 So he's honest about his suffering, and even though it's going to make him look weak, even though people 00:09:46.680 --> 00:09:50.740 are going to say, he's an apostle and he can't even, he's struggling to get out of bed in the morning. 00:09:52.260 --> 00:09:56.120 Surely, surely he's not a legitimate, because if he really had faith in Jesus, he wouldn't struggle 00:09:56.120 --> 00:10:00.900 like that. And then he's transparent about the fact that he had changed his plans. 00:10:00.899 --> 00:10:05.579 Now, this is really confusing. Let me just give you a little context to help you understand 00:10:05.579 --> 00:10:12.179 what's happening here. Paul had started the church along with Timothy and Silvanus, 00:10:13.179 --> 00:10:19.799 Silas, back in, we read about that in Acts chapter 18. Then he starts the church in Corinth, 00:10:19.899 --> 00:10:23.519 then he leaves, and then he hears that there's all kinds of stuff going down in Corinth, conflict, 00:10:23.740 --> 00:10:29.259 division, immorality, heresy. So then Paul writes them a letter. Now, that letter is what we have 00:10:29.259 --> 00:10:36.460 as 1 Corinthians, right? We did a series in 1 Corinthians about 10 years ago. So Paul writes 00:10:36.460 --> 00:10:40.759 them a letter to this church that he planted. At the end of that letter, he promises that he's 00:10:40.759 --> 00:10:45.059 going to come visit them again in order to help them sort out all of these issues. He's like, 00:10:45.159 --> 00:10:48.460 you got major stuff going, I'm going to come in person, I'm going to help you out. 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:57.220 And so then Paul comes back to the church that he planted, fully expecting a warm embrace, 00:10:57.220 --> 00:11:03.639 a warm welcome, but that's not what happens. The visit is an absolute disaster. Paul is mocked, 00:11:03.820 --> 00:11:08.879 he's ridiculed, he's rejected. There are other teachers that are gaining popularity in Corinth, 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:16.680 what Paul later refers to as the super apostles, the super faithful, impressive, probably very tall, 00:11:17.040 --> 00:11:24.940 good-looking, eloquent teachers that are very, very impressive next to Paul. Paul is such a boring 00:11:24.940 --> 00:11:29.240 teacher that at one point at Acts, we read that as he's teaching, somebody literally falls asleep and 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:35.800 falls out the window and dies. And Paul, in utter embarrassment, has to resurrect this guy 00:11:35.800 --> 00:11:42.340 because he killed him, right? So Paul is not a very effective preacher, right? And so, and they know 00:11:42.340 --> 00:11:49.080 this, and these other really tall, good-looking, svelte, impressive leaders have come in. And so, 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:54.560 and so Paul knows that he's being ridiculed, and yet he comes and they reject him, right? And so when 00:11:54.560 --> 00:11:59.379 he leaves, things are even worse than before. He's lost a ton of credibility. So then Paul writes 00:11:59.379 --> 00:12:05.420 another letter, and this is a letter, here's the confusing part, the second letter that Paul writes 00:12:05.420 --> 00:12:10.620 is a letter that comes between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. So it's actually a letter that's been 00:12:10.620 --> 00:12:17.160 lost to history. We don't have that letter. But he writes this, this letter, and in that letter, 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:22.919 he says that he's going to come back and visit them yet again, actually two more times. So they're 00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:30.079 expecting yet another visit from Paul. But then he changes his plans. He cancels his visit, and he 00:12:30.079 --> 00:12:35.019 decides to write them a third letter instead of coming back in person. And that third letter that 00:12:35.019 --> 00:12:40.079 he writes is what we are now looking at, 2 Corinthians. Hopefully you're tracking with this, 00:12:40.959 --> 00:12:45.019 right? So he writes 1 Corinthians, he writes another letter that we don't have, it's lost to history, 00:12:45.019 --> 00:12:48.519 then he writes a third letter, which is the one that we're looking at. And this is the letter that 00:12:48.519 --> 00:12:54.759 they get in place of Paul himself. So he changes his mind. Now, you may say, well, that's not a big 00:12:54.759 --> 00:13:00.519 deal. People change their minds all the time. But listen, if you've ever been in any kind of position 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:07.059 of leadership, you know, you're leading an organization, leading a business, leading a ministry, 00:13:07.220 --> 00:13:13.639 leading a church, you know that when you change your mind, and if you change your mind too much, 00:13:13.639 --> 00:13:19.500 that can drastically undermine your credibility as a leader, especially if you're an apostle who 00:13:19.500 --> 00:13:25.819 theoretically is supposed to be hearing from the Holy Spirit, right? How can a person who has a 00:13:25.819 --> 00:13:31.080 direct line to God and the Holy Spirit, he's been commissioned by Jesus himself to lead this church, 00:13:31.139 --> 00:13:36.439 how can he vacillate like this? And so if you're in a position of leadership, it can be very hard 00:13:36.439 --> 00:13:41.360 to admit when you've changed your mind. I mean, I remember this happened in our church a few years ago. 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:47.779 We had started a new worshiping location in Brooklyn, and originally we thought that eventually 00:13:47.779 --> 00:13:52.139 this new worshiping location was going to become a standalone church. That was the plan. 00:13:52.779 --> 00:13:56.500 Two and a half years later, our leadership team, through a lot of prayer and discernment, 00:13:56.560 --> 00:14:01.899 had realized that in our long-term desire to have a gospel impact in Washington, D.C., 00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:07.139 that we need to reprioritize, and that we needed to prioritize getting a permanent space 00:14:07.139 --> 00:14:13.100 over starting new congregations in rented spaces. And so we reprioritized, and we pulled the 00:14:13.100 --> 00:14:19.600 congregations back together to focus all of our efforts on getting a kind of base of operations for 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:25.539 ministry and worship in D.C. from which we could do ministry for hopefully many generations, right? 00:14:25.939 --> 00:14:29.899 And so we reprioritized, and I remember even though we prayed about it, even though we all 00:14:29.899 --> 00:14:34.200 believed it was the right decision, our leadership team, when it came to communicating that, 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:39.759 there was a lot of, what are people going to think? You know, some people, you know, 00:14:39.800 --> 00:14:45.740 was this your plan all along? You know, are you really hearing from the Holy Spirit? 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:51.620 Why are you vacillating, right? So you'd be very hard when it comes to actually communicating that 00:14:51.620 --> 00:14:57.680 you've changed your mind, and yet Paul is willing to do that. And he knows that by changing his mind, 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:04.379 some people are going to say that he's weak, and they do. But in chapter 2 verse 1, he's very 00:15:04.379 --> 00:15:09.539 transparent about the fact that he did change his plans. And so what I want you to see here is that 00:15:09.539 --> 00:15:16.059 in all of these ways, Paul is turning boasting on its head. He's not covering up his weakness. He's 00:15:16.059 --> 00:15:21.879 not spotlighting only the impressive things. He's willing to put the spotlight on the unimpressive 00:15:21.879 --> 00:15:28.100 things. And in doing so, he's literally giving ammunition to the super apostles. He's giving 00:15:28.100 --> 00:15:34.720 ammunition to his worst critics who are at this moment slandering him and criticizing him for these 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:41.259 very things. And you know, just think about that as we think about life here in DC. We're not as 00:15:41.259 --> 00:15:47.899 inclined to openly boast. That's not as culturally acceptable here as it was in Corinth. But we're 00:15:47.899 --> 00:15:55.279 very good at sort of humble bragging, at covert boasting, right? Name dropping, right? I was with 00:15:55.279 --> 00:15:59.879 so-and-so, oh yeah, oh yeah. You know, and or we'll, you know, we're much more likely to sort of 00:15:59.879 --> 00:16:05.379 casually admit the five-mile run we did than the like one-gallon tub of ice cream we polished off 00:16:05.379 --> 00:16:11.259 alone last night, you know? There's a selectivity in what we're willing to sort of, you know, casually 00:16:11.259 --> 00:16:18.720 introduce in conversation that tends to fall along the lines of boasting. So we have to ask, why would 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:25.659 anyone do what Paul does here? How can we make sense of it? What's the explanation? Paul's explanation. 00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:32.720 If you look at Paul's explanation for all of his behavior, which is the sort of middle chunk of this 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:39.639 text, he essentially is saying this. He's saying this, everything that I've done, everything that I've 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:46.340 done, my visits, my letters, what seems like a back and forth to you, all of this was motivated 00:16:46.340 --> 00:16:55.000 because I love you. This was all motivated by my desire to love you. All of the times I humiliated 00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:00.960 myself, all of the times I looked foolish, I was acting out of love, and my concern was primarily for 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:06.779 you. So he says in chapter 1 verse 15, I wanted to come to you again so that you would have another 00:17:06.779 --> 00:17:11.839 chance to experience grace. The whole reason I wanted to come is so you would experience grace. 00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:19.480 And then chapter 1, 23 to chapter 2 verse 2, but I decided not to come, not because I was indecisive, 00:17:19.579 --> 00:17:24.319 not because I was vacillating, not because I was a coward, which is what some people were saying, 00:17:24.899 --> 00:17:32.480 but I decided not to come in order to spare you. It was for your sake because I didn't want to cause 00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:37.500 you more pain. He's like, you're the ones who bring me joy. I didn't want to come and cause more pain 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:45.460 to people in whom I want to see joy. The last visit didn't accomplish anything. What makes anyone think 00:17:45.460 --> 00:17:50.160 another visit is going to accomplish anything? And then he says in chapter 2 verse 4, you know, 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:56.079 when I wrote to you, I was in tears. You can imagine him almost saying, you know, the tears were staining 00:17:56.079 --> 00:18:02.939 the paper. Right? I was in tears. My words were not meant to cause you more pain. My words were meant 00:18:02.939 --> 00:18:09.019 to convince you how much I love you. Don't you see all of this, all of this is about my love for you. 00:18:10.059 --> 00:18:14.819 And what that means is that Paul is not concerned about his reputation. 00:18:17.139 --> 00:18:22.579 He's not concerned about his reputation. His sole focus was loving the Corinthians. 00:18:22.579 --> 00:18:29.220 And in the path of loving the Corinthians, Paul had to decide, am I going to choose to do this 00:18:29.220 --> 00:18:33.399 thing or to say this thing that's going to protect my reputation but won't be as loving? 00:18:34.539 --> 00:18:37.639 Or am I going to choose to love them even if it makes me look foolish? 00:18:38.159 --> 00:18:41.960 Am I going to prioritize what I believe is best for them even if it makes me look weak? 00:18:42.939 --> 00:18:47.679 And that's what he's saying. So he says, you know, because of my desire to love you, 00:18:47.679 --> 00:18:52.460 I'm willing to face humiliation and mockery and scorn and rejection, whatever it might take. 00:18:53.539 --> 00:18:58.659 And you say, well, how is this possible? Is this really true? Is Paul really this loving toward 00:18:58.659 --> 00:19:03.960 the Corinthians? You say, well, how is this possible? You see back in verse 12, Paul says, 00:19:04.599 --> 00:19:11.199 our behavior has been motivated not by earthly wisdom, which would say, you got to make sure 00:19:11.199 --> 00:19:16.079 your name is protected. You got to protect your reputation. That's earthly wisdom. 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:20.980 But it's not motivated by that. He says, we're motivated by the grace of God. 00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:27.879 There's an entirely different motive driving our behavior. The reason Paul is willing to face 00:19:27.879 --> 00:19:34.019 humiliation and suffering in order to love the Corinthians is because of grace. It's because 00:19:34.019 --> 00:19:42.259 his life has been transformed by that exact same kind of love. At one time in his life, 00:19:42.259 --> 00:19:50.319 Paul was one of the most impressive, influential, successful people around by worldly standards. 00:19:50.539 --> 00:19:58.859 And he had built his career on persecuting followers of Jesus. But then Paul met Jesus 00:19:58.859 --> 00:20:05.220 face to face. And he realized something about Jesus. He realized that even though Jesus was somebody 00:20:05.220 --> 00:20:11.079 that he had rejected, even though he was persecuting and dragging into the streets, people who followed 00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:17.700 Jesus, he was trying to shut this movement down, even though he had rejected Jesus, Jesus had been 00:20:17.700 --> 00:20:27.480 willing to face humiliation and mockery and scorn and suffering and death because of his love for people 00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:35.720 like Paul. Because of his love for people like Paul. And that's why it says in verse 20, that's why Paul says, 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:44.319 for all the promises of God find their yes in Jesus. This is Paul's epiphany. He realized that his entire 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:55.319 religion, all of the scriptures that he had by and large memorized, were filled with promises that God had made 00:20:55.319 --> 00:21:05.079 to his people and to the world. His entire religion was about waiting for God to finally fulfill his promises. 00:21:05.879 --> 00:21:13.740 A faithful Jew trusted faithfully that God would do that. And he realizes when he meets Jesus, 00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:20.659 that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God's promises. And he realizes in the truth of the gospel 00:21:20.660 --> 00:21:30.519 that ultimately, Jesus is God's yes to a world that has rejected him. Jesus is God saying yes to a world 00:21:30.519 --> 00:21:40.019 that has said no to him over and over and over again. In Jesus, God says yes to a world and he says, 00:21:40.340 --> 00:21:48.380 even if you hate me, I love you. God says, even when you seek to do me harm, I love you. Even when you 00:21:48.380 --> 00:21:55.200 flee in the opposite direction, I love you. I will pursue you because I am for you. 00:21:56.800 --> 00:22:05.040 And this is what grace is. This is the essence of grace. Grace means saying yes to someone. 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:15.400 I love you. I am for you. I want to bless you. Even when they say no to you. Even when they reject you. 00:22:15.400 --> 00:22:20.880 Even when they seek to do you harm. That's what grace is. It's giving somebody something that they 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:29.460 don't deserve. That they didn't earn. That they can never repay. And this utterly transformed Paul. 00:22:30.800 --> 00:22:35.220 And what you see in Paul's life is that he's willing to look weak. He's willing to look foolish. 00:22:35.500 --> 00:22:41.000 He's willing to endure mockery. He's willing to face all of these things in order to say yes to the 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:47.140 Corinthians. In order to love them even when they don't love him back. And the point for our larger 00:22:47.140 --> 00:22:53.799 series is this. In the eyes of the world, this looks like weakness. This looks like foolishness. 00:22:55.799 --> 00:23:02.920 But what we see in truth is as we see this reality, we're looking at the spiritual power 00:23:02.920 --> 00:23:11.200 of grace. This is the spiritual power of grace on display. And it's grace that is willing to love 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:17.539 and serve people even when they reject you. Grace that is willing to look foolish because it is 00:23:17.539 --> 00:23:25.240 blessedly self-forgetful. Grace that doesn't seek its own glory. It just seeks to build others up. 00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:35.920 Grace looks like weakness. But in truth, it has the power to transform the world. It has the power to 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:41.539 heal all that has been broken. And so what we see here is Paul setting an example of grace. 00:23:43.319 --> 00:23:49.319 He's explained where this comes from. It's because he's received grace in his own life. 00:23:49.319 --> 00:23:57.299 And lastly, we see Paul challenge the Corinthians and us to go and to do the same. 00:23:58.740 --> 00:24:05.960 If you've experienced grace like this, like I have, that must be shared. That must be extended to others. 00:24:07.480 --> 00:24:13.460 And you know, as we said before, there are some people in Corinth who are actively slandering and 00:24:13.460 --> 00:24:18.939 criticizing Paul. Some of these super apostles and some other people. And apparently there were maybe 00:24:18.940 --> 00:24:25.220 a few who had just been particularly harsh toward Paul. And apparently other people in the community, 00:24:25.360 --> 00:24:30.799 probably the majority of people in the community, have actually, since all of this happened, have 00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:36.480 disciplined those rabble rousers. They have shut them down. They brought some kind of formal church 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:43.120 discipline to bear. And so people have kind of risen up to fault Paul's defense and they have silenced 00:24:43.119 --> 00:24:49.739 his worst critics and accusers. Now you would think at this point, Paul would say, 00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:56.959 you're getting what you deserve. Get rid of those people. They have no place in our community. I'm only, 00:24:57.039 --> 00:25:03.039 I'm only interested in the people who are truly loyal to me. Anybody who questions me, anybody who 00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:07.399 pushes back, you're out of here. I never want to see you again. I never want to talk to you again. 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:14.720 You're dead in my eyes. Now you would think that that's how Paul would respond. That's how the world 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:21.180 would say to respond. But here's what Paul says in chapter 2 verse 5. Now if anyone has caused pain, 00:25:21.420 --> 00:25:26.380 he's caused it not to me, but in some measure, not to put it too severely, to all of you. 00:25:27.540 --> 00:25:33.019 This is a communal reality. When one person struggles, we all suffer. When one person sins, 00:25:33.019 --> 00:25:40.740 we all suffer. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. Because we are one, 00:25:40.839 --> 00:25:48.379 because this community is a family, to be ostracized, to be cut off, to be disciplined 00:25:48.379 --> 00:25:54.259 by the family, that is so severely painful that in most cases that's enough. He says, 00:25:54.339 --> 00:26:00.299 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 00:26:00.299 --> 00:26:06.799 So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. Now he's talking about his critic. He's talking about 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:10.859 the person who was out to get him, who's trying to take him down, who's trying to undercut his authority. 00:26:12.940 --> 00:26:18.700 To put it simply, Paul's saying, I'm willing to extend grace and mercy to those who are criticizing 00:26:18.700 --> 00:26:26.059 me, to my worst critics. I've forgiven them. I'm reaffirming my love for them. And now I want you to do 00:26:26.059 --> 00:26:33.619 the same. All right, again, earthly wisdom says, if somebody is slandering you, you have every right 00:26:33.619 --> 00:26:40.559 to seek retribution. Shut them down. But Paul is not motivated by earthly wisdom. He's motivated by 00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:48.960 grace. So his primary concern is what? Not his reputation. It's the well-being of his critic. 00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:56.440 His primary focus is, I don't want him to be crushed by excessive sorrow. So please remind him 00:26:56.440 --> 00:27:02.840 that you love him. Remind him that I love him. Remind him that he's part of a family and that we're 00:27:02.840 --> 00:27:09.140 here for him. Now that's amazing. And so he's exhorting the Corinthians, don't let this come 00:27:09.140 --> 00:27:14.640 between you. Don't let this divide you. Don't start thinking in terms of good guys and bad guys. 00:27:14.640 --> 00:27:20.560 This person is a part of our family and the main thing we need to do now is to love him. We've told 00:27:20.560 --> 00:27:25.640 him this sin is serious. We've told him that he needs to repent. Now we need to love him. 00:27:27.980 --> 00:27:34.180 Right now, what does all of this have to do with us? Well, I think that there's a tendency these days 00:27:34.180 --> 00:27:40.920 to sort of downsize biblical faith into kind of a private decision that we make at some point in our 00:27:40.920 --> 00:27:46.920 lives based on an intellectual ascent to believe in and follow Jesus. And we sort of think of faith 00:27:46.920 --> 00:27:51.900 as something that we do. Yeah, I decided to be a Christian. But then by and large, we simply continue 00:27:51.900 --> 00:27:55.920 living our lives as we otherwise would have anyway. And there's a kind of disconnect. 00:27:57.039 --> 00:28:02.680 And so for a lot of us, what that means is that our lives end up being shaped much more by earthly 00:28:02.680 --> 00:28:09.880 wisdom than by God's grace. Because there's no integration. There's no integration. When I was growing 00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:15.580 up, churches tried to counteract this with a movement built around the phrase, what would Jesus 00:28:15.580 --> 00:28:23.160 do? I was told growing up by the kind of Christians in my life, when you're thinking about how to live, 00:28:23.240 --> 00:28:30.740 you should always ask yourself, WWJD, what would Jesus do? And I actually had a bracelet. It looked 00:28:30.740 --> 00:28:35.780 a lot like this one. This isn't the actual bracelet, but I had a bracelet like this. It was a blue 00:28:35.779 --> 00:28:42.519 bracelet. And a lot of us in those days wore the WWJD sort of paraphernalia around to kind of remind 00:28:42.519 --> 00:28:45.980 us, you know, I'm like, you know, hard, tempting situation. And then I look at my arm, oh, okay, 00:28:46.099 --> 00:28:51.079 you know, what would Jesus do, right? And then I do the right thing. But, you know, even as a kid, 00:28:51.180 --> 00:28:56.559 that's how it was supposed to work, right? Even as a kid, even as a kid who I wouldn't really 00:28:56.559 --> 00:29:01.720 consider myself a Christian back then, I had a lot of problems with this. You know, for starters, 00:29:01.720 --> 00:29:08.180 most of the situations that I had to navigate as a teenager in the 90s were not in the Bible. 00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:15.480 You know, I didn't have, you know, Jesus at the mall, you know, like flirting with the girls in 00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:19.700 the food court. Like, and how do you handle that situation? Like, I, you know, I didn't have, 00:29:20.259 --> 00:29:24.660 you know, so it's like with a very few exceptions, I just had to kind of imagine what Jesus would do. 00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:30.339 Because I didn't know. I mean, it's just not a lot of parallels in the kind of ancient Greco-Roman 00:29:30.339 --> 00:29:36.220 world and like Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And so, I had to kind of imagine that. And then here's 00:29:36.220 --> 00:29:43.659 the bigger problem is, even if I did know what Jesus would do, he's the perfect eternal son of God. 00:29:44.539 --> 00:29:50.459 And I'm like a hormone crazed teenager with a death wish. And I'm supposed to somehow do what 00:29:50.459 --> 00:29:56.259 he would do? And so, for me, it was a massive setup for a lot of failure and futility. It's like, 00:29:56.259 --> 00:30:00.859 well, this religion is absolutely worthless and impossible. There's no way I can do this, right? 00:30:01.579 --> 00:30:05.920 And what we see in Paul's life is a very different understanding of faith. For Paul, 00:30:06.420 --> 00:30:10.720 faith is not a kind of one-time private decision that you make and then just kind of go on with 00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:16.259 your life. You kind of get your ticket punched and you're good to go. For Paul, faith is an ongoing, 00:30:16.259 --> 00:30:22.700 and here's the key, it's an ongoing dependence on God's grace in the present 00:30:22.700 --> 00:30:29.799 that shapes every aspect of his life. In other words, Paul never lived his life asking the question, 00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:36.400 what would Jesus do? That's what he used to do when he was a Pharisee. What Paul does now is he 00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:45.660 always asks the question, what has Jesus done? What has Jesus done on the cross? When I'm facing 00:30:45.660 --> 00:30:51.279 critics who are trying to take me down, what has Jesus done? When I'm facing people who accuse me of 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:56.799 being weak and vacillating, what has Jesus done? Right? When my life is in danger and I can't get 00:30:56.799 --> 00:31:02.519 out of bed in the morning because I'm filled with despair and fear, what has Jesus done? In every 00:31:02.519 --> 00:31:09.000 moment of every day, Paul was asking that question, what has Jesus done for me? And then he's living his 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:16.759 life in response to that grace. And so as we look at Paul's example and we look at this explanation 00:31:16.759 --> 00:31:22.079 of grace and then we look at his exhortation to us, we ask, what does it look like for all of us to live 00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:28.980 life in response to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and the grace and the love that God is pouring 00:31:28.980 --> 00:31:37.879 into our lives right this minute? How does that transform our priorities like it did Paul's? How does that 00:31:37.879 --> 00:31:44.619 transform our boasting and what we are willing to shine the spotlight on in our lives? How does that 00:31:44.619 --> 00:31:49.639 transform the way we see our enemies and the people who seem to be most out to get us? 00:31:51.059 --> 00:31:56.239 How does this transform what we believe about power and weakness? Because here's the thing, 00:31:57.919 --> 00:32:04.099 grace looks like weakness, but grace alone has the power to heal and transform the world. 00:32:04.099 --> 00:32:16.899 Let's pray. Lord, we love you, but nothing like you love us. We desire to follow you and to be for you, 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:23.539 but that doesn't come close to the truth that you're for us, that you have pursued us even when we fled, 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:30.980 that you have loved us even when we rejected you. That as Paul says in Romans, while we were still 00:32:30.980 --> 00:32:39.360 sinners, Jesus gave his life for us. Lord, I pray that we would not be a community simply marked by 00:32:39.360 --> 00:32:47.599 our desire to do what Jesus would do, although praise God if we could. I pray that we would be 00:32:47.599 --> 00:32:53.019 a community marked by grace, that the truth of what Jesus has accomplished on the cross would set us free. 00:32:53.539 --> 00:32:58.920 Lord, that this would be a community of joy, of grace, a community where people may be the only 00:32:58.920 --> 00:33:04.779 place in our lives in D.C. where we can be honest about our weakness, where we can admit when we're 00:33:04.779 --> 00:33:12.480 struggling, when we can be transparent. Lord, because we know that even though much in our lives 00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:18.400 look like weakness, that Lord, through our weakness, your strength is made known. Through our weakness, 00:33:18.560 --> 00:33:23.900 your name is glorified. And so, Lord, I pray that we would be so transformed by grace that we would be 00:33:23.900 --> 00:33:31.720 this kind of community. Lord, that is grace-driven, that is other-centered. And that through our 00:33:31.720 --> 00:33:36.080 weakness, through our brokenness, through our struggle, your name, not our name, would be the 00:33:36.080 --> 00:33:40.040 one that is lifted up. And we pray this in your son's holy name. Amen. 00:33:40.040 --> 00:33:40.140 Amen. 00:33:40.140 --> 00:33:41.040 Amen. 00:33:41.040 --> 00:33:42.040 Amen. 00:33:42.040 --> 00:33:43.040 Amen. 00:33:43.040 --> 00:33:44.040 Amen. 00:33:44.040 --> 00:33:46.040 Amen. 00:33:46.040 --> 00:33:48.040 Amen. 00:33:48.040 --> 00:33:50.040 Amen. 00:33:50.040 --> 00:33:50.100 Amen.