Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Who am I?

At the Acts29 Conference in Reno with past week with Mark and several other Origin leaders.

Mark left from Reno to catch a plane bound for Dublin, Ireland and then on to Belgrade, Serbia for the Acts29 Europe Conference.

That opened this opportunity for me to preach this morning.

We have so far in this series, "Willing But Weak," studied a number of prayers from the Bible.

Faith

Surrender

Pain

Confession

Lord's Prayer

Saved by a Prayer

High Priestly Prayer

Transformation

They've covered the range of experience and relationship with God.

The prayer we'll look at this morning is VERY different.

It's a PARADOX.

What's a paradox?

SLIDE 2 - So, a paradox is ...

... a figure of speech in which a statement appears to contradict itself.

ThoughtCo: See, https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-paradox-1691563

... a figure of speech that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains a kernel of truth or reason.

LitCharts: See, https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/paradox

Hiding in plain sight

The only constant is change.

"Not all who wander are lost."

J. R. R. Tolkien

The paradox that we'll learn from this morning teaches us that our weakness is not a LIABILITY, it's an OPPORTUNITY.

We, in the United States and around the world, love STRENGTH, and we show disdain for WEAKNESS.

Terms for Strength

Macho

Hulk

Superman

Beast

Terms for Weakness (See, http://urbanthesaurus.org/synonyms/weak)

Wimp

Weakling

Pansy

Sissy

Setting of the Letter

Written from Ephesus, where Paul wrote a number of the epistles.

According to Horne & Bewer in their book, The Bible and Its Story, this second letter to the Corinthians was written "to maintain his influence over these self-important converts."

Unlike 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians addresses an altogether different situation—the Corinthian attack on Paul’s apostleship.

Myers, A. C. (1987).

In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (p.

237).

Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

In 2 Cor. the principal topic is apostleship, negatively defined in chs.

, positively in .

Paul’s own status as an *apostle had been challenged and his conduct attacked.

Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A. (Eds.).

(2005).

In The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.

rev., p. 421).

Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

Paul’s choice of this city as a strategic center in which to plant the gospel was justified by the control that its location gave the city over trade and travel E[AST] and W[EST] by sea, as well as N[ORTH] and S[OUTH] by land.

Corinth had two good harbors, ... .

Her control over trade made Corinth very prosperous although located in an unfertile plain.

One of the first parts of Greece to be inhabited.

Julius Caesar rebuilt the city in 46 B.C. as a Roman colony.

Madvig, D. H. (1979–1988).

Corinth.

In G. W. Bromiley (Ed.),

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Vol. 1, p. 772).

Wm.

B. Eerdmans.

The most conspicuous landmark at Corinth was the Acro-corinth, a mountain to the south of the city.

Reaching a height of 1,886 ft (575 m), it was an ideal situation for a fortress that could control all the trade routes into the Peloponnesus.

The temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, stood on its highest peak.

The thousand female prostitutes who served there contributed to Corinth’s reputation for immorality.

Madvig, D. H. (1979–1988).

Corinth.

In G. W. Bromiley (Ed.),

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Vol. 1, p. 773).

Wm.

B. Eerdmans.

The city's influence and geography justifies a comparison to San Francisco.

Why would Paul's message resonate with the Corinthians?

PREAMBLE for 12:1-10

Paul's preamble to this section is .

In it, he recounts the suffering he has encountered as an apostle, missionary, and church planter.

He's been through a lot, and he recounts it all as a way to "one up" their self-important stance.

In v.23, he goes toe-to-toe to boast about earthly accomplishments, and lists what hardships he's endured.

In this passage in Corinthians, Paul boasts about his own deeds and glories.

(See, ).

Paul, though not to the point of death, has endured an overwhelming list of hardships for the sake of the Gospel:

Imprisonments

Beatings

5 times of 39 lashes

3 times beaten with rods

Stoned

Shipwrecked 3 times

Danger from

Rivers

Robbers

His own people

Gentiles

The City (an urban environment)

The Wilderness

The Sea

False Brothers

Sleepless Nights