Sermon Tone Analysis

“*THE GIFT OF CORRECTION*”

                   (A Sermon Series from 2 Corinthians)

 

Westgate Chapel 10-21-07                          2 Corinthians 7:2-4

 

Proposition:      The gift of correction in the body of Christ, when administered and received in the spirit of Christ, advances the work of the kingdom of God in a church and its city.

! i.    introduction

!! -     MY son-in-law sent me an e mail on Friday, right in the middle of sermon preparation, that I am sure he did not know I needed for the message today from 2 Corinthians 7.

!! -     THE e mail was entitled, “mamma ain’t playin.”

!! -     AND what followed was a series of three pictures.

!! -     LET me show you the first one.

!!! ~*     Looks like a teenager, who is not particularly happy, holding some sort of a sign.

!!! ~*     Let’s take a closer look at the sign (read it).

!!!! -     Now we know why he looked so sad.

!!!! -     Maybe the experience is starting to take effect.

!!!! -     I am sure he is not going to forget this day.

!!!! -     And you may already be wondering what his motivation is to be there, holding this sign.

!!! ~*     The next picture answers that question for you.

!! -     DR Benjamin Spock, a pediatrician, wrote a book on child raising in 1946 called “Baby and Childcare.”

!! -     IT was one of the biggest best sellers of all time.

It has been translated into 39 languages and has sold over 50 million copies.

!! -     AND while there are some good things that he says in the book, such as showing children more affection and affirmation, we have been paying the price as a society for the last sixty years because of his call for permissiveness regarding discipline in the family.

!! -     SOME have called him the father of permissiveness.

!! -     NOW, I am not suggesting that you make your teenager stand on the side of the road with a placard.

!! -     BUT I am suggesting that we live in a culture in the Western world, and especially here in the Northwest, where there is no tolerance for discipline in any form anywhere.

!! -     AND the church of Jesus in America, for the most part, is skipping merrily behind the world on this subject, playing to their tune.

!! -     SOME churches have based their whole philosophy of ministry on avoiding all corrective passages of Scripture in order not to offend.

!! -     BUT we cannot build our churches or our lives apart from the whole counsel of God.

!! -     THERE are times to encourage, times to affirm, times to rejoice in God, times to focus on the good things God has done for us….but there are also times for correction.

!! -     THERE are times that God sets us out on the side of the road holding up a placard.

!! -     CORRECTION is a gift from God.

Let me explain.

!! -     HEBREWS 12:4-6 says,

!!!       “*You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin*; 5 *and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him*; 6 *For those whom the Lord** loves He disciplines**, And He scourges every son whom He receives*.”

(Hebrews 12:4-6)

!! -     IS God a capricious, angry father who lashes out?

!! -     NO!

His discipline is motivated entirely by His love for us and the goal He has in mind for us.

!!! ~*     Verse 10 says correction is for our good and so that we may share in God’s holiness.

!! -     HEBREWS 12:11 continues with the subject,

!!!       “*All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness*.”

(Hebrews 12:11)

!! -     SO, discipline is evidence of God’s love for us and that we are His family; it is also for our good, for holiness and yields the fruit of righteousness…who wants out?

!! -     NOW, the apostle Paul had planted the church in Corinth.

He was their father in the Lord, loved them deeply, and kept close tabs on everything going on in the church in Corinth when he was away.

!! -     EVEN when he was in Ephesus, some 400 miles across the Aegean Sea, they were ever on his heart.

!! -     AND when a member of the church in Corinth came to visit Paul in Ephesus and told him about the sad conditions in the church, he sprang into action and wrote a strong corrective letter which is what we know as 1 Corinthians.

!! -     IT was a stern letter of correction.

!! -     AT times Paul’s language is quite strong:

!!! ~*     I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to infants.

!!! ~*     Because of your abuses during communion some of you are sick and some have died.

!!! ~*     Rather than take your differences to the pagan courts, the simplest one among you should be able to arbitrate.

!!! ~*     Hand the sinning brother over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that maybe his soul will be saved.

!! -     AT times his language was sarcastic,

!!! ~*     You are so rich.

You have become kings.

!!! ~*     We are weak but you are strong.

You are distinguished, but we are without honor.

!! -     SO, from the time he sent that first letter to them from Ephesus, until the writing of the second letter we are studying now, Paul was extremely concerned about how they received his correction.

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! ii.

PRODUCES COMFORT

!! -     WE will start today at 2 Corinthians 7:5….where

Paul actually picks up a theme he mentioned in 2 Corinthians 2:9,

!!!       “*For to this end also I wrote* [1 Corinthians]*, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things*.”

(2 Corinthians 2:9)

!! -     PAUL is now writing the second epistle from Philippi, in Macedonia.

!! -     REMEMBER, he had to run for his life from Ephesus.

!! -     HE went north, up the coast of Asia Minor, and got deathly ill on the way.

Thought he was going to die.

!! -     THEN stopped at Troas, all the way north on the coast of Asia Minor, and refused to stop there even though he tells us that an effective door for ministry was open to him in Troas….why?

!! -     HE was worried sick about what was going on in Corinth.

!! -     HE had heard nothing about how they had received his corrective letter.

!! -     HE had expected Titus to meet him in Troas.

!! -     TITUS had been the one who hand-delivered Paul’s first epistle to Corinth…and Paul wanted to know how it had gone over.

!! -     SO, since Titus didn’t show up in Troas as expected, Paul took a boat over the Aegean Sea to Macedonia (present day Greece) and ended up in Philippi, and started writing his second letter….waiting

for Titus.

!! -     SOMEWHERE during the writing of 2 Corinthians, Titus arrived with news from Corinth….and

that news is chapter 7.

!! -     LET’S read verse 5,

!!!       “*For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within*.”

(2 Corinthians 7:5)

!! -     WHY is Paul so discouraged, so depressed?

!! -     HIS love for the Corinthians is so great and his concern re: how they handled his discipline so intense at this point that he is a wreck.

!! -     VERSES 6 and 7,

!!!       “*But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus*; 7 *and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more*.”

(2 Corinthians 7:6-7)

!! -     TITUS came with terrific news for Paul.

!!! ~*     The Corinthians longed to see him.

!!! ~*     When they read Paul’s first letter, Titus said they mourned over their past sinful behavior.

!!! ~*     And they had recaptured their zeal for Paul evidenced by their repentance.

!! -     TITUS reported to Paul that Corinth had received his discipline, his correction, well…and that produced in Paul a sense of comfort.

!! -     THE word comfort in the Greek word is the word John uses in his Gospel to describe the ministry of the Holy Spirit….the

Comforter.

!! -     THE word means much more than sympathy.

!! -     COMFORT is something God does for you when you call on Him in times of distress and He literally comes alongside….and by His grace turns your sorrow into consolation, encouragement and hope.

!! -     THE Bible uses two metaphors for comfort to help you understand what God will do for you by His Spirit:

!!!       “*Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs and carry /them /in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing /ewes./*”

(Isaiah 40:11)

!!!       “*As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem*.” (Isaiah 66:13)

!! -     GOD’S comfort usually comes from God by the Holy Spirit through:

!!! ~*     His Word.

!!! ~*     His manifest presence.