Sermon Tone Analysis

ME

Blessed new year in 2020 in the name of our Lord Jesus!

So I wasn’t here along with Shannon and six other young people last week because we went to Passion Conference in Atlanta.

It ran from the 31st and ended on the 2nd, at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, 65,000 college students from 18-25 years old gather to hear seven sessions to call them to faithfulness in Jesus!

Speakers such as Levi Lusko, Ravi Zacharias, Christine Caine, John Piper, and Louie Giglio and all the big worship bands fill those two and a half days with loud sounds and passionate challenges.

If there’s only one thing though which I take exception to the general theme, it would be this.

The focus is very much on the individual and victory, and not as much the power of togetherness and in struggles, the in-between of life.

Passion conference, praise for message, young people passionate, but individualisic,

WE

Yet I understand why there is an appeal to the individual to seize God’s moment and calling and transform the world!

Life, if you are honest, is so much easier to do alone.

You can’t have arguments as to what to choose, where to go, what to do, when you are the only one making the decision.

Everywhere from advertising to self-help books (notice the word self), we are told we have untapped and undiscovered potential and we are the master of our own destiny.

Another reason besides not having arguments goes deeper.

Some of us have been hurt before.

Whether it is by a group of people, who left you out or forgot about you, and you are saying I’ve given up on trying!

Some of us have been betrayed by people, something you said to them and tell them not to share with others, and they broadcast it in the whole group which left you embarassed and bitter.

Others of us have been in a situation where we do the work as a group but at the end only one person gets the credit.

So when you are asked to join a group, to trust other people, you either don’t have time for all the possible things which can go wrong based on your past experience or we are just wired to do life on our own.

As an introvert especially, that’s the mode of life I am most comfortable with.

Ironic isn’t it, when I move to English ministry about a little over two years ago I chose to serve in small groups ministry.

People.

Lots of people.

With all these problems, why should we still be in community?

GOD

discouraged by people

disappointed by people

mistreated and cheated by people

GOD

We have been going through slowly the second letter to the Corinthian church since last year, and you can go back and hear those messsages if you want to catch up by going to the church webpage and under message, select 2019 messages.

We left off at the middle of chapter 5, so shouldn’t we looking at the rest of chapter 5? I have preached on it ironically as the first message of 2018 and for coherency I have put it up on the 2020 message.

We’ve been talking about the Apostle Paul and how this letter is his love letter (and love sometimes also includes all sorts of emotion as we have seen and we shall see) to the church of Corinth which he has founded, nurtured until some opponents from within started to challenge his authenticity as an apostle, as someone truly called by God to share the gospel and plant churches.

This left Paul at times sad and disappointed, at times dumfounded, emotional but not to the point of losing his hope in God.

As we shall see in this intimate passage after he declares what some sees as the heart of this letter that we are New Creation!

And as Christ has reconciled us to God, we ought to reconcile ourselves to one another.

The first two verses of chapter 6 in some way is a bridge to tie the message we just heard with Paul pouring his heart out yet once again in this letter from verses 3-10.

6 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,

“In a favorable time I listened to you,

and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Where we left off and why we skipped as it was preached on, and last year a guest speaker on September 21 spoke about 16-21 and you can go back and listen to it.

The verses in quotation are from where the old testament prophet Isaiah was describing the work of the suffering servant.

Paul sees Jesus as the suffering servant, so by extension he is the servant of the Suffering Servant.

He appeals, using this Old Testament quotation, to those who are in danger of having receive the grace of God in vain.

The grace of being reconciled and being called to reconcile with others.

Paul can wait for the church of Corinth to hold out on him yet for their sake, Paul declares NOW is the time.

Since you have received salvation and by extension reconciliation, that is making peace with the father, NOW is the time you reconcile with us.

With these two verses explained, we now look at the heart of today’s message:

3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way:

What obstacles was Paul referring to?

Certainly it couldn’t have been his delayed travel plans flip flopping to visit them and couldn’t, or his constant report of suffering and weakness more than other so-called apostles who have infiltrated the Corinthian church and said Paul is weak and not worthy to be an apostle.

No, the only stumbling block ought to be the offense of the cross, which to the world bears shame and weakness, but through which Jesus took on both and glorify himself in boldness and strength.

And that ought to be the only thing which the Corinth church can hold out against Paul, if he did not preach and live the gospel, except that he did.

What follows then is Paul pouring his heart and soul, not being afraid to share what he went through with others like Timothy, or Silas, or Titus, so that the Corinthian church will not see them as a liability or shame, but as an example of a true community to emulate in word and in deed.

Paul is commending his community life as both a defense of his identity and a model to follow.

Here’s the one point: through Paul’s life, we can see a blueprint for Christian Community.

Paul’s Life, his fellowship, his struggles, his experience and unwavering hope is the Blueprint for Christian Community.

We can break down verses 4-10 as follows:

v3.

The only stumbling block ought to be the offense of the cross,

Paul is not afraid to share what he went through

Beginning with in afflictions, all the way to hunger are nine hardships, all of which can only be endured by great endurance.

Then Paul list a catalog of virtues, in verse 6 beginning with by purity, up to the right hand and to the left.

Verse 8-10 list nine antitheses of worldly and godly comparisons.

Verse 8a there are two combinations beginning with the word “through.”

Verse 8-10 list nine antitheses of worldly and godly comparisons.

If you are not lost yet, I haven’t tried hard enough.

Clearly, Paul has carefully crafted something which scholars believe follow the conventions of philosophers of his time, subtle to us but it would have impress his Corinthian audience of Greek heritage.

conventions of philosophers of his time, subtle to us but would impress Greek-Corinth auidence

conventions of philosophers of his time, subtle to us but would impress Greek-Corinth auidence

Let’s dive deeper into this list:

I.

A Community which boasts of vulnerability and endures hardship

by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;

The hardest part in preaching this message is this part, because let’s face it, most of us are not facing afflictions or hardships or even calamities, let alone beatings, imprisonments and riots, not to say labors, sleepless nights and hunger over our Christian life.

But it would be to our detriment if we don’t at least unpack it not so much for application, but for inspiration.

The hardest part in preaching this message is this part, because let’s face it, most of us are not facing afflictions or hardships or even calamities, let alone beatings, imprisonments and riots, not to say labors, sleepless nights and hunger over our Christian life.

If you were to write a defense of why others should follow you, you probably wouldn’t start with a list of all the bad stuff.

You would start off with the good stuff, such as how many people were saved, how many churches we built, how many philosophers we debated and won.

Listing nine catalog of hardships seem to such a downer.

But Paul knows a community which acknowledges the reality of hardship and is vulnerable in not making it all look rosy is the first part to an authentic apostolic community.

Each of these nine afflictions are in sets of three, the first three are general hardships.

In some sense all three words mean relatively the same thing, they are all oppressive whether it is hardships, or more the stress of it, and calamities, that of things which is beyond our control, all as a result of choosing to be an apostolic community.

Here, we can relate, because our life regardless of whether we serve the LORD or not, will experirence these hardships.

They are part of what it means to be human living in a fallen world.

Some are of our own making, as in we cause them because of a bad decision or selfish choice.

But others are the results of other people’s bad choices and we get burned because of it.

However, Paul can claim what we cannot, which is in all cases where these hardships were visited upon him, he did it for the LORD.

While it may not be about planting churches or building up a people of God, how might we do our work as serving the living God in our workplace?

How might we treat our family as serving the living God?

How to raise our kids?

How to take care of our elderly parents?

How to understand that bad diagnostic from your doctor?

Since in life we can expect affliction, how might we face these afflictions so others know we believe in God?

Then Paul lists three very specific hardships they endured: beatings, imprisonments, and riots.

Because of how unpopular the gospel was to a pagan world and the Jewish religion seeing it as threatening the propserity and livelihood and so-called peace within the establishment, they endured physical pains and caused their freedom to be stripped away, and even cities were in an urproar to tear them apart, and yet they did not recant their faith.

three voluntary self-disciplines

The last three in the list are three voluntary self-disciplines he took on so he can bring the gospel to as many people as possible: labors, whether it is to work hard in his tentmaking business throughout the day then engage in ministry work throughout the night, to carrying the burdens and stress and pain of the people he loved causing him insomnia, or work so hard and diligently he forgot to take care of himself and eat.

Paul’s nine hardship reminds us when our life is totally sold for the gospel, safety, well-being, freedom, and luxuries become secondary.

The appeal of a community which is transparent and vulnerable is no one will ever feel left out because there will be endless things to say.