Don't Give Up

David Jones

2 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

2 Corinthians 2:12–17

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No Rest For My Spirit

Paul went to Troas on his way to Macedonia and an opportunity to start a church opened up. People were receptive to the gospel. The church began to grow. People were getting saved and lives were being changed. For all intensive purposes Paul should have been ecstatic about what God was doing through him at Troas. However; he says that he had no rest in his spirit.

He was suppose to meet Titus and get a report about how the church at Corinth responded to his “severe” letter. Titus did not show up at Troas. This discouraged Paul. He didn’t know what had happened to his friend Titus or how the church responded to his letter. This consumed him and robbed him of the joy that he could have had from what Christ was doing in Troas.

As a matter of fact he left the church at Troas and went on in to Macedonia. He did not stop on his way at Corinth. The reason was he didn’t know how the people responded to his letter or if he could keep his cool if he went there. He chose to go onto Macedonia.

Application

Discouragement is a tool used by Satan to stop Christians from doing the work of the Lord. Paul was at a very low point in his ministry. The church that he started and invested in had rejected him and went back to living apart from Christ. This broke the heart of Paul because he had poured so much into the people at Corinth. He saw the radical work that he did in that corrupt city. Now it seems to Paul that his labor was in vain, but more importantly the people that he loved was straying away from God.

Have you ever had disappointment in someone. Maybe been betrayed by them. This is very hurtful and can cause you to get discouraged. It can consume you. If this person was someone that you loved dearly. It may be a situation where they were walking with the Lord and they got into sin and began to go astray. As much as you try to get them on the right path, they continue to rebel against God and perhaps even distance themselves from you. This is very hurtful.

Perhaps it is a friend that doesn’t know the Lord and you try to share the gospel with them and they hear it but don’t respond to it. They just keep doing what they always do. This is enough for a person to throw up their hands and quit. DON’T! The fight will be worth the reward! Fight the fight on your knees!

Christ Brings the Triumph

Paul switched a flip in his mind and focused on the victory that Christ brings. You may ask well what is the victory? Did the Corinthian Church repent? Did they receive Paul and acknowledge him as an apostle? We do not know. But the triumph is not dealing with the church at Corinth. It is much bigger than that. The triumph is that we have the book of 2 Corinthians that is changing lives allover the world and for many generations in the past and to come. The gospel is presented and read when people read this book of the Bible. This book encourages us to keep going. Paul was obedient to the Lord in his calling and this is triumphal.

Application

We often see victory in the accomplishment. Victory is not always found in the accomplishment, but in the obedience. You see, there are nothing that we can accomplish on our own that has eternal results. we can accomplish things that have temporary results. God can use us to have victory that goes beyond the temporal. This requires faith in Him and His word.

28 And we know that [a]God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Rom 8:28

We serve a God who always has been, always is, and always will be! We don’t know what this means because we are human and He is God! He has orchestrated all events between creation and eternity! Think about that! We serve a God that knows everything for all time. Nothing escapes Him. He created it all. He chooses us to be instruments to do His will.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Eph.2:10

This blows me away! An eternal God uses a sinful person to carry out good works that have eternal consequences! You may ask what do you mean.

We are a fragrance of Christ to God.

We have seen how, in that procession, there were the priests swinging the incense-ﬁlled censers. To the victors, the perfume from the censers would be the perfume of joy and triumph and life; but, to the wretched captives who walked just a short distance ahead, it was the perfume of death, standing for the past defeat and their coming execution. So, Paul thinks of himself and his fellow apostles preaching the gospel of the triumphant Christ. To those who will accept it, it is the perfume of life, as it was to the victors; to those who refuse it, it is the perfume of death, as it was to the vanquished.

William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians, 3rd ed., The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 219.

When we are obedient to sharing the gospel it always has eternal consequences. When you share it with someone they have to do something with it. They can either believe and receive it or not believe it and reject it. For the person that rejects the gospel it is an aroma from death to death. That person will eventually die physically and then they will be separated from God in the lake of fire for all eternity. This is the second death.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if [f]anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Rev. 20:13- 15

There is no second chance and no more grace once you have rejected the gospel and died a physical death.

For those who receive the gospel, they are promised eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His [a]only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the [b]only begotten Son of God. 19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” John 3:16-21