Many years ago, a friend of mine told me
that she would like to become a Christian but she didn’t think that she would
have the strength to do all the things that Jesus calls us to do. I actually think that was quite a mature
reaction. Jesus makes big demands of his
people. Jesus commands us never to be
ashamed of him, to love our enemies and to share the good news. Following Jesus is not easy, but God promises
that he will make us stand firm in Christ.
1. ‘We did not rely
on worldly wisdom but God’s grace’
Remember the context. Paul and his team had established the church
at Corinth. But after he left
false-teachers had come and turned the church against Paul. They were trained in the best methods of
communication, could charge expensive fees and spoke a message of pain-free
triumphant living. The majority of the
church had been taken in by them. It was
celebrity preachers and the prosperity gospel.
So, what does worldly wisdom look like
when it came to ministering among the church at Corinth? Worldly wisdom looks like the
false-teachers. These men were impressive,
self-made, powerful and wealthy. These
men would have impressed in the world, and they had impressed the worldly
Corinthian Christians.
How weak the apostle Paul looked compared
to them! By all accounts Paul was
unimpressive in appearance. He was poor and
earned a meagre living through manual labour.
He wasn’t a trained communicator.
His life was characterised by suffering.
But he knew that ‘when I am weak then I am strong’ (2 Cor. 12:10).
In this internet age there are plenty of
celebrity preachers and there are churches whose worship can rival the best of
concerts. These things aren’t
necessarily wrong, but they are not where we place our confidence. We must not think that they are the key to a
good ‘worship experience’ or the ingredients that will establish our church
plant.
‘We don’t rely on worldly wisdom but of
God’s grace’. God’s grace is his
undeserved unearned unmerited favour.
It’s God not treating us as our sins deserve but according to his loving
kindness. It centres on a broken saviour
on a cross. Because he knew that the
church was a result of God’s grace Paul did not rely on his performance. Instead he acted with integrity and godly
sincerity.
When my parents retired they went to
Killarney to revive a small Methodist church.
It grew quickly and the denomination wanted to learn how that
happened. I think it was quite
simple. The time was right and they
simply loved people, prayed and taught the Bible. That is our task as we seek to grow this
church and plant a new one. We need to
love people, pray and faithful speak of the crucified Jesus.
2.
‘It is God who makes us stand firm in Christ’
I have noticed something since coming to
Limerick: in this city our word is not our bond. People will tell you what they think you want
to hear but that doesn’t mean that they will actually act on their words. I remember someone finding out that I was
pastor of this church and telling me that they were going to come to join us
the next Sunday. I waited for them. Hoping to see them. Then they did not turn up. I don’t think they had intentionally lied to
me, they just didn’t follow through on what they had promised. I learned not to take people’s promises so
seriously.
Paul’s opponents were accusing him of a
similar unreliability. They said that he
was the sort of person who says one thing but does another. He had made plans to visit the church, but he
didn’t follow through. They said he was
two-faced. As we will see Paul had good
reason to change his plans. He tells him
that his ministry and his message is rooted in the faithfulness of God.
‘But as surely as God is faithful, our
message to you is not ‘Yes’ and ‘No’.
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me
and Silas and Timothy—was not ‘yes’ and ‘no’, but in him it has always been
‘yes’. For no matter how many promises
God has made, they are ‘yes’ in Christ.
And through him the ‘Amen’ [literally ‘let is be’] is spoken for the
glory of God. Now it is God who makes us
and you stand firm in Christ. He
anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts
as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come’ (18-22).
John Piper explains that behind every
promise of God lies the logic of heaven, which says, ‘I did not spare
my own Son therefore my promises cannot fail.
I will help you do what you have been called to do’ (John Piper). I think that this is beautifully illustrated
in the letter to the Romans, ‘he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up
for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things
[which in the context is all things needed to grow in godliness and say with
God to the end]’ (Romans 8:32).
Think of all the promises of the Old
Testament—our sinful hearts being made as white as snow, a new heart and a new
inclination to follow God and that would be his people and he our God, they are
all fulfilled in Jesus. This is also
true of all the promises of the New Testament.
You say, ‘I can’t overcome this temptation, I am addicted to my sin, it
is hopeless.’ God says, ‘Did I lie to
you when I said that I will not let be tempted beyond what you can bear and
that I would provide a way out (1 Cor. 10:13)?’
You say, ‘I can’t speak to that person about Jesus, I wouldn’t know what
to say.’ God says, ‘when I call I equip,
ask me and I will fill you with the Holy Spirit and you will speak with
courage’ (Acts 4:31). You say, ‘I don’t
matter to God.’ God says, ‘through Jesus
I have forgiven your sin, made you a child of mine, and you are the apple of my
eye.’
‘I did not spare my own Son therefore my
promises cannot fail. I will help you do
what you have been called to do’.
3. ‘Forgive in the sight of God’
But why hadn’t Paul visited them when he
said he would? He had changed his plans
‘to spare you’ (1:23). He had delayed
visiting out of love for them. It was
not because he was unreliable or two-faced.
It was because he loved them so much.
You see his second visit had been a
‘painful visit’ (2:1). He had to address
the Corinthians about their behaviour, including their tolerance for
false-teachers. That visit had been full
of confrontation. If he had come back
too soon after that visit it would have likely ended up with more
fighting. Instead, he wrote a letter—a
severe letter, but written through tears—to address the issues and give them
time to repent. Thankfully that letter had
worked and the majority of the church returned to Paul. Now Paul calls them to do one of the hardest
things that God demands of us—to forgive!
We don’t know how, but one of their
members had particularly wronged Paul. Yet
in response to the severe letter and the discipline of the church he had
repented. You see, if we really care
about each other we will seek to address serious and ongoing sin in their
lives. This man’s behaviour had upset
all of them. Those in the church were
finding it hard to forgive him. In fact,
they were in danger of crushing him. It
was really important that they reaffirmed their love for him. For you know who loves to see a church
consumed with bitterness and forgiven people being condemned? The devil!
It is how he damages churches! A
politician stood before a large audience of Christian students and gave them
some advice: ‘get even!’ That is exactly
what the devil would do!
Notice how he forgives. There is some debate about what is meant when
he says that ‘I have forgiven in the sight of God’ (2:10). I think that part of this means that he has
forgiven for God’s sake. He has also
forgiven following God’s example. We
don’t understand the good news about Jesus if we can’t see that involves unworthy
people like ourselves been forgiven by God and being challenged by Jesus to
extend that forgiveness to others.
Christ took up his cross so that we could be forgiven. It is not too much for him to ask us to
forgive others.
I remember when I began to work in a church
in Northern Ireland at the end of the troubles someone suggested it was not my
place to tell people they needed to forgive.
After all I had not suffered what they had suffered. That may be true, but the call to forgive
comes from Jesus, who suffered more than any of us, and he did so for us. He will be patient with us a we struggle to
let go of bitterness. He will enable us
to reaffirm love to those who have let us down.
Conclusion
I want to finish by admitting ‘I can’t do
it’. ‘I can’t forgive those who have
hurt me.’ ‘I don’t have the courage to
speak about Jesus to those who intimidate me.’
‘I don’t have the sticking power to stand’. ‘I don’t feel like I will ever have the
ability to overcome those temptations that so easily defeat me.' Neither do you, and that is okay! We act in the grace of God.
The Christian life is not activism. It is not turning over a new page or making a
New Year’s resolution. It is not
gritting our teeth or trying harder. On
our own we will not stand firm in Christ.
The Christian life is not passivism. It is not simply ‘let go and let God’. God works in us to will and act according to
his good purposes. We are called to
respond to God’s grace.
The Christian life is striving in
dependence of God. In a previous letter
to the Corinthians Paul wrote, ‘by the grace of God I am what I am, and his
grace toward me was not in vain. On the
contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace
of God that is with me’ (1 Cor. 15:10).
Or to the Colossians Paul sums up his ministry explaining, ‘He is the
one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we
may present everyone fully mature in Christ.
To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully
works in me’ (Col. 1:28-29).
‘It is God who makes us and you stand firm
in Christ’ (2 Cor. 1:21). When we admit
our weakness then we are strong!
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