2 Corinthians - Part 1 (10AM)

do things is is another [Music] [Music] [Music] woof is [Music] they [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] perfect way [Music] [Music] his body on the is [Music] all right good morning church i'm eldwin and i'm one of the gg leaders here in crc puchong growth group to be exact and i will be your mc for this morning it's really great to see more brothers and sisters being able to gather here sitting physically under the preaching of god's word as you know we just entered phase three of the nrp here in clang valley and that's give us some wiggle room to host more people but that does mean where possible i hope that everyone will desire to come physically and not get too comfortable being at home in the virtual sunday as one of the churches doctors i'd like to just take a moment to gently remind everyone here the importance of following the sop the covet 19 sop we're taking precautions and we're following them very strictly so that everyone can stay safe so what does that mean that does mean that number one keep your face mass on at all times number two social distancing as much as possible for one meter between each other here try to avoid physical contact as much as possible i know you guys are very excited but you can try this thing called air fives and air hugs they're not as bad as you might assume it's gonna be okay it's actually not too awkward and of course hand hygiene all right so that's pretty good as well uh here in crc we care about your physically your physical health and that's why we're so serious about these things now a very warm welcome to the newcomers if you're joining us for the first time i can imagine that it must be very exciting for you after i don't know how many months of you joining virtual gatherings and so if you're here for the first time could i suggest that you fill out our newcomers card by scanning the qr code on the screen it's going to help us to keep you updated with the latest events that are going in church to the members and candidates welcome back to the physical gatherings here i'm sure that many of you will be welcoming each other in the lord it's truly such a blessing to be in the presence of god's people all ready to soak up the wisdom of god through the preaching of god's word now brothers and sisters where are we at now this year it's already october right 3rd of october we're currently in the second and the last year of our crc does bt series bt is short for biblical theology we spent the whole of last year going through the old testament and then this year we're going through book by book from the new testament biblical theology is seeing the wisdom of god's salvific promises fulfilled in his son jesus christ but really what is bt in a nutshell let's hear from our very own pastor in training jerome in this short clip on the screen hi guys my name is jerome and i'm one of the pastors in training here at christ evangelical reform church cerc now today i want to tell you about biblical theology sounds complicated it's not when most people read the bible it happens like this i don't know what's going on but really when you read the bible biblically theologically from genesis all the way to revelation our one god has one plan and his plan is to glorify himself in the salvation of sinners through judgment by his son the messiah the lord jesus christ now every time when you ask a christian a question they would often say jesus as if like he's the answer to everything but you know what they're right jesus is the answer to everything but biblical theology tells you how jesus is the answer to everything through biblical theology you get to see how jesus is the center of god's plan and how he is at the climax of god's plan so if you want to learn more about biblical theology or simply put what god's story is from the bible all right biblical theology sound complicated it's not and if you haven't started studying it before this then there's no better time than now okay and where exactly are we now in the bt series as a church we're halfway through a mini-series called the church in trouble and remember okay it's 10 a.m 5 p.m not 6 p.m okay so it's 10 a.m and 5 p.m now the church in trouble wow that looks like trouble too now the church in trouble if that sounds serious well that's because it is at least it was and is to some extent still the case especially if we don't learn what we're supposed to from paul's letter to the corinthians so we've covered galatians and just finished one corinthians last sunday and today we'll be having pastor and training daniel preaching to us from two corinthians now we learned from last week that there's no shortage of problems that plague this church and the problem is so serious that it manifests itself in a variety of problems in the church one quick example from chapter five is that it was even reported that there is sexual immorality among them so bad so bad that even pagans wouldn't tolerate it but at the heart of the problem was spiritual immaturity and spiritual arrogance as they did not properly grasp the wisdom of the cross and to not grasp the wisdom of the cross is to not grasp the wisdom of god in christ to put it bluntly they were behaving in a humanly way and paul doesn't mean that in the positive sense of the word because in fact they were actually practicing worldly wisdom by failing to recognize the hidden glory nature of the cross when in fact they were supposed to get the hidden glory of the cross and the wisdom of god in christ and so let me just read to you guys a little bit from one corinthians so that you can hear in paul's own words okay uh chapter 1 verse 27 and this is what he says right in his own words this is what they're supposed to understand but god chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wives god chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong god chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring nothing things that are so that no flesh might boast in the presence of god and because of him you are in christ jesus who became to us wisdom from god righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that as it is written let the one who boasts boasts in the lord so as we prepare ourselves to listen to daniel's sermon later we've got to have some of these questions in our mind right going to two corinthians we might we must be wondering did the church eventually repent of their sins did they learn to see the wisdom of the cross which is folly to those that are perishing did they learn to see the power of god and the weakness of the cross are they still doubting and rejecting paul's apostleship and his ministry to them will they finally learn what it means to boast in the lord in fact you know what let's take half a step back what does that even mean what does that even mean these questions and many more will hopefully be addressed in the sermon as daniel covers the text so i hope you guys are excited and i do hope that as a church that we we can encourage one another whether it's here at central or back home virtually at your gg watch parties by listening intently and speaking of digi watch parties for those of you that are not yet plugged in into a gg i'd like to tell you about the various university growth groups ttgs and also the adult growth groups that we have in church as you all know and maybe for some of you that just joining us you don't know ggs are still being held online but eventually we're going to meet physically again and so i'd recommend you if you're going to get to a gg find one that's nearest to you i cannot stress the importance of being plugged into a gg guys this is because in gigi's gigi's they work hand in hand together with the sunday's sermon in gigi's we get to dig deeper into the key passages that were preached on sunday and because it's done in a small group it gives chance for active discussion to take place and also a great place to begin applying the truths learning that we learn from scriptures so what are you waiting for join one today as you guys know the ddgs are on saturday afternoons the lggs take place on thursday evenings we even have a mom's gg tuesday mornings and friday evenings and in fact there's even one for those that are of the chinese speaking and also bm speaking if you're more comfortable with those languages but whatever it is just go over to the website and find out all the details and info there you can even find out the gigi leader's name and also their phone number and from there you can liars with them now church aside from gg if you look around and you're aware we are a relatively young church with lots of young married couples starting their own families so we've also actually got a very active sunday school ministry crc sunday school believes that even little children can learn the gospel of jesus christ and have a place in god's kingdom and personally my wife and i super thankful for crc's sunday school ministry we have a c we have a study school here that teaches kids about jesus faithfully and also a place that teaches jesus in a way that course that corresponds with the way that what we're teaching at home and here's a picture of my daughter yeah we call her lizzy for short she just turned two a few months ago and she's all dressed up and she's ready to go for a sunday school okay and you can see that uh she's dressed up with a crown and her little like cape thing going on there so this is where she's learning about jesus as king and at the very end of the sunday school session she actually has to take down the crown because she learns that she's not king she learns jesus is king so she has to destroy the crown okay yes she never forget this thing okay she really liked the crown at crc sunday school kids can be expected to be immersed in a fun and creative environment where big truths about god come alive through faithful and thoughtful teaching so if you know any children ages 2 to 12 then feel free to bring them to join crc sunday school you don't have to wait until you have your own and it happens every sunday at 9 30 am and also at 3 pm depending on which age group you're in once again for more information just go on the website now the reason why we as the church put so much emphasis on the faithful teaching of the gospel whether it's in gigi's or in sunday schools is because it's in christ that god has humbled us to understand the depths of our sinfulness and it is in christ where the church finds forgiveness of sins and salvation through judgment we learned in ephesians a few weeks ago how the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with jesus being the cornerstone and if a church has properly fed the word of god then she is expected to be united in the faith and knowledge of the son and to mature by growing in every way into jesus as the head so thank god for the holy spirit teaching us these truths in christ and this has resulted in several people wanting to commit to our church and to serve alongside one another in the kingdom of god so i'm really excited to tell you all that there's going to be a swear in ceremony for the new members happening on the 10th of october next week i'm so excited yeah my heartbeat is going high and there's going to be more than a dozen people joining this church in meaningful membership as a response to what they've been learning and i'm actually going to interview three of them here today really briefly so that the church can be encouraged by the work of the holy spirit in their lives so first up let's get kaylee up on stage hey kaley hey how are you i'm good i'm good how are you all right so for some of you that might not know uh kaylee kaylee actually has a very interesting backstory uh she came to know crc through our youth group if i'm not mistaken yeah yeah and fast forward how many years is it now five five years yeah yeah and you're one of crc's youth leaders assisting pastor in training jerome all right so praise the lord in that and uh one thing that's yeah one thing that's very obvious is also that uh you have a strong passion for teaching the youth groups okay i think it's pretty uh pretty evident to all of us can you share your own experience uh why is it that you feel so passionate about teaching youth groups the gospel well so i was about 13 i think when i heard the gospel at youth group and i finally heard the true gospel for the first time even though i grew up in a christian family for a long time and it was like since then my life changed so i know what it was like to be a youth who um is is living a directionness and a very passionless life just living for um you know day after day and not really living for anything and so now i want to help other youth to to live lives and not waste their youth lives to not just slave away from their for their studies or to just go from one fleeting clash pleasure to the next but to actually live meaningful lives for jesus and to live the life for the only one who is worth living for so yeah i'm passionate about helping other youth be passionate about jesus yeah i mean it's so easy to waste your time and to waste your youth away when i hear this i feel kind of sad because in my own life and my youth i was wasting it away on computer games before i knew the gospel a really big waste of time um but yeah how did you realize that you want to become a member of this church because you know this is a really big decision isn't it yeah yeah yeah um so since i i was converted then i i began to realize that crc really is a church that is uncompromising on the gospel and a church that um it really primarily concerns for the glory of god rather than the glory of man or the glory of anything else or even just about getting numbers and growing in size but they really care to preserve the gospel and to preach it unfilteredly so that god's glory may shine through and we may come to worship this you know majestic god yeah yeah awesome and i came to know as well that uh you're actually the youngest member in your class so how was that like was it challenging uh i mean it's difficult i guess and it was a bit intimidating i was 15 i think when i went through the course and uh but but it was okay like like people make a big deal out of it but i don't i don't really feel anything different and no one really treats you anything differently or they don't ostracize you or anything so i mean membership is really my badge and my group mates really shows that a corporate reality of the church and how we're united in the gospel and regardless of our differences our age our genders and everything yeah and you're a good example of how uh biological age doesn't necessarily always tell you with spiritual maturity right so i'm glad that the church had the maturity to to be able to go through the class with you even though you were the youngest member yeah yeah so i know that your youth group is actually meeting for a watch party now yeah yeah i'm sure that they missed you a lot i'm so sorry that i had to take you away from them so that we could encourage the church today but i was thinking why don't we crash their watch party oh okay we're gonna crash their watch party shall we do that guys let's do that let's crash the youth group watch party and see what they're doing oh it looks like they're expecting us hey guys hey guys can you guys hear us from there all right judging from the movement of the hands it must be true all right good good so look i'm sorry i had to take your youth group leader over here okay but we're interviewing her we're being uh and i think you guys can hear from your side as well okay but uh yeah are you guys excited to hear today's sermon on two corinthians [Laughter] all right cool i mean look i think the church is really encouraged to see how there's the youth group that's so excited to hear the preaching of god's word and you know like i said in youth on sunday you could be doing a lot of other things and probably your friends are wondering why are these guys spending all their time on you know on sunday listening to a sermon when they could be out there doing other things and yeah what would you what would you how would you answer your friend if your friend asked you that question maybe we can hear from one of you guys [Music] sister so that i knew they bring out the script [Music] throughout the week yeah okay so you're breaking up you're breaking up a little bit there all right uh let's give it a try you want to try again one more time i think the audio is getting a little bit better this is the second half okay let's give it another try oh sorry can you just say that again i couldn't hear what you were saying yeah oh no okay you know what we're gonna go over to one of the guys then okay because you know internet's not on our side today so yeah uh can you hear one from one of the guys uh what would you say to your friend who's asking you like why spend all that time in church on sunday listening to sermon [Music] as well um as youth it's important for us to um sort of take our time off uh and prioritize uh what's necessary in our future encouraging for us to learn and grow in god's word together as we meet on sundays all right okay thank you i think i heard you guys able to catch a little bit more better the second one all right well anyways it's interesting on our side today it's okay but uh what i can tell at least generally is that you guys are serious about listening to the church uh sermons and i'm very encouraged i hope that the church is encouraged and so actually what we want to do is we want to uh let you guys to it let you guys focus and we're going to wave goodbye to you guys so we've actually got a camera here everyone look at jimmy and actually on zoom they can they're able to see uh you guys if you guys look at jimmy so let's let's just wave together let's wave to them bye youth thanks so much for letting us crash man awesome okay well man they were excited but it was the internet but anyways um kaylee thanks so much for coming up uh and yeah thank you you'll be here right you'll be here uh i'll i'll i'll join them on youtube okay thanks so much for your time all right so uh all right next we are actually since we're already on zoom anyways or we were we're going to actually go and hear a little bit from prisca all right so she's going to be interviewed all the way from jb so we're going to have to do it online as well prisca hi hey prisca can you hear us yes ken all right we can see you and hear you so that's good that's a good thing uh yeah so prisca uh she's the newly appointed tgg chinese leader and she also hails from jb she's from jb she's at jb right now are you in jb are you in japan i can't really tell from the background is that your real background or is that your virtual background virtual background this is actually at youth room okay sure sure no worries that's great okay so joining us all the way from jb prisca wong she's going to be a member after so many years in less than one week prisca wong how do you feel about finally becoming a member of crc yeah it is it is both a relief and and a great sense of responsibility relief because like what he said i've been wanting to become a member since five six years ago and then i got sent back to joe hall for work and it's been four years now so it's a relief that finally it's done and but more of it is what i mentioned a great sense of responsibility because being a member is being accountable to the church not just to let the chest to nurture and take care of me but also to put the church and her burdens all on my shoulder as well so it means i'm now responsible to the culture of the church to her growth her ministry and her future as well yeah right oh man i'm so excited to have you join us and uh you know uh prisca uh you're not just working in jb uh it's actually your hometown right so uh why would you be willing to move interstate away from your kampung just to join our join us here in kl in crc i i feel like i can give a one hour talk on this like 10 points 20 reasons why crc right but a lot of it is a gratefulness actually to what crc has done in my life um i have grown up in churches since young but it is cerc who cares enough to go deep into the bible and to preach faithfully in a way that speak to my context and culture and speak to my life and it's here she would send cma to uni to read the bible with me on a weekly basis when i was a student that i would say for the first time in my life i came to know god according to his word and came to know his plan of salvation and who i am in relation to god in crc is the first time in my life you know even though i've been calling myself as christian for so many years in crc i would say is the first time in my life and that i come to understand the gospel which brought me to my knees to true repentance i'm sorry i want to come back to this church who brought me to god and other than gratefulness i also agree with and i value cerc and her ministry you see if if reforming malaysia is the goal did i think crc is the place to go because cerc is under good hands of leaders and elders who who are serious into this business and are capable in leading the church but most importantly when cerc is christ centered she is theologically sound and and eschatologically driven the thing is we take god's kingdom very very seriously and so i want to join in the effort to grow her ministry yeah and you know we're most happy to have you join us as well and we look forward to seeing you hang your picture on the membership wall after so many years of waiting um so yeah um church she's actually a trained and practicing pharmacist but i actually hear that you will not be just changing your addresses you're actually going to be changing your jobs as well right so can you tell us a little bit more about how you'll be serving cerc when you move to kl yeah i'm actually joining the cma program soon the church ministry apprenticeship in preparation to do fulltai paid ministry in the future if god allows and i've also been helping out imams jiuji and just last week i got transferred to the chinese tgg and tertiary growth group and now i'm leading the group um i've been also currently running soccum and i'm involved in sunday school women's ministry university ministry and chinese ministry awesome okay we're gonna keep you in prayer um you're gonna be busy but you're gonna be busy in a very good way so uh yeah guys let's wave goodbye to her thanks prisca from for joining us can you see the church we're all waving at you no hi yeah let me see bye see you briska all right so now last but not least i'd like to get lian up on stage so i'll be interviewing her as well uh liam is uh a gg member and trust gigi yeah some people from triage g and this there's some trust gigi people here i can tell all right so she's actually from kl she stays in kale works and kale and uh personally in my opinion i think she's the most friendly dentist that i i know aside aside from sami han okay aside from sami han both of them are very friendly all right uh but yes she actually will be swearing in as a new member next sunday um she's working in hospital ampang and she's actually been using her gifts which god has blessed her with in order to serve the church quite a lot she's very active in ministry and i'm sure that anyone that's worked with her you can see that she does her church duties with great delight with great joy so i guess my question is uh for you ian how have you found joy in serving christ and his church because it may not always be easy yeah i win good morning church actually i'm not as delightful as what you say because i do grumble i complain and i am depressed and lazy as well but when i go through the scripture especially you know the book that we're going to study today to corinthian i see paul mentioned several hardship in ministry like you know imprisonment in like hunger sleep nurse night and yet paul says i sorrowful yet rejoicing so it reminds me that the joy is not the happy-go-lucky joy and it's not a joy that non-christian can understand it's only the joy that can be found in christ so i how i find found joy in serving is i think is when god changed my perspective of seeing joy so it's like it's not finding joy in joy but it's finding joy in god so indeed it is very delightful when i see life transformed in crc and also how crc's family is getting bigger and also like my choice gigi members every week they are striving hard to work hard on the scriptures so it is delightful because jesus deserves it right hope that you guys are encouraged by that yeah the kind of joy that we have as christians is not one that is always happy clappy and it's also not whenever everything is going well and no resistance no persecution no challenges it's actually the it's quite the opposite right it's joy found in those things because we have joy in christ good reminder thank you lian uh and you know because of that you know it's gonna it's a big decision it's an important decision it's a big decision when someone wants to uh join membership in crc so what would be your advice to someone that's considering whether or not to take up membership and maybe they're on the fence um actually before and even during the membership i do struggle uh like i struggle with personal reasons like commitment issue i feel like crc ministry is very intense and then i want to have a balanced life but it's only until one day i don't know whether you still remember i'll win it's actually one of the post sermon discussion that i have with you and then i share my struggle with you and you told me you asked me a question you say lean what would be the godly reason for you not committing to a healthy church like crc and that question really struck me because then i realized a lot of reason that i gave to myself are self-centered so that's the time that i started to think you know every christian are safe to serve so lean you know which local church that jesus would think that you are belong to it's not that riches that i belong to but it's wishes that jesus thinks you belong to so and that's time that i started to repent and then i want to commit my life in serving god and also in crc so my advice for those who have the same struggle as me to talk to the your gg leader and also some of the members i believe that they can give you uh biblical advice and also help you to go through this process yeah thank you for such a good practical advice as well um yeah thank you lian thank you all right guys let's give it up for liam now it's interesting that she was talking about membership because i'd like to announce that we are actually going to have a new membership intake coming up right there yeah and uh yeah if you've already signed up please be informed that the briefing will be held on the 15th of october and if you'd like to sign up it's not too late yet uh just have that chat with your gg leader and then hopefully you'll be able to join the briefing for batch p just in time okay it's a big decision but it's an important one and it's one that we all have to make all right so i'm actually going to get leon back up again to actually pray for the church i'm going to pray for the crc elders pastors and the leaders in training to be faithful to shepherds also going to get her to pray for us as a church to remain firm in the faith to continue to grow in maturity to glorify god i'm going to pray for the new members that are going to be swearing in and the new the new membership intake and of course we also want to pray for the church's safety during this covet 19 pandemic and also to pray for the malaysian government to wait to make wise and honest decisions for the country all right so okay let's pray together church sorry lord indeed is your grace that we could gather together as your church thank god for your love in sustaining and growing crc it's our blessing that you have given us faithful leaders like elder robin pastor jerome pastor daniel and other church leaders in leading and pastoring crc we pray for our leaders to be god-fearing found joy and peace in serving despite the hardships in ministry pray that they continue to preach your word boldly and truthfully lord we pray for crc to share your zeal and concern towards your kingdom pray that we as one body under your son stand firm in the faith growing in maturity and loving one another in truth may we not only be readers of your word but the wolves pray that you will keep crc faithful until the end father we also pray for the new members who are swearing next week we pray that they can see indeed it is a privilege that we are safe to serve you and your church remind them of your faithfulness to use everything for your good and your glory we also pray for the coming new membership intake we pray that the candidates will be sanctified throughout the membership lectures and solidify their understanding of membership and service lord we thank you for the condition of kobe 19 in malaysia has shown improvement thank you for protecting crc throughout this pandemic lord we continue to pray for the church safety as we do ministry so that there are more people who hear the good work of your son last we also pray for malaysia government and leaders to make wise and honest decisions for the country pray that the policy that developed will not hinder your churches in advancing your kingdom we pray all these in the name of jesus amen all right church so thank you liam for praying for the church we're going to go ahead with our first old testament reading for today we're going to have two i'll be reading the first one so if you have a bible do turn with me to isaiah chapter 49 verse 1 to 13. if you're here for physical gathering and you need a bible just raise your hands and the ushers will get you one isaiah chapter 49 verse 1 to 13. so just a brief introduction as you guys are taking out your bibles isaiah originally addressed these words to the future exiles in babylon to encourage them to flee from there and to return by faith to the promised land though israel was facing god's judgment the lord is still the redeemer of his people and in verses 8 to 12 we see that they will get their first taste of salvation in a time of favor where god will deliver them from babylon through his servant later we know that israel's return from exile is through god's servant cyrus however according to paul in 2 corinthians chapter 6 verse 2 he actually quotes isaiah 49 8 and we see that this time of favor and the day of salvation finding its ultimate fulfillment in god's suffering servant jesus christ and the gospel paul had been preaching christ crucified which is the power of salvation for those who believe to the corinthian church and it is on this basis which he appeals to them to not receive the grace of god in vain okay so that's from two corinthians so i'll be reading from isaiah chapter 49 verse 1-13 first one listen to me o coastlines and give attention you peoples from afar the lord called me from the womb from the body of my mother he named my name he made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand he hid me he made me a polished arrow in his quiver he hid me away and he said to me you are my servant israel in whom i will be glorified but i said i have labored in vain i have spent my strength for nothing and vanity yet surely my right is with the lord and my recompense with my god and now the lord says he who formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring jacob back to him and that israel might be gathered to him for i am honored in the eyes of the lord and my god has become my strength he says it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of jacob and to bring back the preserves of israel i will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth thus says the lord the redeemer of israel and his holy one to one deeply despised abhorred by the nation the servant of rulers kings shall see and arise princes and they shall prostrate themselves because of the lord who is faithful the holy one of israel who has chosen you thus says the lord in a time of favor i have answered you in a day of salvation i have helped you i will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people to establish the land to portion the desolate heritages saying to the prisoners come out to those who are in darkness appear they shall feed along the ways on all bare heights shall be their pasture they shall not hunger or thirst neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them for he who has pity on them will lead them and by springs of water will guide them and i will make all my mountains erode and my highways shall be raised up behold these shall come from afar and behold these from the north and from the west and these from the land of saiyan sing for joy o heavens and exalt o earth break forth o mountains into singing for the lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted this is the word of the lord so we've just heard in isaiah 49 about god keeping his word and saving his people the lord indeed has shown compassion on his afflicted and comforted his people so as his people let us rise and sing for joy knowing that the lord has given us salvation and brought us into his kingdom through the cross music team let us rise good morning church god has gathered us as his holy people saved to serve and to proclaim his glories to all peoples so let us sing to god and also not forgetting to one another of our lord's glorious reign [Music] come people of the risen king [Music] the risen king who'd like to bring him praise come all and tune your hearts to sing to the morning of grace from the shifting shadows of the earth we will lift our eyes to him westernians of mercy reach to gather children rejoice rejoice rejoice let every tongue rejoice one heart one voice of christ [Music] come those whose joyous morning sun and those beeping through the night come those who tell a will never change rejoice let one heart one voice [Music] [Applause] [Music] come young and old from every land men and women of the faith come those with full or empty hands find the riches of his grace [Music] rejoice rejoice let every tongue rejoice one heart one voice rejoice [Music] [Music] oh church of christ rejoice [Applause] [Music] [Music] now church god in his wisdom has made the cross to be foolishness to the world that is perishing yet it is god's power to save us to become his people his church who are called to serve him so now we no longer boast in ourselves in fact we count all of our gains as lost pouring contempt on all our pride and boasting only in the theology of the cross when i survey the wondrous cross [Music] on which the prince of glory died my richest game i count but lost and poor contempt on all my pride see from his head his hands his feet [Music] such love and sorrow a crown oh the wonderful cross oh the one the full cross beats me come and die and find that i mix truly [Music] all who here by grace draw near and bless your name what the whole realm of me mine that were an offering far too small love so amazing so they demand my soul my [Music] and die and find that i made true believe oh the wonderful cross oh the wonderful cross all who gather him by grace draw near and bless your name for the wonderful cross oh the one [Music] all who gather and bless your name [Music] indeed thanks be to god that he has saved us from our sin saved to serve him and his purposes of the gospel so church crc let us pick up and continue where generations of faithful christians have run the race and to call all and one another to turn to christ as lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] christ died to wash us clean he bore the father's anger while nailed upon the tree in darkness and in turmoil the judgment fell on him bringing us forgiveness that new life might begin as servants of the gospel as servants of the gospel christ would be carrying on that through our prayer and witness by grace we might win some we call on every nation to turn to christ the lord refugees [Music] is [Music] [Applause] exalted by his father [Music] and in his grace he calls us to be his souls and church as his holy temple is as servants of the gospel christ will be carrying on that through our prayer and witness by grace with my twin son we call on every nation to turn to christ the lord refuge in his is [Applause] [Music] his holy spirit and guided by his word christ gathers us together prepares us for good works and so with grace abortion we serve each other's peace servants of the gospel christ's work we carry on that through our prayer when witness by grace in my twins we call on every nation to turn to christ the lord refuge in his mercy and marvel at his love as servants of the gospel christ's work we carry on that through our prayer and witness by praising my on twins nation to turn to christ the lord [Music] [Music] church let us continue to look forward to the day when christ returns and hold one another accountable to be presented holy before christ our lord good morning church my name is mark and i'm from the ss2 growth group we'll be reading from the old testament so please turn in your bibles to exodus chapter 34. now we're going to be reading exodus 34 verse 1 to 10 and then we'll go from verse 27 to the end of the chapter exodus 34 comes after the golden calf incident in chapter 32 of exodus and then moses intercession for the people in chapter 33. in chapter 32 moses had received the first set of stone tablets with the law and in his anger at the idolatry of the people he had broken these first set of tablets at the foot of mount sinai now chapter 34 picks up with god calling moses to ascend the mountain once again to receive a new set of stone tablets and a renewal of the covenant now we're reading this passage because the sermon today is on two corinthians and in chapter three of the letter paul speaks of the surpassing glory of the new covenant in comparison to the old covenant as glorious as that was and in particular he refers to the incident when moses ascended mount sinai to receive the tablets of the law and how when he descended his face was shining because he had been speaking with god however the old covenant brought only death and condemnation and its glory was one that was fading while the new covenant is one that brings life and has a glory that is permanent and because he has such a glorious ministry paul did not lose heart despite the suffering and difficulty that he faced each day so reading exodus 34 from verse 1 in the english standard version the lord said to moses cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and i will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke be ready by the morning and come up in the morning to mount sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain no one shall come up with you and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain so moses cut two tablets of stone like the first and he rose early in the morning and went up on the mount sinai as the lord commanded him and took in his hand two tablets of stone the lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the lord the lord passed before him and proclaimed the lord the lord a god merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation and moses quickly bound his head toward the earth and worships and he said if now i have found favor in your sight o lord please let the lord go in the midst of us for it is a stiff neck people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us your inheritance and he said behold i am making a covenant before all the people i will do marvels such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the lord for it is an awesome thing that i will do with you and then continuing verse 27 and the lord said to moses write these words for in accordance with these words i have made a covenant with you and with israel so he was there with the lord 40 days and 40 nights he neither ate bread nor drank water and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant the 10 commandments now when moses came down from mount sinai with the two tablets of the testament in his hand as he came down from the mountain moses did not know that the face of his the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with god aaron and all the people of israel saw moses and behold the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him but moses called to them and aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him and moses talked with them afterward all the people of israel came near and he commanded them all the lord had spoken with him in mount sinai when moses had finished speaking with them he put a veil over his face whenever moses went in before the lord to speak with him he would remove the veil until he came out when he came out he told the people of israel what was commanded the people of israel would see the face of moses that the skin of moses face was shining and moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him this is the word of the lord we'll now be reading from the new testament so please turn your bibles to two corinthians good morning church my name is kai from ss2 gg i'll be reading from 2nd corinthians chapters 3 verse 7 onwards to the end of chapter four now after writing first corinthians paul continues his journey uh continuing his ministry at ephesus until he heard that the letters has not accomplished but it's intended now a group of men had come to corinth and presented themselves as apostle they were false teachers who were challenging among other things paul's personal integrity and also his apostleship these self-proclaimed apostles spoke eloquently but were aimed only to extract money from their gullible audiences now in contrast paul's manner of speaking was plain straightforward and free of charge which meant that if his slanderous opponents were to be believed then what he said was worthless but paul proclaimed the message of christ crucified and the transformed lives of the korean believer testified to the divine power with which he spoke while these false prophets often came with the letters of recommendation paul said that the corinthians themselves were his letter from christ the result of his ministry in this passage that we are going to look at paul compares and contrasts between the ministry of death and the ministry of the spirit which he was called to serve the ministry that brings righteousness and comes with exceeding glory so let us now turn to second corinthians chapter 3 verse 7. i'll be reading from english standard version verse 7. now with the if the ministry of death carved in letters on stone came with such glory that israelite could not gaze at moses face because of its glory which was being brought to an end will not the ministry of the spirit have even more glory for if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory indeed in this case what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it for if what was being brought to an end came with glory much more with what is permanent half glory since we have such a hope we are very bold not like moses who would put a will over his face so that the israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end but their minds will harden for to this day when they read the old covenant the same will remains unlifted because only through christ is it taken away yes to this day whenever moses is red a will lies over their hearts but when one turns to the lord the will is removed now the lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom and we all with unwilled faith beholding the glory of the lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the lord who is the spirit therefore having this ministry by the mercy of god we do not lose heart but we have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with god's word but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of god and even if our gospel is willed it is will to those who are perishing in their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of christ who is the image of god for what we proclaim is not ourselves but jesus christ as lord with ourselves as your servants for jesus sake for god who said let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to god and not to us we are afflicted in every way but not crutched perplexed but not driven to despair persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed always carrying in the body of in the body the death of jesus so that the life of jesus may also be manifested in our bodies for we who live are always being given over to death for jesus sake so that the life of jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh so death is at work in us but life in you since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written i believed and so i spoke we also believe and so we also speak knowing that he who raised the lord jesus will raise us also with jesus and bring us with you into his presence for it is all for your sake so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of god so we do not lose heart though our outer self is wasting away our inner self is being renewed day by day for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are sin but to the things that are unseen for the things that are seen are transients but the things that are unseen are eternal this is the word of the law hey church so uh right now what we're gonna do is um you can talk to the people around you or if you're in your watch parties you can speak with them i've got a discussion question for you in light of what we've just heard uh so that we can prepare our hearts to listen to the sermon in a short while and so this is the question how is the cross of christ glorious okay so i'll come back in a little bit and we'll hear some of the answers from the floor and for those of you that are online you can actually interact with us as well here by going to the mendy.com okay so just key in that code it's really easy it's pretty straightforward and once you have an answer that you'd like to share with the church of as a gg together you can actually key it in there and it's going to pop up on our screen and we'll go through some of the answers okay so i'll be back in a little while have a good discussion is [Music] people who me crowd [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] perfect way [Music] [Music] the morning [Music] his blood poured out for us the weight of every curse [Music] [Music] the son of god [Music] foreign the ground began to shake the stone was rolled away his only love could not be overcome now death where is your stick a resurrected kingdom [Music] [Applause] we sing hallelujah [Music] is [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] hello [Music] some see just a wooden crossbar i can see the grace of your redemptive plans some say this is foolishness but you have shown the world you're wise in all your ways some will say this place belongs to history but i can see yes i can see this every day [Music] [Music] and the power of god [Music] [Music] me [Music] yes [Music] all right guys i mean i hear such great conversation going on discussion going on uh let's have a look at what some of the guys online have shared okay because we want them to you know you guys back at home tuning in you guys are part of this gathering as well even though you're joining virtually so let's have a look at some of your guys answers on this mendy.com platform okay so the discussion question was how is the cross of christ uh glorious okay let's have a look at some of these answers here okay so we're gonna look at some of the answers from online and then what i'll do is i'll give maybe one or two people here a chance to share what you guys discussed so maybe you guys can you know decide among ourselves all right let's have a look here okay someone said here it is not it is god's judgment on his son ooh okay profound okay someone said that it's access to god in god's salvation through judgment all right let's have a look at this one right here i want to pick out this one the power of god is seen in this display of his weakness what was shameful to the world was in fact god flexing his power that he's shaming the wisdom of the world okay all right so this that hidden glory nature of the cross of christ uh in that answer that's really good so i'm not too sure who is if you guys are tuning in from youtube or something you know give a shout out in the chat as well so you can see uh let's have a look at the other answers there's so many great answers wow can you just scroll down let's just scroll down you can actually see a lot of answers i'm not sure how you guys see it on the screen at home but there's a lot of answers yeah okay let's read one of these right here at the very bottom it represents the saving grace of god through his precious son jesus for sinners who are so depraved in their sins as well as jesus obedience to god to the point of death what christians should do hmm all right all right well you know what do you guys think about that answer okay was it similar to what you guys were discussing as well yeah similar thumbs up if it was similar or completely different well if completely different then i need to ask you guys already all right okay that's great thanks guys for online i wish i had time to go through all of it there's a lot i might encourage you guys even though you're here physically uh when you go home to look at some of these answers they're really good um but yeah thanks for interacting from home it's great to see about like what 20 responses here okay so now what we're gonna do is we're gonna actually ask some people here from uh from the physical gathering uh and you guys can feel free to share your thoughts as well okay how is the cross of christ glorious ah okay so who would like to share their answers and i'll just come to you okay one meter apart but i'll come to you don't worry not too close all right all right you know what someone that always has something to say jj all right i'm gonna go cj all right jj let's give it up for jj it's usually the case you know the first person it's always like you know and then once that everyone wants to say something right jj the raw see this is raw you know that this is real right he's like he's surprised okay all right hey jj how how's the how's the baby now yeah yeah i see yeah they're growing really well good good stuff man uh okay oh yeah yeah i was asking about the baby and he's saying it was great so good stuff all right so now that's out of the way how about this question who are we discussing with by the way uh vincent o'hara oh hi hi vincent hello hi nice to meet you i'm edwin all right so um yeah jj so what were you guys discussing how's the cross of christ glorious yeah i've got my bible over here so we were reading the two corinthians texts over there and i think verse seven to verse nine uh made a few comparisons between moses's time and the the cross of christ so i think in verse 8 over there it refers to the ministry of the spirit so that gives us a clue on why it's glorious and verse 9 2 is the ministry of righteousness and that far exceeds the glory of the ministry during moses is time so yeah so i guess it's because the ministry of christ is chorus because it's the ministry of the spirit it's god god's spirit is sent through jesus ministry to transform god's people to be a holy people and that ties in together nicely with the ministry of righteousness whereby god's righteousness is revealed and god's people has been has received god's righteousness to live for god yeah wow thanks for that yeah that was really good you guys had a good discussion it seems yeah because you know normally whenever we think about the cross of christ what we think about it is like you know jesus loves me you know which is not entirely wrong but it really is falling far short of what how how deep the the cross is and how beautiful it is in a sense and you guys have mentioned the righteousness you've mentioned the ministry of the holy spirit as well and wow great i'm really excited for the sermon man okay let's hear from one more person all right thanks jj and thanks vincent all right all right let's see all right who else would like to share now i see jj already broke the eyes so maybe someone from here i see a lot of discussions just now now everyone's quiet all right i'm just gonna everyone's looking down so if you're looking down i'm just gonna choose you you know all right let's see all right how about let's get uh let's get samuel dan shall we get sam with that guys yeah all right good stuff all right this guy it's not that he just plays music well right he he knows how to read his bible as well so all right so bro uh who are you discussing with by the way oh my god oh hey hey durkas this is dorcas everyone all right so the question is how is the cross of christ glorious so what was something that you guys said i know you guys talked a lot about like a lot of things but one thing just one thing actually i'll hopefully thanks yeah actually we didn't discuss about the question we'll talk about some other stuff but uh my personal thought on that uh cross of christ glorious i think we i mean lg we also went through went through first corinthians uh just a few days ago yeah so yeah from there we also see that the idea of course of christ uh is is this hidden glory that which i think just now well don't mention it right this hidden glory but outside to the world outside it's it's foolish it looks foolish but actually it reveals god's power and its power to save yeah that's why it's glorious wow profound thank you thank you ro thank you sam yeah exactly right guys i mean just the nature of the cross you wouldn't normally on the first thought superficially thinking that it is glorious but there is glory in that suffering on that cross and and i guess we're going to hear a lot more about that later in the sermon okay thanks bro thanks dorkus all right guys so um what i'm going to do is i'm actually going to let you guys continue to yeah okay so we're good to go so get ready for the preaching of god's word uh pastor in training daniel has arrived okay good morning everyone it's great to see many of you back at the same time it's been so long i'm getting a little bit nervous with more people around uh hopefully i'll be fine um and today we're going to get through some content so what we're going to do today is we're going to do a two part seven partly because there's a lot to cover i'm not even sure what i can finish covering everything but what i'll do today is slightly different from what i did last week last week i tried to go through chapter by chapter this week i'm going to do something different i'm trying to go through the themes a lot of what we'll see today not quite a lot but the foundation that we will be looking into today has been established since last week first corinthians so really encouraged that most of you have gone through first corinthians just now sam was saying how they've gone through in gigi that's really pretty important to get into what we need to do today because today san corinthians it's i think written probably like a year later a year later and it builds up a lot on from what we've um understood for first corinthians so before we start let me just pray and we'll get into it god we thank you for your word gives us life uh that challenges our fleshly worldviews our man centered world views exposes it to show us who you really want us to be and how we can find it in christ we pray that as we go through saint corinthians today you help us understand once more how to see the world through the cross see the world through your wisdom and to be that kingdom people that you need us to be named jesus we pray amen okay so this morning we're going to go to depending on how much how fast i can go or how slow um we'll take a break at about 1 40 or at least or before and then we'll come back not sure you guys will be here but that's the plan okay so while we begin saying corinthians i'm going to give you the backdrop again uh it's helpful to know the history the historical context of corinthians to be able to appreciate the letter uh for me personally uh this is did i say i for me so far this is the hardest letter to understand so i've taught grass on second corinthians which is partly the reason why robin wanted me to preach this but then when i started to study it again more closely uh i got into like more confusion it's it's one thing to just look through it roughly get the ideas and teach grass because grass is all about getting the basics right but then when you want to teach it more deeply you get a structure um it gets a lot tougher so i struggled quite a lot in this book uh but towards the end i think i've gotten saint corinthians roughly okay i'll probably need a bit more time later on just to work on the rest of it um but this is what i have and i hope that you'll be encouraged by it so first of all let me just explain to you again what's happened since first corinthians so it's still a church in trouble uh if you don't get this right you'll be very confused when you read second corinthians one of the biggest problems i had when i read second questions was trying to work out who the church was where it was because the letter would seem very confusing at one point paul looks like he's encouraged by them another point he's look like he is very disappointed at them if you've ever read this you know that chapters 10 to 13 is well known to be the most controversial ones like is this even part of the letter because just before that the tone was nice although when you read carefully it's not like that truck you will find that truck leather he does fight back a little bit and tone down a little bit but then towards the end he goes full out full blown uh straight um although having said that even then to the end he still ends with grace and peace and love so synchronize is a dramatic letter most scholars say it's one of the most emotional letters that we have emotional doesn't mean it's bad emotional means that there's a lot of things going on when you read it you really got to understand what's going on what went through to be able to appreciate the letter better and so uh yeah i had a good time doing that a difficult time doing that also uh and hopefully i can help you out with second corinthians all right so let me just explain to you what's happened since then so first corinthians was delivered most likely by timothy you saw you will know that if you read first corinthians he says paul and timothy so timothy probably sent the letter the first corinthians but as he sent it to the corinthian church he found it to be in a disarray the people did not respond well and so he had to come back urgently to tell paul so when paul wrote first corinthians he was in ephesus when he when timothy came went and came back he was still in ephesus and so this is where things change so i need to slide up for the first picture okay cool plan a plan b actual trial plan so at the end of first corinthians you'll find that paul gave them a travel plan he says that i'm going to come to you after i visit macedonia this was the original plan at the start plan a but who knew that the situation would be so bad um so as i painted to you last week the church most of them were probably in rebellion against paul they probably disregarded what paul said uh they're becoming more and more worldly and so this is where paul took a drastic turn changed his plans and decided to go straight to corinth so that's plan b okay so from e that's ephesus he goes to c he goes there straight when he arrived there he told them his plan b you have to know all this so that when you read corinthians you get what's going on if you don't know they're quite confusing so when he gets to current he tells them this is the plan he's going to come to them and then he's going to go from there to macedonia that's why they aim there and he's going to come back again from estonia and then have them send him off to jerusalem so the plan is to go there help change them or encourage them or correct them and once he's been able to settle the church he goes again and then comes back so that they can support him to go to judea so part of the larger theme here is this idea that paul has to on one hand plant the gentile churches take care of them but he also has the other mission which is to make sure that the gentle church and the jewish church unite so that we can have one uh one united church one body visibly so you can see in second corinthians 1 15 to 16 he writes there once he arrives this was his initial plan because i was sure of this i wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace so what he means here i come i came here first so that once i go to macedonia and come back you can experience me twice second experience of grace i wanted to visit you on my way to macedonia and to come back to you from macedonia and have you send me on my way to judea however plans changed again this is important because when you read synchronicity you keep hearing him defending himself against changing plans am i best fitting now when you have someone who keeps changing his plans along with all the rumors that are going on and a lot of prejudice going on against paul uh what you have is disaster eventually people start saying is he trustworthy who is he um he's not a man of his word etc which is why i apologize spend a chunk of time explaining and we'll have to talk about that in the second half of the sermon thinking about what it means to be a a man of god a minister this is the one trickier part that i need to spend a bit of time explaining um in the end there's this very strong theme in second corinthians to establish himself as the right apostle and also the right um the right apostle the right missionary the right pastor you can say overseer one of the key qualities is he has to be a man of sincerity we have to explain what sincerity is but basically essentially it means a man who is completely for god who is has integrity who is vertical who's god centered and so how can you have someone who keeps changing his mind and appears to be flippant so that's what's going on here he went there he get he gives them plan b this is after he gives them plan a he gives them plan b but at that point when he went to deal the church there was a big drama so we don't have the details from uh exact details on that but we can work out from second corinthians here and there what most likely happen is scholars have helpfully pieced it together so the visit turned out to be bitter and distressing for paul he was the object of an attack by someone in a community uh when you read second corinthians you'll see that i don't have the verses put out but you can put on chapter two five to eight chapter seven eleven and twelve there was at least one person who opposed him uh we don't exactly know who it is but most likely it's the first corinthians five person that's our best guess uh that's how historically people have taken it although scholars don't always take that position um the reason why he can you know commit such a big sin is mostly because he's a lot of influence people didn't want to correct him and so here of course being most likely a patron being able to do paul kind of correct him he's not going to stand up to it uh and actually this is very if if you study second corinthians you really want to understand how to run a church um you read second corinthians first and second corinthians we'll teach you how to run a very difficult church what do you do you have to think through very carefully the nuances and think carefully how paul defends himself and how he does things so he was attacked and here's what happened um most almost no one in the congregation defended him because so there was discipline as you remember in first corinthians he says carry out this discipline most likely nobody did it he went over he tried to do it nobody stood up for him so that was how bad it is in the end he changed his plans again he went back to ephesus so from plan a change plan b now he finally changed in second corinthians we have the actual travel he went back to so you can see number one he went to corinth number two he went back to ephesus um and he would explain that in the letter um and he did not he changed from going to macedonia go back to ephesus and then continue his journey from there so from ephesus or somewhere later he wrote a sorrowful letter in 20s in second corinthians it says the painful letter in which he sought to test the obedience you can see that in chapter 2 verse 6 of 2nd corinthians the letter apparently called them called on them to take action against the offender and to demonstrate their innocence in the matter and their zeal for him before god so i've got you saying corinthians 2 104 here um he writes for i made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you but if i cause you pain who is that to make me glad so in plan b he was supposed to go to macedonia and come back but he didn't want to do that anymore he changed his plan and that's why he's explaining here he's explaining why he's doing it uh he essentially he's doing it for their sick not ultimately for his own sake although it might sound like that when you read it he doesn't want to be hurt but that's not the point because he's still going to go to them but what he really wants as you read the whole letter he wants to be sure that when he does carry out discipline finally there will be more than one or two or maybe nobody in the church so the situation at that point was if he actually carried out discipline most of the church would have left and he didn't want that he wanted the church to be at a state where when he does and when he needs to carry out discipline at least most of the church would have survived remember he built this church he saw them converted he was very sure first coins makes it very clear and his hope is for them to grow and to preach the gospel to spread it he doesn't want at least at this point to destroy them verse 3 and i wrote as i did so that when i came i might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice i felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all for i wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish so this is the painful letter of heart and with many tears not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundance love that i have for you so here again the overall wholeness paul wrote it to show his love to love the church so that they can be corrected and be built up so titus mostly delivered this letter to the corinthians and surprisingly he was well received he stayed there to ensure their repentance to cement the renewal commitment to paul and also to start talking about the collection to the poor for the saints in jerusalem so all this was happening and paul continued his journey continuing his plan so he went from ephesus to macedonia uh before that he went to troas first so in secretary chapter 2 verse 12 13 you'll see he went to troas but he was worried he was worried that titus would not be well received he was worried for his church and so even though in charge this is a very significant moment in troas he says very clearly chapter 2 verse 12 13 that god had opened the door for him to preach the gospel yet he decided not to he went to macedonia okay so this is a clear sign this is a a good question asked wait is that right like god opened the door but he doesn't go for it he changed his mind okay so he changed his mind and he went to macedonia in macedonia he found titus finally and titus gave him the good news brought to him the good news you'll see this in 207 he was encouraged she was comforted um but all was not perfect yet even as titus went back to him even though titus did mention they eventually carried out the disciplinary action he you know excommunicated the person but there's still a lot of issues most likely not resolved yet which is why we have second corinthians titus arrived with good news about the repentance of the majority when we say repentance you've got to read carefully so this is the part difficult difficulty of reading corinthians because when you read that they are actually repentant but at the same time you read paul's letter overall correcting them still and at the end of the 10 13 it can be very puzzling what's going on have they repented have they not repented so most likely they have shown some repentance they have seen the flaws of their ways at least with regards to the unrepentant sinner they've excommunicated him but it's not like the whole thing changed they are still very much scholars say um well they're still very much resistant hesitant on the way of the cross just like how any christian today would be uh the preaching of the cross the way of the cross the way of suffering the way of christ most christians today along current will still want to live a good life a comfortable life they look at paul they're thinking why what kind of prophet what kind of apostle is he um he doesn't do what everybody does he doesn't speak very well he doesn't take pay he doesn't perform all that he's always sick and all that and so paul has this task in second corinthians before he finally visits them to change their mind to to finally settle the issue once more so this letter he will again reaffirm the theology of the cross he will affirm he'll talk about a few things the reason why he changed his plans because uh whilst all this is happening uh whilst titus has gone back there were false teachers who've gone in again to the church they were called the super apostles you find that in the second corinthians chapter 10 to 13 the super apostles coming in most likely scholars say they have some jewish background they're probably hebrews they're probably getting them into all sorts of rituals and probably also talking bad about paul and so paul has to explain to them a few things one is again laying clearly what is theology of course that that is true christianity talks about his old life talks about why he did what he did and at the same time try to make sure that when he comes they're ready to support the church to support the mission of paul so there's a lot of things going on that's the tricky part about reading corinthians he's got all these things going on at the same time finally he needs to make sure that they completely repent so in saying corinthians there's this line he says make sure that you um you okay i forgot what the line is but your holiness you reach the fullness of your holiness so at this point they are halfway they see okay that unrepentant sinner is too much kick him out but they're still unconvinced holy although they have shown some repentance and that you can see in chapter seven paul does that and most likely paul also talks about that at one level to because it's genuine but another level to encourage him to continue to show repentance all the way before he comes back so that's how you ought to read the letter it's very carefully crafted um at the start paul isn't too harsh on them paul explains paul takes the time deals then corrects them talks a lot about himself defends himself towards the middle of the letter he starts to appeal to them at the end after he's laid out all that he starts to go hard on them okay just like how you convince anyone you don't go up straight away and immediately call the person you explain you take the time and then finally you've landed the final warning so that's how you ought to lead the whole of saint corinthians uh so that's where we are at second corinthians and then paul is sending titus back into the corinthian church i've got this quote from david garden on the gist of saying corinthians uh the issue was tough right um very strained relationship and so he writes here one of the questions that you read as you read paul why keep up the battle why keep defending yourself against peop against personal insults and slander so you got this church who's continually insulting him slandering him in the litigious american culture many might be tempted to sue the slanderers for defamation of character in a bigger context he does in effect bring a lawsuit against them before god the episode is about paul's ministry while the corinthians failed to understand not about the issue is not about legitimacy of apostleship they know he's an apostle but they are questioning whether he's a real apostle whether he's a good apostle they understand him only in part chapter 1 verse 14 because they still evaluate things from the perspective of the flesh so they're not completely changed yet and it's a tense situation paul makes his case defending his ministry in this letter but more importantly he clarifies the implications of the gospel that they have failed to grasp he hopes that on reading this letter they not only will become proud of him again and that's a very important theme but that they will revive their interest in the ministry for the poor in jerusalem contribute generously and understand the counter-cultural nature of the gospel the corinthians are dumbfounded by paul because they do not understand this basic paradox that expresses the very heart of the gospel of the cross that he has preached to them this is the case for many christians today also we don't understand the paradox of the cross if they cannot understand and appreciate the cross-centered life and ministry as demonstrated by weakness and suffering how can they understand uh the cross and the weakness and suffering of christ and apply it to their own lives you don't get this right what you have is another gospel you have the prosperity gospel you get this right you have humble sincere powerful gospel preaching paul tries to show them that god's power exhibits itself in the ministry in the same way in which it was expressed in jesus the cross shaped humanity so if you've gone through the first koreans they should be too hard shouldn't be too hard he's basically doing the same thing the cross the world especially the world of first first century corinth abominates this kind of humility and ridicules it because it so threatens its own self-seeking outlook paul's argument trial letter is that only in cruciform sufferings like his can the lord perform his powerful work introducing glory into an age of darkness salvation into a world of despair a new age with the old life and power to more and more people this very important only in weakness can god show his power in this world saint christ is very famous paul will say i'm strong when i'm weak only when i'm weak i'm strong now we have to understand it properly those who cannot see the glory in the cross of christ because they are captured by the wisdom of this world will hardly see it in his suffering apostle if they do see it however they will see how exceedingly glorious paul's ministry is this letter is not just a personal defense it is the restatement of the basic doctrine of the cross which paul preached to them so when you read this letter you will find that he constantly defends his ministry but the reason why he's defending his ministry is because he's trying to defend the gospel because he is the embodiment of the gospel live down if people cannot accept him they cannot appreciate the cross and if they cannot reach the cross it means they cannot accept him so i'm going to go through the structure of saint corinthians with you very briefly i've taken it mostly from a commentator oh well i've taken it from guthriela he's a pretty good combinator and his structure is mostly good uh so in the outline of the book uh he's given his outline it's not a full-blown structure when you outline any letter opening uh so it's standard stuff you have letter opening i'm showing this to you so that as you if you read synchronous yourself you will be able to navigate through it and understand where you're going so it's pretty standard stuff like the opening is prolonged that's nothing too hard the tricky part is in the next section it's in the body of the letter so the next slide so this is very important if you can read the slide and see the slide um a very important theme in this letter is the integrity of paul's ministry he spends a lot of time you see him saying things like do i am i commending myself because he is uh at the same time he will say i'm very bold uh i'm men of i'm i'm a man of sincere i'm you know we've got this sincerity i preach this and i teach this he keep comparing himself with the false teachers out there because he's trying to defend that his cross-shaped ministry is in line with the gospel and this is how christian ministry should be so in line with explain the integrity of paul's ministry he has to explain why he didn't directly go to korea that's why he changed his plans how is this in line with the gospel okay in ministry it's more there's more than just put this way ministry is more than just keeping your promises quote unquote promises uh anyone who's done ministry enough you know that situations are very complicated it's not as simple as oh he brought my promise so i can never trust in him paul if if you apply that standard he looks like he's broken many promises keeps changing his plans but make sure it's complicated and he will show you that ministry in the end is about his integrity before god why he does it which is out of love out of responsibility to god in his church that's why he changed his mind and in all that he's doing he's being faithful you shouldn't judge him just by the surface level things to judging by his intent and why he's doing it and how is that for the building of the church he will then spend time talking about what a true ministry looks like he'll talk about his own ministry so in the second heading he says reflections on the authentic ministry uh that's good three's word i thought can be used what the true christian ministry is like um so the theme of the letter the whole letter much like with romans it's romans 1 16 17 the theme of first corinthians is chapter 1 verse 12 to 14. if you have your bible you can take a look at it that is really the theme of the whole letter it will take you through from the beginning to the end it says this for our boast is this now this is very interesting because in first corinthians you remember he says don't boss in anything then sankran is like this is my boss so when you see this is definitely something worth picking up because he's doing something that he doesn't normally do for our most is this the testimony of our conscience that we behave in the world with holiness and sincerity of god you can see the brackets words i've changed to better suit the literal translation although the word holiness is their their manuscript differences it can be uh simplicity or it can be wholeness fullness and serious god not by fleshly wisdom so the theme comes out again first corinthians but by the grace of god and supremely so towards you we are not right for we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and i hope you will fully understand just as you do partially understand so he's doing he's writing later one important thing is he wants them to understand he wants them to understand his ministry he wants them to understand the cross the cross ship ministry such that the end goal is verse 14 they will boast about it okay they will boast about the ministry of the cross being god's ministry that's the end goal of this letter the day one that paul wants them to boast about it and of course when you boast about the cross-shaped ministry you're really not boasting in man because cross-shaped ministry there's nothing to boast about man the only thing that we boasted about is god so verse 14 that we are your boss just as you are also ours in the day of our lord jesus christ so let's escape eschatology there that the final day will be boasting about each other that we truly are uh god's people god save people god's church in following the cross okay after that then the next body of letter he will be in chapter 4 7-5-10 he will be spending time talking about suffering so before this he's talking about what that ministry looks like the nature of it talks about two covenants and then along with that he'll then go into suffering we have this greater ministry we have this greater covenant the ministry of the spirit which you talked about in chapter one but now he affirms that that ministry is uh has to be understood in light of suffering so here you talk about we have this treasure in jars of clay and he spends a whole chance talking about that and then after that the third section in this chapters one to seven he starts to call them to change call them to repent call them to repent fully so when you read it this way you can see it's very clear second question is generally split to three parts chapters one to seven eight to nine ten to twelve ten to thirteen one to seven there's generally three movements here talks about his ministry talks about the suffering third caused them to repent and then after that he'll be talking about giving chapters eight and nine and after that finally confronting the church about the opponents about any unrepentance that's left so the letter ends it doesn't end happily when you read corinthians it ends with much stress shows you that the church is not right yet and basically there's a lot of pain and hurt going on paul has not seen them for some time well paul has seen them and then it didn't end up well a lot of hurt going on and so you'll see paul paul's anguish and paul's emotions here chapter 12 verse 20 he's concerned for them for i fear that perhaps when i come i may find you not as i wish and that you may find me not as you wish that perhaps there may be quarreling jealousy anger hostility slander gossips conceit and disorder i fear that when i come again my god may humble me before you and i may have to mourn over many of those who sin earlier and have not repented so let's talking about discipline he he's afraid he's fearful that he has to do this which while he's writing the letter of the impurity sexual minority and century that they have practiced and so towards the end of the letter chapter 13 verse 5 examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith remember the theme carried on from chapters first corinthians how yes they belong to god but at the same time they need to show fruits and repentance test yourself or do you not realize this about yourself that jesus christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet the test i hope you'll find out that we have not failed the test but we pray to god that you may not do wrong not that we may appear to have met the test but that you may do what is right though we may seem to have failed okay you're going to get what it's saying here according this according to their eyes they think that paul has failed but paul's not failed so that's kind of rhetoric that's going on it's very emotional for we cannot do anything against the truth but only for the truth but we are glad when we are weak you are strong your restoration is what we pray for for this reason i write these things while i'm away with from you that when i come i may not have to be severe in my use of of the authority that the lord has given me for building up and not or tearing down this is the context that is helpful for you as you go into the themes of 2nd corinthians so we're going to go through the first one that's on suffering and comfort he starts off with this okay let me just read to you a quote from growth 3 again if you if you've read the beginning he starts with blessing god and it's worth thinking through this and how we should think about all this pain all this suffering and what a christian's attitude should be so go three right here in the prologue of second corinthians 1 1 through 11 he seems unusually preoccupied with his own experience and perhaps that of his ministry team so when you read this this is the only letter he thanks god for himself um in the other letters you always find that he thanks god for the church when this letter is very unique when he says here we thank god uh when you read the whole verse up to verse six you see that he's talking about himself thanking god for the suffering that he's given god has given him of course this is not trying to exclude the corinthians but at this point corinthians haven't really suffered much he's thanking god for his suffering and he's also trying to teach the corinthians to suffer too he seems preoccupied with his own experience and mainstream focusing on how god has encouraged him and requesting and requesting prayers for himself given what the apostle has recently experienced it is no wonder that he focuses on the experience of affliction and request prayer but as already mentioned this benediction has a rhetorical purpose as well paul wants the corinthians to understand these experiences as one explanation for his change of travel plans according to his account in verses 8 11 paul has recently been deeply challenged emotionally and threatened physically having come through a terrifying time of intense persecution you'll see that later in 8 11 he says that he almost gave up his life paul has recently been deeply challenged emotionally and threatened physically having come through a terrifying time of intense prescription the apostle describes this experience as overwhelming bringing him to the brink of despair and a certain inability to cope with the situation death seemed imminent yet in spite of all that he had been through paul begins this difficult letter to a difficult congregation at a difficult time in his ministry by praising god blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ and the compassionate father and the god who offers every possible encouragement the apostles expressed this thanksgiving with you lord get off which means blessed a term having to do with being worthy of praise or commendation and this is the very first point we need to pick up which is the christian attitude towards suffering and in fact all things in life no matter good or bad this beginning of this letter especially with all that's going on teaches us what a christian should be in all times and that is this that we should be blessing god all the time when i say this i don't just mean the character like oh just bless god regardless of anything what i mean by this is despite everything what a christian is is someone who blesses god remember from the ephesians sermon robin talked about this he made the same point also ephesians is also one of the other special letters where he starts with blessed and here you have also blessed but the christian attitude towards suffering if any of you are suffering now or going through anything or even good times the first thing you should be doing the basic default position mindset is bless god remember god's glory remember god's sovereignty remember his mercies that's what you have in second corinthians 3 second corinthians 1 3 7 blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ the father of mercies and the god of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that they may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by god the first line verse 3 is the basic christian attitude mindset orientation towards all things in life it's not just about blessing god but it's about being god-centered being god focused this is if anything at all the key to understanding the whole of second corinthians when i say this i'm not just saying uh you know do this and you'll feel better i'm saying this is the key to reading the whole of second corinthians in all that he does this is this single sincerity you use the word sincerity singular uh single-mindedness simplicity you want to use it that he will carry through the whole letter this is what makes him an apostle this is what makes him trustworthy that in all that he does he is being god-centered whether in suffering in pain or in good times job 121 this is the christian response default response to anything even through suffering so you remember job lost everything the wife asked him to curse god but he says naked i came from my mother's womb naked shall i return the lord gave and the lord has taken away blessed be the name of the lord you see you don't bless god just because he's given you stuff you bless god regardless this is the christian mindset for everything so that even in the toughest of times that you have you can bless god and you can have the right attitude towards everything this very important mindset to have and will be a key one to catch in the whole of second corinthians for example saint corinthians two verse one verse twelve uh it's a good exercise if you read through saint corinthians you find out these little little parts um where he will talk about himself he'll talk about boasting he'll talk about commanding and the way he says it is always very god-centered so i've read this already for almost this testimony of our conscience where we behave in the world with the wholeness necessary of god so this shows you he's very god simple he's boasting even his boasting is about god he's operated not by fleshly wisdom but by the grace of god and supremely so towards you same thanks be to god in all situations and this is particularly significant because this is where he talks about how he's going to suffer the imagery that he's given here is christ always leading us in triumph of possession basically this is the roman roman procession where they have defeated conquered an army so they go come back caesar walk through procession and then in the procession they have prisoners being caged up being taken and then paul is saying i am that kind of prisoner i am in my ministry i am a prisoner i am suffering and thanks be to god that god is doing that using that on me to spread the gospel so even in suffering paul is god-centered or rather he's god centered in all things whether in suffering or not he can thank god even in persecution even chapter 2 uh 16 17 who is sufficient for these things when he says this is saying who is sufficient to be able to preach the the gospel that both condemns people and saves people who can do it for we are not like met so many pillars of god's word but man of sincerity as from god so even here he acknowledges that who he is is from god in the son of god we speak in christ so fleshness is the opposite of this god-centered mindset this god-centered attitude fleshliness is about boasting in ourselves it's about making us the center if you are fleshly you cannot bless god but the christian mindset is whether suffering or pain or anything you bless god you acknowledge god's sovereignty he's rule over your life his righteousness and you bless him this is this orientation is what the bible calls faith okay this is what faith is about we trust not in ourselves but we trust in god alone and this faith is not ultimately blind faith it's knowing who god is knowing that he is in control he is wise he is powerful he is merciful and he trusts him you obey him this is the orientation that abraham finally learned at the end of god's training with him in genesis 22 remember that scene where god ordered him to kill isaac at this point finally he's learned his lesson to trust god so genesis 22 verse 7 and isaac said to his father abraham father and he said here i'm my son he said behold the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for a burnt offering abraham said god will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering my son so here is where we see abraham completely trusting in god even if it means taking away his son god will trust he will trust in god and that's what a christian should be even through suffering even through difficult times you trust god the test was whether he will be god centered and he finally passed and james 2 21 makes it clear at the time tree was not abraham father justified by works when he offered up his son isaac on the altar you see that faith was active along with his work so here is talking about what true faith is faith is obedience faith is not just blind faith is not just i i believe and i don't do anything faith is always a true working faith is always active with works and faith was completed by his works and scripture was fulfilled that says abraham believed god and was countered him as righteousness and he was called a friend of god this is the basic orientation we should have we should all have as christians towards suffering and towards everything in life so the first thing to know that sanctity is teaching us is the orientation of a christian from the old testament to the new testament we need to be god-centered people praising god blessing god and we can particularly trust him because he is also the father of mercies that's taken from exodus 34 6-7 remember this is where god shows his glory to moses exodus 34 67 god revealing his glory to moses the lord passed before him and proclaimed the lord lord god merciful and gracious slow to anger abounding instead first love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but by no means clearing the guilty visiting iniquity of the fathers and the children and the children children to the third and fourth generation remember the setting of this the context for this is that god was going to destroy israel because of their sin they committed idolatry and uh whilst moses was up on sinai together the law and moses here is pleading for israel and god shows him that he is a god of mercy without acquitting the guilty how that's going to work out we see ultimately fulfilling the cross but what we see is a god who is merciful who's kind who saves and elects a people for himself he's a merciful and gracious god to save whom he will romans 9 picks up on this and says he's god who saves up whom he will and to belong to him to be sanctified him is already the greatest blessing in the world so when we get caught up with the suffering and difficulties in life you must first remember the larger reality chapters 1 1 and 3 teaches us the christian posture is praise god bless god remember his mercy most of the time we go to suffering we want to complain but the first response for a christian is to remember god his plans what he is doing in this world remember the theology of the cross how he is destroying the wise saving the weak and changing the world through him part of the reason why god is allowing suffering is for our good and it's also to destroy the wise to see things through the wisdom of the cross only when you do this when you remember him his plans his mercy can you begin to praise him for his mercy kindness and sufferings he gives okay so this is where we can say you can praise him for the sufferings he gives notice in chapter 1 of corinthians let me just check mine chapter one verse six uh if we are afflicted if we are comforted all that is in past tense and so that's them saying um that god is the one in charge even if we are afflicted by god even if we are comforted by god it is for the good of the church so here it's very important to start as paul is teaching us to have a god-centered view of life towards suffering that god is in charge he's a good god he's a merciful god and even the sufferings he gives has his uses that's how paul begins the letter and how he continues throughout his letter and that's how uh he's teaching the corinthians to build life as well do not view life from their point of view from but starting from god his plans his cross his wisdom he is the one who gives us the suffering so that we can grow through it second corinthians 1 3 4. all right he's the god of all comfort who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by god when you read this the first thing usually we think about is comfort right oh okay yeah god shouldn't allow me to suffer but this passage is not saying god is going to take away your comfort he's telling you he's going to comfort you in your affliction the affliction that he gives you he's going to comfort so that first for be you can learn to comfort others in the same affliction so as much as this verse is talking about comfort you cannot forget it's saying suffering god gives you that suffering and then that comfort so that you can learn to comfort others who are in suffering with the same comfort that we ourselves are comforted by god and this idea of comfort really comes from isaiah 40. isaiah 40 verse 1 comfort comfort my people say is your god speak tenderly to jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended and that her iniquity is pardoned and that she has received from the lord 10 double for all her sins now we gotta understand this comfort properly this comfort is not ultimately just making you feel better this comfort is talking about the eschatological plans of god in establishing his own righteousness when you start off with saying god is all comfort you can't just think about oh god wants me to feel better first of all he gives you that suffering the goal is not for you to feel better the goal for you is for you to be able to help others who are suffering so they can be comfortable but the large reality of discomfort is the kingdom of god coming okay so in isaiah 40 the context is the comfort comfort comes right after isaiah 39 5-8 if you know your isaiah there are lots of kings who have been rebellious they didn't want to trust god hezekiah was almost good king he trusted god god blessed him but towards the end he was just like any other human king who did not trust god who in the entrusted in other nations rely on them and basically disdain the wisdom of god god's going to destroy them so isaiah 39 verse 5 then isaiah said to hezekiah hear the word of the lord of hosts behold the days are coming so this is right after hezekiah made an alliance again with babylon and isaiah's judging israel judah behold the days are coming when all that is in your house and that which your fathers have stored up till this day shall be carried to babylon nothing shall be left says lost this judgment and some of your sons who will come from you whom you your father shall be taken away and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the kingdom of babylon then look at what hezekiah says the word of the lord that you have spoken is good for he thought at least there will be peace and security in my days so that's for you a selfish king a king who is doomed the whole nation and you know this king idea is very important in the whole of israel's nation in fact for us also they've been waiting for this king that's going to save them it's going to trust in god but here you have human kings who cannot be trusted and who's doomed them again to exile and so it's in this context god gives them comfort this conflict is not ultimately just making you feel better this conflict is saying i'm going to come to establish my rule verse 2 of isaiah 40 speak 10 lead to jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare has ended so this warfare against other nations iniquity is pardoned this is even more important is even better news because this conflict comes with salvation it comes with pardoning of sin indians can only be filled in isaiah 53 when god himself comes and died for his people that he has received from the lord a double from the lord's hands double for all her sins and so this comfort has to be understood within the larger plan of god to establish a people of his own to establish righteousness so discomfort is not just in fact feeling better discomfort is encouragement okay this is very important um it's a i've got a helpful correction on garland david garland he was caught he's commenting on second corinthians sanchordance but it's also applicable here when you read the word comfort in the bible it doesn't mean uh just feel better it means encouragement it means strengthen your weakness so he writes here for us the word comfort may conduct emotional belief in a sense of well-being physical ease satisfaction and freedom from pain and anxiety many in our culture worship at the cult of comfort in a self-centered e search for ease but it lasts only for a moment and never fully satisfies watson commands that the word comfort has gone soft in modern english in the time of wycliffe the word was closely connected with its roots the latin fortis which means brave strong courageous the comfort that paul has in mind has nothing to do with langer's feeling of contentment it is not some tranquilizing dose of grace that only dulls pains but a stifling agent that fortifies one in heart mind and soul and so this is very helpful when you read saint corinthians one thing you can do is you can if are you cancel out the word comfort because i i don't know about you but i can't help it when i read comfort i feel like oh okay but you need to read more like encouragement courage comfort relates to encouragement help exhortation god comfort strengthens weakness and sustains sagging spirits so that one faces the troubles of life with unbending resolve and unending assurance so god is not here to remove your suffering god is here to give you the encouragement you need to endure it so that you can help others and do it and can grow in hope grow in love and grow into righteousness that's the context to what he says god of all conflict he grows us look at paul right his whole life if god of all comfort was about making feel better he's definitely not feeling better but he's making him stronger to continue to love to serve and of course it will involve feeling better but the feeling better is in the change that he's gone through the growth he's gone through not in the no growth so isaiah 40 continuing this comfort is to them for them to strengthen their weakness to continue to love and serve god uh the contact continue as therefore the verse three avoids christ in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord they ought to be preparing the way of god make straight in the desert a highway for our god in the end they're supposed to repent in the gospels every valley shall be lifted up every mountain and he'll be made low the uneven ground shall be made plain and the rough places a plane and glo the glory of the lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the lord has spoken so comfort because god is coming to establish his kingdom he has come to establish his glory for the glory the idea in the old testament is the temple god is coming and once his glory comes the whole earth will be judged his people will be saved remember last week god's wisdom destroys the wise this is god coming again to destroy all who are wise and to save those who repent verse 6 a voice cries a voice says cry what shall i cry all flesh is grasp before god and all this beauty is like the flower field the grass withers the flower fades when the breath of the lord so the breath is spirit and the spirit of the lord blows on it surely the people are grass so here let's talk about judgment comfort because there's judgment and salvation the grasp withers the flowers fade but the word of our god will stand forever be comforted because of god's word go on up to a high mountain of zion herald of good news lift up your voice and with strength or jerusalem herald of good news lift it up fear not so can you see the encouragement here say to the cities of judah behold your god behold the lord comes with might and his arm rules for him behold his reward is with him and his recompense before him he will turn his flock like a shepherd and he will gather the lambs in his arms he will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those they are with young this is the context in which you ought to be saying corinthians not feel good but that god is coming to rule in fact god has come in the messiah to judge remember your first corinthians one again when he says comfort comfort god has already come and he is now through the cross judging the world saving his people be strengthened keep going through the way of the cross endure it um progress through it you will see your reward at the end so already at the outset of second corinthians paul has established a few key things for us the christian attitude the christian mindset is that god is worthy of all praise the god is completely wise god is completely good remember first corinthians god is merciful to his own people god is not sitting idly but he's actively working out his salvation and he's working out through the cross which we've already seen the cross is god's way of judging those who are proud we've seen this first corinthians 1 18 it's his way of saving those who he has called it's his way of showing us our sin the fact that jesus would die shows us our sin and our folly it's also his way of showing us true power the power of the new creation life the power to serve god and to love god even through suffering the cross is true power this is what paul will repeat again and this is what he'll affirm when i'm weak i'm strong that's why he's saying he's not saying i'm going to be purposely saying when i'm weak i'm strong because that's me trusting in god when i look weak and i can still serve god that's when you know i'm strong okay the point is not being weak the point is i'm weird i can't do anything it's not it's the point is look i can't do anything but i'm doing something that's strong that's the cross that's obedience that's serving god that's true power the true power of the spirit-filled life to love and serve new creation life to be able to be obedient to be able to submit to be able to love people for their own good to be able the ability to be able to go through suffering and to bless others and so here in san corinthians we see god using suffering to grow us too so this point is might be better in synchronics 137 if you change the word to encouragement okay it does make a difference when you look at it blessed be god the father of our lord jesus christ the father of mercies and god of all encouragement when we read encouragement focus on what courage who encourages us in all our affliction okay can you see a difference confidence and all affection encourages us so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are comforted by encouraged sorry let's be encouraged by god here we see the first purpose of suffering given to us god gives us suffering so that we can help others who are suffering too so that in his encouragement of us in our suffering okay very important the word in is not just he takes you away from suffering he encourages in your suffering you can encourage those who are in any other affliction suffering is given by god along with comfort so that we learn that how to encourage others also who are suffering this blessing is not just about this blessing of god it's not just feeling good it's not just about come comfort it's about being mediators of god's comfort true suffering okay bless god because he has made us mediators of god through suffering do you guys understand this this is how you ought to think about suffering bless god first of all bless god the father of mercies part of all comfort because you've made us able to comfort others through this suffering this is the way of the cross this is the theology of the cross it's very against our fleshly my fleshy mind is why do i want suffering i don't want anything to do with suffering i just want to live a chill life the christian is thank god for suffering because now i can learn to encourage others through it of course suffering will end at one point but for now the way of the cross that we love learn to build each other up is this this is very important for the corinthians to understand that's why he starts off this way because the corinthians are all about puffing themselves up paul is all about suffering he's not suffering for suffering sick but suffering for god suffering for service this is the true ministry this is the true christian compare a pastor who is out there all bling all you know well to do no suffering versus a pastor who is preaching the gospel suffering being hated you can see very clearly who is who has the right ministry that's how you identify one very important theme in current saint corinthians is knowing how to identify false ministries and true ministries false prophets and true prophets and the way to identify is not ultimately by letters of recommendation okay so that's in chapter one i think that um he will challenge the corinthians with us the current things letters or recommendations you got people recommending people come in now paul is saying the way to decide whether pastor is truly of god is look at his preaching look at his life look at his fruits because paul was saying what do you mean you are my letter of recommendation look at you guys you are christians right is this not the spirit's evidence that i am an apostle i am god's servant you don't ask around you look at what he teaches you look at the fruits you see you can judge of course you have to know your bible you remember your first corinthians 2 you have the mind of christ you can judge whose ministry is right or wrong the fleshly person relies on other people the fleshly person relies on red letter's recommendation the true christian reads the bible observes and knows in the end he is god-centered and he will do what's right again this thinking is very important it's going to be expanded throughout san corinthians um this god-centeredness this sincerity of heart i don't really like sincerity but he uses it here the sincerity here means the vertical god orient god centeredness mindset that he has so the first purpose that god gives us suffering the first reason why we should bless god in suffering is because he enables us to bless others through that suffering to mediate god's encouragement through suffering take note of how verse 5 continues on for just as christ suffering overflows into us okay this one translation you got to change it makes a bit of quite a bit difference in your esv it says uh especially the second line um it says for as we share abundantly in christ suffering so true christ we share abundantly in comfort too so esp is like we suffer we get comforted but the original greek says we suffer we comfort others just as christ's suffering overflows in the world also i think stronger overflows into us so through christ our encouragement overflows out too okay so that's five god's purpose for suffering in christ for christians today is so that through that encouragement can overflow and also along with christ's suffering overflowing into us the christian life is one that goes through suffering that has christ's suffering overflow into you so that you can overflow comfort encouragement if you don't have christ suffering into you you cannot encourage others the fleshly person you don't suffer how can you encourage others at most you encourage money is weak or just do better but the person who truly has suffered christ will know how to suffer with christ in christ will know how to encourage how do you know you're a christian the question is what have you suffer like a christian should can you be a good encourager the test is whether you have suffered like christ has let me just explain to you so um there's difference between the word affliction and the word encouragement here they're not too different but there's a reason why paul changes it so you notice that in uh verse four he uses encourages in our affliction and after that verse five for jesus christ suffering so what is usually two different words just to clarify so the word affliction here um refers to all kinds so paul uses the word affliction to refer to both both to external distress so if you think of chapter 4 verse 8 or romans 8 and inner torment so it basically refers to any suffering whether it's external whether it's internal even emotional both may be involved here though he does not detail what exactly these fictions are we can only guess what they were from the hardship catalogs in this letter so you can take a look at those verses chapter 4 6 11 and from the accounts of his persecutions in acts plots riots and more violence all these other afflictions and false accusations and imprisonment and stoning so far god has delivered him from every peril but when god delivers paul from one distress the apostle tumbles into another okay so bless god for encouraging us through all this affliction um and these afflictions should be understood as christ's suffering so when he switches to verse five and he says christ something you should understand that um the way christians should approach it the way christian can approach it the way christians can in the end encourage others is if you approach these afflictions that you have as if they were christ's sufferings the christ the term here christ suffering of course it means if you know your old testament we've talked about this before and i've talked about this before they are the pengs of the messiah so in the old testament you have the book of daniel and many other books promising that before the messiah comes fully there will be suffering for god's people they'll be suffering partly because of judgment but also because of training them it's going to be done this quote on the pranks of messiah the term thesis which which is affliction still which stands in the rxx for several hebrew terms that more or less denote the distresses of life and in various nuances gain its theological significance from the fact that it predominantly signifies the oppression of the affliction of the people of israel whatever righteous who represent israel israel constantly experience affliction so this is this is the word affliction but you can see that it's similar to the word suffering of the messiah affliction in its history for example the oppression in egypt and the affliction in exile so those were all afflictions that israel had to go through before the messiah comes they generally had this pattern where they go through hardship both important events of salvation history while the righteous in israel according to the psalms were afflicted too so it's a pattern in the old testament that the righteous will suffer before the messiah comes in addition to this continual visitation of the chosen people by god according to daniel 12 1 there belongs a future final affliction a time of great distress and that's supposed to be us now so slayer concludes the judgment fulfilled in the history of israel will be totally revealed in the eschatological thesis which is this end time suffering right now so christians were meant to be suffering mentally suffering for god as god's people if you're not that means you're part of the world but if you're not powerful you will suffer but this suffering of christ is not just it's not as it's not just general suffering although it is but there's also part reason why it says christ suffering is because it needs to look like christ on the cross so just got another quote here from guthrie says here yeah what does he mean by the sufferings of christ numerous suggestions have been made but perhaps it is best to read the genitive form the official of christ as reflecting the christians identification with christ in his suffering so he moves on bless god for the afflictions you have but just as christ's suffering overflows into his and to teach us that we should see this as the suffering of a christian the suffering of a christian before the messiah finally comes again the christians are divine vitification with christ in his sufferings that is the suffering's experience in association with christ it may well be that this perspective was birthed in paul's experience on the damascus world where jesus asked him why he was killing me remember x9 out of this experience paul came to understand persecution against christ people christ's body as a direct assault on christ himself as christ people follow christ's path of suffering in identification with him all this is really trying to tell the corinthians this is the right way of life that christ's people christ's servant should be suffering with him you should be evaluating ministries based on this you should be evaluating yourself your theology or gospel based on this so at the start he's trying to yes bless god but also teach them this is what theologian of the cross is that's for paul to be beaten constituted both and continued assault on christ and apostle's identification with the preeminent righteous sufferer for paul then being in a world hostile to christ means an experience of overflowing difficulties in life and ministry yet these sufferings highlight the authentic connection paul has with jesus and thus over against the false teachers the ability of his ministry he has suffered with jesus while they stayed home and stayed safe so he's trying to teach them that this is the way of ministry right ministry so suffering identifies us with christ suffering number one teaches us how to comfort those who are suffering number two suffering identifies us with christ as well as his comfort and enables us to mediate this encouragement to others too in their suffering so second corinthians 167 now if we are afflicted it is for your encouragement and salvation and if we are encouraged it is for your encouragement which is at work in the endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer so again this phrase here i changed a little bit it's not as smooth but the point here is always saying when we are encouraged it is for you guys to be encouraged when you suffer also he's trying to teach the corinthians that this is what they should be doing this is what they should be seeing as proper ministry this encouragement that i get from suffering should teach you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer you see christianity is not about no suffering christianity is about enduring the same suffering growing strong in them identifying with christ praising god until he comes back and our hope for you is unshaken but we know that as you share in sufferings in your bible says our sufferings but natural version is sharing sufferings possibly saying it's sharing christ's sufferings you will also share in christ's comfort also so that's what suffering does but one more thing also that suffering does is it drives us to trust trusting god and also hope so we've talked about two uses of suffering so far one is to encourage others number two is identify us with christ number three along with all this is to drive us to trust and hope second corinthians 1 8 11 but we do not want you to be unaware about this of the affliction we experience in asia for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on god who raises the dead this is the third reason for suffering is to teach us to rely on god this verse is where you see paul for the first time perhaps looking like he's given up uh we don't quite know what exactly it is it happened in asia but he says here we were so burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life imagine paul saying i don't live anymore indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death and this was tough for paul because paul had a mission to go and preach the gospel and to unite the churches but all this was to make him trust and rely on god this is the real the other reason the theology of the cross the suffering makes you rely on god some of you you've suffered you've understood that if you're a true christian if you have spirit suffering makes you rely on god because first suffering shows you especially the intense ones that you are nobody that you cannot do anything only god can verse 10 he delivered us from a deadly peril and he will deliver us on him we have set our hope and he will deliver us again you also must help us in by prayer so that we many will give thanks so here again he's telling them to support him when he says you must help me by praying saying that support me pray for me that this is true christianity this is true apostleship for paul suffering thought deep suffering taught him to rely on god who gave him the suffering so here is very important power paul has set it up he's not saying pray that god will will you know not give me suffering he is saying it it helps him to rely on the god who gave him that suffering okay paul doesn't have the idea oh pray that god will take away my suffering because something is bad things saying help me to rely on the god who gave me this suffering this is how you ought to read it from verse 3 onwards blessed god gave me the suffering and continue to teach me here now to rely this is very key if not you don't understand this you must read verse 10 in 11 you misread verse 10 thinking oh we must trust god so that he can take us out of suffering so that he can uh eventually he might get prosperity gospel god will save me out of all my perils we must believe in god no he's saying believe in the god who gave you this suffering and trust in him so if he does set your goal you continue to serve him and the context here is mission he's doing mission uh he's learning to trust god who gave him the suffering and who let him go whenever god wants to also this is a familiar old testament idea we see in the psalms you see this in the psalms everywhere also this idea that god gives you suffering you learn to hope against hope one example here psalm 42 11. i say to god my rock why have you forgotten me so here of course some is going through suffering why do i go morning because of the oppression of the enemy as with a deadly wound in my bones my adversaries taught me well they say to me all day long where is your god why are you so that's the suffering that's the taunt verse 11 his response to himself why are you cast down oh my soul and why are you in turmoil within me hope in god for i shall again trust him my salvation and my soul so suffering is good because it teaches us to hope to hope in god hope against hope the goal of paul is also to teach them uh that they need to see that the cruciform life is like this this is the christian life the crucifying life is good for us he trusts teaches us again to trust god and to serve others we ought to serve suffer in service to god in bringing salvation to others and suffering is good so that we trust in god and also for us to learn to comfort others and finally suffering shows god's power in 2nd corinthians 4 7 to 15 this right after he talks about the ministry um the glorious ministry of he has of the spirit second corinthians 4 7 to 15 he says but we have this treasure this gospel in jars of clay to show the surpassing power belongs to god and not to us so that purpose clause is very important god purposely gives us this treasure in jaws of pain just clearly talks about our you know people bodies our easily blues bodies to show that this is god's power working in us when you read second corinthians 4 7 then you read verse 8 maybe verse 9 verse 10 you try and connect it how does verse 8 verse 9 verse 10 show god's power okay verse 8 verse 9 verse 10 shows the jars of clay right we are afflicted in every way but we're not crushed this is paul still doing mission that can only show you this is god's power suffering shows you god's power working in you perplexed but not driven to despair persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed it is when i'm weak i'm strong we show god's power always carrying in the body the death of jesus so that the life of jesus may be manifested in our bodies the life of christ the hope of christ can be carried out but we who are always being given over to death for jesus sake so that the life of jesus may also be manifested in our mortal bodies why is suffering good because it shows us the power of christ in us so that is our work in us but life in you since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written i believe and i spoke and so we believe and so we also spoke saying corinthians 11 30 to 31 again paul continues to boast in his weaknesses who is weak and i'm not weak who is made to fall and i am not indignant if i must boast i will boast of the things that show my weakness because in his weakness he shows that god is working through him that even with these weaknesses if he can serve god is working through him and saying corinthians 12 9 10 but he said to me this god said to paul my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness how can you best show god's power when you're weak and you can still serve god that is the power of the spirit working in you that's when you know you're not doing this for yourself you're not doing this for selfish gains this is completely hundred percent of spiritual in you to love and serve this reminds you of first corinthians 12 to 14 the use of gifts even when you don't have the gifts the goal is to serve to love that even if you're nobody you're here to still serve and love even though you're not presentable but you're still here to love and serve the rest the church with what you are what you have been given and this is the power of god the power that you are the power of god to change you to make you a new person to make you someone who fears god loves god loves his church without any selfish desires that is the power of god for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore i will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of christ may rest upon me for the sake of christ then i am content with weaknesses insults hardships persecutions calamities for when i am weak i am strong do you guys get this now the spirit is working that's why i will boast in my weaknesses so the purpose of suffering is so that we can mediate god's comfort we can learn to trust god we can identify with christ it's proof that we are christ's people and it also trains us to endure and produce hope now we're talking so that's the first bit on suffering and the next part here is on being the true apostolic what what true apostolic ministry looks like so the first verse to go to is chapter 1 verse 12 again for almost it is the testimony of our conscience that we behave in this world with holiness and sincerity of god not by flesh not by fleshly wisdom but by the grace of god and supremely so toward you um this is a way of describing what a true episodic ministry looks like first of all it's holy it's set apart well this work can either mean holy or it can mean simple um if it's simplicity it means single-minded same as the idea sincerity the the word sincerity here uh the actual word means that you can be completely transparent you're completely transparent before god you're not hiding anything the atm when judgement day comes what you are is what you've shown to us what is the true christian ministry is that you're transparent to people you're transparent to god you are sincere in your love in your actions you're not fleshly so the opposite of specially fleshly is being self-centered you're doing things for yourself and you're doing all this by the grace of god the power of god given to you and so this sincerity of god and to be sustained by god is the sort of verticalness that characterizes a true absolute ministry this is the same kind of ministry that you see in the prophets that they are completely god-centered they're vertical uh their sufficiency comes from god uh take a look at second corinthians chapter three sorry chapter two verse sixteen to 17. just before this you can look at verse 12. right here now when i came to troas to preach the gospel of christ you guys need your bible because it's not a queen well when i came first to preach the gospel of christ even though a door was opened for me in the lord my spirit was not at rest because i did not buy my brother titus so here again is an example here he changed his mind even though uh the door was open to him in the lord but because he is so this is actually a lot of people will say this is proof that he's you know not a good uh apostle but this is actually proof that he is because he's concerned about the church he sent titus over there tata says and come back he's concerned about the church so much and his mission is for the church that he would have to put this down and move over to the next part to make sure that the church is well built up properly so when you want to measure um you know integrity of a pastor you're going to work out what is the reason what is ultimately for for paul here he's defending himself with that reason i am being completely sincere i care for you and i love you that's why i left them to go to macedonia and here again but thanks be to god who in christ always gives us a triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance and the knowledge of him everywhere so here again he's taught he's thanking god that even though change plans have changed but god continue to use him well in this case to spread the gospel but this gospel in a in a veiled way uh the triumphal position i mentioned to you already it's the imagery is paul being in prison paul being a slave that god is using him as a slave as a sufferer as a prisoner to go and preach the gospel as someone who is not glamorous someone who is suffering god is using him to preach the gospel of the cross to preach you remember your first corinthians 2 1 5 that he didn't come with great speech he didn't come with great uh to be able to speak great wisdom he came to preach the cross he uses that god uses that the imagery someone who's foolish in this world to preach the cross and through that to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of god okay the cross of christ that knowledge this is what christian ministry is that we're going around preaching the cross faithfully using the rhetoric of the cross and by doing so you are the aroma of christ to god this is how god this is how god enjoys the word that you are preaching faithfully this is aromatic to god so the the idea of aroma here goes back to the old testament uh in temple sacrifices you burn and sweet smelling to god and this is what it looks like to preach the gospel in this way leviticus 1 9 and 13 you can take a look at that [Music] this is the fragrance that goes on and this is a fragrance that is sincere that is honest that is not trying to be fleshly not trying to gain anything you're not peddlers of god's word of god words mean you sell the gospel for money it's completely for the gospel or god and it will result in two things first one among those who are being saved they will be saved among those who are perishing they will perish verse 15 here is saying the gospel is given to them or god has made it such that they are going to preach this gospel and the effect of this gospel is that for those who are dying or dead they will continue to die that's the force of verse 16 a fragrance from death into death the literal words into death so those the beginning of gospel supposed to have two polarizing effects those who are being destroyed they will be continually destroyed those who are being saved they will be saved this is what it means to be a faithful sincere ministry to preach the cross of christ purely sincerely for the sake of god and that's why you have the question who is sufficient for these things because it's very hard to be non-man pleasing to be doing this as a servant as a slave true and verse 17 for we are not like so many peddlers of god's word we don't sell the gospel we don't make it nice to people but we are men of sincerity before god as from god in a sight of god so we speak in christ and so a pirate mark of a true apostle industry is one who is completely vertical god-centered preached to the gospel does not try and flower it trying to sugarcoat it try and make it acceptable you preach it so that those who are belong to god will be saved those who do not belong to god those who are perishing will be destroyed by it that is a marked ministry now of course it doesn't mean you can't have evangelistic events and all that but the cross of christ preaches clearly sin judgment salvation god's righteousness you preach a god sent the gospel not a man-centered gospel we preach a god-glorifying gospel not a fleshly gospel and you preach it by the grace of god you preach it with the wisdom and righteousness of god there's more that uh is in this public ministry that i want to explore a little bit more later this late after this uh this is where i have in your outlines you can see a few more categories that i plan to cover later on uh i'm not sure if i can cover them all i'll try my best but i'm telling you basically uh we're gonna stop here because i'm gonna need to work on that a little bit more for evening but what we're gonna try and cover is the nature of this ministry the character of this ministry and we're gonna talk a lot a little bit about the two comma the two covenants that's in chapter two basically chapter three seven to eighteen we might cover a bit of eschatology we're gonna cover the mystery of reconciliation that's so teriology and hopefully if we can theology of giving okay uh let me pray god we thank you for this morning that we've been able to learn from corinthians so far theology of the cross especially when applied to suffering how that looks like i pray that um when we take a break later they'll continue to think about corinthians enjoy it and reflect also carefully how they should conform their lives to this theology that we're learning so that we can pleasing to you god center and god on rhine for honoring jesus we pray church let us stand in response to the preaching of god's word we have heard that the christian is called to follow after christ to struggle in suffering and as we look forward to our lord's return let us also look to one another to encourage one another as we struggle in suffering so that we can and encourage wonder in comfort to be able to persevere to the very end and hence as servants of the gospel let us look forward in hope as suffering produces this endurance to strive to persevere let us persevere as servants of this gospel [Music] me were undeserving christ died to wash us clean he bore the father's anger while nailed upon the tree in darkness and in turmoil the judgment fell on him bringing us forgiveness then new life might begin as servants of the gospel christ's work we carry on and through our prayer and with us by grace might wisdom we call on every nation to turn to christ the lord refugees [Applause] [Music] the grave could not contain him from death the sun broke free exalted by his father to rule eternally and in his race he calls us to be his chosen church [Music] of the gospel as servants of the gospel christ's book we carry on that through our prayer and witness by grace we might win son we call on every nation to turn to christ the lord refugees [Music] [Music] [Music] his holy spirit and guided by his word christ guides us together prepares us for good works and so with grace abortion we serve each other's needs sharing in each blessing and helping in our grief as servants of the gospel as servants of the gospel christ's work we carry on that through our prayer and witness thy grace might win some we call on every nation to turn to christ the lord [Music] and witness by grace in my twin son we call on every nation to turn to christ the lord refuge [Music] may we as his church continue to encourage one another to persevere to the very end please be seated church as we've just heard in today's sermon we can see that the struggles within the corinthian church um was very real and despite paul's first letter and even a painful visit to speak the truth to them um we can see that they still struggled with sin with fleshlight thinking and indeed even we as a church if we're not careful to heed the warnings that are in this letter we too can be guilty and capable of falling into great sin just like the corinthian church it's a sobering thing to be confronted by the cross and to see the cross-shaped suffering that paul went through and calls all christians alike to go through as well as we are suffering for christ and it forces us to be real with our own sins and the lack of love that we've shown towards the church so let's come before god humbly broken and contrite and confess our sins to him together in the words of this confession dearly loved brothers and sisters we are called to examine ourselves in the light of to the preaching of god's word today let's go to god in public confession together our father we are sinful and you're holy we recognize um there's nothing in us okay by sinning against our neighbors we bring you our particular sins our father although you are a holy god who cannot look upon sin look upon christ our savior and forgive us for his sake you have promised us that if we confess our sins you are faithful and just to forgive us for our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness for if we do sin we have an advocate before your throne jesus christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins give us your pardon by your mercies dear father for you have clothed us in christ's righteousness we ask also that you would give us an increase of the grace of your holy spirit so that we may learn the wisdom of your ways and walk in your holy past for your glory and the good of our neighbor amen so that brings us to the end of this morning's morning gathering as the church a gentle reminder a pastor in training daniel just as he mentioned we're going to continue with the pm gathering at 5 pm so he's going to continue part two of his sermon so do watch out for that i really encourage you back at home as well to make sure that you catch up on that second part of the sermon to get a fuller understanding of second corinthians last but not least next sunday's timing is going to be a little bit different so you will want to take note there's only going to be a single combined gathering which will start at 8 00 a.m and then we'll have a membership swearing ceremony which will begin at 4 30 p.m in the afternoon our speaker will be pastor robin and he'll be preaching on the letter to the philippians i hope that everyone will discuss about what you've heard in today's sermon certainly there's a lot to think about especially you can do it while you're having lunch for some of you here for those of you guys at home you can do it while having lunch i suppose um do have a good discussion here's the discussion question for you if you were suffering for christ what would your life look like that's all for me today stay safe and god bless the perfect is deeper through another [Music] [Music] two people who were the church [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] will your perfect way [Music] [Music] the savior of the world was is [Music] [Music] the ground began to shake the stone was rolled away his only love cannot be overcome now death where is your state a resurrected king has read [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Christ Evangelical Reformed Church | CERC Malaysia

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Published: Sat Oct 02 2021