SPEAKER_00: Good morning, everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for uh for joining us in this live stream.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're well uh wherever you're you're tuning in from, and that I hope that you're knowing the uh the grace and comfort uh of the Lord Jesus, uh, whatever it is that you are uh experiencing uh right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to be with you to open God's word together as we uh continue into our second week uh in this new series, uh looking at Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we pray uh together and then we'll uh look at the passage that uh Becky read for us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, we pray for your help now as we open up the scriptures uh again to give us uh ears to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Uh may you be at work uh in our hearts by your spirit through your living and active word, help us.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to understand it and in understanding to be transformed by it.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this week, uh, if you've been watching the news here in Ireland, you can't uh help but uh but miss the uh the release or the leaking uh of the uh report into the mother and baby homes uh in Ireland.
SPEAKER_00: And uh while there is much to to talk about there, I'm not going to go into it in detail except to say that what it brings to the fore, again, for us as followers of Jesus, is that we live in a country that is uh still reckoning uh with its past, it's still uh dealing with and reckoning uh with uh people who acted wickedly while professing and proclaiming the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I've wondered this week whether this is true.
SPEAKER_00: It feels uh like other English-speaking uh parts of these islands, uh, see Christianity as regressive, yes, irrational, yes, uh irrelevant, yes.
SPEAKER_00: And we have got all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: But it feels like there's something else going on.
SPEAKER_00: That in the Republic, as we continue to bring to light the unspeakable things done by people who profess the name of Jesus, it's not just that we're seen as um irrelevant, it's not just that we're viewed with apathy, it's that we're viewed with hostility and hatred.
SPEAKER_00: People who don't follow Jesus hate religion for what it has done to people.
SPEAKER_00: And I hate it too, and we should hate it.
SPEAKER_00: We should hate it for what it has done to people, but we should hate it also for another reason.
SPEAKER_00: We should hate it both for the wickedness that was perpetrated, and that it has now so marred people from seeing the real beauty and goodness and life-giving, joyful fullness that there really is in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I think God hates the empty religion of Ireland's past.
SPEAKER_00: I think it is antithetical to his gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I think Paul, in our passage this morning, by God's providence, that we get to look at it, wants nothing to do with empty religion that harms people.
SPEAKER_00: Ireland's empty religion was a religion that said one thing and did another.
SPEAKER_00: It was an empty religion that did not operate with sincerity or integrity or love.
SPEAKER_00: This empty religion is not what we proclaim, it is not what we profess to follow, it is not the gospel, it is not what Jesus came proclaiming, nor what we ought to embody, as Paul will go on to show us.
SPEAKER_00: That's important, like they don't realize it, but I want to have it.
SPEAKER_00: What they care about is am I somebody who has integrity?
SPEAKER_00: Am I someone who is motivated by sincerity and love, or am I just the priest on the street?
SPEAKER_00: Full of empty religion.
SPEAKER_00: In Corinth, the city to which Paul is riding, uh, in the Corinthian church, uh, things between Paul and the Christians in the church had gotten rather tense.
SPEAKER_00: They had gotten strained.
SPEAKER_00: You see, there were there were issues in the church, um, particular uh sins, particular sexual sins that were going on in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul had written a uh a letter.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he uh talks about it uh in chapter two, where he talks about uh this painful letter that he sent.
SPEAKER_00: He had sent this letter and um and said that he was going to come and visit them, that he was going to uh deal with the situation.
SPEAKER_00: But what had also happened is that uh his plans changed, and so the Corinthians thought that Paul was being two-faced.
SPEAKER_00: They thought that Paul was more empty religion, that he was saying one thing and doing another.
SPEAKER_00: We all uh dislike two-faced people, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: And they thought that Paul was being two-faced, that he was saying yes with one breath and no with the next.
SPEAKER_00: And so they have called into character, or called into question rather, his character and his motives.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes this passage to explain what was going on, why he did what he did, and what his motives were.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see there is that the grace of God to the Christian goes right to the root of who we are, it goes right to the motive.
SPEAKER_00: It goes right to the motives of why we act the way we do.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul begins by showing them what his motives were throughout his interactions with them.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at that together.
SPEAKER_00: What were Paul's motives throughout his interactions with the Christian with the Christian?
SPEAKER_00: Have a look at uh at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Uh verse 12 he says, uh, for our boast, this isn't that he's kind of bigging himself up, this is just a way of uh look, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you as plainly and as fully and as simply as possible how I was acting.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's saying by boast.
SPEAKER_00: For our boast is this, uh, the testimony of our conscience is that I swear I'm telling the truth with this.
SPEAKER_00: The testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God and supremely so towards you.
SPEAKER_00: Begins of this word simplicity.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't he wasn't doing this double talk, he wasn't saying yes with one breath and and no with another.
SPEAKER_00: He was he was plain spoken in that he was simply laying out what his intentions were.
SPEAKER_00: He emphasizes that again in verse uh 17.
SPEAKER_00: Have a look at it again if you've got it open on your phone, if you've got a Bible in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: He asked this question, he says, Was I vacillating?
SPEAKER_00: Vacillating just means to swing back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: Was I was I vacillating when I wanted to do this when I made my plans?
SPEAKER_00: Do I make my plans according to the flesh?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, ready to say yes, yes, and no, no, at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: He asked this rhetorical question that implies the answer.
SPEAKER_00: No, and that's what he'll go on to explain.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at verse 18 in a second because it's verse 18 uh and uh and 19 and 20 are are basically the crux of the of the whole passage and the most complicated part, but welcome to an insight into my wing.
SPEAKER_00: But for now, he was speaking plainly with godly sincerity that comes from where?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12 again, that comes from the grace of God, not by earthly wisdom, simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't looking at the situation from a worldly perspective about what was the most convenient or advantageous for him, what was the best option for him from a worldly perspective.
SPEAKER_00: He was seeking to speak and act simply and transparently.
SPEAKER_00: His first motive was that Paul was acting with integrity, simple, clear speech.
SPEAKER_00: Saying yes and meaning yes, saying no and meaning no, not flip-flopping or keeping one's options open.
SPEAKER_00: But coupled with this integrity, Paul is also motivated by love.
SPEAKER_00: His desire, verse 15, was to come to them in order to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you so that you might have a second experience of grace.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to come and encourage them and be a blessing to them.
SPEAKER_00: He goes on and explains uh later that he stayed away because he didn't want to cause them more pain.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23 but I call God to witness against me, it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy.
SPEAKER_00: And if we were to to read on into the start of chapter two, uh, chapter two, verse one, for I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you.
SPEAKER_00: For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad, but the one that I have pained?
SPEAKER_00: So he stayed away because he didn't want to inflict them more harm.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that they uh that the letter that he wrote was hard for them to take.
SPEAKER_00: And he said that he wanted to go in that letter, and then he determined actually the most loving thing to do would be to stay away.
SPEAKER_00: You see, in the uh in the honor-shame culture of Corinth, to point out that someone was in sin, to point out that someone was wrong, and that the whole church had let it happen, was something that was deeply shaming, even for those who were followers of Jesus, those new Christians who still had those cultural ideas uh rattling around in their head.
SPEAKER_00: They felt ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul in 2 verse 1 wants to avoid another painful visit.
SPEAKER_00: The last one was painful enough, apparently.
SPEAKER_00: So he stayed away.
SPEAKER_00: He stayed away, not because Paul was giving them the he wasn't giving them the silent treatment, he wasn't withdrawing uh his presence in order to kind of look down his nose at them as he said, I wasn't trying to lord it over you.
SPEAKER_00: I was giving you the space to process what what had gone on rather than me coming in again and being seen as causing more pain, or you being more ashamed by my being there.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't sending them to their room like petulant children.
SPEAKER_00: No, he loves them.
SPEAKER_00: Everything he does comes from a love for them, it comes from the desire to maximize their joy and to establish them firm in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy.
SPEAKER_00: For you stand firm in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wants.
SPEAKER_00: So he gave them space and is writing this letter to explain.
SPEAKER_00: But that they could process what has happened, that they could take action before he came rather than doing it in the in the intensity of his presence there with them.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is motivated by two things.
SPEAKER_00: He is motivated by integrity, simple speech, not vacillating.
SPEAKER_00: And he is motivated by love.
SPEAKER_00: Love tempers his his actions.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to do the most maximally loving thing for them.
SPEAKER_00: A couple of uh reflections on this, on these motives, and on what Paul has said here.
SPEAKER_00: First, this is what happens when the grace of God reboots your motives.
SPEAKER_00: We all go through life uh with uh with mixed motives, and perhaps before we were followers of Jesus, we were motivated a lot by self-service, doing that thing that advantages advantaged us the most, doing that thing that uh left us most comfortable, not really considering other people's feelings, doing what made us happy.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of God reboots our motives.
SPEAKER_00: It makes us be motivated not by what we want, not by what we think is best for us or most loving for ourselves, or most comfortable for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of God reboots our motives so that we consider the needs of others, that we look at the situation and think, okay, what is the how can I be a blessing here?
SPEAKER_00: The motives of the Christian life are to be transparency, integrity, and love.
SPEAKER_00: And we see how important this is here.
SPEAKER_00: If Paul had been two-faced, the reputation of the gospel would have been irreparably damaged in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: If Paul really had been saying yes, yes, and no, no, and if he'd just written back and said, Well, actually, you knew what I'm in charge, and uh what I say goes.
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I changed my mind because uh because I had a better offer over here, the work of the gospel in Corinth would have been done.
SPEAKER_00: So as we think about our motives, and as we think about the integrity which we need to cultivate by the grace of God, it's not it's not a simple matter of saying, uh, you know, if you say you're gonna do something, make sure that you do it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you say that you're gonna go somewhere, make sure that you go, make sure that your yes is yes and that your no is no back.
SPEAKER_00: That we we looked at that in the in the Sermon on the Mind, didn't we?
SPEAKER_00: Can seem like a very kind of surface level thing, but actually what was going on is that the reputation of the gospel is at stake.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Corinthian Christians were asking the question of is this just more empty religion?
SPEAKER_00: The easiest way for us to show the world that what we are, what we are following is just more empty religion is when we speak out of both sides of our mouth when we lack integrity, and so when we are tempted to blow something off because it inconveniences us, stop and think what am I communicating here?
SPEAKER_00: The second reflection uh is just kind of on a uh on a kind of higher level, just to think for a second about the kind of leader Paul is here, the way that he is dealing with them, how gently and mercifully he is speaking to them and dealing with them.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Paul has been, it's not like Paul has been sitting in some sort of Mediterranean spa, you know, all around the Aegean.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's not what was happening.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Paul wasn't preferring his comfort uh over the over the blessing of uh of the Corinthian Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He was he was suffering, he was being beaten, and you know, there's a there was a riot in Ephesus, he was persecuted and arrested, he was stoned, he was shipwrecked.
SPEAKER_00: And the Corinthian Christians don't seem to mention any of that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they kind of lost sight of all of uh all of those things, and they were they were thinking about themselves, they were thinking about uh their uh their own situation, and so we're thinking the worst of Paul, and we're kind of whining to him, but Paul doesn't come back and go, Hey, do you know what, guys?
SPEAKER_00: If you had any idea what I had been through, you know, why don't you just sit down and shut up?
SPEAKER_00: That is not what he says, that is not where he's coming from.
SPEAKER_00: He responds with such grace, such patience.
SPEAKER_00: And he explains.
SPEAKER_00: He explains his thinking, explains what has happened, he explains why he did what he did.
SPEAKER_00: Leaders probably in all of life, but certainly in the church, would do well to embody more mercy.
SPEAKER_00: A good godly leader absorbs hurts and he meets immaturity with both gentleness and firmness.
SPEAKER_00: He knows when to step back, when to not overly burden people, when to extend them grace.
SPEAKER_00: See?
SPEAKER_00: He's still not talking about himself, he's still not thinking about himself, not really.
SPEAKER_00: He's helping them.
SPEAKER_00: Become more other person centered.
SPEAKER_00: He's helping them become more gracious by showing them his motives.
SPEAKER_00: What a good leader.
SPEAKER_00: So, what were Paul's motives?
SPEAKER_00: Integrity and love.
SPEAKER_00: And where did these motives come from?
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, where does Paul's integrity and his love originate?
SPEAKER_00: Where do they come from?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we get into the core of the passage, and what we see there is that Paul's heart towards the Christians was undivided because God's heart was undivided.
SPEAKER_00: He was seeking to embody God's heart to them.
SPEAKER_00: Have a look with me at verse 17 down to the first half of verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Was I vacillating when I said when I wanted to do this?
SPEAKER_00: Do I make my plans according to the flesh?
SPEAKER_00: Ready to say yes, yes, and no, no at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no.
SPEAKER_00: For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Sylvanas and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes.
SPEAKER_00: For the promises of God find their yes in him.
SPEAKER_00: That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: I read a little bit too far.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get to the Amen bit in a second.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul said yes to seeing them again, he did so fully.
SPEAKER_00: He did so with full intention that he would do.
SPEAKER_00: In a sense, he's saying that his heart for them has always been yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes to their holiness, yes to their progress and joy in the gospel, yes to their growth in godliness.
SPEAKER_00: And all of that was resting on the foundation of God's enduring faithfulness, of God's yes to the Corinthian Christians that comes in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Paul had made his plan with the best of intentions, and now he lifts their eyes, he lifts their perspective and says that even though things changed in an earthly sense, in terms of the plans that we were putting together, that we did so with integrity, that even though those plans changed, they changed because of, first of all, uh his love for them, but they do not thwart God's unchanging plan.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying this, remember the promises of God are never thwarted by changing circumstances, that his promises are always yes in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That I determined differently upon reflection out of love for you.
SPEAKER_00: But I did so knowing that God is enduringly faithful towards you.
SPEAKER_00: God's promises to you, to the Christian, are always yes.
SPEAKER_00: If you belong to Jesus by faith, then everything God could possibly give you for your good has already been signed over to your account.
SPEAKER_00: This is the great promise of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: God's heart is not divided towards the sinner who comes to faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When we in our sin and brokenness come to Jesus by faith, what we hear from God our Father is yes.
SPEAKER_00: Will you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Will you forgive me?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Will you make me yours and adopt me as your son?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Will you keep me to the end?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Will you see that I enter into your glory and joy on that last day?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the unchanging plans and promises of God to the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is resting on those for himself and for these Corinthian believers.
SPEAKER_00: God's yes to us in Jesus transcends the changing circumstances that we find ourselves in.
SPEAKER_00: What's more, Paul's own change came from a dependence on God's faithfulness to them and a desire to show them more grace, more love.
SPEAKER_00: This couldn't be any further removed from empty religion.
SPEAKER_00: God's yes to us in Jesus is not empty.
SPEAKER_00: Our God does not say yes and no.
SPEAKER_00: He is enduringly faithful.
SPEAKER_00: This is not empty religion, it is full, full of grace, full of love, full of integrity, full of compassion and kindness.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul points us towards this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul was seeking to embody in his life, and what he encourages us to live in and live out in our actions.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, Paul wants to kind of try and bring them back together and show them the ground of their uh of their unity, because uh, as you know, uh, if you've ever been in a in an argument uh with anyone, uh and it's it's kind of drawing to a close, uh, you know that resolution is uh is on the horizon.
SPEAKER_00: The argument always kind of uh pivots towards this question of well, where do we go from here?
SPEAKER_00: How do we come back together and uh and move forward together so that we don't fracture apart again?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul seeks to answer that question.
SPEAKER_00: He said, No, no, don't forget what unites us.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we move forward, that's how we reconcile uh these these two parties, and that's how we reconcile as Christians, as believers in in city churches.
SPEAKER_00: We remember what unites us.
SPEAKER_00: Paul points out the bonds of unity that that exists between them, and he does it in in two ways.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he points them to their shared common ground, their shared common ground, their shared faith in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he means by verse 20, when he when he goes from talking about the promises of God that find their yes in him, that is Jesus, to 2020 B, he says, This is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Just as God has said yes to the Christian, so the Christian utters his yes or her yes back to God.
SPEAKER_00: Just as God has said yes to them in Christ, so the Christian says yes, that's Amen to God by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he shows them that God is the one who has established the believers together.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 21, and it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Look, God has done this for us all, not just me, Paul the Apostle, but for you, Corinthian believers.
SPEAKER_00: He has done this so that we might be together, so that we might be united.
SPEAKER_00: God has made them all part of his unfolding and unchanging plan, and he has guaranteed to preserve them to the end.
SPEAKER_00: How has he done that?
SPEAKER_00: He has sealed them in the way that you might uh see in some period drama that they they seal a letter with uh with wax and then they stamp it with an imprint.
SPEAKER_00: And on that imprint is the initials of the person who has sealed the letter.
SPEAKER_00: So God has stamped his initials on you and on our communal life together.
SPEAKER_00: He has guaranteed the ground on which we stand, he has guaranteed that he will preserve us all to the end, all who trust in the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul and the Corinthian Christians share that there is no distinction in that regard.
SPEAKER_00: In our conflicts, in our conflicts in the in the family of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And that's you know, one of the things that it means to be a family is that we rise from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: In our conflicts as Christians, so many of them will be resolved when we remember, when we remember, when we remember just what unites us, and how much stronger that is than what has divided us when we remember where we were all going.
SPEAKER_00: And how when we stand before that throne, all those arguments will seem so insignificant.
SPEAKER_00: That isn't to say uh that there aren't big things that happen between believers, big things that uh that need to be mediated and talked through, and sometimes uh breaches are harder to mend.
SPEAKER_00: But in general, in the day-to-day, in the day-to-day uh griping and feeling hard done by and feeling slighted, so much of those things uh can be undone and healed when we act towards one another with integrity and love, and we remember the shared common ground that God has by speaking his yes to us in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a country that is still carrying the wounds of empty religion, cruel and insincere, badly motivated people who acted wickedly with a gloss of respectability.
SPEAKER_00: The people around us will smell that gloss a mile off if that's all we have.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul shows us it's how the grace of God through faith in Jesus, how it permeates right down to the roots of who we are, right down to the motives.
SPEAKER_00: And what do we see there?
SPEAKER_00: What type of motives does the gospel create?
SPEAKER_00: He creates a people who are dependable, who have integrity, who, if they flax, they flax out of uh not uh self-seeking, but they flax out of love.
SPEAKER_00: This reflects a God who is not empty in his promises, who is not empty of compassion, who is not empty of love, but who is faithful and dependable, and who sent his son, who sent Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the promises of old to redeem and renew, to save and to sanctify.
SPEAKER_00: Christians, we should be transpired about our motives, dependable in our actions, because we follow a God who is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Our flexibility is done out of love for others, not out of self-service, and it is done with faith, faith in what God has purposed, and that his purposes to us in Jesus will never be thwarted.
SPEAKER_00: And my prayer this morning, and our prayer perhaps should be that by the grace of God the people around us will see just what the what Paul wanted the Corinthian Christians to realize that his faith, that our faith does not come from hollow words and two-faced speech and insincere actions or manipulation, but that our faith is full, full of joy, full of love, full of truth, and full of goodness.
SPEAKER_00: May we in our generation live lives that begin to heal the wounds of empty religion.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_00: We lament the hurt caused by those who professed faith in the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to embody the full goodness, joy, and love and faith of the gospel preserve us from empty religion.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, we know that in so many ways and every day our motives are mixed.
SPEAKER_00: That is why we need your grace.
SPEAKER_00: That is why Paul said that he was motivated by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: We need your grace right at the roots of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: May your grace strengthen us, conform us to the image of your Son, and help us to live for you with integrity and with love.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: See you soon.