Integrity in Ministry | Josh Landen

This sermon examines the intricate dynamics between the Apostle Paul and the Corinthian church as seen in 2 Corinthians 1:12 to 2:13. The Apostle Paul discusses his sincere intentions and the integrity of his ministry, emphasizing clarity in communication rooted in God's grace. The historical context reveals misunderstandings regarding his travel plans, motivating his decision to withhold visits to spare the church further pain. Paul addresses accusations about his reliability, defending his integrity tied to Christ's promises.

As he navigates emotional challenges, Paul highlights the interplay of love and joy within the church, urging forgiveness as crucial for spiritual health. He encourages the Corinthians to reflect on their responses to conflict, advocating for grace over judgment. We're empowered to embody love, forgiveness, and reconciliation, reminding both the Corinthian church and modern congregations of their mission to live out Christ's grace in fostering unity.

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Transcript

[0:18] Now, would you turn with me to 2 Corinthians 1? We will read verses 12 through chapter 2, 13. For our boast is this, 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 toward you. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understood, and I hope will fully understand, just as you partially understand us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us as we will boast of you.

[0:55] Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a 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. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes, and no, no, at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. 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. But I call God to witness against me. It was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?

[2:13] And I wrote, as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for 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 of heart, and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure, not to put it too severely, to all of you.

[2:40] For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. So you should rather turn and forgive him and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what have I forgiven? If I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs. When I came to Tross to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was open for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. This is the word of God for the people of God.

[3:29] Well, good morning and welcome to Worship Church. Know your eyes don't deceive you. The bulletin was accurate when it was printed, but Pastor Paul has fallen ill the last couple of days and isn't able to be here, but I am here, and I'm glad to be here. Good morning. My name is Josh Landon. I get to serve as the executive pastor here, and we are glad that you have decided to start your week in worship. When we were speaking yesterday, I feel like I was a AAA ballplayer and got the call to go up to the big leagues. Here I am, 830, traditional.

[4:00] Not to say anything about 11 o'clock, but you can fill in the blanks there. We are in this sermon series on 2 Corinthians. We are continuing to call it the prodigal church because Paul is still writing to this church and instructing them and teaching them how to be a faithful people that he has called them to. We're in chapter 1. That's what Amber read today. And the first couple of sermons that we've gone over, the first couple of teachings, have been about comforting the uncomfortable and the deliverance of Jesus. But the overarching theme here from 1 Corinthians and 2 is that the problems of the world are coming into the church. In today's reading, Paul turns to the reason for this letter specifically, and he's attempting to clear up a misunderstanding and the resulting strife that it caused in that church in Corinth. That strife was with him, and it was within the church. It was with each other. There were misunderstandings that have turned into accusations, and accusations into judgments, and judgments into reactions, and decisions, and responses, and their relationships are being affected.

[5:11] Monica and i have three nieces her sister and brother-in-law have three daughters they are in high school and in college and there's a story that they told us about one of them she was about three and a half or four and they had gone through the bedtime routine bath and pajamas and brushing your teeth and reading a book to settle down they had turned off the lights they had put her down in her bed and these exhausted parents had made their way back out to the living room while where it was dark, and they tripped over three or four toys, all of which made noise, all of which lit up, all of which had movement. And out from her bedroom stormed this toddler. And she said, you just waited to put me to bed so you could play with my toys.

[5:57] Yes, that's exactly what these 30-something-year-olds are doing. We're playing with these little Fisher-Price trinkets. Now, that's funny, but misunderstandings can be serious too, of course. And to get into this, we're going to set the context a little bit. So, at the end of the letter that we call 1 Corinthians, Paul was writing from Ephesus, and he told them that he's going to come see them in Corinth after he goes to Macedonia. But things had changed. Now, remember, when you're reading these letters, when you're reading the epistles, it's like reading somebody else's mail, and you're only getting one side of the conversation. And at that, it's incomplete because there are parts that we don't have. So putting together the whole picture can be difficult, but this is the best idea that we have. This is our best theory. So he's already written the church once when he writes 1 Corinthians, and we don't have that letter. But he writes 1 Corinthians, and he says, I'm going to stop in Corinth on the way down from Macedonia. You can see it on the map here. Let's see here. So Corinth is gonna be that little, it's called the Peloponnesus. It is that little peninsula that juts off the southwest side of Greece. So Macedonia is that region up to the north towards more mainland Europe. So he says, I'm gonna stop there on the way.

[7:12] But what happens is, is he stops there on the way to Macedonia and says, well, I'm going to stop again. So I'm going to stop in Corinth now. I'm going to go to Macedonia, spend some time, and then I'll come back down and see you again. But this visit that he made with them was really, really difficult. It seems like there were some rival preachers that were starting to some trouble. There were some people within the church itself, an individual or a small group that were causing divisions, and it got personal. It was heated. And so after he leaves and he goes to Macedonia, he changes his mind and says, I'm not coming back. And so instead, he sends them a letter and outlines what's going on. And it's difficult for that church, of course. They were looking for their founding apostle to come back for another visit. Remember that in Corinth, this was the...

[8:06] You couldn't go down the street and find something else when there was trouble. This was the group of believers, and they were looking for their founding apostles to come back. But his last visit was so disastrous, it was so painful, that he just cancels it. So now he writes this third letter, the letter of tears that Amber mentioned.

[8:27] Again, another one that we don't have. And they write back. It seems like every answer, every letter was responded to. And so it brings us to today's passage. They had apparently written him and told him, or maybe he had heard, of this great distress at having been stood up, so to speak. And there were these accusations that were leveled that he was indecisive, or he was fickle, or maybe worst of all, that he was self-serving. What he cared most about was another bullet point on his resume, his pridefulness, and not them. And so today he writes them to explain the situation. He's writing here to begin his defense. Now remember, Paul is a theological scholar and he's a legal scholar also. He's trained in the civil law and in the religious law. And so he lays out his case, not just to convince the Corinthians of his motives, but to convince them of his love, love that's based in the gospel. And so he does this with a clear conscience.

[9:32] Acting within the gospel will give you a clear conscience. You've heard it said that a clear conscience is a soft pillow. You can rest at night when your conscience is cleared. He takes it further and gives the source of his clear conscience. Everything that he's done, he says, has come out of the gospel. And because of that, he can rest well. He has a clear conscience. Verse 12, he says this. Now, I'm reading from a little bit of a different version, but it's, of course, the same original Greek. We've conducted ourselves with godly sincerity and pure motives in the world, and especially towards you. That's why we're confident, and our conscience confirms this. We didn't act with human wisdom, but relied on the grace of God.

[10:18] There is a sincerity there. There is a purity of his motives. Have you had somebody disappoint you, not because they just broke a promise, but because their plans changed? You start wondering, well, if your plans can change that easily, are you somebody that I can trust? That's what's going on here. They're not clear on his motives. It's unclear to them, and so they're thinking the worst, or at least some of them among them are. This week I saw a documentary about Memphis and the Mississippi River, as one does, and it said that in every gallon that flows by Memphis of water, there's a teaspoon of dirt. There's a teaspoon of soil in the water. Dirty water is like that. You can't see, you can't tell what it is, can't see what it means. And Paul says, my intentions are crystal clear here, or they should be. I'm not muddying the water, so let me lay it out for you. These accusations of being self-centered, flippant, untrustworthy, that he doesn't care about them, that he's conceited, that he's vain, that he's prideful and proud are untrue. Because I love you, and I love you because we share Christ. So he continues on. He says, understand in the day of our Lord Jesus will make you proud as you will also make us proud.

[11:45] What I'm proud of is not myself. What I'm proud of is who you are and who you have become and what Christ has done in you and what Christ will do in you. That's what I'm proud about. It's not about me. It's not about Paul. It's not about any point on my resume. me. It's about what Christ has done in you and through you. And you'll see that when we get to the judgment day. You see, the Corinthians struggled with their own sorts of pride. They boasted in who you are and what you've done and what you've achieved and how much money and status and power you have. They boasted in themselves. And Paul says, no. I'm going to boast in you and what Christ is in you. And because of that, he has a clear conscience. It's grounded in the gospel,

[12:31] but then he continues on. He works it out practically, moving from the theological and the rhetorical to the real and to the tangible.

[12:43] Clear intentions will provide you with a blameless integrity. He lays out what his intentions are, and he says, I'm blameless here. If your intentions are clear or pure, you can be a person of integrity. So he explains himself. He says, you got this wrong. Let me tell you my thought process and you'll see that my intentions are honorable. That's verse 15 and 16. I changed my plans to actually see you first and to make some space to see you again. That's how much I love you. That was what I wanted to do. That's what I had hoped, to see you twice. To be able to visit with you twice to be able to collect a collection from you to send to Jerusalem twice.

[13:25] So in verse 17, he says, so I wasn't unreliable when I planned to do this, was I? Or do I make decisions with a substandard human process? So I say yes, yes, and no, no at the same time. All of this, he says, was based on God and God's grace, wisdom coming from the divine, not from himself. So I'm not being double-minded. I'm not being wishy-washy. I'm not being uncommitted. I've been trying to point you away from yourself and towards Christ this whole time. And you're accusing me of being like this. You're accusing of me being like this compass here. Now, compass is a, came around a thousand years later, but just follow the illustration. If you're out orienteering or mountaineering or navigating, you've got to be able to trust your equipment. This compass is smashed. Its magnet may be missing, its needle no longer pivoting. And you can't trust it because you don't know where it's going to point you. You don't know that it's going to send you in the right direction.

[14:33] They're making that accusation of Paul, but Paul turns it around and says, all of this is not based on me. It never was. It's based on Christ and what God has done in him. But as God is faithful, he says, verse 18, our message to you isn't both yes and no. God's son, Jesus Christ, is the one who was preached among you by us, through me, Silvanus, and Timothy. He wasn't yes and no. In him, it's always yes. All of God's promises have their yes in him, Christ. That's why we say amen through him to the glory of God. What I've done, Paul says, is to preach Christ to you over and over again, because he is trustworthy. He isn't flippant. He's not fickle. He doesn't equivocate or hedge. He is the fulfillment of all of God's promises. When God has promised something, that promise is answered, it is delivered in the life, in the person, in the work, in the death, in the resurrection, in the ascension of his son, Jesus Christ. Blessing the nations through Abraham's seed, Christ. Putting a son on David's throne forever, Christ. Opening up life with God to the entire world, providing a final and sacrificial lamb to cover sin and separation, Christ.

[15:59] And so to that we say, yes, amen, so be it. We agree, and this is all for God's glory. God has done all of this among us, including, Paul says, directing my steps and my travels. He argues that Christian integrity flows from God's faithfulness because God is true and because his promises are fulfilled in Christ, those who serve him must speak and live with clarity and sincerity and consistency, even when the circumstances change.

[16:33] God is the one, he says, who establishes us with you in Christ and who anointed us. God also sealed us and gave us the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts. So I call on God as my witness. I didn't come again to Corinth because I wanted to spare you. It isn't that we're trying to control your faith, but we're working with you for your happiness because you stand firm in your faith. God has established us together in Christ, he says. And Christ has anointed us. He has given us a blessing, the gift of his Holy Spirit. He has sealed us, marked us as his own, claimed us. He has given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment of something that will come again later and is bigger and is greater.

[17:17] And so now he gives them the details. This was hard for me. This was hard for you. It was hard for us together. So whatever happened there in Corinth really tested their relationship. You're saying that I'm insisting upon my own way, that I'm controlling, but my goal is your happiness. I'm not a puppet master. I'm a coach. And sometimes hard decisions have to be made for what's best. Easy could have just been powering through, exposing us all to greater relational trauma, a more difficult situation. But I made this decision to change plans and trust Christ in you and among us that he has a better future for us together after some space. It's hard to change plans, but it would have been harder to keep them. So he decides to stay away. And the Corinthians were upset, and Paul was upset, but they needed that space. So he travels on to Macedonia. He doesn't go back to see him in Corinth after he leaves there.

[18:19] So it says in verse 24, I decided that for my own sake. I wouldn't visit you again while I was upset. And so this church, stirred up by an agitator or a few, assumes the worst. They were so concerned about themselves that they didn't seem to think about it from Paul's perspective. And they seemed to have just thought the worst about him. Opportunists or other charlatans pounced on this crack, this fissure in their relationship to sow these seas of discord They didn't understand, you see, that just because it's right doesn't mean it has to be right now, There are times when waiting is best, Doctor tells you that you need surgery, but right now you're not strong enough for it Do you demand to go to the OR the next day? Or do you trust his expertise And spend some time putting in the work To prepare for that surgery For that next step toward healing.

[19:21] If you're a parent in here, you have, of course, been angry at your kids at some point. They needed correction. They needed punishment. But sometimes it is best to cool down. Send them to their room. You go on a walk. That relationship can suffer when you rush into what can be a very consequential decision or conversation. If you haven't had time or spent time to deliberate, to pray, to soften your anger. You see, integrity is judged by faithful intent before God, not just by perfect outcomes. And when you have clear intentions, you can have a blameless integrity. So Paul continues to pour out his heart to them. He says in verses 2-4 that you bring me joy. Paul loves these people. Friends, your pastors love you. When you hurt, we hurt. And when you rejoice, we rejoice. We build these relationships. We attempt to our very best around this connection that we share in Jesus Christ. And so that's why this hurts. And so he writes to them, explaining to them this difficult situation.

[20:34] Have you ever written something that was so difficult and so hard that your tears smudged the paper, blurred the ink? Thank you. Paul says that's how this letter was written, not to punish them, but to protect their joy. Because their lives and our lives are bound up together, not enmeshed in an unhealthy way, but in a way that can't be matched or understood by the outside world. And part of that is how we treat each other when things are difficult. Maybe that's the most important part, how we treat each other when we're wronged, how we are treated when we are wronged. Because forgiveness and reconciliation are hallmarks of Christian living. The Corinthians are struggling still to live by this new Christian ethic. Their experience with the world tells them to act one way. Put yourself first. Return an eye for an eye. They put one of yours in the hospital. You put one of theirs in the morgue. But Paul says, no, that's enough.

[21:42] And he gives him an example involving himself and this person That has harmed and damaged and defamed him personally.

[21:51] He says if someone has made anyone sad That person hasn't hurt me but all of you to some degree Not to exaggerate, The punishment handed out by the majority is enough for them This is why you should try your best to forgive and comfort this person now Instead So this person isn't overwhelmed by too much sorrow, So I encourage you to show your love for this person.

[22:18] He says, if this person sought to harm me, they actually harmed you. And you've punished him, and now it's time for that to let up. We're moving from punishment into reconciliation. We're moving from punishment into restoration. This person obviously deserved it, and they were penitent, and they were remorseful. So they can continue. To continue the path of punishment would have actually caused them harm.

[22:48] In the fall of 2000, I fell backwards from a height of about six feet onto a hard surface. And I instinctively put my hands behind me like this to break my fall. And ended up breaking my left elbow and both of my wrists. This was three weeks before Monica and I were to get married. So I chose black casts to match the tuxedo.

[23:16] Those cats had to stay on my arms for a period of time beyond the wedding And they were there to stabilize, to correct the positioning of the bones and joints, to provide safety, But there came a time for them to be removed There comes a time when leaving them on would have caused more harm than taking them off It would have been more damaging to leave them on there, Muscle atrophy, stiff, achy joints It's infection, disease on the skin. And it's like that, or it should be with church discipline. It's not indefinite. There's a time for it to stop. There's a time for reconciliation to start. It doesn't downplay the hurt. It doesn't negate the damage. But it releases the offender and the offended from continuing to dwell on the offense. George Sam says it like this. She says, forgiveness is giving up the right To hurt someone for the hurt that they've done to you.

[24:19] It is inevitable to some degree that there will be hurt among us. We are still humans, and we are not yet perfected, but we're going on there. But what's not inevitable is how we respond to it when it happens. Whether we can forgive the one that hurts us is a test of the sincerity of our faith. We do it for Christ's sake. Paul continues on. He says, this is another reason why I wrote you. I wanted to test you and see if you're obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone for anything, I do too. And whatever I've forgiven, if I've forgiven anything, I did it for you in the presence of Christ. This is so that we won't be taken advantage of by Satan because we're well aware of his schemes. Paul has forgiven this ringleader of the opposition and everybody else. Paul's sympathizers, and remember back in 1 Corinthians, He begins by saying that there were these different factions in the church. Paul's sympathizers were hurt and they were angry. Paul wants them forgiven too. This compliance with his wish, which is against our very nature, is a test of their obedience. If they don't do this, he says, they're allowing the evil spirit, their sinful natures, to remain in control over them. Look at his tender response. He doesn't name the offender. He doesn't name the offense. He says, forgive.

[25:48] Show mercy, lest the enemy exploit this issue. Don't open that door to Satan. He is roaming around seeking whom he can devour, whom he can accuse. He wants to create a wedge between us. He wants you so distracted by what so-and-so did to you that you can't focus on loving God and loving neighbor, that you can't bring yourself to serve a church that would let that person come and go to hell than to treat them as Christ would.

[26:21] Paul teaches that loving correction must always aim at restoration, that forgiveness is essential to spiritual health, and that no ministry of success can replace reconciled relationships. This is what Christ calls us to. These are his direct commands. He says, if you want to come to worship, if you want to bring a gift to the altar and you've got something against your brother, go be reconciled to them and then come back and worship. He says somebody crosses you, how many times do you forgive? 77, 70 times 7. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Keeping score of these offenses, withholding forgiveness and reconciliation can harm the by driving them out of the church, and it can harm the offended by their choice to continue to carry this weight of the offense within their spirit.

[27:19] When a sinner within the church is impenitent, the church must protect the people from the sinner. And there is an option of being excommunicated. You are not allowed to come to the Lord's table. But when a sinner within the church is penitent, when they have sought forgiveness, the church must protect the sinner from the people. The former is the case in 1 Corinthians 5. The latter is the case here. In Christ's church, we're called to release each other. to seek to live as Christ taught. And Paul is writing this to the church at Corinth to remind them again of the gospel that he preached.

[27:58] The gospel of Jesus Christ gives us an integrity that grounds and a love that motivates and a forgiveness that protects us. At the end of this passage, Paul says that a door has been opened for ministry in the city of Troas, but he couldn't go to work there because the Spirit wasn't at peace yet. But he was waiting for Titus to return with news from Corinth. He was waiting to hear back from these people that he loved so much. What if God has opened a door for ministry for you?

[28:31] But because your heart's not at peace, you can't yet walk through it. Paul had opportunity and success and momentum. And he still couldn't rest until these relationships were healed. Where we are going together as a church is to see those ministry doors opened here in Memphis and around the world. And where we're going is as a church that is forgiven and a reconciled people. By God and to God and by each other and to each other. And in your life, that person you need to forgive may be your neighbor, may be your coworker, may be a family member. It may be somebody else in this congregation or elsewhere. It may be the person that you're sitting beside.

[29:16] Paul loved his people deeply, and he longed earnestly for their salvation, for their sanctification, for their righteous and holy lives to be a testament to God's faithful fulfillment of his promises in Christ.

[29:30] Friends, you don't need to choose between your joy and somebody else's. Christ's offer is yes to all. So find it in him. Do with your own personal life what God in Christ has done for you. Love others. Forgive others. Reconcile yourself to them. Be at peace with neighbors, because Christ is good, and Christ is worthy, and he is worth it. And so as we approach this table in just a moment, let us recall in our hearts and in our spirits what work he has done for us, what work he has done among us, and let us be faithful in obedience in a way that's worthy of his name. Amen.