WWUTT 1648 Rely On God Who Raises the Dead (2 Corinthians 1:6-11)

The Apostle Paul talked about the sufferings that he endured, and he said indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves, but this was to make us rely not in ourselves but on God who raises the dead, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Well, we come back to our study of 2

Corinthians, which we just started this week, so I'm back in Chapter 1, and reading verses 1 through 11 out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth.

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are throughout

Achaia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the

Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the

Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. Or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is working in your perseverance in the same sufferings which we also suffer.

And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live.

Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead, who rescued us from so great a peril of death, and will rescue us, he on whom we have set our hope, and he will yet rescue us, you also joining and helping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

Now, yesterday I was meaning to go through verse 5, but I really didn't put much into verse 5.

We just mostly looked at verses 3 and 4. So verse 5 again says, for just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

Now, when Paul says the sufferings of Christ abound to us, he's not talking about Christ's suffering on the cross, or at least not in the sense that Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Christ took the wrath of God upon himself when he died on the cross for us.

So that's not the kind of suffering that Paul shares in because no human being can do what

Christ did. No other person can take the wrath of God upon themselves for somebody else.

Christ alone did that. So when Paul says we share in the sufferings of Christ, he could be referring to Christ's persecutions, but not so far as it would include his atoning sacrifice.

Does that make sense? For Christ was certainly persecuted. And when we are persecuted, Jesus said to his disciples, remember when they hate you, they hated me first.

So we share in those very sufferings. The people who hate God are therefore going to also hate us.

But we also share in Christ's sufferings in the sense that he gave up so much for us.

He left his throne in heaven. He put on flesh and dwelt among us.

He took on the likeness of sinful man, though he himself was without sin so that he might live a perfect life on our behalf and therefore become that perfect sacrifice to die for us as an atonement so that all who believe in him, our sins are forgiven and we have everlasting life.

So we must also humble ourselves. And as Christ struggled in this world, a man who was homeless during his earthly ministry.

So likewise, when we struggle in the same ways, not necessarily in homelessness, but when we lack, when we are in need, we know that Christ also was in need in his own flesh.

And yet he endured for the joy of the Lord. He continued to submit to the will of his father.

And so we also submit to the will of our heavenly father. Think of Matthew 8, verse 18, when there was a crowd of people that came to him and a scribe said, teacher,

I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, the foxes have holes and the birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

And then another guy comes up to him and says, Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.

But Jesus said, follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead. So as Christ gave up so much, as he was so focused on the mission and did all of these things to the glory of God, the father, as it says in Philippians 2, 11.

So that must be our desire as well. And as we struggle in this life, in fulfillment of God's desires and obedience to the

Lord, as we will suffer even in our obedience. So we are sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

Paul said, even in his own suffering, Colossians 1, 24, he says, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.

And I fill up what was lacking of Christ's afflictions in my flesh on behalf of his body, which is the church.

Now, how is it that Christ was lacking in his affliction? Was there some work on the cross that wasn't accomplished?

Well, that's certainly not what Paul is referring to. For when Jesus died and breathed his last, he said, it is finished.

And that was the completed work of Christ's mission on earth. When he died, everything that needed or was required for that atoning sacrifice was accomplished by Christ on the cross.

So there wasn't anything lacking in that what therefore could have been lacking in Christ's afflictions.

There had not yet been the persecution of his church, even the persecutions of the apostles themselves who would be going out with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This was part of the work that Jesus came to accomplish. Remember, as he says in John 15, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit.

And so Christ has chosen his own who would go out with the message of the gospel and they would suffer for the sake of the gospel so that we might hear the gospel and so live our our salvation.

To this day, you've heard the gospel of Christ. You've been convicted of your sin. You put your faith in Jesus.

All of that has happened for you because of the work that the apostles did 2000 years ago.

They suffered sharing the gospel. And through that work, which was Christ through them, through that work, we have we have come to salvation by their suffering.

We've come to faith and and even around the world. There are missionaries who suffer for the sake of Christ who go out with the gospel and they're persecuted, but they continue to proclaim his name because there is no other name in heaven or on earth by which a person can be saved than the name of Jesus Christ.

And so they risk all for the sake of the name of Christ so that others through that suffering, others may come to hear of Christ and so be saved.

So, again, Paul says in verse five, for just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us and that us there, that reference may be to Paul and the other apostles or the missionary brethren, missionary brethren who are with him could could just be even he and Timothy, since Timothy was mentioned at the start of the letter.

But let's say it's those missionaries that serve with Paul and suffer with him just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us.

So also our comfort abounds through Christ. Now, he's he's talked here about how the

Corinthians benefit from his suffering. They receive comfort. So also our comfort abounds through Christ.

You receive comfort through what we suffer and what we have proclaimed to you.

Yes, we're going to struggle. Yes, we go through life facing trials and difficulties and all different manner of circumstances.

You know, you can you can look at the news and you see things that are happening on a global scale and can think yourself, wow, stuff is really bad out there.

But a lot of the things that you see on the news probably don't affect you directly in some way. You've got things that are happening in your life that are your own personal struggles that nobody else is facing.

Nobody else goes through. And yet you can be comforted in the midst of all of that because, you know, as Jesus said to his disciples, also going back to the upper room discourse in the

Gospel of John, he said to his disciples in this world, you will have trouble. But take heart.

I have overcome the world. We know that Jesus has overcome death itself for us so that by faith in Christ, we, as it says in Romans eight, are more than conquerors through him who loves us.

We're more than conquerors in the sense that the things we go through do not conquer us. In fact, we conquer those things and we make them obedient to the cause of Christ.

We go through sufferings, but we rejoice in Christ in the midst of that. And as a result, we are made more like Christ and we're comforted.

We're comforted in knowing Christ has overcome these things. Jesus has overcome the grave itself so that we have nothing to fear of death.

Though this body will die, we will be resurrected anew and we will join him forever in his eternal kingdom.

And it's knowing these things, Christ's death on the cross for us, his resurrection from the dead, the life he lived perfectly for us.

That righteousness is imputed to us when we come to faith in Christ. It's knowing all of these things that we are comforted.

We have nothing to fear in the presence of God. In fact, we're called friends of God and we have fellowship with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Paul goes on in verse six to say, but whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.

We go through afflictions, it's for your comfort. We go through these afflictions, that's been for your salvation because we have suffered to bring to you the gospel, which you have heard and put faith in and believe.

So through our afflictions, you've come to salvation. And as a result, you're comforted or whether we are comforted,

Paul says, that's for your comfort. So it's like we, we just benefit from this.

When we suffer, you're comforted. When we are comforted, you're comforted, which is working in your perseverance in the same sufferings, which we also suffer.

So Paul's saying here that, you know, we're, we're not suffering on our own here. It's not, Hey, you guys just sit at home and camp out and enjoy, kick your feet up, relax.

We're going to go suffer for you. No, the Corinthians are suffering also. They are suffering by the hands of people in their own city who hate

Christians. And they're also suffering by people within their own midst who claim to be

Christians, but are not. And we've seen a little bit of that in first Corinthians. We come to more of that in this letter because, uh, there are men among them who claim to be super apostles that are making things difficult on those

Corinthians that choose to believe the gospel that Paul has preached is the correct one.

And so, yeah, we will, you know, there's the accusing of the brethren that happens even among people who claim to be

Christians and yet they're doing Satan's work by accusing brothers and sisters in the Lord or those who should be their brothers and sisters in the

Lord of sins. They're not really guilty of. And so this, in this way, the church goes through persecution.

The church is the body of Christ. So as we suffer, this is, this is also adding to the sufferings of Christ.

Again, not the atoning sufferings, not those sufferings that he did for our atonement as though something was lacking there that was accomplished, but there's still the persecution of his church.

And, and it's in this persecution that we endure and we are being perfected and we are being made more

Christ -like through this. And so we're comforted in that knowing that we don't suffer in this alone, but Christ is with us.

Remember that, uh, when Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter nine, saying to him,

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Jesus is on his throne in heaven, seated at the right hand of the father.

Paul is rounding up Christians and persecuting them and bringing them back to Jerusalem. And yet Jesus appears to him and says, why are you persecuting me?

So the suffering that happens to the church of Christ is a suffering that Christ himself shares in with us.

We share in with Christ, but we know that he has overcome all of this and it's therefore in that we are comforted again, that latter part of verse six, which is working in your perseverance in the same sufferings, which we also suffer verse seven.

And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings.

So also you are sharers of our comfort. Amen. Take comfort in that you suffer for the name of Christ in Acts chapter five, when the apostles were beaten for proclaiming

Christ, they went out from that place rejoicing that they were considered worthy to suffer for the name.

And likewise, when we suffer for Christ, we are blessed. Matthew chapter five, verses 11 and 12, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you consider also first Peter four, 12 beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial among you, which comes upon you for your testing as though something strange were happening to you.

But to the degree that you are sharing the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Is that not a comfort? You know, you, you may be accused by members of your own family.

You may be accused by people who you thought were your friends. They hate you because you love

Christ, because you desire godliness. When people hate you for that rejoice, because you are sharers in the sufferings of Christ.

And in this, we are comforted. Paul goes on in a very autobiographical sense here in verse eight, where he says, we do not want you to be unaware brothers of our affliction, which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength so that we despaired even to live.

You've heard the old saying, God will never give you more than you can handle. Well, according to second Corinthians one, eight, yes, he will.

In fact, Paul and his missionary brethren thought that they, we, we can't even live through this.

We can't even endure through this. This is just too much for us. And the stuff that they endured while they were in Asia, remember that Paul had written first Corinthians from Ephesus, that's in Asia.

And so as Paul is recalling some of those things that had happened to him, even while he was at Ephesus, even while he was traveling through the region and sharing the gospel, some of the persecutions that he faced were so heavy.

He didn't even think he could live through it. He wanted to die, but why would, why would

Christ put him through something like that? He's going out sharing the gospel. Why would he suffer in that way?

Verse nine, indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

I come back to that verse again in first Peter 4, 12, do not be surprised at the fiery trial among you, which comes upon you for your testing, but you're sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

As you persevere in this, you are showing your devotion to Christ. You can do whatever you want to, to me.

I know what Christ has done for me, and I am going to continue in Christ Jesus.

I think of Polycarp when he was executed, he was told that he needed to renounce the name of Christ.

And if he would just renounce the name of Christ and they would let him go. And Polycarp said, he has been faithful to me all of these years.

How could I possibly do such a thing to the name of Christ? Paul says, we believed we had received the sentence of death within ourselves, but that was so we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

The things that you go through are to direct your attention, your focus, your passions, your yearnings, your desires for Christ who raises the dead, who rescued us from so great a peril of death.

Paul says in verse 10 and will rescue us. He on whom we have set our hope and he will yet rescue us.

You also. Okay. Paul is speaking autobiographically here, but then he says to the

Corinthians, to whom he is writing. You also, you will be rescued joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

So my friends, as you go through suffering, as you go through trials, as you face the things that you have to face in your life, remember that you don't face them alone.

Christ is with you, but you also don't face them alone in the sense that there are other brothers and sisters in the

Lord that are going through difficult things. They might be going through the same trials you're going through. They might be going through difficult trials.

Again, we're all facing our own struggles and things that, that we ourselves have to endure through.

Nobody else is going to persevere on your behalf. You have to persevere through these things and continue to hold fast to Christ.

Just know that you're not the only person suffering. There are other people suffering. And so pray for them and ask that they would pray for you so that you encourage one another through your prayers.

So that on one another's behalf, many persons will share in this gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

This is one of the great ways the church is such a service and an encouragement to one another that we would pray for each other.

So be in church and know how to pray for one another. Don't just go to church, doing your little religious thing, checking the box.

Cause I've walked in, I've sat down in my pew or chair and you know, at least I'm here.

So I've accomplished what I need to accomplish this week. Be with those Christians in the Lord, pray with them, love them, strengthen one another, encourage each other, build one another up, remind one another.

We go through these things to teach us, to rely on God who raises the dead.

Heavenly father, thank you for this gift of life that is granted to us in your son,

Jesus. And may we live our lives for his name. When we struggle, when we suffer, whether it's through the daily sufferings and struggles we go through because this is a fallen world or whether it's because of persecutions or accusations or things that people afflict us with because we desire godliness and the way of Christ.

Help us to endure through these things that we turn to Christ, that we know it is our

God who raises the dead and it is upon you we rely until we come into your kingdom.

This gospel that was proclaimed to us, give us the boldness to proclaim it to others so they too may have faith in Christ and be comforted until life everlasting.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.