Sunday Sermon: Introduction to 2 Corinthians (2 Corinthians 1:1-2)

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Pastor Gabe preaching on Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, giving an overview of the letter and attempting to find a main theme. Visit fsbcjc.org for more about our ministry.

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.
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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a
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New Testament book. On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday.
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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the
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Corinthians. This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe.
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To the Church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia, grace to you and peace from God our
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, 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.
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For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
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If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
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Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
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For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia.
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For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
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Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
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He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us.
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On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again.
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You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
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Let us pray ourselves this morning. Our gracious Heavenly Father, what a wonderful gift of love you displayed for us through the sacrifice of your
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Son, Christ on the cross. As we read and have quoted many times from Romans 5 -8, you demonstrated your love for us in that while we were sinners,
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Christ died for us. As we, the saints of God, gather together in this room to hear the
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Word of God proclaim, to sing these praises and offer them up, and also to remember the sacrifice of Christ at this table this morning, at the
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Lord's table, we are surely a people that experience a variety of afflictions.
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People that go through different things and deal with different trials in our lives. Some of us may not see many afflictions in our life at the present time.
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So, may we be able to rejoice with those who rejoice, but also to weep with those who weep.
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And in whatever we are going through and whatever walk of life we are in, may we find comfort from the
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God of comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, as Paul puts it here.
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May we recognize one another in the different afflictions that we suffer so that we may know how we can be an encouragement to one another, praying together, encouraging one another, and lifting each other up.
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And surely this morning, we want to recognize those that could not be with us today. We recognize
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Betty Carpenter and continue to lift her up in prayer that you would give her strength. And also
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Susan Eversaw, always a pleasure to visit with her in her home, and she listens to sermons on CD, but I know she would love to be here with the saints worshipping with us together.
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We pray for those who have been under this flu that has been going around and pray that you would continue to give them help and lift them up.
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We pray for the Hickerson family and the different ailments that they have been struggling through over the last several months.
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And I pray, Lord, that you would give them relief, but also that they would be able to rejoice in you, no matter what it is that they are going through.
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And may we, as a body, rejoice in Christ our Savior, who delivers us from death, who forgives our sins, and has promised us an inheritance in His eternal kingdom.
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Christ is our hope. Christ is our peace. And it's in His name that we pray, and all
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God's people said, amen. Thank you. You may be seated. So it's customary for me, as we start a new series, to kind of go through an outline and go through the background or the occasion for this book that we are reading, and that's what it is that I want to do today.
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2 Corinthians, which made headline news a couple of years ago when
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Donald Trump had spoken at Liberty University and pronounced it two
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Corinthians. And suddenly, everybody in the media became a Bible scholar, and they knew, well, it's not pronounced two
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Corinthians, it's pronounced 2 Corinthians. Now, many of you know that I've not been the biggest fan of the president.
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I want to clarify that I do pray for our president, and I pray that he would repent. He has a character that is certainly worthy of critique and criticism.
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But of all the different problems that I have with our president's character, the way that he pronounced 2
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Corinthians is not one of the problems that I have with our president. I listen to a good number of preachers, and two
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Scottish men in particular that I enjoy listening to, Alistair Begg and Sinclair Ferguson. Both of them pronounce 2
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Corinthians as two Corinthians. So, if you want to call it two Corinthians, that's perfectly fine, and none of us are going to critique the measure of your faith based on the way that you pronounce 2
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Corinthians. In particular, the verse that Donald Trump cited while he was speaking at Liberty University with 2
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Corinthians 3 .17, where it says that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
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Or as it would say in the English Standard Version, there is freedom. The Spirit of the Lord is present with us even now, for we as the body of Christ are filled with the
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Spirit of God. And in the Spirit of Christ, we have freedom.
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Freedom from what? Freedom from the bondage of sin? Freedom from the wages of sin, which is death?
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Freedom, my friends, from the wrath of God, which was poured out on Christ on the cross, who took that for us.
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He became sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God through him.
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2 Corinthians 5 .21. Now, when we started our study of 1
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Corinthians, one of the first things I cited was the thesis statement of that particular letter, and everything that Paul spelled out for the
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Corinthians followed that particular statement, and it was found in 1 Corinthians 1 .18.
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For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
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Unfortunately, as we come into 2 Corinthians, we don't have such a thesis statement that's made, that sort of sets the tone for the rest of the letter.
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In fact, if we're going to find any kind of thematic statement in 2 Corinthians, it's probably going to be in the last chapter, in chapter 13.
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As Paul summarizes some of the things that he said to the Corinthians, then we would find something there that would best summarize what it is that we're reading over the course of this letter.
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But he doesn't begin with some sort of clear thesis statement that then sets the tone for the letter.
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As a matter of fact, as I was studying through 2 Corinthians, I was really struggling with it.
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For as a person who likes to put together an outline of what it is that we're going to be reading through over the course of the year that we'll be studying in 2
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Corinthians, I couldn't find one. I couldn't find an outline to 2 Corinthians. And I was going, what am
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I missing here? It doesn't seem like Paul is structuring this letter properly.
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First we're going to talk about this, then we're going to talk about this, then we have this. And as I was trying to figure out where the outline was,
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I came to a commentary that was edited by J .I. Packer. And in that commentary,
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I read the following. 2 Corinthians is an informal, occasional epistle with a disjointed organization and numerous asides that are introduced without smooth tie -ins of the preceding material.
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I was like, oh, okay, well that makes total sense. Because that's exactly the way that we see the flow of 2
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Corinthians. Paul has a particular reason that he's writing this letter, but it's not to confront the same kinds of problems that he was confronting in 1
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Corinthians. The commentary goes on to say that the letter is a missionary manual based on the author's real -life missionary experiences.
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And that's interesting to consider, especially with Chris reading us a letter from Joy today, that we might hear how she's doing in her missionary work in the
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Philippines. As we know from Joy, an example that comes from this very church, someone who gave up everything, the comforts that she had here in the
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United States, to experience affliction in the Philippines, that she might spread the gospel of Christ to the people there.
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So we have that witness even from ourselves. And Paul presents himself as that witness in this letter, the afflictions that he suffers for the cause of Christ.
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We've read that in our reading this morning. Paul was under such affliction that he thought he had received a sentence of death, but this was to make us rely more on God who raises the dead.
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The commentary goes on, the usual conventions of the epistle appear early and late, with the epistolary salutation, the thanksgiving, and then the closing.
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The conventional paranesis, or the list of moral exhortations, is absent.
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Occupying prominent places in the body of the letter are an extended defense of the author's life and ministry, and a formal boast in a spiritualized version of it.
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The letter is heavily occasional, meaning that it is filled with references to specific events in Paul's life and ministry.
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In the background can be seen the familiar genre of autobiography.
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2 Corinthians is also a missionary appeal letter that requests spiritual and financial support.
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How convenient that is, since we've also talked about that this morning, of gathering together finances to be able to support our missionary sister and the work that she is doing.
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So even though there's not a clear outline to this particular letter that Paul writes to the
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Corinthians, nonetheless, I'm going to attempt to give you one. This is 13 chapters, a little bit shorter than what we read in 1
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Corinthians. As a matter of fact, if I were to stand up before you this morning and read the entire letter of 2
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Corinthians, it would take me the length of a sermon. Reading 2 Corinthians out loud would take you about 40 minutes at your standard pulpit rate of delivering a sermon.
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Here are the three points, or three sections, that 2 Corinthians is mostly divided up into.
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And as was stated in Packer's commentary, there's not clear lines of demarcation, but I think that we could still find these three basic parts to this particular letter.
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Number one, Paul begins the letter and spends the bulk of the letter reconciling with the
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Corinthians. Number two, Paul rebukes the Corinthians.
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We get to another section of the letter where he rebukes them, specifically for their forgotten generosity, as they were supposed to have raised an amount of money to support the struggling
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Christians in Jerusalem. We read about that in 1 Corinthians. Remember reading about that? That was in the last chapter, in 1
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Corinthians 16. But they didn't collect the money. And so there's a rebuke in that particular portion of the letter because they did not show their generosity where they had an occasion to do so.
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And then number three, Paul reasons for his apostleship, and that occupies the last four chapters of the letter.
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So let me go through those three parts here again. Paul reconciles, Paul rebukes, and then
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Paul reasons. Number one, Paul reconciles with the Corinthians, and this is chapters 1 through 7.
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When we started our study of 1 Corinthians, I told you that this was a letter that I so appreciated because as we look at the problems that were going on in the church in Corinth, this very easily applies to churches probably even down the street from us.
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We see a church that is steeped in sexual immorality, that is divided by class separation.
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We have a church where some members were boasting that their spiritual gifts were better than somebody else's.
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Some were coming to the Lord's table, which they called an agape feast. It wasn't like this.
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It was a whole feast. And the rich were gorging themselves on the great lavish foods that they brought while the poor had to wait to see if there was any left, if they got any at all.
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And so with this class separation in the church, there was quite a bit of prejudice. There was not any equality at all.
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There were Christians who were suing other Christians. Some were misusing the Lord's table and were getting sick and dying.
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All the different problems that were going on in the church in Corinth that would make us look at this and go, what is wrong with these people?
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Close their doors. Shut this church down. They should not even be calling themselves a church.
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If we were to see the same problems going on in another church, that's exactly what we would say. But that's not the way that Paul regarded the
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Corinthians. And this is why I need this letter. Because it is very easy for me and my cynical side, my self -righteous side, to be looking at somebody else and saying, look at all those sins.
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How dare they do that? And I would want to have nothing to do with a person that would be involved in the kinds of things that we see the
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Corinthians guilty of in that first letter. And yet, Paul was gracious toward them.
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And he did not dismiss them nor disown them. But he wrote to them and called them to repentance out of love, out of his affection for this church, which is the very first thing he states in that letter.
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The affection and the thanksgiving that he has for those Christians there in Corinth. We read it again here in this letter.
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Father of mercies and God of all comforts, who comforts us all in our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort you.
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Paul once again expressing thanksgiving. For these Corinthians, though, in this next letter, what we see is that some of the
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Corinthians are not totally convinced by the previous letter. There are still some that are in sin, that are separated because of the teachers that they love.
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That some will even dismiss the apostolic authority of Paul because he does not speak with the kind of gusto that they're accustomed to their
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Greek speakers speaking with. And yet, Paul has such love and affection for them that he would tirelessly labor for them, that he would lovingly and gently rebuke them and call them to repentance and explain to them and detail for them what the
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Christian life is supposed to look like. We saw that in the first letter. We see that even more in the second letter.
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Paul spends these first seven chapters reconciling with the Corinthians. I forgive you.
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Let's continue to labor in ministry together. And if there's any heart to this letter, the whole letter kind of coming to a central theme, though there may not be a thesis statement to the letter like we saw in 1
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Corinthians. Nonetheless, I do think that the heart of the letter is at the heart of the letter. It's in 2
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Corinthians 5. If you would turn with me there. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 5. So as Paul desires to reconcile with the
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Corinthians, let us be in this ministry together. Let us be brothers and sisters in the
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Lord. He talks about the ministry of reconciliation here in chapter 5, and I'm going to start in verse 11.
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And it's in this section from 2 Corinthians 5 -11 through to the end of the chapter where we see many of the most famous verses that come out of 2
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Corinthians. It's right here in this part of the letter. Therefore, knowing the fear of the
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Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.
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We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.
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For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you.
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For the love of Christ controls us. Some of your translations might say the love of Christ compels us.
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Because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.
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And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
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Verse 16 now. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
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Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him that way no longer.
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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away, the new has come.
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All of this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
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That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting us to the message of reconciliation.
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Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
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We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. And then here's the passage that I've quoted for you this morning already.
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For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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So what's the word that we've seen come up the most there in verses 11 through 21? It's that word reconciled or reconciliation.
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I've expressed to you before that the word reconcile is one of my favorite words in the
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English language because I believe that in the definition of that word, you hear the gospel.
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To reconcile means to accept that which was not previously desired.
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And before we came to Christ, we did not desire God. And he did not desire us in that state.
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As it says in John 3, 36, whoever does not have the Son, whoever does not obey the
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Son, shall not see God, but the wrath of God remains on him.
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Not is put on him, it remains on him. You were under the wrath of God before you came to Christ.
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You don't go under the wrath of God the moment that you reject the gospel. You're born under the wrath of God because you are born in the sin of Adam.
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In the sin of Adam's helpless race, as we sang about this morning. The wrath of God is upon all of those who do unrighteousness.
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And as we read in Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
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There is no one righteous, not even one. So God did not desire us when we were in that state.
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When we were rebellious against the Lord, we were under his wrath. But again, as I've quoted today from Romans 5, 8,
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God shows his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. We were rebellious against God.
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We hated God. God did not desire us while we were in that rebellious state. But he sent his
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Son to die for us. And as he died on the cross for our sins, his blood was spilled as an atoning sacrifice, covering over our sinfulness.
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And what happened there at the cross and what is explained here in 2 Corinthians 5, 21 is a doctrine referred to as double imputation.
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The righteousness of Christ was imputed to us, and our sins were imputed to Christ.
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And as John MacArthur has explained, what we understand from that now is that God treated
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Christ as though he were us. And we have received the love of God as though we were
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Christ. That is the way that God considers us because of the sacrifice of his
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Son. That we are no longer the enemies of God. We are now the children of God, adopted through Jesus Christ.
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Sons and daughters of the living God. And we have been reconciled.
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That which God did not previously desire, he now desires because when he looks at us, he sees the righteousness of his
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Son. Not our sins, but the righteousness of Christ. And when we look at God, we see a loving
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God, a loving Father, benevolent, holy, perfect, righteous, who loved us so that he gave his
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Son to die for our sins and whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.
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This is reconciliation. We have been reconciled to God. We desire
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God and he desires us because of what Christ did on the cross.
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And notice here that Paul says that we have a message of reconciliation. And we are
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Christ's ambassadors, making his appeal through us.
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And we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation.
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What does that mean? Well, my friends, it's because you heard the gospel and you repented of sin and you believed in Jesus Christ that you've been reconciled to God.
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We receive this gift of love and righteousness by faith.
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You believe and you are made righteous. You have been reconciled by the message of the gospel.
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Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. And so as you have heard this message and you've been reconciled to God, so now you must also take this message to another, that they might hear it and repent of their sin and be reconciled to God through Christ.
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So therefore, you have the ministry of reconciliation. You preach the gospel so that those who believe it would be reconciled to God.
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The message, the ministry of reconciliation. I'll preach that same sermon again when we get to 2
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Corinthians 5. But this is what Paul presents before the
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Corinthians, that he would be reconciled to them because we have been reconciled to God through Christ.
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However, Paul wants to present this to the Corinthians, that I can't be reconciled to you if you continue in a way that is of the flesh and is not of the
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Spirit of God. If you are not following the commands of Christ, if you are not living in a sacrificial way as Christ, then we can't be reconciled.
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You are walking opposed to the cross. And so while I desire to be reconciled to you, there's still something that prevents us from being united with one another again, which is what
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I so desire. And Paul presents that over and over and over again in the letter. As a matter of fact, in chapter 2, verse 1, he says,
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I didn't want to bring to you another painful visit. So remember when we closed out 1
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Corinthians, when we got to the end of the book in 1 Corinthians 16, Paul said that he was going to come and visit them, right?
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And that was kind of an affectionate promise, but also a threat. Like, I'm going to come and see if you guys have been doing the things that I have told you that you need to correct.
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And so he does. He comes and visits them. Between the two letters, 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, he did make a visit.
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But then he writes this letter, 2 Corinthians, instead of making another painful visit.
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You were convicted of sin when I came to you last time. You mourned over the things that you knew that you had done against God and against me.
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And instead of coming and visiting you again and causing you that anguish again, I'm writing you this letter.
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But still calling attention to some of the things that were still going on in the church in Corinth that needed to be corrected.
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If you do not desire to walk in a way that is aligned with Christ, if you don't have the mind of Christ, if you are not sacrificial as Christ sacrificed himself for us, then as much as I desire reconciliation, it won't be there as long as you are opposed to the cross.
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The people in the church in Corinth were not terribly impressed by the sacrifices that Paul made for the gospel.
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Instead, they were kind of looking at these other guys who were super apostles, as the way Paul sarcastically refers to them in chapter 11.
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They were looking at these guys who were more eloquent speakers, and look, they dress lavishly.
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They also look rich, so they've made something of themselves in this quote -unquote gospel that they preached.
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And so some of the Corinthians were attracted to those guys and were not so impressed with Paul because he was not a strong speaker.
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In fact, we read that in chapter 10, verse 10, that though he talks about weighty things in his letters, in fact,
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Paul was not really a strong speaker at all. He didn't have a booming voice.
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We might think of him that way because we read about so many speeches through the book of Acts, like his speech at the
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Areopagus being one of the most famous. So he stands there on Mars Hill, and he's preaching there to the
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Greeks about Christ. So we think of him as having this booming voice.
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They wanted to hear him preach. They put him up there, and they said, here, we want to hear what you have to say about this
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Jesus that you've been preaching throughout the rest of Athens. But then the Corinthians were stunned to find that though his letters were so weighty, he really wasn't all that strong a speaker, didn't have a booming voice, wasn't all that eloquent.
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But Paul points out to the Corinthians that if you do not receive me because of my sufferings, guess what?
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You also reject Christ, and you reject his sufferings.
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And this faith that you claim that you have is all for naught. It's not real. It's just a religious thing that you do, but there's no real genuine
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Christianity in your hearts. And if I could turn that into an exhortation to you, it would be to ask you why you go to church, why you call yourself a
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Christian, why you sing the songs, why you drop money in the offering plate, and I hope that you do, because as we talked about in 1
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Corinthians 16, even that is an act of worship. Why do you do those things?
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Is it because it's your religious practice, and I have to have a religion? My family expects me to have a religion.
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My friends expect me to have a religion, so this is what I do. I go to church, and I do these things. But in your life, there is no real genuine sacrifice.
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There is not considering others' needs ahead of your own. There is not laying your life down for Christ, no giving of yourself.
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And if that is not exemplified in your life, then how can you say that you even have this faith, that you follow a
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Christ who sacrificed Himself on our behalf if you're not willing to give of yourself? Paul rebukes the
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Corinthians in this way, and so we must also be rebuked, that we would not do the church thing for the sake of doing the church thing, but we gather together as the saints because we desire to worship
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God. We sit under the teaching of the Word of God because we desire to be made like God, to have our minds conform to Christ, Philippians 2 .5,
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to be imitators of God, Ephesians 5 .1.
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These are the things that we want. These are the things that we desire to be made in the image of our
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Savior, Romans 8 .29. That's why we go to church, because we love
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God, and we love the people of God, and we desire to be more like God.
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So the second part of Paul's letter to the Corinthians, the second letter to the Corinthians, which, by the way,
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I might also point out, is actually his third letter to the Corinthians, but in canon, it's the second, so we refer to it as second
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Corinthians. We don't have record of the first. That got lost in time somewhere. So first,
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Paul addresses the Corinthians, desiring to be reconciled to them, chapters 1 through 7. Secondly, he rebukes the
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Corinthians for their forgotten generosity, verses 8 through 9. You're not sacrificing yourself on behalf of another.
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You're not giving of yourself for someone else's needs. So how can we be reconciled if there is no desire to live according to the cross of Christ?
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And finally, number three, Paul reasons for his apostleship.
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He desires to reconcile. He rebukes the Corinthians. And finally, he reasons for his apostleship.
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And this is chapters 10 through 13. And once again, as I already stated, this is Paul saying that if you reject me and my sufferings, you would also reject
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Christ and his sufferings, because I desire to live as Christ. As an apostle, I am a model of Christ.
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1 Corinthians 11 .1. In the previous letter, Paul said to them, imitate me as I am of Christ.
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And so, if they're not impressed with Paul, then what do you think of your
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Savior? If you don't desire to have anything to do with me, though I have given up all of this for you, are you saying the same thing of Christ, who gave up everything for you?
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Who did all of this for your benefit? And Paul's saying, as we've even said here at the start of the letter in 2
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Corinthians, I've done all of this for your comfort. The number of ways that he mentions comfort here, as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings.
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This is 2 Corinthians 1 .5. So through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it's for your comfort and salvation.
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And if we're comforted, it's for your comfort. If we're afflicted, it's for your comfort.
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If we're comforted, it's for your comfort. Do you not see that we do this to labor for you?
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It is out of love and affection for you that we've given up everything for the gospel so that you might be comforted in the love of Christ.
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And that's going to be the theme of the sermon next week. I want to talk more about the hope that we have in Christ and this comfort that we have that is unshaken.
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And it is not a comfort that we experience in the body, a comfort that we experience when we're debt -free and we have all the gadgets and doodads that we could ever lay our hands on and every provision that we could ever need in life has been provided for us, at least materially.
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That's not comfort. True comfort is when we know the peace of Christ who has forgiven our sins and has made us right before a holy
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God so that we've been accepted by our Father in heaven. That's comfort. To know that at the final judgment, we're going to hear from our
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God, well done, good and faithful servant, not depart from me, you worker of lawlessness,
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I never knew you. To know that we will hear from our Savior, now great is your reward.
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That's comfort. And that comforts us in every other thing that we experience in our lives.
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Like I said, that's next week's sermon, even though I seem to be preaching that now.
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But Paul presents to the Corinthians. I want to summarize it with these three things and then we want to come to the
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Lord's table this morning. Paul presents to the Corinthians over the course of this letter. Even though we don't have some sort of thesis statement, here's our theme that we follow.
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There's no thesis like there was in Romans, Romans 1 .16, or in 1
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Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1 .18, but there is a theme that we follow over the course of this letter.
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And it is the paradox of the cross. What it is that the cross reveals.
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And I wanted to read to you 2 Corinthians 13 .4. This kind of summarizes the point.
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Christ was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. We also are weak in Him, but in dealing with you we live with Him by the power of God.
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Christ was crucified in weakness. He was raised in power. In the cross of Christ we see both our weakness in our humanity and the power of God that fills us by His Holy Spirit.
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We look at the cross and we see weakness and power. That's the paradox of the cross. So how do we live according to the cross?
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And that's the exhortation that Paul gives to the Corinthians and I believe the Holy Spirit gives to us even today.
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So here's three things that we come to see and understand according to the paradox of the cross.
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Number one, we see God's salvation. Jesus died for our sins.
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That all who believe in Him would be forgiven their sins and have eternal life and a relationship with God, adopted into the family of God as His children, and we get to call upon Him as Father.
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That's the first thing we see in the paradox of the cross, God's salvation, the slaying of His own
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Son so that we might live. Number two, we see
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God's character in the cross. Character how?
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God's sacrificial character for us. That Jesus Christ, as we read about in Philippians 2, 5 -11,
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Jesus Christ, who though He was in the very form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied
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Himself and made Himself nothing. Taking on the form of a servant and being found in human likeness,
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He humbled Himself even to the point of death on a cross.
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Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and given
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Him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father. That is the character of God that we see displayed in the cross.
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And so we likewise, since that whole sort of hymn of Christ there in Philippians 2 was preceded by the statement, have the mind of Christ, we therefore should live in such a way that we would be willing to give up everything for Christ, for the gospel, for one another, considering others' needs ahead of our own.
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That's the character of God who considered our need when we were helpless to do anything about it.
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So as this is God's character and we are to be imitators of God, so we need to see the character of God in the cross and live in just such a way.
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We see God's salvation, we see God's character, and finally, we see God's way of life.
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And that once again is that we would die to ourselves and we would live according to Christ.
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Jesus said in Luke 9, 23, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
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For whoever tries to save his own life is going to lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
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What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet forfeits himself?
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If anyone would be called a child of God, he must sacrifice himself and take up his instrument of death, the cross, and follow after Christ.
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This is God's way of life. This is sacrifice. This is how we imitate the cross.
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As we talked about the Philippines this morning, there's a group of people every Easter that will crucify themselves in the
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Philippines. Have you ever seen this? It makes the headlines every year. There's like this big festival that takes place where these people will carry their crosses down the road and they'll hoist them up on this mountaintop and they will literally be nailed to them and hoisted up and be crucified and be screaming.
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And this, they think, is sharing in the sufferings of Christ. I tell you it's not. It is taking something literal that we are meant to understand spiritually, that we are not in this for ourselves.
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And I tell you that that display that they do every Easter, they're doing that for themselves. They're not doing that for God or for Christ.
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But in the way that we live our lives, the way you do your job, the way you love your family, the way you do your devotions, the way you attend church, the way you are having fun at leisure or at play, or being entertained, or when you suffer and when you struggle through the daily struggles of this life, whether that would be in your health or some other circumstance in your life, in all of these things, no matter what it is, in good or bad, you give glory to God through Jesus Christ.
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And you are not ashamed of the gospel, for you know that it is the power of God for salvation for all who believe it.
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This is what it means to live according to the cross. This is what it means to take up your cross and follow after Christ, that you would sacrifice yourself, for it is
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Christ who sacrificed himself for us. In the name of the
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Father, and of the
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Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.
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When he comes, our glorious King, All his ransomed home to bring,
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Then anew this song we'll sing, Alleluia, what a
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Savior! Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.
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For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org. On behalf of our church family, my name is
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Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.