The Fellowship of His Sufferings - Part 1

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. I want to talk to you this morning about not the sufferings of Christ, but the sufferings for Christ.

That's probably not, when you woke up this morning, you thought, I really want to hear how I can suffer for Christ today. That's probably not your first thought. But you know, those times of suffering, that's when the Lord grows his people.

Times of suffering, that's when Christ grows the church. In John chapter 15, you remember what the Lord said? I am the vine. You are the branches. Every vine or every branch that is producing fruit. What does the Lord do?

He prunes it. He prunes it. Well, Paul, the apostle Paul was being pruned. And we're going to read about that. Also, Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 16, 24, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

So, before we begin, just think of it this way. You know, the world has some things to offer. Christ has some things to offer. The world has the passing pleasure of sin. But in Christ, he offers peace, contentment, and eternal life.

So, which is more valuable to you? So, there is a cost to discipleship. And let me just say this. Whatever it does end up costing you, it's well worth it.

Amen?

It's well worth it. So, as we approach this subject, let's begin with a word of prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, as we look to your word this morning, may you open our eyes to your truth. Speak to us through your word.

Teach us by your Holy Spirit. And, Lord, humble us so that we might be useful for you. Help us to set aside our wants and worries. Help us to be anxious for nothing that we might seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And we ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right.

You will remember from last week how the Apostle Paul's ministry was under attack from the false teachers in the city of Corinth. What were the false teachers doing? They were attacking Paul, slandering Paul.

But they were attacking his ministry, which means they were attacking the gospel ministry. And some of these false teachers in Corinth were actually claiming to be apostles themselves. And what does Paul say?

He responds basically by saying, well, if they're apostles, they're apostles of Satan, basically. Look at verses 13 through 15. He says, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

So the Apostle Paul here is trying to set the record straight. He's defending himself. He would rather not have to do that. And I suspect for quite some time he's been trying to avoid having to do this because you probably know this from your personal life.

When you are attacked personally, usually the best thing to do is just to walk away. Just turn the other cheek, walk away. Don't say anything. Or maybe if you do say something, you try to respond with something they don't expect.

You try to disarm your opponent. For example, Proverbs 15 one says a soft answer turns away wrath. So if somebody comes at you with something vile, you respond with kindness. And that sometimes solves the issue.

But not so here. The attacks of the false apostles, false teachers, they were relentless. So now Paul really doesn't have a choice. He has to defend himself because the problem just was not going away.

So Paul knows if he doesn't deal with this now, once and for all, this is going to get worse. And then the false teachers may even end up taking over the church at Corinth. And that was just not an option in Paul's mind.

So the point is this. Paul really does not have a choice. He feels he has to defend himself. And let's face it. When you do find yourself in a position where you have to or you are defending yourself, you have to say positive things about yourself.

Right?

I mean, that's just part of it. And Paul probably knew what the scripture says in Proverbs 27 verse to let another man praise you and not your own mouth. A stranger and not your own lips. So Paul feels very funny having to boast or brag about himself and saying all these positive things about himself.

He calls it foolish.

Right?

Let's look at verse 16. He says, I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise at least receive me as a fool that I also may boast a little. What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting, seeing that many boast according to the flesh.

I also will boast. So let's just stop and ask ourselves a question. What's going on here? What's Paul referring to? Who is boasting according to the flesh? Who is he referring to? Well, he'd be referring to the false teachers that were attacking him.

They were boasting according to the flesh. So he's saying, I'll be a fool.

They're foolish.

I'll be a fool too. And I'll do the same thing. So the falsity, the false teachers, many people in the church, how many we don't know, but many people in the church were actually listening to the false teachers.

And for many of us, that's so hard to understand. Why would they listen to them and not the apostle Paul? You ever wondered about that? Well, we could ask the same question today, couldn't we? Why do so many Christians flock to churches led by false teachers who don't preach the truth of God's word?

Why do they do that? Because there's nothing new under the sun. If it was happening in Bible times, it's happening today. And it is happening today.

Why?

Why did they flock to the false teachers? Why were people listening to the false teachers? Because the false teachers were telling people what they want to hear. They were tickling the ears, right? We're all familiar with that expression.

You know, as one famous mega church pastor recently said for his philosophy of ministry, he said, you got to find out what people want and then give it to them. Well, apparently the apostle Paul didn't get the memo.

The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears. They will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth.

Last week, I really tried to impress this upon you. The relevance of all of this, because sometimes people look at the Bible. Okay, these are words written down 2000 years ago. What does this have to do with me?

My friends, false teachers are still, they are still out there today contradicting the apostle Paul. Let me give you an example. This past week, there's a very famous woman. She was in the news, probably one of the most famous female preachers in all of the world.

It came out, the news broke, that she had left her denomination. Partially because the denomination was divided, the question whether or not she should be preaching in church on Sunday morning. One well-known Christian leader addressed this from a biblical viewpoint.

He quoted 1 Timothy 2, 12 and 1 Corinthians 14, how the Bible says a woman is not to teach and be in authority over a man. That is, be a preacher in the church Sunday morning. Well, her response to that was very revealing.

She basically said, well, I don't follow Paul. I follow Jesus. What's the clear implication there? That Jesus and Paul are on totally separate pages. Jesus and Paul disagree. You can disregard the teachings of the apostle Paul.

Incidentally, that woman that I mentioned, she claims to have a direct calling from Jesus himself. She claims that Jesus speaks directly to her. The false apostles were saying the same things. They were saying the same things because in order to be an apostle, you had to have seen the risen Christ and you had to receive your calling directly from him.

That's exactly what she is saying.

And never mind what Paul says. Folks, the same things are happening right now that were happening in the city of Corinth. What were the false apostles trying to do? They were trying to build a kingdom for themselves.

What do they want?

Power, prestige, prosperity. The apostle Paul, on the other hand, was suffering for Christ's sake. The apostle Paul gave up everything. And he ended up giving his own life for his own kingdom. No, for the kingdom of God.

All right.

Some in the Corinthian church were listening to the false teachers. Now Paul starts to rebuke them using sarcasm. And I know sometimes this rubs people the wrong way. I had one woman I used to visit a long time ago in a nursing home.

She used to say, I just don't like reading Paul because he's always boasting. Well, he's not always boasting, but there are a few places. Here's what he's doing. Understand what Paul is doing. You can kind of confront somebody and say, hey, you're wrong, and here's the truth.

When you do that, usually people, they put their wall up. You know, you're wrong, and they're just not going to listen to you. But if you can kind of go along with their argument, okay, you say this. Let's kind of think through this.

And they figure it out for themselves. That's much more effective. So that's what Paul is doing here. All right, look at verse 19. This is his response to the church about all of this. He says, for you put up with fools gladly since you yourselves are so wise.

For you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face, you put up with it. And he says, to our shame, I say that we were too weak for that.

But in whatever anyone is bold, I speak foolishly. I am bold also. So, I mean, depending on the translation you use, the sarcasm is a little more obvious. But if I can kind of paraphrase what Paul is saying here, he's like, you know, you guys are so smart, you listen to fools.

Good job. I mean, you know way more than I do. I'm just an apostle. You know way more than I do. You're so smart that you're listening to the ministers of Satan. Pat yourselves on the back. That probably made a few people in the church upset, I would imagine.

What does he say?

The false teachers. Look at verse 22. The false teachers, are they Hebrews? So am I.

Are they Israelites?

So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more so. In labors more abundant. In stripes above measure. In prisons more frequently. In deaths often.

Basically what he's saying is my life is consistently threatened. So this is the suffering that Paul endured for Christ's sake. And what's he doing? He's showing this as evidence that I'm the real deal.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.