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Reading 2 Corinthians 12:11-15 where the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians they should know better than to follow false teachers, because they've seen miracles. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Paul said to the Corinthians, you should be able to know the difference between the true apostles and the false apostles, because the signs of a true apostle have been performed among you when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ, that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And between today and tomorrow, we'll probably finish up the chapter here. I'm going to start reading in verse 11. We'll go through verse 21 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.
This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul, who was writing to the church in Corinth. I have become foolish. You yourselves compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you. For in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even if I am nothing.
The signs of a true apostle were worked out among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles. For in what respect were you treated as less than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not become a burden to you.
Forgive me this wrong. Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you. For I do not seek what is yours, but you. For children ought not to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
So I will most gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself. Nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit.
Have I taken advantage of you through any of those whom I have sent to you? I encouraged Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit in the very same steps?
All this time, you think we are defending ourselves to you. We speak in Christ, in the sight of God, and all these things, beloved, are for your building up. For I am afraid that perhaps when I come, I may find you to be not what I wish, and may be found by you to be not what you wish.
That perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. I am afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality which they have practiced.
Now, there are a few statements in here you might have picked up where Saul, I almost called him Saul. That is his Hebrew name, Paul. You might have picked up some instances here where Paul was being quite sarcastic.
Things where he said, forgive me this wrong, or I took you in by deceit, verse 16. He did not really deceive them. He's not really asking for their forgiveness because he did something wrong to them. He's being sarcastic, which we've seen him doing over the course of chapters 10 and 11, and now here in chapter 12 as well.
In verse 19, Paul says, all this time, you think we are defending ourselves. Like you think this is a debate between Paul and the most imminent apostles. No, he says. We speak in Christ, in the sight of God.
Paul's objective here is to exalt Christ. Now the Corinthians have been persuaded by the boasting of these false teachers, and so Paul has said, hey, if that's what's going to convince you, then I'm going to do a little boasting myself.
But his boasting is not to exalt himself the way the false teachers were doing. First of all, when Paul boasts, he's speaking the truth. That was something else that he stated. When the false teachers were boasting, they were lying.
They were puffing themselves up. They were building a resume or talking about accomplishments that they had not actually done and pointing the Corinthians to things that were not the truth. They were not leading them to Christ.
They were leading them to hell. If that's who it was, they were going to follow. Whereas Paul, affectionately for these Corinthians, he boasts, but boasts in truth and boasts in weaknesses. He doesn't exalt himself.
In fact, he even says, there's a moment there where to keep me from exalting myself, God had sent a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. And that was where, as we read yesterday, verse 8, he says, concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me.
And the Lord answers to him. If you have a Bible that's a red letter edition, the words here in verse 9 are in red letters because this is the voice of Christ. Jesus said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.
And so Paul says, I will boast all the more in my weaknesses that Christ may be exalted. So with regards to this boasting that he has done in verse 11, he says, I have become foolish. This is madness for him.
He even calls it insane. Back in chapter 11, verse 23, I speak as if insane to behave in such a way. He should not have to do this, should not have to, uh, to present himself to the Corinthians in order to win them.
He wants to proclaim Christ. So he stoops to the level of the false teachers to a certain degree, just in method, because his boasting is certainly not like the false teachers and the way that they boast in themselves.
Paul says, I've become foolish in this way and this boasting that I have doing that, that I've been doing. You yourselves compelled me for, I ought to have been commended by you see what should have happened.
What should have been is that when these false apostles showed up, the Corinthians right away would have recognized that they were false apostles and they should have said, you're not the real deal. Christ did not send you.
Christ sent Paul. And remember, one of the contentions of these most eminent apostles is that they were better apostles than Paul. That's, that's why Paul refers to them as most eminent. Or if you're reading the English standard version, these super apostles, and he's speaking about that very sarcastically, but they were claiming to be greater apostles than Paul.
You know, there are, there are men, there are teachers in the world now that claim to be greater apostles than the apostles that we read about in the New Testament. Mike Bickle, who is the founding pastor of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.
He has said that there will be apostles in this present day. I don't remember if he actually calls himself one of them or not, but I think people think of him as saying that about himself. Bill Johnson, another one of those, a pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, you've and you know, all those guys that were a part of that new apostolic reformation movement.
But anyway, Mike Bickle has said that there will be, there will be apostles in the modern day who will be superior to the apostles of the New Testament. And right away when I heard him say that, I was like, this sounds like the super apostle argument.
This is the exact thing that Paul was arguing against in chapters 10, 11, and 12 of second Corinthians. And then he gives the signs, the test, the signs of the true apostle that's coming up here in verse 12.
But anyway, so Mike Bickle saying that there will be modern apostles in the present day superior to the apostles of the New Testament, that even the apostles of the New Testament will be lining up to shake their hands in heaven one day.
These apostles, these guys, quote unquote apostles, because they're not really apostles, but the the new apostolic reformation, these guys have very cushy lives. They are, they are sitting pretty in the American exceptionalism that they have the chance to enjoy.
They've made the American dream out of the religious movement that they are a part of. They have not been servants of Christ. They've not been slaves of Christ. They've been slaves to American religion.
And they have been able to use that to be able to make themselves great with all the prosperity nonsense that comes along with the new apostolic reformation. They're just as much in this prosperity stuff as any of the guys we might attribute to being the prosperity teachers like Benny Hinn or Ken Copeland or anything like that.
Yeah, these new apostolic guys are right along with them. So there is nothing that they have done that looks anything like what the apostles of the New Testament did. Those apostles literally risked their lives.
For the sake of proclaiming the gospel of Christ, the true apostles in the New Testament, and you don't see the new apostles doing that. They are they're high on the hog, as we say here in Texas, they are they're doing just fine for themselves, for themselves.
That's the thing, not for Christ, not for anyone else, just for themselves. There's no comparison between them and the apostles of the New Testament, whereas the only apostle who did not die for the gospel was John.
And I say did not die in the sense that he wasn't martyred. He lived to old age, but what he went through, he went through some really tough stuff on the way there. He was exiled to the island of Patmos, which was where he had his revelation that was given to him, the book of Revelation.
So he certainly went through some tough stuff as an apostle. He was just the only one that would not die a martyr. He died of old age. The rest of them were martyred for sharing the gospel. You don't see that among the new apostles, do you?
Paul would be speaking against the new apostles of today, just like he was speaking against these most eminent apostles during the time that he is persuading the during the time that these false teachers are persuading the Corinthians to go after them.
So anyway, I come back to verse 11 with Paul saying, I ought to have been commended by you. It should have been. You're defending me. You're going, hey, you guys are not real apostles. Paul is a real apostle, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles.
Paul says, even if I am nothing again, boasting in his weakness. Verse 12, the signs of a true apostle were worked out among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles. What are the signs of a true apostle?
You have it right there in that verse. If anyone ever asks you to define what would make an apostle, what's the difference between a true apostle and a false apostle, a most eminent apostle? The difference between the true and the false apostle is going to be that the true apostle is, number one, appointed by Christ himself to be an apostle.
Number two, he saw the risen Christ. Number three, he performed signs. That verified it was God himself who sent the apostles to speak the word of God. And so whatever an apostle says as verified by these miracles comes from the Lord and not from man.
Anyone who comes along and is not producing these signs and wonders or did not see the risen Christ, they were not personally appointed by Christ. They're false apostles. So the scriptures tell us exactly what the qualifications of an apostle are.
And by the way, that office has come to an end. There are no more openings. Thanks for applying. The last apostle to be appointed was the apostle Paul. And Paul said that back in first Corinthians 15, verse eight.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he, Jesus, appeared also to me. Because remember, an apostle is appointed to that position by the risen Christ. They see the risen Lord. Paul saw him in a different way than the rest of the apostles saw him.
The rest of the apostles saw him resurrected and then alive on the earth for 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. Paul was not among them to have witnessed that. Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus.
And then Paul spent three years with him in Arabia. He talks about that in Galatians chapter one. So we spent as much time with Jesus as the rest of the apostles did. But it wasn't during his earthly ministry.
It was after. So there's a slight difference between Paul and the other apostles. But not only did Paul experience this with Christ, the risen Lord, but also it was verified by the other apostles. When Barnabas brought Paul to the other apostles, they verified.
Yeah. Everything that he has said is true. And the gospel that he proclaims is the same gospel that we proclaim. It had to have come by revelation. It had to have come by Christ because it was not given to him by anyone else.
Paul also says that in Galatians, he did not receive this message from man, but it was given to him by divine revelation. So you have the signs of a true apostle. And so those signs are the miraculous wonders that an apostle will perform.
If anybody comes to you today, claiming to be an apostle, you just simply tell them, well, raise the dead and prove it. You claim you're an apostle. You better be performing the signs of an apostle or you are not an apostle of Jesus Christ.
You are a servant of Satan, a mess, another messenger of Satan here, someone who is sent to do Satan's will and not God's will. And you can know they're a false apostle even before they're unable to produce any miracles because there are no more apostles.
When Paul mentions that in first Corinthians 15, eight, when he says last of all is to one untimely born, he's going through a list of people that Jesus appeared to. And the last one that Jesus appeared to was Paul, meaning that there was never going to be another appearance of the risen Lord until he comes back again in glory.
And then the whole world will see him. You have those warnings from Jesus in Matthew 24. If someone says to you, here he is out in the wilderness, do not go out. Or somebody says he's in the inner rooms.
Do not go in for his lightning shines from the east as far as the west. So will be the coming of the son of man. The whole world will witness the return of Christ. Don't believe anybody who tells you that they have seen the risen Lord as though he appeared to them in secret.
Paul was the last one to see him. No one else is going to see him until Christ returns in glory. So about these signs, the signs were performed by the apostles. The apostles of the new Testament in that first century.
After that, we do not have those signs and wonders occurring anymore. And even in Hebrews chapter two, uh, let me start reading here in verse two. It says, if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable and every trespass and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation that salvation was first spoken by the Lord?
It was first confirmed to us by those who heard God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit. According to his own will. So once again, the word that was spoken, we know comes from God because God testified with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his will, not as we're able to manifest them, but according to the will of God, these signs were given.
These are the signs of a true apostle. These miraculous wonders. And we're talking about miracles here. We're not talking about the stuff that they, they talk about on like TBN or it's supernatural with Sid Roth, where it's like, I had low blood pressure or I had or high blood, I had high blood pressure.
And then, uh, this healer came and prayed for me. And now my blood pressure is normal. You cannot see that miracle. That is not a demonstratable miracle. Those are not the miracles that we read about, like in the book of acts or in the gospels.
These were clearly sick people, blind, lame, deaf, dumb, demon possessed, whatever it might happen to be. And Christ or an apostle heals that person. And everybody clearly knew a miracle had been performed.
When you have those false healers today who claim to have performed miracles, they don't look anything like the miracles. They claim don't even look anything like the miracles that we read about in the new Testament, the signs of a true apostle and Paul saying to the Corinthians, these signs were performed among you.
You should know the difference between a true apostle and a false apostle because these signs were worked out among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles. Verse 13, for in what respect were you treated as less than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not become a burden to you.
Forgive me this wrong. In other words, Paul is saying we have loved you as much as we have loved any church that we have been to or we have planted. And I didn't even take advantage of you. I didn't ask you for money.
You did not have to support me. Remember, Paul supported himself. He and Priscilla and Akilah who were with him, they were tent makers by trade and they he worked on tents and he made his own living. He did not require the Corinthians to support him.
And so he says, forgive me this wrong. Should I have required money of you like these most eminent apostles are doing? The false teachers are robbing the Corinthians because they're lying to them and taking their money.
They're not even giving them the product that they're promising. The most eminent apostles benefit from this, but the Corinthians are at a loss. And Paul is saying, I didn't even take any money from you.
Forgive me. Forgive me this wrong because I didn't take your money. And again, he's being sarcastic there. Verse 14 here for this third time, I am ready to come to you and I will not be a burden to you.
Once again, I'm not going to burden you. I'm not going to require anything from you. I'm not going to take your money. I do not seek what is yours. I seek you. That's why Paul is coming for their sakes, that they may know the truth and live for children ought not to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
The metaphor he uses their parents supplying for or providing for their kids. Your kids can't go out and get a job and support you if they're, you know, you got little children in the house. That's what that's what Paul is referring to.
They can't go out and get a job and support you. You're supposed to support your kids. So that's what Paul is saying. I was like a father to you. I am your spiritual father is really the sense with Paul in the Corinthians.
So he is coming for them not to take from them, but for their benefit. Verse 15, so I will most gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls. If I love you more. Am I to be loved less? Paul loves the Corinthians more than the false teachers do.
But the Corinthians love the false teachers more than they love Paul. He is asking them to consider the truth, turn away from the lies and turn back to the truth and to us as well. My brothers and sisters, we must listen to those who speak truth and turn away from those who utter lies.
Those who speak truth will genuinely care for us, but those who speak lies are only out for themselves. Consider Hebrews 13 verse seven. Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.
Verse 17, obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be unprofitable for you.
Now, as we finish up second Corinthians 12 here, which we'll do tomorrow, God willing, Paul has instructions for them, things that they should do. And if they are indeed in Christ and walking in the truth, then they will repent of impurity and sexual immorality and the sensuality which they have practiced and come back to walking in the way of righteousness.
We'll pick up there tomorrow. Heavenly Father, thank you for this word that we have read and may we know the difference between the truth and the lie that we may discern what is good, pleasing and perfect according to your will.
You have spoken to us through your prophets and apostles that is given to us in the Bible. So may we weigh all other ideas, teachings and concepts according to your word. And may we be generous with one another to speak truth to one another in the kindness and affection that you have given to us.
And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
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Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.