Sunday Morning Service

II Corinthians 1

(Click above for audio access)

“4 Lessons From Suffering” • 2.10.13 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- In the closing moments of I Corinthians, Paul had informed the Corinthians of a potential plan to visit with the wise caveat, "if the Lord permits."

- Between the end of I Corinthians and the beginning of the book before us, both Timothy and Titus have visited them and had time to report to Paul, whose personal visit might have been short.

- The report produced an understanding that many had been positively responsive. Sadly, there were still some who were resistant to the Apostle's words.

- These had continued to create dissension among the brethren, but had doubled their efforts in undermining Paul's work by raising questions about his word and his life.

- As a result, we have II Corinthians. It reads very differently than any of his other books. He has been personally attacked and he responds, not out of insecurity, but for the sake of God's Work.

- Paul begins by answering the objection, "If he is truly God's man, why is he suffering so much?" He takes that on right away, teaching us much about the subject in this first chapter.

Text

• II Corinthians 1:1,2 : "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." : This is the standard Pauline greeting. These opening words would be the first to appear on the scroll as the Corinthians opened it.

- He insists on them knowing that he was an Apostle, a sent one, a man on official business, with a message in hand. That is what an apostle is and what he does.

- His Apostolic office represents Jesus Christ, effected by God's will, not Paul's!

- If Paul was simply out for himself, then listening to him would be optional. But, if as he expresses, he is here from God, then his words and actions hold great significance.

- Alongside Paul, this letter was witnessed by his protege, Timothy. He had now seen the spiritual condition Corinth and was vested in his ability to add his voice to this letter.

- To God's church in Corinth and all the saints in Achaia. Corinth was the specific city that the church was located in and Achaia was the region sandwiched between Corinth and Greece.

- Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Many have commented on this greeting being a common greeting for Gentiles and Jews, charis for the former, shalom the latter.

- Both come from God who first shows you His favor in salvation and then gives you His peace as you walk toward all that that means.

- What a joy to have His grace and His peace! We have these things from God as well! His unmerited favor is yours and His power to sustain you in all troubles is yours as well!

• II Corinthians 1:3,4 : "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 tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." : "Blessed be" or all praise be to God, who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

- He is worthy of our praise because He is the Father of His Son Jesus Christ. When we needed a Savior, the Father sent His only Son to save us.

- That covers our past and our future. He has saved us from our sins and He will save us and deliver us to heaven! But what about now?

- We bless Him now because He is also the Father of mercies, or compassion and the God of all comfort. This is how He is saving us now!

- This word "comfort" is much more than what we have come to expect from it. When we speak about comfort, our minds generally cluster around sympathetic words and actions.

- This word comes from a word that 1) comes from the same word family, as the word related to the Holy Spirit and 2) comes from a word grouping that refers to coming alongside to strengthen.

- A full meaning then would be that God the Father is the One who, through the Holy Spirit, comes presently alongside each believer, enabling them to be strengthened in every trying situation!

- How were you able to stand when you faced your greatest tribulation? A believer will answer generally with a word of ignorance: "I didn't know I had it in me!" You didn't!

- The Holy Spirit came alongside of you when you called and He propped you up, directed your thoughts, fed you with His Word and led you to look to Jesus!

- "All tribulations!" Everything you will ever suffer, in all that you experience, the Holy Spirit is there in every kind of tribulation.

- That word refers to pressures. In ancient days, if you were found guilty, you would be laid down with a weigh laid over your chest. Over time, as the body adapted, the weight would increase.

- Over time, the victim would be unable to breathe under the weight, their chest cavity, crushed. That is the word "tribulation." Pressure that takes your breath away.

- When you are under that kind of pressure, Paul let's us know God is present, in that moment, without delay, the Holy Spirit comes to help alleviate that pressure. Why?

- That we might be able, literally, that we might have the power to comfort those in any trouble.

- You can extend the same comfort to another person because you have received that gift from the Lord. Perhaps that will help you see a value in your pressure that you had not seen before.

- Without the pressure, you would never have know the joy of release. Without the struggle, you would never have know the freedom that only His comfort can bring.

• II Corinthians 1:5 : "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ." : The Apostles served God, suffering the same sufferings of Christ. This does not refer to degree.

- Jesus suffered as the only innocent person that has ever been in a way that we would never be able to comprehend, having been God and the only innocent man in history!

- This refers to physical and emotional suffering, related to the mission Christ.

- The Apostles shared in the same mission that Jesus did and were thus often treated as he was treated, which was no surprise.

- Jesus had warned His disciples that if they mistreated Him, they would most certainly mistreat them! (John 15:20)

- He told them that people would persecute them, bringing them before councils for the sake of the name of Jesus (Mark 13:9)

- These men suffered abundantly for the name of Christ. But with every bout of suffering, there was also abounding consolation. Listen to the NLT on verse 5.

•  II Corinthians 1:5 (NLT) : "For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort through Christ!"

- No matter what was thrown Paul's way, there was more than enough of His comfort to meet the emotional challenge.

• I Corinthians 1:6,7 : "Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation." : Every time Paul suffered, he wanted the Corinthians to understand that it was for them.

- What they gained through their troubles was practical good for their comfort. Paul could speak to them authoritatively from what he had received.

- The Apostles endured sufferings on account of their salvation! They went through all of this so that the Corinthians would be saved! That's powerful!

- Their hope, their expectation was steady for the Corinthians. Why? Because whatever they were suffering was a result of the reality of their walk.

- If Paul was not employed by Christ and if the church were not an authentic work of Christ, there would be no suffering to speak of on the level that Paul is talking about.

- The Corinthians were suffering. That was a proof of their salvation. Paul's confidence then was that they would now receive God's comfort.

• II Corinthians 1:8-11 : "For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many." : Paul does not get specific here, but the Corinthians had better know how difficult things had become in Asia.

- What they endured was greater than human strength could deal with. It got so bad that they did not believe that they were going to make it! They despaired even of life!

- The idea behind this phrase is that they had run out of every imaginable resource. There was no hope in any direction.

- There was a sentence of death over themselves to the watching world. They might have felt that walking in their call was a death sentence.

- Why does God bring us there? Hear Paul's words to the Corinthians: So that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God!

- If God is doing anything in your life it is this: Removing your faith in any other institution, save Himself! He wants you to come to the end of all other resource and see Him!

- When you come to the end of yourself, you are just beginning to come into the greatest realization that you could ever have: God is there and He is enough for you!

- He is the God who raises from the dead! He is the One who does not deliver us unto death, but delivers us from death! And the Corinthians had a part in that, as they prayed for them.

• II Corinthians 1:12-14 : "For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end (as also you have understood us in part), that we are your boast as you also are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus." : In spite of their troubles, the Apostles never wavered for a moment! Their conscience bearing them witness, that in every hour, they worked in simplicity and godly sincerity.

- They were single in their mind and practice, honestly saying what they believed. There was no pretence. This is what we believe and what we wish for you to believe.

- The acted in purity. It comes from a word that describes a process of sunlight exposing the true nature of this product.

- With every eye opened wide, in the bright daylight, under the closest scrutiny, these guys were whole, authentic!

- They ministered in these ways to the people of Corinth, at the very cost of their mental health, but they would not give over to a minute to fleshy wisdom.

- If they would just have succumbed to the wisdom of the world, the wisdom that serves our flesh, that says, "Let's limit our gospel and let's soften our stance" then they'd have been fine!

- But not for a moment! By God's grace, they ministered to the Corinthians, giving them the pure unadulterated word! They had no other agenda!

- Now, as the Corinthians saw themselves as genuine believers, they could boast in Paul and Timothy and Apollos, as much as those men could boast in Corinth!

- Unfortunately, they had understood only in part. They were still confused and missing the point! In the day of the Lord, when all things were made clear, they would thank God for the Apostles.

• II Corinthians 1:15-17 : "And in this confidence I intended to come to you before, that you might have a second benefit—to pass by way of you to Macedonia, to come again from Macedonia to you, and be helped by you on my way to Judea. Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be Yes, Yes, and No, No?" :  Paul knew the value of his word. He had lived a life of open honesty and his conscience was clear about that.

- At the end of I Corinthians, he had shared a plan that saw him spending the winter with them, here so that they might have "a second benefit" or literally, a second grace from him.

- He was going to Macedonia. On the way there, he would stay with them and then on the way back, he was going to stay with them again. It was his desire to spend a good deal of time with them.

- This was not something that Paul looked upon with levity. He didn't just lightly put this together. He believed that this was what God wanted him to do.

- If he was going to go and God gave him the go ahead, then it was a yes. If God was not opening that door, it would be a no.

- With Paul, there was never an uncertainty. When God gave the word and opened the door, Paul was the first through it!

• II Corinthians 1:18-20 : "But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us." It seems that the Corinthians had doubted Paul's word because of the failed plan that Paul had communicated.

- He had not been able to winter with them, but was instead called away, likely after a brief visit. They construed this to be a falsehood and in their minds, it cast some doubt on Paul's message.

- But as God is faithful. In light of His faithfulness. As long as that characteristic is true, then the words that were preached to them were not uncertain.

- They had preached Jesus Christ to them and in Him is a certain yes! The NLT calls Jesus God's "ultimate yes!"

- Every promise made to you in Him, the promise of forgiveness of sins, the promise of a righteous standing in Him, the promise of eternal life in Him, are yes and amen!

- When you are in Him, there is no moment of suffering can remove that promise. It's God's glory that rises through us as we celebrate that!

- As we praise the Lord through suffering, we are actively advertising His greatness, showing the world that His reality in our lives is greater than our suffering!

• II Corinthians 1:21-24 : "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Moreover I call God as witness against my soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth. Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand." : The Lord is the Lord of the Apostles and the Corinthians. He has done three things for them all

- First, they are established together in Christ. It is a present reality. He has confirmed them.

- Second, He has annointed them, referring to consecration. He has set us apart as holy vessels for Himself.

- Third, He has sealed us. This word speaks of a wax seal on an official letter. When that wax was place over the opening of the letter, the person sending it would impress his ring upon it.

- That signet ring showed that the letter was authentically from the individual that sent it. How has God done that? By giving us the Spirit as a guarantee.

- This word is refers to a substantial sum given in advance, as a pledge of final payment! God has given you the downpayment on salvation. What is the downpayment? His Holy Spirit!

- His presence in our lives is a guarantee that God is going to finish what He started!

- Before we move, please note once again, the mention of the three persons of the Trinity.

- We are established in Christ the Son. We are annointed by God the Father. And we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. God, in three distinct persons.

- Now, it is this God of theirs, who has done this work in their lives that Paul invokes as a witness as to why he did not come to them.

- He did not come to Corinth, to spare them. Not to say that Paul was acting as a "lord" over them. They were fellow workers, all standing by faith.

Conclusion
- Having gone through this first chapter, let me suggest 4 statements that you might want to jot down. This passage teaches us about dealing with trouble or pressure in life. Here are 4 truths.

- First, for every pressure, there is a promise of comfort. Verse 3 proclaims, "in all our trouble." God will not meet you, no matter how dark and lonely your trouble is.

- Second, in Christ, every pressure on earth is productive for heaven. There is no wasted motion. Pressures bring equipment for service, salvation for people and a longing for heaven.

- Third, pressures are not sufficient motivators to change our priority. Paul kept to a simple, honest, ministry. He did not give in or sell out for a minute.   

4) Fourth, pressures on earth have no bearing on the promises of heaven! No matter what you face here, you are established in Christ, annointed by God and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

˚  "Until I learned to trust, I never learned to pray; and I did not learn to fully trust till sorrows came my way. Until I felt my weakness, His strength I never knew, nor dreamed 'til I was stricken that He could see me through. Who deepest drinks of sorrow, drinks deepest, too, of grace; He sends the storm so He Himself can be our hiding place. His heart, that seeks our highest good - knowing well that things annoy. We would not long for heaven if earth held the only joy."   Unknown Author