2 Corinthians - Lesson 1C

• This morning, we return to our study of 2 Corinthians. We are two teachings in but are just now today getting into the text of 2 Corinthians. The reason for this is always the same: Context - Context – Context.

  • To receive maximum impact in our lives, (which is what we want, right?), if we want to grow and mature spiritually at a maximum level, we must stay in context when studying God’s Holy Manuscript.

  • And so, it’s for that reason that I taught back-to-back teachings which gave us a deep dive look into the context and the setting of Paul’s writings. Now, in case you missed the first two teachings, remember you can visit our website and catch back up.

  • So, with the introductory teachings behind us, let’s delve in to 2 Corinthians this morning and see what God has for us.

• During the first teaching a few weeks ago, I read through verses 1-3, but I want back up and touch on them again really quick, as a segway if you will into the next set of verses.

2 Cor. 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Timothy,
To the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia:

• So, before we begin this morning, remember that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians as a letter of correction to this church in trying to correct some of their bad behavior. Unfortunately, that letter didn’t seem to completely solve the issues. Not only does it not seem to resolve the issues, but Paul also gets word that the situation has actually gone from bad to worse.

  • Paul is told that there are some in the church who question who he is. Specifically, his Apostolic Authority. And evidently, as we will discover in Chapter 7 all these problems, “this stir” of questioning Paul’s authority, originates with one individual.

  • Which is interesting. One person - one individual stirring things up - causing trouble. And why? Because at its core, it’s all about that individual. Their self-interest, their agenda, their thoughts, and their opinion. Regardless of what they may say, it’s always about them. It’s not about the greater good of the body of Christ - the church.

    • Remember this situation the next time you find yourself being drawn into a vortex of murmuring. When a person or certain group of people start speaking privately among themselves, as if there’s some secret that no one else knows about, it always starts the same way. They start complaining under their breath in an effort to gain support, seeking out anyone who might listen.

    • Just remember 2 Corinthians, because that’s what Paul is dealing with here. If you notice someone doing this, do your part to snuff it out. And, do you know the best method for snuffing out murmuring? Don’t respond to it and don’t participate in it.

• Paul writes 2 Corinthians making another attempt at straighten things out in this church, and this time, he speaks specifically to the issue of his calling and his Apostolic Authority. He begins with an opening Salutation & Greeting, in what we will call typical Paul fashion.

  • Right out the gate he begins by establishing that he is an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the Will of God (no higher calling than this). A simple statement here. He says:

  • I am an Apostle, established by none other than Jesus Christ himself - by His will. And then He says, ‘To the Church at Corinth, with all the saints throughout Achaia’. Remember, Achaia is the region and Corinth is the capital of that region.

    • This letter was written to Corinth, but it could also be distributed to other churches in that region. It is believed there may have been one or two more churches in that region.

    • We will call this a soft opening of sorts, as Paul re-establishes who he is and where his authority was derived. And then he says in verse 2:

2 Cor. 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

• “Grace to you” is an interesting phrase and one worth noting. In our opening introductory teaching, we touched on this phrase, but I would just like to back up and highlight it one more time.

  • God’s Grace is His Unmerited Favor, and it works in several ways in scripture. The primary way is it offers us Salvation, which we don’t deserve. This is what Paul means when He says, “For by Grace you are saved” in Ephesians 2:8-9.

    • It is because of God’s Grace, His Unmerited Favor, that you even had the opportunity to be saved. The word Grace here, in Paul’s opening Salutation, is not used in the same context as the word Grace he used in Ephesians 2:8-9.

  • Paul is using it in a different sense. This is not the Grace that saves. This is the Grace that sustains, and that’s different. This is important to note. God’s grace serves in many facets; the most important being salvation. But, next in line, is sustaining. But it goes deeper than that.

    • You see if you are a believer, meaning you have come to the realization you are a sinner, and you have confessed that fact, and you have recognized that the cure for your sin problem is Jesus, specifically, His saving work of the Cross of Calvary.

    • Meaning, if you have accepted His work on the cross as being true and a solution for your sin problem. That very revelation, just the revelation itself in your life, is a result of God’s Grace.

• Let me be clear here for just a second. Your eyes being opened to the fact that you are a sinner was the first step of God’s Grace being evident in your life. And why? Because according to the scriptures, you, under your own volition, will never come to that realization on your own. Let’s look at a few scriptures as proof of what I am saying.

Eph. 2:1 And you were dead in your offenses and sins.

• Dead being the key word here. If you were dead, then you were not what by definition? Alive. But let’s don’t stop there, lets dig further. Moving on, verses 2-5

Eph. 2:2 in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 
Eph. 2:3 Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. 
Eph. 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 
Eph. 2:5 even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

• Then we have Romans 3

Rom. 3:10 as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
Rom. 3:11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;

• There are many more scriptures we could use to drive this point home but remember - you didn’t find Jesus. He wasn’t hiding. He found you and it was because of God’s Grace - His unmerited favor on your life - that you even realized you were who you were. Another way to say it is the fact that you even realized you were in jeopardy in the first place, which then afforded you the opportunity to accept Him as Lord and Savior.

  • But as I previously stated, “Grace” as it relates to Salvation is not the aspect of Grace that Paul is speaking of here. The Grace that Paul is speaking of here is different, and we’ll discover that and deal with it, and talk more about it throughout this letter. For now, just remember, it takes Grace to be saved and it takes Grace to be sustained as we walk throughout this life.

    • And this is important guys, because if you are a believer you can stand on this promise. When things get rough, when you get down, when you are ostracized or talked about or deeply burdened in some way. Remember, it’s God’s sustaining Grace that ensures us that we are never alone.

  • Paul is experiencing it here. And it’s because of it that you can know that you will always stand, because God will make you stand. You will sustain because God’s Grace will cause you to sustain.

  • Romans 14:4 says it this way:

Rom. 14:4 Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

• I will tell you something else as it relates to God sustaining. It has an interesting aspect to it, and that is, God can’t really begin to use us until we get to that point where it’s only by His Grace we are being sustained.

  • Follow what I am saying here. God can’t utilize us, and the level we can be used by Him, until we come to the realization that its only by His Grace we are sustained.

    • Meaning, we must come to the end of ourselves, and abandon the thinking that somehow, we are in control, that we are doing something or accomplishing something, in and through our own power.

    • Because I assure you, that is never the case. If you are a child of God, your accomplishments, however great or small are all due to His Sustaining Grace. Whether you know that or not.

  • Paul’s words in Romans ring true for me, primarily because I started out in business for myself when I was 15 years old. I had no clue what I was doing, but that didn’t matter at that point in my life. I was “IOF” - Ignorance on Fire.

• This past week I was calculating just how long (my wife) Daffney and I have been self-employed; in roughly six more months we will have officially been in business for roughly 35 years. It’s hard to believe.

  • Throughout my career (if you call it that), my journey if you will, I failed many times. More times than I succeeded. And it has been a long and arduous journey to say the least. Daffney can attest to that. What she can also attest to, is that throughout this journey, there were many, many times when we thought we were done. When we thought for sure this business was about to collapse.

  • I would often seek the advice of friends, other businesspeople, and often these friends would tell me to quit. They would often speculate as to why we were failing. Saying things like, ‘our problems were all a result of me not fulfilling my calling. And, honestly, at times that seemed to make sense. But the reality was, that wasn’t true at all.

  • You see God was doing something with both Daffney and me. He was building our resolve, our character, and our stress tolerance among other things, all for His Glory. Building us for the work of ministry. The business being His instrument for our development. Not for the purpose of making money, but so that we could become the husband and wife, the Pastor and wife, that he wanted us to become, so that we would grow up and bring Glory to His name.

    • So that we would become useful instruments of His Ministry. So that we would learn what it meant to become bondservants of Jesus Christ. So that we would learn what it meant to lean on Him, and not our own understanding.

  • You see, along the way we would find ourselves down, depressed, and burdened beyond belief. Eventually we would become weak and feel like giving up. I would begin internally viewing myself as a failure, thinking to myself, how could I be so dumb?

    • And then, just when I thought it was all over, God’s sustainable Grace would come along and take over. My faith never wavered, but in my flesh, I would become weak. It was then in those moments that the Grace that Sustains would take over, undergirding me, and lift me up, forcing us to stand. All because He made it happen.

    • He made us stand on numerous occasions. I had smart businesspeople, some Christian, some not, tell me ‘You won’t be in business for more than “X” more days or months.’

    • But when all hope seemed to be lost, God would show up. Sometimes it would be in the form of new business, but many times it was in the form of Wisdom. He would give me one more piece of the puzzle, a piece that I wasn’t seeing. A piece that would make things little better (financially speaking).

  • Regardless of what it was, it was His Grace that sustained us through it all. And that’s the aspect of Grace that Paul is writing about here, and that’s going to become more evident as we journey through this letter.

• Before moving on, let me digress on this topic by leaving you with what the writer of Hebrews said in Chapter 4:16 - this will kind of give you the why behind God’s Sustaining Grace.

 Hebrews 4:16 Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.

• That sums up why Paul opened with Grace be to you. Next, He says, and “Peace from God”. Once again, just like God’s Grace, Gods’ peace has different aspects to it as well.

• I want you to notice the phrase here, “Peace from God”, which is different than the “Peace of God”. So, what’s the difference? As I said a few moments ago, just like Grace has different aspects, so does Peace.

  • There is a “Peace from God” - as mentioned here in 2 Corinthians. But there is a “Peace of God” that shows up in Romans, and it too relates to salvation. Let me read it to you - Romans 5:1-2:

Rom. 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rom. 5:2 through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we celebrate in hope of the glory of God

• This peace - the “Peace of God” - is a natural byproduct of Salvation. It’s a peace best described using the analogy of jeopardy. Have you ever been in jeopardy, scared or fearful, maybe worried in a tremendous way – overburdened? The Bible also calls it “Heavy Ladened”.

  • Maybe you feared for your life, or you fear an outcome, much like awaiting a sentencing in a court hearing. Maybe best described as having a weight on your shoulders. I want you to think back to that time. And then think back to when what you feared the most, didn’t happen.

  • Or the outcome wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be. Immediately your fear turned to relief, or better said, it turned to a calm - in reality it’s a “Peace”.  That feeling best describes the Peace of God. It shows up many times when someone is dying. During their last days and hours, they say, “I’m okay - I’m at Peace with God”.

• If you’re a believer, that peace is a peace that you should carry with you everywhere you go. Paul also refers to it as the “Blessed Hope”, because you see, it’s through that Peace that we find our reconciliation, i.e. victory over sin.

  • But remember, Paul isn’t writing this letter to unbelievers, he’s writing it to the Church at Corinth. So, he assumes it’s being read by believers, which clues us in on why he uses the phrase “Peace from God” rather than “Peace of God”.

  • Let me read it again:

2 Cor. 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

• So, what about this Peace from God? It’s as if Paul is delivering a word not only from himself, but from God as well.

  • So, this Peace is not the Peace of God, which relates to salvation, and if that’s not the case, then what kind of peace is it? Well, when you pair peace with the word Grace, it takes on a totally different meaning.

  • Peace is a benefit of Grace. Matter of fact, when you find Peace in scripture you will almost always find it paired with Grace. Which tells us something. The sense is this - Grace to you. Meaning may God and the Lord give you an abundance of undeserved gifts, and may you receive peace because of that Grace. And without one you can’t have the other.

    • Just know that the Peace of God and the Peace from God are different. One is derived from Salvation and the other is derived from knowing you have God’s sustaining Grace. Knowing God is in control and has got you no matter the situation, good, bad or indifferent, will begin to really resonate and make more sense, become more meaningful as we journey through 2 Corinthians.

  • Moving on, next we pick up with verses 3-4, where Paul will shift his focuses from his salutation and greeting to that of thankfulness and comfort. Just like Grace and Peace. Thankfulness and comfort are not just thankfulness and comfort in the traditional sense. This is different, and they are topics we should all be interested in. Here’s what he says:

2 Cor. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
2 Cor. 1:4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 

• Paul starts out by using the words “blessed be”. It’s the same as saying he is thankful. “Blessed be” means thankful. He’s giving thanks. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He starts out this way, because he wants to set the tone, to establish the value of the experiences he’s about to recount. Experiences he has had, and there is going to be a surprise in those experiences as he gives thanks for some very strange things.

  • Next, we have the word comfort, and it’s going to show up all throughout this epistle. As a matter of fact, it’s going to occur 18 times as a verb (an action), and 11 times as a noun in various forms.

  • The word comfort, as we use the term, comes from two words in Latin; Con - which means “together”, and Fortis - meaning strong. When we think of the word comfort, we tend to think of it in an emotional sense, as in comforting someone. It’s the equivalent in our mind to consoling. But that’s not the word Paul is using here.

  • The word comfort here means to strengthen. To strengthen them. The Greek word is Parakleesis (Pars -Klee -sis), which means “called alongside to help”. We should recognize that word right away because it shows up in the Greek term that refers to “The comforter” The Holy Spirit.

    • You may recall, Jesus said himself that another comforter I will send to you. “Who will disannul your orphanage”. Powerful statement that Jesus made here. Imagine if you were an orphan, abandoned from birth, and someone came along and disannulled you as an orphan. Literally reversed it. Took you from being an orphan, abandoned and alone, to comforting you in a way that you no longer felt you were an orphan.

    • That’s a different type of comfort than we are used too, isn’t it? But that’s the comfort of God. And Paul says, He is the God of all comfort (not some but all). The sense of this comfort is to comfort in a way that we come alongside and assume someone’s burden. Not just, I will pray for you, no, you get in the boat of pain with them. Your comforting is almost a physical sense.

• I saw an example of this type of comfort through a tragic story of the death of my niece. Four years ago this March, I was in Washington DC at a conference. My team and I were there a couple of days. And one night, around 9-10pm, Daffney called my phone.

  • She said, “You need to call your sister”. Carmen (our niece) had been shot. In that very moment, I remember feeling a sense of jeopardy, fear, disbelief, and shock all wrapped up in one. I also remember feeling helpless. There I was stuck in Washington.

  • And to make matters worse, we had no idea how bad it was. I called my sister and stayed on the phone with her all the way to the emergency room. I desperately tried to “comfort” her. In the counseling sense to give her hope, saying stuff like, it will be okay, and she is probably fine.

  • I remember her desperately asking me to pray (and I did). I just remember thinking, there is no way I can help. There is no way to give her true comfort. No matter how hard I tried, there were no words that I spoke that could give her any relief. As I said, I felt helpless.

  • I was on the phone with her as she arrived at the emergency room, only for her to hear the news that her daughter didn’t make it. My heart was beating out of my chest. My fear turned to panic. My anxiety and stress went through the roof. But there was absolutely nothing I could do for her.

  • I managed to get a flight out the next morning, and what was interesting was, a few of my staff members were with me. They, too, were trying to give me comfort. But unfortunately, they found themselves in the same place I was the night before in trying to console my sister: There was nothing they could say.

  • I flew home the next morning, arrived at the airport, got in my vehicle, and drove to my mother’s house. When I arrived, I found my sister lying in the bed crying beyond belief. It was unlike any cry I had ever heard. I don’t know how to describe it really, other than it was cry of desperation.

• It was painful to watch, and once again I felt helpless. There were simply no words that could bring any level of comfort to my sister that day. None whatsoever. But something interesting did happen that day. Something that I did not realize until I started this study of comfort this week.

  • My brother-in-law, my sister’s husband, who by the way was not her husband at the time. As a matter of fact, they weren’t even dating at that point. They had previously dated but had broken up. He was there that day.

  • And when I peeked into the room to check on her, she was curled up in the fetal position on the bed sobbing and crying, and right beside her in the floor, there he was, her former boyfriend with his hand on her side. He was sobbing and crying right along with her, almost as bad as she was.

  • At that time, I didn’t think much of it, other than how awesome it was that he was there with her. But this past week all that changed as I studied 2 Corinthians. Guys, that’s the type of comfort that Paul is describing here in His opening Salutation.

  • It’s not just consoling, or words of encouragement. This is the type of comfort that my now brother-in-law gave my sister that day. And it can only come when one person assumes the burden of another.

• You know, if you opened your Bible to 2 Corinthians 1 today, and just read it, you would read right past Paul’s greeting and opening. No way you would have given a second thought to these words: Grace & Peace & Comfort.

  • This gives you a sense of just how rich God’s word is, and it tells you why we must slowly and methodically dissect and ingest every word. It’s so powerful.

  • Now, you may be sitting here this morning wondering how in the world could I give, or show someone, that type of comfort. Seems impossible. Remember, God never gave us the problem or the command without giving us the path or solution to that problem or command.

• So, guess what, you will have to come back next week as God through the Apostle Paul shows us exactly how this is made possible.