Tim's Sermon Notes

Paul just finished talking about the light and glory of God, and here contrasts that with the vessels that he stoops to place it in – namely, is. Clay pots, cheap, abundant, easily broken.

Speaking of easily broken, if it were not for the all-surpassing power of God, Paul makes it clear that he himself would be broken. The story of Paul’s life after his conversion has not been one of comfort and luxury – he goes into more depth in capture 11, but to sum up, he is hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down. Christians as a whole were surrounded by threats of death and violence at all times – but by life as well. Bad news was all around, but the Good News was at work. The life of Jesus was at work in Paul’s life, and in the lives of the Corinthians.

The ultimate consummation of that work is in eternity, and in the midst of difficulties, that is what he looked to in order to not lose heart. The grace of God that brings Paul into this eternal relationship with Him drives thanksgiving for the mercy shown.

And the grace goes beyond simply the withholding of punishment. In the essay that takes its name from this passage, CS Lewis notes that the most important thing in the world is “What God thinks of is.” The answer is stunning. We are celebrated by God. The weight of this glorious truth makes the suffering Paul mentions seem insubstantial in comparison.

So we may feel like we live ordinary lives – at best. In reality, death and decay are all around us. Outwardly, we are wasting away. As people, as a society, as families, as churches. What can we do about it? Do we feel the weight of glory? Sometimes we are even shamed by the gospel itself, for failing to live up to or spread its message.

But we are not, in the end, ordinary. As Lewis writes, “you have never talked with a mere mortal.” We are all on a trajectory to either eternal glory or dark horror, and God has given us an opportunity to be a piece of bringing people to that glory. As grace extends through us to others, it moves us to the proper position of thankfulness.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, February 25, 2018

2 Corinthians 4:7-18

Paul here is using the story of Moses on Mount Sinai to go after false teachers, peddling the word of God for money, and seeking to undermine Paul’s ministry. One thing these false teachers were doing was to claim that Paul’s ministry there was illegitimate because he never presented a letter of recommendation.

This is a bit silly because a) he did, in fact had a letter from the Council of Jerusalem, and b) he founded the church to begin with! His letter was the hearts of the congregation there in Corinth. He then pivots to an even more important contrast between words written physically and words written on hearts.

The Law of the Old Covenant was a glorious thing that made Moses’ face shine, but Paul’s ministry is greater because it is written with the ink of the Spirit on the hearts of believers. The Law was transitory, but the Gospel is permanent. There are three things we can take from this. There is a difference between the dead letter of the Law and the living Spirit. It is easy to throw Bible verses at people, whether in an argument or an attempt to teach or comfort, but if we are not doing this in a way that gives life to the listener and the speaker, it will end up being a dead letter and quite possibly thing more harm than good. Second, the way we live our lives matters as a testimony of the work of Christ. That does not mean our moral uprightness, which the World as a whole does really care about. Rather, our freedom in Christ and the joy in that freedom should stand out boldly against the backdrop of the world. Third, we are being transformed. The veil is off, and when we turn to the Lord we both behold and reflect God’s glory. This is not actually natural. We prefer to have clear rules and then do penance when we fail, to “sit in the sin” and feel its weight. Paul, though, says that the penance has already been done. There is no more veil, no more separation between us and God’s presence. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” So, all we need to do is turn to the Lord. There is no more condemnation – we are free. -Sermon Notes, Seth MacGillivray, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, February 11, 2017

2 Corinthians 3:1-18

To start, again, some background.
Paul founded the church of Corinth, then spent 18 months there. Sometime later, Paul writes to the church, warning about their need to deal with the sin in their midst (this is part of 1 Corinthians), specially, a man’s affair with his step-mother.

Paul subsequently visits Corinth and the disciplinary process begins, apparently not well. He then writes the “Severe Letter” which has been lost (probably for the best), and plans to visit Corinth again, but is prevented. Finally, he writes 2 Corinthians, trying to ratchet some some of what has happened in response to his letters and visit.

That second visit was distressing, even traumatic. As it is for many pastors, Paul is fatigued by being the one people call only when they are in crisis, particularly when dealing with sin against them or by them. In many ways it is a privilege to be in these situations, but when they are the primary way you interact with people, it takes a toll.

This is something all pastors deal with, and Paul in particular has been dealing with this in regards to the Corinthians. This is why he wants them to deal with their issues internally. This is one reason he is glad not to be able to visit them as he had planned. When he comes to them, he wants it to be a joyful experience.

He then explains the background of his initial confrontation of the sin in the church, explaining that the motive was his concern for them, not just his personal desire to be “the hammer.” It is a legitimate concern, but Paul wants to dispel it.

The tone here is very different from Paul’s initial condemnation, where he called on them to hand the man over to Satan. Now, he calls them to forgive him, to avoid themselves falling under the influence of Satan.

We see here in the Corinthians the human tendency to jump from one extreme to the other. Just as it is important to be clear on the need to confront sin, it is important to offer forgiveness. This is why the gospel has two parts – we are worse than we think we are, but more loved than we can possibly imagine. Humans constantly struggle between justice and mercy.

This time around, Paul is addressing the abuse of justice. One of the most successful strategies of Satan is to take our healthy zeal for justice and produce in us a heart of hate. God’s wrath is justified and righteous – ours, on the other hand, is not so much. The scriptures never justify human wrath. Instead, it is condemned categorically by Christ in Matthew 5, by Paul in Galatians, Ephesians & 1 Timothy, by James. We are called to “get rid of” our wrath, categorized right alongside idolatry and witchcraft. The only text in all the New Testament that gives permission for wrath pretty clearly calls us to keep it limited to 24 hours (“do not let the sun go down on your anger.”). God’s perfect wrath is not permission for us to be imperfectly wrathful.

As we seek justice in our communities, we must guard our hearts. We live in an age where wrath and self-righteousness is endemic in social media. We have all created zones of justification where we see our wrath as justified. There are horrific, monstrous things that people do, but we are not called to wrath and vengeance. True justice only comes from God.

We must confront sin, advocate for the oppressed and guard the weak. But we must also guard our hearts. We all have the same depravity within us. We should seek to not feel wrath, but rather pity, in those cases where we are confronted by people who do evil. We should aspire to be like Rachael Denhollander, the gymnast who confronted her abuser and that of hundreds of girls, in her clear, unflinching condemnation of evil, and the bright beacon of Christ’s mercy that she points to.

That evil and that hope exists within each of us. May we each seek to confront that evil, in our life and our world, without giving into it though self-righteousness and wrath.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 28, 2017

2 Corinthians 2:11-21

Paul here is defending himself from attacks around his change of travel plans to Corinth. The real story, though, is that his teaching is being undermined and criticised by Judaizers who want to require gentile Christians to follow the ceremonial law, become circumcised and so forth.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul notes that he plans to visit Corinth around his visit to Macedonia. In the end, though, that did not come together for reasons outside his control. Paul’s enemies in the church used this as leverage to attack not just Paul, but his teachings in general.

Paul, in turn, uses the story of his human inability to accomplish what he had planned to illustrate God’s supernatural ability and faithfulness to fulfill all his promises. In fact, it is often through the disruption of our plans that God accomplishes his.

There are many things in life that we do not have control over. This can be difficult to accept, especially living in a wealthy society where we are free from many of the things that have historically upset people’s plans (war, plague, etc.). But even today, our control of our lives is much more limited than we often realize.

However, if we recognize that much of this lack of control is actually the hand of Providence, that can change our perspective. Many of us can point to things in our own lives where we have seen Providence work in the past. But we may also be able to point to situations where Providence did not work in a way that we might have hoped.

How do you respond when things spin out of your control? Job losses, disease, injury and much more can upend our plans and send us into a spiral of worry and anxiety. It takes our joy and peace, and sends us away from seeking and serving God as we are called to.

In those seasons, the challenge is to let go of the things of the world, let go of our control, and instead cling to the promises of God. We are, at Paul writes, sealed as God’s, with the Holy Spirit as a deposit of even greater things to come.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 21, 2017

2 Corinthians 1:12-24