2 Corinthians 6

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0:00 The text I wanted to think about this morning, we have back there actually on the clipboard, the all of the readings for the month of March which you're welcome to take and read along with us throughout the week. The text I wanted to start with this morning is the New Testament reading which comes in 2 Corinthians after 6. And was it last week, who was here last week?

0:33 Was it last week we were talking about a Corinthian letter too? Yeah, I think it was. Back on Paul lately. Well they assigned another Corinthian letter here, Paul's second letter to the Corinthians I maybe mentioned last week, I don't remember, but I maybe mentioned that we're pretty sure that these two, what we have is first and second Corinthians are actually maybe three or even four letters that are kind of clumped together. Remember that the initial kind of aggregation of these letters was a little bit clunky, right?

1:12 They didn't have virtual servers and Google shared docs to pull all these together. They had physical copies on scrolls that they carried around, walked around Asia Minor. And so some of Paul's letters as they were being collected and copied and recopied by churches over time periods and amidst persecution got run together. So second Corinthians is a conglomerate of maybe two letters.

1:42 And he's addressing a couple of issues and one of them in second Corinthians is that apparently after Paul left town there were some people coming through, refuting Paul's gospel and wanting to take the position as pastor of the church, leader of this group of people. And Paul is not one to defend his reputation for his own sake, but he does defend his reputation on multiple points in order to protect his interpretation of the good news of Jesus.

2:16 And so he spends time doing that a little bit in second Corinthians and he's going to do it in our section here, but we're going to go real slow. They give us chapter, second Corinthians chapter six verses one to ten. And verse one says, working together with him, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Working together with him then.

2:47 One of the things that Paul does really well and it's a little bit of a feature of the way that the Greek language works that he's writing in and probably a little bit of the feature of the way that he communicates information, but he stacks one idea on top of another. So he's always building these logical syllogisms that kind of because this, then this, and now because this, then that. And so you can see him here in chapter six verse one, working together with him then.

3:22 And so I just wanted to take a step back and look at what he, what works he's doing and with whom he's doing it. So if you back into chapter five, maybe two verse fourteen. He's like been saying, I guess some people are saying that he's a little bit out of his mind. And so right before this verse thirteen, he's like, look, if I'm crazy, it's for you. That you might hear this thing. Look at verse fourteen.

3:55 For the love of Christ controls us. Meaning the love of Christ is dictating the choices that we make. The love of Christ is outlining the trajectory of our lives. I mean, that idea enough, I was trying to think of when else has something impacted you in such a way that it changes the course of your life.

4:25 Right? Maybe there was a job offer where everything changed. Or a college acceptance letter that brought you across places. And maybe there was a marriage proposal that shifted the choices that you made. Right? Maybe there was a new person that entered into your life. But Paul is saying the love of Christ controls us.

4:58 It's the love of God states and orders the direction of the choices that we're making in life. And he doesn't just leave you to try and figure out why that is. He says why it is. Look at verse fourteen. For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this. That one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves,

5:28 but live for him who for their sake died and was raised. This past Wednesday we kicked off the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. And the moral of the story could be we're all going to die. And what do we do with the reality that there is death? We store up treasures in heaven where moth and rest don't destroy.

6:00 But Paul is saying that the love of Christ controls us because we have realized that the love of Christ has secured for us a life that continues beyond the grave. And so everything else changes. From now on therefore we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh. We regard him thus no longer. We're seventeen. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled to himself,

6:34 us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we, he's talking about Paul, Paul talking about himself and his crew when he says we here. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ.

7:05 Be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the right to this of God. This is what Paul is working together to accomplish. The reconciliation of humanity to God. I told the kids that miraculously at the very beginning, when it would have been easy to wipe out humanity and start again, God in some divine and supernatural love,

7:38 though he has already given humanity everything. Life and creation, he determined to find a way to yet give them more. In the end, he gives them his full self in order that taking his presence out of eternity where it dwells, putting it in the finite person of Christ, he could launch a new source of life and open up for all of us to live again internally with him. He is reconciling his restoring humanity back into the presence of God.

8:12 And Paul is saying this truth that God has found a way to bring humanity who finds themselves tragically outside of the garden, back into the presence of God where they can be with him forever has changed its control of my life. This is all I'm focused on, Paul says. And not by myself, together with the God. I am working to announce to you the reconciliation.

8:45 So call me crazy, he says. Well, call me crazy if you want. I can't believe he says that God has figured this out. It's an interesting opportunity for Paul, right? Famously a really terrible dude. I mean, a famously terrible dude, right? Like the Hebrew of Hebrew is which is good, he's smart, but also the persecutor of the church, right?

9:17 He says of he is the chief of sinners. And so when God, when Jesus, the resurrected Jesus comes down out of heaven to meet him on the Damascus road and gives him the opportunity, Paul takes it. And so when other people come around behind him and says Paul crazy, he's like, he can call him crazy if you want, but here's what I'm focused on. Joining God in the reconciliation of humanity back to himself.

9:51 Okay. So he's saying I'm working together with God to do that. And so working together with God to restore humanity, reconcile humanity back to himself then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Paul's like, hey, I was there in your market and your synagogues and your homes.

10:31 With the crazy confounding life changing news that God has reconciled humanity to itself. And now I write to you appealing to you that the good news you received would not be like the interesting story you encountered in the market with the actors and the, not to be like the interesting, not to be the fab that you came across where for a while you were doing whole 30 and now you're doing keto.

11:10 You say not that it would be something where you would engage it for a minute, right, and then move on to something else. Some compelling story that challenges the way that you think and then go to a new compelling story. He said that would be receiving the gospel to no effect in vain. And then look at what he says. For God says, this he quotes, in a favorable time I listened to you in a day of salvation I have helped you.

11:47 I looked this up. It took me a minute to find it because it's not a text I had read before. It comes from Isaiah chapter 49. And we've talked about this before. I don't want to go too far into it, but I am going to read it for you. And I just want to remind you that Isaiah is a prophet speaking before Christ and before Pentecost, which means he doesn't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we have. He doesn't have the same relationship. He has yet to be. He's awaiting the reconciliation of humanity back to God.

12:17 So God has to go through special contortions to get his word down into Isaiah. And I just love that when he does that, he also finds a way to make it beautiful. I know I've said it, but I just want to remind you before we read it again. Don't take for granted that God can speak in poems to us. If you need a demonstration of his love, read the prophets how beautifully he condemns us and revives us both in beauty.

12:48 Isaiah chapter 49 verse 8, that says the Lord, in the time of favor, I answered you. In the day of salvation, I have helped you. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages, saying to the prisoners, come out. To those who are in darkness appear.

13:20 They shall feed along the ways on all bear heights shall be their pasture. They shall not hunger or thirst. Neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them. And by the springs of water will guide them. And I will make all my mountains erode, and my highways shall be raised up behold. These shall come from afar and behold. These shall be from the north and from the west and these from the land of Cyrene, sing for joy, O heavens and exalt O earth.

13:58 Break forth O mountains into singing, for the Lord has comforted his people, and who will have compassion on his afflicted. Paul writing to the Corinthians at the beginning of the millennia, says, for he says, in favorable times I listen to you, and in day of salvation I have helped you. And he says, behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.

14:31 God has made a way for me and you. The highways being lifted up means that there won't be enemies getting the high ground above you, looking down on you to prey on you. You'll have safe passage. The mountains coming down means it won't be hard or arduous. The bare places being pasture means there'll be food along the way. Led by quiet streams means it'll be pretty, and you'll have something to drink.

15:04 Everything will be set to right. He says, now is the day of salvation, and now is the favorable time. So, verse three, we put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God, we commend our ministry. We commend ourselves in every way, by great endurance. In afflictions, weight of hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left,

15:48 through honor and dishonor, with slander and praise. We are treated as imposters and yet are true, as unknown and yet known, as dying and beholding lived, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything. What the heck? Paul, the favorable time, the day of salvation, the mountains come down, the highways come up, and then he says, but as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way, by great endurance.

16:29 In afflictions, hardship, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, where are the pastors? It's fascinating that Paul has no variety and fame and the favor of his people as a terrible dude. Jesus comes to him on the road to Damascus. Now he's walking around Asia Minor, year after year, on the Alps with the church, persecuted, sowns, run out of town, things get hard for Paul.

17:03 Not easy. Hard for Paul, not easy. Where's the favorable day or the day of salvation? Thought about this for a while, and then I remembered that even our Lord Jesus is killed. One of the key moments, we'll get to it on good Friday, but that Garden of Gethsemane, where he has a choice, and chooses death and hardship.

17:39 I decided that Paul and Jesus must know something about that favorable day, about that day of salvation, must have glimpsed something that seems far off to me often. Look at what he says, like he's got all those tough things, but a servant's fear commended every way by great endurance, and afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, that's enough to get me right there.

18:17 I need good sleep, hunger, but then look at verse 6. I'm saying that something Paul is encountering something in the work of God to reconcile humanity back to himself.

18:49 He's experiencing something about the favor of God, about the day of salvation, that is worth him going through, that still feels like quiet waters and pastures on bare grounds, that still feels like highways coming up and mountains coming down, even though he's going through all of these hard things. Paul is encountering something in the reconciliation of God that reorient his life. It must have, for at least the first 300 years of the church, they are the persecuted and the downtrodden.

19:30 They are the materially disenfranchised and the life endangered people and yet the faith grows. There is something substantial, life altering and ordering in the reconciliation of God. If you are experiencing the gospel as an interesting philosophy, you're missing out, is all insane. If it's like a nice way of thinking alongside several, it is insane for you.

20:08 That's in. The reconciliation of God is like a life controlling experience. It shapes the choices that you make, the directions that you move. It reorients your trajectory in life, I'm saying. That is what has sustained the church from one generation to the next, and that is what will sustain us.

20:48 The life altering reconciliation of God, bringing humanity back, bringing us back to him. It's in them. This is the reason Paul endures what he does, Jesus endures what he does, the church persists and we have the season of Lent that we might remind ourselves that suffering doesn't mean something is broken. It means there's something even better underneath it. If your life is hard, it doesn't mean God has left you. It means there is deeper grace for you.

21:25 If your life is good, it means that what God has for you is that much better, saying that the good news of Jesus I'm asking and not being vain for you. That you begin to consider that the good news of God can be life altering you. Something you build your life around. It can affect the trajectory of the choices that you're making.

21:55 That good. Let me pray that we would be people who encounter the Gospel like Paul. Hey, Lord, thank you for coming down out of heaven to get Paul, turning him around on the road and opening his eyes to your good news and making him a little bit crazy for your Gospel. Or we want to encounter your reconciliation like Paul did.

22:26 We want to be people whose lives are altered by your good news. That it would be that good. Better than the stories we pay attention to, rather than the diversions we get ourselves caught up in. We want to encounter your reconciliation. Reconcile us today. Jesus name it for his sacred pray.