2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 1:1, 2
Going Against the Grain Let me begin this morning by expressing my gratitude for the study month I just experienced. When I went to St. Louis in 1984 one of the really attractive carrots the leaders there enticed me with was a 3-month sabbatical every five years. I suspect their thinking was that within five years the church plant would either succeed to the point they could afford to let me have the sabbatical or it would fail and they wouldn’t have…
2 Cor. 1:3-11
No Preferential Treatment Last Lord’s Day we launched a six-month study of the book of 2 Corinthians. I would encourage you to listen to that message if you happened to be out of town over the holidays. We provided lots of important background information for the book and talked about what we can expect to gain from this study. This morning I would like to review just a couple of important points made last Sunday. Second Corinthians is a very personal and emotional…
2 Cor. 1:12-2:4
When Your Integrity Is Impugned Introduction: One of the most painful experiences we can endure is to have our integrity attacked, especially when we have gone out of our way to do what is right. Has that happened to you lately? It has to me; I guess it just comes with the territory when you’re a church leader. But I have plenty of friends in the corporate world and education who face the same thing regularly. Even the Apostle Paul endured such attacks from…
2 Cor. 2:5-11
Satan’s Greatest Scheme What would you say is the most representative symbol of the Church of Jesus Christ? Would you suggest a cross? If so, you’re probably in the majority. What about a fish? The ICTHUS symbol of the early Christians would not be far off either. Or maybe you think of the open Bible or the Bread and the Wine or the helping hand. All of these are positive, even sacred, symbols of the Church, and they have profound meaning and significance for all who…
2 Cor. 2:12-17
How Do You Smell? Last December our church staff had its annual Christmas party. We did one of those white elephant gift exchanges where a person opens a gift, but if he doesn’t want it, he can take someone else’s gift or pick out a new one. Well, the wife of one of our pastors, who shall remain anonymous for reasons you will shortly understand, opened a box of scented candles. She was having some sinus trouble, and after sniffing the candles she…
2 Corinthians 3:1-6
Living Letters A couple of weeks ago I received a very nicely packaged public relations folder of information from a traveling evangelist. He sent me some information about himself, his education, his background, his seminars, and there is a nice picture of him, his wife, and four boys in a window of the folder. There is also a series of letters from various Evangelical Free Churches where he has spoken. Each letter was apparently solicited from the pastor and is designed to help…
2 Corinthians 3:7-18
The Superiority of the New Covenant I want you to engage your sanctified imaginations this morning. Transport yourself with me back to the year 950 B.C. Solomon is the King of Israel; the magnificent Temple of Solomon, which took 150,000 workers seven years to build, is just about 15 years old, having taken the place of the Tabernacle which was built in Moses’ day some 500 years before. You live in Jerusalem and are a devout believer, so you walk to the Temple…
2 Cor. 4:1-12
Treasure in Clay Pots There’s a program on PBS I like to watch once in a while called “Antique Roadshow.” In virtually every program someone discovers that a piece of furniture picked up at an estate sale for $18 turns out to be worth $50,000 (or $100,000 if he hadn’t scraped the old paint off). Someone else finds a photograph in the attic of her deceased aunt that is an original signed by Ansel Adams and they make off like a bandit. Or…
2 Cor. 5:9-10, 1 Cor. 3:10-15
Here Comes the Judge! Last Lord’s Day we introduced the issue of future judgment at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and today we’re going to delve into it in much more detail. To many in our pluralistic, tolerant, subjective, and relativistic culture, judgment seems crude, self-righteous, hateful, and proud. But that is only because our society rejects the notion of moral absolutes or accountability to a creator God. If God is even acknowledged to exist, He is seen as a celestial Santa Claus…
2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2
Joy to the World: God’s Enemies Can Become His Friends! As we enter this Advent Season, we need to be reminded once again that Christmas is ultimately the story of God reaching out to those who are alienated from Him and inviting them to become His friends. That’s what brings real joy to the world-when former enemies become friends. While there are many great words in Christian theology–words like forgiveness, salvation, redemption, justification, sanctification, glorification–one of the greatest to me is “reconciliation.” According…
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1
Are We to Engage the Culture or Separate Ourselves from It? Yes! We return this morning to our study of 2 Corinthians, which we started in September and interrupted with Advent. Our text for today is one of the most familiar passages in the book, but that doesn’t mean it’s one of the best understood. As a teenager growing up in a fundamentalist church, I probably heard 2 Cor. 6 quoted as often as any other passage in the NT: “Be ye not…
2 Corinthians 7:2-16
The Deadly Difference Between Regret and Repentance I want to talk today about one of life’s most painful experiences–the feelings of regret and remorse that can overwhelm us when we have done something wrong that we suspect might change the course of our life forever. The first time I remember feeling that way was in junior high school. I can’t even remember the specifics of what I had done, but it could have been just about anything considering my junior high years. I…
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