Series: Reconciled Sermon Title: The starboard wing of encountering God Passage: 2 Corinthians 3:1-3 Preacher: Dan Weyerhaeuser Date: 10.8.17 One of our favorite memories as a married couple of 30 years happened in the spring of 1988. Lisa was in Los Angeles working on a record for what ended up being 6 weeks. It was around Easter and we didn’t have kids yet (or Skype or cell phones). That Saturday night I thought, “This is silly! I’m going to go be with my wife!” I found an airline ticket that night and planned to travel the next day after church. I thought it would be best if it was a surprise! The next day after church I headed to O’Hare and called her from a pay phone. (Imagine me hunched over so she didn’t hear the PA system.) After we spoke briefly I said I had to go but would be in touch in a couple of hours. We hung up, I flew to LA, rented a car, and drove to her hotel. From the lobby, I called her room on a pay phone and we started to visit. Then came the moment when she said, “I miss you!” I said, “I wish I could give you a hug!” She said, “Me too!” I said, “I’ll be right up!” and hung up the phone. I ran to the elevator, rode to her floor, got off the elevator, and found her in disbelief standing in the hallway outside of her room. Great hugs followed!
I love my wife and because I do I wanted to be WITH her. THAT yearning is in me because I have been made in the image of a God Who loves US and has gone to great lengths to be known by us and BE with us. This is all the more amazing because of Who He IS! He is the Everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth, In His holiness He dwells in unapproachable light, at His return Earth and sky will flee from His presence. And YET in Jeremiah we read,
Jer. 31:3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.
HE loves us! And so He wants to be known by us through Christ! (THAT is something amazing about HIM!) We are walking through a section of the Bible in which we see ways that God makes Himself known. When Paul came to the city of Corinth, he loved them and told them about Christ, and through him, men, women, and children repented and came to k now and worship and trust Christ… they became Christians. Last week, (2:14-17) Paul explained that G od spreads the knowledge of Himself (not just information, but re-lation) through His people. God made Himself known through this man. As we press into C. 3, Paul starts to get specific about HOW God spreads the knowledge of Himself through us. We’ll see in the chapters ahead there are two primary ingredients to this, like two wings on an airplane, that God uses to help people move from externally motivated in internally motivated. Both are needed. One “wing” we’ll see in the weeks ahead is that we talk about Him… we teach the Word of God. We speak “the content” of the gospel.” We talk about HIM and He uses this to help others known Him. But of critical importance as well we see today (which is where Paul begins) is the other wing… is our love… the community of the gospel. (I was going to call this message, “The right wing” and next week’s, “the left wing” but that would have raised issues I didn’t intend!) Today… Main point: God makes Himself known through His people’s love. Christian, you are a carrier of the presence of God to every person you encounter (Christians, not-yet Christians, your family, neighbors, co-workers, strangers)! Your first great job every day towards people is to love everyone because through your love God MAKES HIMSELF known to them. Context: Heretics have arrived at the church in Corinth Paul began. They were impressive speakers who carried credentials… “Letters of recommendation” they called them supposedly from the leadership of the church in Jerusalem validating their positions. They won the hearts of Paul’s spiritual children by being impressive and by undermining Paul’s credibility. “He is not a professional orator. And (as we get into today), he does not carry the same credentials, so how legitimate could he be?” they asked, and the Corinthians bought it.
2 Paul writes this letter to rescue his spiritual children from the influence of these false teachers. H e does this by explaining how God actually used him to make Himself know which shows the legitimacy of his ministry. Along the way, we get to see how God makes Himself known through us. Today 1 )The reality that God is known through us, 2) The impact of God known through us, and 3) A way God is known through us… namely by our love. This passage will guide you in how to find as well as further the knowledge of God. READ. Paul starts out addressing… 1. The reality that God is known through us (3:1) I say “reality” because in v. 1, Paul is justifying that God HAD worked through him compared to these false teachers. He had just said, “God spreads the knowledge of Himself through us…” (2:14-17) which could sound like bragging. It isn’t, but Paul clarifies… 3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again?
The heretics apparently were pretty high on themselves. But Paul wasn’t like them. Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?
The Corinthians were wondering, “Where are YOUR letters of recommendation?” Paul asks, “Do w e need a piece of paper to validate that God has worked in your lives through us?” He will say, “Y ou YOURSELVES are our letter of recommendation…” “The credential of the legitimacy of my ministry is what Jesus did through me in YOU!” Before Paul came to Corinth, there were no Christians. But 18 months later, Jesus had won the hearts of many and they WERE a church. THIS is Paul’s credential. POINT: God does make Himself known through us! Take a test: Q1: Can you name recent times when you experienced God, when from the inside-out you found yourself worshipping and loving and thanking God? If so, raise your hand! Q 2: Was another Christian a part of that? Was there a sermon or a song or a book or a word of encouragement or an expression of love? God actually makes Himself known through His people! PAUSE: Something occurred to me as I reflected on this this past week that I’d never thought before. Q : Why doesn’t God appear? It would make everything simpler! A 1: He is honored by our trust. A2: He DOES appear… through His people. Another of Jesus’ apostles put it this way: 1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
If we love one another, God lives IN US... n ot just as individuals, but He lives in our interaction with each other. When we love, it is not a love LIKE God’s that is flowing through us… it IS HIS love, made complete in us. Does this not compel us who want to know Christ to draw close to other Christians so we can know HIM. Q: Can you see how, in the story of the Bible, creating a yearning to attach to other Christians is a central restorative act? OUR attaching to each other for Christ overturns a core travesty that sin destroyed. Adam and Eve were in an unbroken relationship with Him and each other. But when they sinned, their relationship with God was broken because they had sinned against Him, the holy God. AND, their relationship with each other was broken because they became selfish. Gen 4-11 is a picture of what sin does in the world. C. 4 one of their sons kills another. As the population of the planet grows, so grows the wickedness of man’s heart in their rebellion against God AND their harm to one another. We are all horrified by what Stephen Paddock did in Las Vegas this last week. Why did he do it? We don’t know the specifics but we DO know the bottom line… evil. In whatever form it came, it was evil to shoot a gun into a crowd! Evil destroys what God has made and God made us to be in a relationship with Him and each other!
But when God, Whom we desperately need, makes Himself known through other people, this compels us to draw close to each other to know Him and in so doing He re-forms us in the unity He intended. The Church is the budding arrival of heaven on earth. PA: 1) This is why repairing broken relationships matters. These stand between you and God! 2) This is why constantly dropping acts of kindness is important. The Sunday before I was leaving Denny’s to come to church and I picked up the tab for some guys there anonymously… I thought, “I bet they’ve never had someone do something like that for them.” This gave ME joy!
3) This is why stepping out to connect with people matters. (Come to Meet Lakeland today, or check, “Interested in SG” and someone will reach out to you, or join Starting Point tonight… is a sg I lead for 4
3 weeks to help people learn about Lakeland and connect to each other!) You’ve got to step out. POINT: God spreads the knowledge of Himself through us. I’m going to skip ahead to v. 3 because I’d like to answer this question…. What is… 2. The impact of God known through us (3:3) WHEN God makes Himself known through another Christian, what does that look like?
3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
The Corinthians, to whom Paul ministered, had become a letter from Christ (THAT’s a fascinating thing to say). Through Paul’s work, they became a letter from Christ. What is a letter? It is a document that has been written on that shares a message. The Corinthians had become Christ’s message upon which Christ had written. Only they have not written with ink, but with the Spirit of living God. The “Living God” is not one of the Lord’s most common titles, but when this is used, its notable! Deut. 5:26 For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? 1Sam. 17:36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. Jer. 10:10 But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.
HERE, the Spirit of the living God has written o n our hearts! THIS is what God does in us when we encounter Him in other Christians and welcome Him and believe. Fascinating fact… the word translated written i s a strong from or the verb. Grapho means to write. THIS word is egrapho which means more nearly to engrave. Engraving is permanent. Engraving cuts into you. It is more than a tattoo which can be removed… what is engraved can’t be removed. POINT: You become a Christian and grow in your relationship with Christ as the Spirit of the living God engraves Jesus on your heart! Like a half-dollar that has Kennedy stamped into it, so the Holy Spirit stamps or engraves on our hearts, Jesus Christ. Not just our minds, but our hearts are engraved with Him! This is not a new idea in the Bible. In fact if you come to this passage after reading several Old Testament passages, your heart starts to beat a little faster! Jer. 31:33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Not from the outside-in, but from the inside-out, people will worship and love God. Isaiah
Isaiah 44:2 Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. 5 One will say, ‘I belong to the LORD’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and will take the name Israel.
When the Spirit of the Living God engraves Jesus in your heart, you love Him and worship Him… the fire of your faith flows from the inside-out. Take a test if you left time with a Christian, and from the inside out your heart was stirred up, you found yourself wanting and thirsting for God (a sermon, a song, a conversation, you witnessed THEIR love), THIS was the Spirit of the living God engraving Christ on your heart! We’ll see MUCH more about this in the weeks to follow. If God REALLY does spread the knowledge of Himself through us, and the impact is Christ engraved on our hearts, what are the conditions that make this optimal? What is our part towards another person to make this so? Paul will mention several over the next chapters, but the first is this… 3. A way God is known through us…is our love (3:2) “Do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?” 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation,
But then he goes on to say something important…
4 written on our hearts,
Paul says, “You are written o n our hearts!” Here too the word is “engraved.” The Lord spread the knowledge of Himself through Paul to the Corinthians after the Corinthians were engraved on Paul’s heart. POINT: It is not our job to engrave the Lord on people’s hearts. That is a work only the Holy Spirit can do (v. 3). But it IS our job to let the Holy Spirit engrave those people on our hearts (v. 2). Years ago, our church had a relationship with a church in the inner city of Detroit. We made 3 trips to support their work and learn from them. One ministry we connected with is called “Wellspring.” Dan and Cherie Brandowski had moved to the inner city to care for at-risk students. Cherie joined us one day to share her story. It was 20 minutes of holiness! She said, “When I came to the inner city, it was to help people repent. I couldn’t imagine anyone worse than a “drug dealer” who got kids hooked on drugs and devastated their young lives. I felt that way until one of the most likable kids I’d worked with for 3 years… became one. He got to a certain age and a gang got him and became family for him and last night I know he was out selling drugs. “Then I realized that if he had grown up in the neighborhood I had and the church I had, he would not been sucked into a gang. Who’s sin is the greater? The kid selling drugs, or the society that could change this but doesn’t?” KEY MOMENT: When I came to the city, there was someone who needed to repent… it was me. I realized it is not my job to change people… it’s my lob to love people!” to be known and read by all.
It is obvious! Everyone can see it! You let yourself get attached! TRUTH: God moves people from being externally motivated to internally motivated to follow Christ as He ministers to them through His people. Our part of that involves two things, like two wings of an airplane. Paul preached Christ to them… he shared the content of the gospel. (We’ll talk more about that in the days ahead.”) We have traditionally been good at one wing, but we need both. But the second “wing” is critical too… the community of the gospel. Paul also loved the Corinthians… with an uncommon love, with Christ’s love. And through His love Jesus made Himself known. Gratefully, we have the rest of the book to see what this looks like. What does this look like? A: 1 ) Esteem, 2) Enjoy, 3) Embrace. 1) Esteem: When Paul came to Corinth, he saw in the Corinthians things that were good and admirable and he called them out! 2Cor. 7:4 I have great confidence in you; I take great pride in you;
It is the easiest thing in the world to do to see something good in someone and call it out.
Ben had a set of headphones that had broken, so I took them back to Best Buy… best warranty I ever bought. This was the 2nd time I had them replaced. The young woman who served me was terrific. She knew her stuff, found the sale, verified the warrantee, called for someone to bring a new set to the counter, and then gave me 70 dollars of coupons for the special they were running. When she handed me the receipt, I asked, “Can I see your manager?” She called him and when he rounded the corner, nervous for what he was going to encounter, I said, “You guys are doing a great job, and this employee, you ought to keep! She is a credit to your store.” The grin that broke out on them both was ear to ear… how easy was that?! I pulled into Lakeland’s parking lot on Friday morning and a police officer was there. I stopped and he rolled down his window, wondering what I was doing, and I said, “I just want to thank you guys. You’ve got a tough job and we’re grateful you are doing it!”)
It is not hard to just say, “I see what you are doing and you are doing a great job at it. Thank you!” However it is one thing to esteem someone… but you can do that to a total stranger. Paul didn’t remain a total stranger… I think he also… 2) Enjoy (7:7; 11:12) That’s clearly what we see happening in Paul with the Corinthians. 2Cor. 7:7 …(Titus) told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.
Paul rejoiced in the Corinthian’s love for him. He didn’t just esteem them from afar… his own joy was wrapped up in them. (Lately I’ve been spending more time with my boys… I LOVE them… TRUTH: Every
5 person ever made has been made in God’s image and reflect aspects of His character and there is much to enjoy in them. Look for it! This is both joy in what’s good in them and passion for their protection.) 2Cor. 11:2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
Paul thinks of the Corinthian church like his daughter he is preparing to give away to her groom. THAT is a tender relationship. MORE, it is one thing to esteem, and another to enjoy, but Paul goes further… to embrace… 3) Embrace: Paul attached himself to the Corinthians, so that his welfare was now linked to his relationship with them. He let the Spirit of the Living God engrave them on his heart! So when they were not in a good place with him, he was not in a good place. 2Cor. 6:11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.
This is such a graphic picture… not like Paul opened the door of his heart, but put hinges on the corner of his heart and opened wide the whole wall. Their heart was wide open. He continued to do so, even when they threw Him off. What is Paul’s attitude towards these folks? 2Cor. 12:15 I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.
Paul embraced these brothers and sisters! BT: Truth… Paul was ABLE to embrace the Corinthians, even while they were hurting him, because Christ had embraced him even while he was still rebelling against the Lord. He let the Spirit of the living God engrave the Corinthians on HIS heart because in Christ, God has engraved us on His heart, because Christ WAS engraved with scars on His hands and feet and sides in order to purchase our redemption from our sin. And by those scars, our King, the Lord of the Universes, sacrificed and died to give us life! POINT: The Christ Whom you love will show up through you when you love people! Response 1) Recognize God’s love in the love of other Christians. He has gone to great lengths to bring it to you! I went to great lengths to be with my wife. This passage says God has traversed from heaven to you, through Christ redeeming you who are not holy to be reconciled to Him who is, and He reaches out to you with the knowledge of Himself through other Christians!
Thank Him that He does! Stand amazed that He surrounds you and reaches out to you like this! 2) Get attached to other Christians Some of us are great with this, but others not so much. Listen… you have GOT to take a chance. He will make Himself known to YOU more fully if you will take a risk and connect with others. Here at Lakeland, start with Meet Lakeland today after service. I’d love to meet you and hear your story. You’ll meet other folks who are new as well. Interested in Small Group, and bring the card to one of our hosts in the foyer and we’ll be in touch about that. 3) Starting Point is 4 week SG I lead beginning tonight that helps you connect with Lakeland. 6 pm here at the building. POINT: Take a step. If you are here investigating Christianity, you don’t have to be settled on your faith to join a group. You will not be embarrassed or have to know something you don’t know. You matter to God and so you matter to us! Take a risk! 3) Look for people to love every day. Leave a wake of people well loved as you walk through your day! Esteem people, enjoy people, embrace people! You CAN because Jesus has embraced you! When you love people in Christ’s name, more happens than your love… He spreads the knowledge of His love through you. what would that look like? Ghassan Thomas leads one of the few public churches that emerged [in Baghdad] after Saddam Hussein was toppled. His congregation erected a sign on their building that said "Jesus Is the Light of the World," but the church was raided by bandits who left behind a threat on a piece of cardboard. It read: "Jesus is not the light of the world, Allah is, and you have been warned." The note was signed "The Islamic Shiite Party." In response, Pastor Ghassan loaded a van with children's gifts and medical supplies—which were in critically short supply following the American invasion—and drove to the headquarters of the Islamic Shiite Party. After
6 presenting the gifts and supplies to the sheikh, Ghassan told the leader, "Christians have love for you, because our God is a God of love." He then asked permission to read from the Bible. Ghassan turned to Jesus' words in John 8, "I am the light of the world." He then showed the cardboard note to the sheikh. The Muslim leaders, astounded by Pastor Thomas's actions, apologized. "This will not happen again," [the sheikh] vowed. "You are my brother. If anyone comes to kill you, it will be my neck first." The sheikh later attended Pastor Thomas's ordination service at the church. Skye Jethani, The Divine Commodity (Zondervan, 2009), pp. 61-62 God spreads the knowledge of Himself through our love! May we seek and spread Him. The fire for this, is His love for us!
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October 8, 2017
Small Group Leader Notes
From Pastor Dan… Hello Small Group Leaders and anyone else using these notes, Last week we saw Paul thank God that he always spreads the knowledge of Himself through the lives of surrendered Christians. In the verses before us, Paul will now begin to unpack how God uses us to make Himself known. Over these next chapters, we will hear in different ways that there are 2 “wings” (as in wings of an aircraft) that go into our being used by God to spread the knowledge of Him. One (which we’ll come back to again and again) is the “content” of the gospel. God makes Himself known through us when we share the Word of God. But the other wing we see in our passage is the “community” of the gospel. God spreads the knowledge of Himself through the love of Christians. I pray God uses your time to bring good change. Warmly, Dan Our Scripture Study… Series: Message #: Sermon Title: Passage: Preacher: Date:
Reconciled 6 The starboard wing of encountering God 2 Corinthians 3:1-3 Dan Weyerhaeuser 2017-10-8
SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS
Getting to know each other: What are ways people show you love that register? Personal Study: As you study (read, reread, consider, ponder, reread) the passage, list observations you make from the text. What is the main point of this passage? How is the theme developed? What “Aha’s” come to you as you read? What questions come to mind? How do you respond to the God seen in these verses? Bring your observations and questions to your Small Group this week! —————————
2 Corinthians 3:1-3
CONTEXT: 1) After Paul left the church he began in Corinth, heretics have arrived who are not only impressive orators, but who bring supposed “letters of recommendation” from the church in Jerusalem. These credentials “validate” their ministry. Paul here compares their “credentials” to his own here. 2) In 2:14-17, Paul told us that God “spreads the knowledge of Himself” through Christians. Over the next chapters, we see how. 1. 2:17 ends with the question, “And who is equal to such a task?” What does Paul mean by this?
2:14-17 Paul had just declare that God spreads through Christians the knowledge of Himself. We are “carriers” of God, He says, to other people (Christians and non-Christians). THAT is a holy and great task. Think of being “entrusted” not only with the message of Christ, but being a conduit of His love that people encounter in our love. No wonder Paul asks, “Who is equal to that task?” The answer, of course is that everyone whom is a Christian is equal to the task, not because of our goodness, but His grace.
8 3:1 How might Paul be construed as “commending” himself? The heretics carried with them letters of recommendation, but Paul says that he carries the Lord who spreads the knowledge of Himself through them. That is quite a claim. It is true because God has made it so, but one who does not understand this might wonder if Paul is overly confident.
2.
3:1-2 What is Paul’s “letter of recommendation?” What does Paul mean? Paul’s credential, or his “letter of recommendation” is the Corinthians themselves. God’s work through Paul in establishing the church in Corinth is proof that Paul is a legitimate minister of the gospel, contrary to what the heretics in Corinth had said about him. Paul didn’t need a piece of paper to prove his credential… he just needed people to remember how God used him. They are his credential.
3.
Skip ahead to 3:3. Through Paul’s ministry, what has Christ done in the hearts of the Corinthians? Through the ministry of Paul, the Spirit of the living God “wrote” (literally “engraved”) Christ on the hearts of the Corinthian believers. Somehow, a profound “impression” was made in the Corinthians through Him. Exactly what this means concretely is not clear. But what IS clear is that on the other side of meeting Paul, the hearts of the Corinthians had been deeply impacted. This likely is what God had said in the Old Testament that He would do.
4.
5.
Read Jeremiah 31:33. What had God promised He would do one day when He gave His Holy Spirit to the Church in full? Does this seem similar to our passage?
He would engrave on the hearts of His people by His Spirit His very law. Contrary to the carved letters on the tables of stone in the giving of the 10 commandments, the Lord promised through Jeremiah that God’s Spirit would be unleashed to impact people from the inside out. You might want someone also to look up Isaiah 44:2-5. Here is a picture of what God had promised being fulfilled. Here, the hearts of the children of God’s people are fully devoted to God and GLADLY taking the name of God to themselves. They WANT to be “engraved” with the name of God. NOTE: Both of these passages describe a coming moment in history when God would “pour out His Spirit” liberally upon all of His people. This could only happen after Christ, His Son, had offered Himself as the final sacrifice for sins and made a way for our redemption and reconciliation to God. Shortly after Jesus’ returns to the Father’s Side, His Spirit is poured out on His people and a new “era” begins, which Jeremiah and Isaiah had foretold hundreds of years earlier. How cool that we get to live in them now! 6.
While this language is very “spiritual,” how would we describe what God did through Paul in the hearts of the Corinthians?
From the inside-out, the Corinthians (Like all NT Christians) had had their eyes opened to see the “glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:4-6). They were given spiritual “eyes” to see how great His is and treasure Him and want Him! 7.
Back up to 3:2. Here, Paul describes the conduit through which Jesus did His engraving on the Corinthian’s hearts (3:3). What was that conduit? What had God done in Paul’s heart to make this so?
The “conditions” through which the Spirit of the Living God engraved Christ on the hearts of the Corinthians was the sending of Paul who would speak God’s Word (we’ll get to that in the weeks ahead) but ALSO love the Corinthians dearly. In fact, Paul will say that the Spirit “engraved” them on his heart. 8.
Summary: It is God’s job to “engrave” Christ on people’s hearts. We can’t do that. But it is our job to let Christ “engrave” on our hearts the people he will impact through us. Does this make sense to you? How do you feel about it?
Group discussion question.
9. Later in 2 Corinthians, we see that Paul esteemed (7:4), enjoyed (7:7; 11:2), and embraced (6:11; 12:15) the Corinthians. Can you do this with people? Has Christ done this for you? How does that change things? Group reflection question.
10. What is one way you can respond to this passage this week?
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