CHRIST’S POWER IN THE HARD TASKS
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 12, 2021 under 2021 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; December 12, 2021 from 2 Corinthians 13:1-4
Theme: Hard things in the church are done by weak vessels who rely on God’s power through Christ.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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The church of Jesus Christ on earth is a wonderful thing. It is made up of people who have been redeemed by Jesus’ own blood, and who are destined to spend eternity with Him in glory. To be a part of Jesus’ called-out church on earth is an indescribably great gift of God’s grace. And to be able to gather together— to worship our Lord together in unity and love, and to encourage one another in our shared faith—is one of the greatest delights that we can enjoy this side of heaven.
But because of our fallenness—because we gather together as redeemed sinners—there are also times when hard things must be done within the church. We don’t enjoy those hard things. We may even avoid them and neglect to do them altogether. But if they don’t get done, then the church ceases to be the holy assembly that the Lord Jesus intends for it to be. We end up losing the integrity of our witness for the Lord to this world; and He is then forced to remove His hand of blessing from us.
The apostle Paul had a very hard task that he had to perform for the Corinthian church. There was a group of professing believers within the church family who were engaging in open sexual immorality. They were being characterized—as it says in 2 Corinthians 12:21—by acts of uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness. Paul had already confronted them about these practices. In fact, he had confronted them and called them to repentance repeatedly. But they would not stop.
At the beginning of 2 Corinthians 13, he turned his attention toward those who were engaging in open and unrepentant sexual immorality in the church. It would not be easy to do what he had to do. And this is what he said about it in verses 1-4:
This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare—since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you (2 Corinthians 13:1-4).
‘Tough love’ is the phrase that comes to mind. Paul was resolved—hard as it may have been—to do what needed to be done in order to protect the holiness of Jesus’ precious bride. But do you notice that he wouldn’t be doing it in his own power? He wouldn’t be coming to them with false ‘bravado’ or with human tactics of intimidation and control. He wouldn’t try to make himself appear to be something that, in and of himself, he was not. He and his co-ministers to the Corinthians were weak and unimpressive in human terms. But they would be coming in the power and authority of Jesus Christ.
It would be by Jesus—in union with Him—that they would be enabled to do this hard task. And that, dear brothers and sisters, is a great lesson for you and me!
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Behind Paul’s words is a glorious spiritual reality—one that is every bit as true of you and me today as it was of the apostle Paul in his time. And that reality is the greatness of the unlimited power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ that abides in us.
Paul described the greatness of this power in Ephesians 1. He told his fellow believers that he had been praying for them that God would open the eyes of their understanding so that they might know—among other things—“what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us to believe …” He described this ‘exceedingly great’ power in this way in verses 19-23; saying that it was
according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:19b-23).
Do you realize what this is saying, dear brothers and sisters? Paul was telling us that we have abiding in us—at this very moment—a power greater than any other power on this earth; a power that is, in fact, greater than any other power in the heavens. It’s the very same power that rose Jesus bodily from the dead and seated Him in the position of authority over all—and that keeps Him there forever. And this power is dwelling in every genuine believer in Jesus through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This power, dear brothers and sisters, abides in you and me.
Now; it’s not a power that is ours to use in whatever way that we may wish. Rather, it’s the power that unites us to Jesus, and that seats us in the heavenly places with Him, and that enables us to do whatever it is that our heavenly Father has commanded us to do through Him. And this means that whenever there are hard things that our Lord requires in His word to be done in His church, we aren’t left to do them in our own power. We have the unlimited power of our union with Christ at work within us to do those hard things in His way … and to His glory.
But there’s more. We not only have the unlimited power of Christ indwelling us to do those hard things; but we also have the authority to do them. Because of the inseparable bond of spiritual union that we enjoy with our Lord Jesus, we have been given His own authority—and we operate in this world as His delegates in the exercise of that authority. After He was raised from the dead, He appeared to His disciples and gave them the great commission to go out into the world and proclaim Him. He told them,
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations …” (Matthew 28:18-19).
When He who has all authority tells His delegates to “Go”, no one else has the authority to tell them “No”. What great authority it is that He has entrusted to us!
This is even true with respect to the hard tasks within the church. When the Lord Jesus commanded his followers within the church family to lovingly but resolutely deal with sin within their midst, He gave them His own authority to do so. He said;
“Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:18-20).
So you see, dear brothers and sisters; the thing that the apostle Paul had to do was a hard thing to do. And when there are hard things to be done by us within the church family, we may feel as incapable in our own power as Paul must have felt in his. But the hard thing that Paul was about to do was going to be done in an inseparable bond of complete spiritual unity with Jesus Himself; and it was not something that he would then be doing in his own power and authority. In obedience to the command of the Lord Jesus Christ in His holy word, Paul was going forth to do this very hard task in the unlimited power and lovingly compassionate authority of Jesus Himself.
And so can we. As Paul’s words in this passage show us, hard things in the church are done by weak vessels—like us—who rely on God’s power and authority in Christ.
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Now; look with me at verses 1-2. It’s there that we see that …
1. HARD THINGS SOMETIMES MUST BE DONE IN JESUS’ CHURCH.
He wrote to those believers who were continuing in unrepentant sin—and to those who were supporting them in their disobedience—and said, “This will be the third time I am coming to you. ‘By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.’ I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare …”
Paul had already gone to the Corinthians twice. The first was the time that we read about in Acts 18. That was when he first came and brought the message of the gospel to them. After they had believed and were saved by Jesus, Paul stayed with them for a whole year-and-a-half; caring for them, nurturing them in the faith, and teaching them the things that they needed to know. That must have been—in many ways—a very happy time. But the second time that he went to them wasn’t so happy. We only read hints of this second visit in 2 Corinthians. It was a sorrowful time; because he had to deal with some sin issues within the church family. He even had to write a very harsh letter to them—one that, again, we only have hints of in 2 Corinthians—in which he had to speak very sternly about the matters of sin that still were not being repented of. And now, he was telling them that he was going to come a third time—and this time, he wouldn’t spare them. He’d take firm action.
We learn a very important lesson from Paul in this. And that is that, even though the problem remained, Paul still wouldn’t let it go. He was insistent that repentance happen—and that the Corinthian church be a holy church. Other pastors or spiritual leaders might have given up—and might have simply written the Corinthian church off as another corrupt congregation that fell by the wayside. But Paul wouldn’t do that. He was insistent. He had told them earlier;
For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (11:2).
May God help us to have the kind of attitude Paul had toward the Corinthian church! If we do, then we will be willing to do the hard things when they need to be done—and will not give up!
But notice carefully how Paul went about it. First, we see that he went about it biblically. He said that this would be the third time he was coming; and then, he quoted from an Old Testament principle found in Deuteronomy 19:15; that “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” That was a command that God gave to the people of Israel in dealing with accusations within a court of law. God ordained that no one should be found guilty on just one person’s testimony. There must be two or three reliable witnesses. In a sense, Paul was speaking symbolically; suggesting that one visit, then another, and now a third, would all be like two to three witnesses bearing testimony against the sin that was going on in the church.
But Paul meant much more than that. He intended to do what the Lord Jesus said should happen in His church whenever there was a problem of sin:
“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:15-17).
When Paul arrived, he would have obeyed this command from the Lord; and he would have gathered the church together to confirm the charges of sin, and would have to have those charges confirmed by two or more eyewitnesses. He was determined that this hard thing that he was about to do would be done biblically.
And it would also have been done patiently. Paul didn’t do this hard thing in a rash way. He had made several loving appeals to the Corinthians who were caught in this sin. He said, “I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest …” He made repeated appeals; and gave those who were guilty of sin time to repent—and gave the Holy Spirit time to work in them. There was great wisdom in that.
But when he saw that repentance still was not happening, he didn’t let it go. He would not keep making appeals forever; and he would not compromise and simply let things go. He warned them; saying, “if I come again I will not spare …” He would call the church family together and begin the process of public church discipline.
This reminds us, dear brothers and sisters, that hard things often must be done in the church family. We may not like that fact. We may wish that it were not so. But the holiness of our Lord’s church truly requires it. In a previous matter of discipline, Paul wrote to these Corinthian believers and said;
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:6b-8).
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Now; some of us have been through that sad kind of experience. I’ve been through situations where the church leadership and I have had to deal with unrepentant matters of sin and exercise church discipline. I count them to be among the hardest experiences of my life.
Clearly, it grieved Paul greatly to have to perform this hard task toward the Corinthian church. But he gives us yet another lesson in verse 3. He told them that he would not spare them when he came to them; “since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you.” This teaches us that, when hard things have to be done …
2. THEY ARE TO BE DONE IN JESUS’ AUTHORITY AND POWER.
You see; those who were embracing sin in the church family were also calling into question Paul’s authority to have any say in the matter. They were doubting that Paul was an apostle; and were suggesting that he was simply speaking out of his own trumped-up human authority. But Paul was insistent that he was not speaking out of his own authority, but spoke to them in the name of—and by the power of—Christ.
Back in 10:7-11 asked them;
Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s. For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed—lest I seem to terrify you by letters. “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we will also be in deed when we are present 10:7-11).
What was he ‘in word by letters’? He was a divinely appointed apostle of Jesus Christ—endowed with spiritual authority to establish the church through the proclamation of the gospel, and to pass authoritative teaching on to Jesus’ bride. And he would do as the Lord Jesus commanded him to do—doing it all under the power and authority of the Lord Himself.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; let’s also remember that ourselves. The Lord Jesus has commanded that His people conduct themselves in a holy manner. And when we encounter those times when we must call one another in the church family to turn from sin and obey Him in accordance with the Scriptures, let’s faithfully do so. It may be hard to do. It may make us feel uncomfortable. It may make us look intolerant in the eyes of others. But we are called to do so by power and authority of the Lord of His church—as those through whom He authoritatively speaks and works.
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And let’s also remember that, when it comes to doing those hard things within the church …
3. JESUS GETS THEM DONE THROUGH WEAK VESSELS WHO ARE UNITED TO HIM.
We may feel very weak in doing those hard things. We may even appear to be very weak in the eyes of those for whom we must do them. But if we appear weak, we’re in good company. Look at what Paul said in verse 4. He pointed to Jesus and said, “For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God.”
God has an unexpected way of working; doesn’t He? He sent His Son into the world to be the King of kings and Lord of lords. But that’s not how Jesus came into the world. Instead, He was born in great humility—unto a poor family—and having to be placed in an animal trough in a stable. He rode into Jerusalem to claim His rights as the long-expected King of the Jews. But He didn’t come riding upon a mighty, regal, white stallion—decked with armor and majesty. Instead, He rode in humbly—clippity-clopping along upon a donkey. And when He came to conquer sin and defeat the devil and save our souls, He didn’t do so swinging a sword with a mighty army behind Him. Instead, He did so by suffering the shameful death of the cross.
As Paul put it in Philippians 2, the way of our Lord was the way of weakness—but it gave way to great power and glory;
who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:6-11).
He gave Himself for us in weakness; but He rose again in power; and sits for us at God’s right hand in majesty. And because we are joined to Him in an inseparable bond of unity, that’s how He does those hard things through us. As Paul went on to say to the Corinthians in verse 4, “For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.”
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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; there will be times when we must do hard things in our Lord’s household. They absolutely must be done in order for the holiness of our Lord’s church to be protected, and for His witness through us to have full integrity before the watching world. Much harm has come from failing to do those hard things when they needed to be done. And Paul has set a great example before us of rising up—when the time comes—and doing those hard things.
But let’s also learn from his example how they ought to be done. Let’s make sure first that those things are biblically required to be done. And when we see that they indeed must be done—when it’s clear that sin must be confronted—let’s do it prayerfully; turning ourselves over to the Lord with confident trust in His power and authority. Let’s make sure that we do it in a biblical manner—looking carefully to the Lord’s commands, and following His instructions in His word. Let’s do it with as much patience as possible—calling for two or three witnesses so that every word can be established; and allowing as much time as we can for repentance to occur. Let’s do it resolutely—without compromise and without neglect. And let’s always do so with the motive of love that Jesus has for all those who are caught in sin; always using the authority and power He has entrusted to us in a way that He would have us use it—for edification, not for destruction.
And having done all, let’s trust the results to Him—confident that, in the church, hard things are indeed done by weak vessels like us who are united to God’s power and authority in Christ.
