Fully Mature (2 Corinthians 13:1-13)

Chapter 13, verse 1.

This is the third time I am coming to you.

Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

I gave a warning when I was present the second time, and now I give a warning while I'm absent to those who sinned before, and to all the rest.

If I come again, I will not be lenient.

Since you seek proof of Christ speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but powerful among you.

For he was crucified in weakness, but he lives by the power of God.

For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by God's power.

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.

Examine yourselves, or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you fail the test.

And I hope you will recognize that we ourselves do not fail the test, but we pray to God that you do nothing wrong.

Not that we may appear to pass the test, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear to fail.

For we can't do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.

We rejoice when we are weak and you are strong.

We also pray that you become fully mature.

This is why I'm writing these things while absent, so that when I am with you I may not have to deal harshly with you, in keeping with the authority the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice.

Become mature, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the saints send you greetings.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this second book of Corinthians that we've been able to go through as a uh fellowship verse by verse.

And Lord, just gleaning what you have for us here as a church and as individuals.

So, Lord, I pray that as we uh finish up this book, that it would not just be some head knowledge that we've obtained going through this for so many Sundays, Lord, but it would cause heart change inside of each one of us.

And as we go through these verses today, Lord, I pray that we would approach you with soft hearts, with open ears, with open minds for the things that you desire to do inside of each one of us and for us collectively as the body of Christ here this morning.

So, Lord, would you do the speaking here this morning?

Help me to step out of the way.

And may your word be a scalpel to our hearts, or carving away all the things and the and the calluses and the things that you don't desire to be there.

And Lord, I pray that the light of Jesus Christ would shine in the deepest, darkest places of our hearts, and that things would be exposed, and that we'd be able to surrender completely all of those things and all of ourselves to you, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So last week Pete did a great job of covering chapter 12, and we talked a lot about uh boasting in weakness.

Paul was speaking a lot about that.

He mentioned in this passage the thorn in his flesh.

You know, he talked about his weakness being an opportunity for God's grace to shine through so that Christ's power could shine through.

And he will continue, Paul's gonna continue with that same theme as he jumps into chapter 13 as well.

And he's gonna be comparing and contrasting strength and weakness.

But he'll also add at the end of this, in his farewell, his desire for this church in Corinth to be mature.

And he'll mention some marks of maturity and what that looks like.

And we're gonna see his heart really in writing this letter and in both of his letters to Corinth.

His desire is a godly desire to see this church become more like Christ.

It's not a desire, as we've seen so many times if we got through this, it's not a desire for him to gain more control or to be feared or even to be somebody to be looked up to.

He had a godly desire to see them mature in Christ, which really should be the heart of everyone in any type of leadership role within a church.

That's why you hear us here at Abide talk so much about discipleship.

You know, whether that's on Sunday mornings, whether that's in home groups, or whether that's in one-on-one situations, because we want to see each of you grow in maturity in Christ, ourselves included.

We're not excluded from that.

And there's only really so much that we can do here on Sunday mornings.

Discipleship is so much more than just coming, hearing somebody teach about the Bible, and then going about the rest of your week.

You know, Jesus' last instructions to his disciples, he said, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, which we're doing today after church.

Please join us for that.

He goes on, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

That's part of what we're doing right now here on Sunday mornings.

And he says, And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.

You know, the heart of Jesus' command to make disciples is really helping each other become more mature in Christ.

And that's Paul's intent, Paul's intent in his visit to Corinth, his multiple visits to Corinth, and the multiple letters that he wrote to Corinth as well.

So as Paul has intended this letter to be for the maturity of the Corinthian church, we open up the Bible for the same purposes here this morning, for the maturity of our church and as individuals in Christ Jesus.

So let's jump in to verse 1.

Look at it with me.

We're just gonna do the first chunk.

It says, This is the third time I am coming to you.

So we have a map that we're gonna throw up here.

You know, Paul had these different journeys that we've been learning about.

You know, his first journey to Corinth, he stayed there for one and a half years.

Then he had what we like to refer to as, actually, he refers to the painful short visit that he mentioned at the beginning of 2 Corinthians.

So he was in Ephesus over here, and then some things were going on, and most likely he took a ship for that short, painful visit, and then he ended up back in Ephesus again.

And then, um, if you'll remember, then he took a journey by foot, most likely, all the way up to Macedonia, and then from Macedonia is where he's writing this 2 Corinthians, what we call 2 Corinthians here.

Um he's writing them this letter from up north of where Corinth is, as you can see on the map.

And so this letter that he's writing, 2 Corinthians, is really prepping them for his third visit.

He's in Macedonia, he plans to go down to Corinth.

So he's already mentioned a couple times as we go into this last chapter of 2 Corinthians that when he comes, he doesn't want to spend his time in Corinth correcting them.

But he'd rather show up and spend his time fellowshipping with them and encouraging them, not disciplining, but discipling.

So look at the second half of verse 1 with me.

He says, Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

You know, every once in a while when you're going through Paul's writings, you know, he throws in a sentence.

You know, at a first pass, you kind of do a double take of just like, what on earth did he throw that in there for?

Like, would it have made sense if he just skipped all of that?

You know, why is Paul quoting from Deuteronomy 17.6 and Deuteronomy 19.5 in like the middle of this sentence?

And I want to read to you Deuteronomy 19.5.

We have it up on the screen as well.

It says, one witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person.

Whatever that person has done, a fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

So this is part of the law given regarding taking somebody to court.

You know, Jesus is uses similar language in Matthew 18, verses 15 through 20.

Matthew 18:15–20

You know, it's all regarding church discipline, and that if the testimony of two or three witnesses, you know, against a brother in sin is established, and he says, in Jesus' name, that he, Jesus, would be among them in that decision.

Meaning, if two or three witnesses are truly seeking the Lord regarding coming to a decision regarding church discipline, Jesus will bring them the right decision on what they should do.

And I know at this point you might be thinking, yeah, but Chris, there was this one time and there were these elders, and they came to this horrible decision together, and they all agreed upon on it.

So how could this be true?

Jesus says, for where two or three are gathered in my name, I am among them.

And in my name is key there.

This is talking about people that are abiding in Christ and truly seeking the Lord's will in church discipline matters.

If they're doing that, Jesus will not allow them to come to the wrong decision.

And it's not like Jesus is sitting there, like, I know you really want to know what's right, but I'm not going to tell you what it is.

He doesn't do that.

He wants just as much as any two or three witnesses want to come to the right decision.

He wants them to come to that right decision as well.

So he won't withhold it.

He won't allow them, if they're truly seeking him in his name, he won't allow them to come to that wrong decision.

And Paul's about to tell Corinth, I've got all I need to come and exercise church discipline.

I have all the biblical support that I need to come and really come heavy-handedly to you if you don't shape up before I show up.

So the question now becomes regarding the second half of verse 1, is Paul saying that his second and third trip are the second and third witnesses that he needs in order to do this?

Or is he saying, you know, when I show up my testimony and Titus' testimony, you know, that would be enough because that's two witnesses, or maybe there is a third witness of somebody that's traveling with them that we don't know about.

But he's saying, I have all that I need to have the authority to come and exercise church discipline upon you, based on whatever that might be.

But he's flat out going to say in verse 10, and you can look down and skip ahead a little bit, this is why I'm writing these things while absent.

So that when I am there, I may not have to deal harshly with you, in keeping with the authority the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.

So, regardless of the two or three, if the two or three is referring to his trips or to the people that are with him, Paul has all the info.

He has all of the biblical authority that he needs to exercise church discipline, even though he would really prefer not to.

Look at verse 2.

I gave a warning when I was present the second time.

So that's the painful visit that he's talking about.

And now I give a warning while I'm absent to those who sinned before and to all the rest.

And so here's the warning right here.

If I come again, I will not be lenient.

Since you seek proof of Christ speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but powerful among you.

Do you all remember all that we talked about in chapters 11 and 12 over the past couple of weeks?

These people in Corinth, his opponents mainly, they wanted him to be more like what they called the super apostles.

They wanted to see fleshly power in Paul, not weakness.

And he's telling them, hey, you know, careful what you wish for.

Because when Jesus rebukes and corrects, like he did with the possessed, even the demons quaked.

He's asking them, is that really the authority that you want me to come in?

You know, this is really just a few verses of Paul saying, careful what you wish for.

I won't come to you in my power, but I'm gonna come to you in Christ's power if that's what's needed.

Because, look at verse 4.

For he was crucified in weakness, but he lives by the power of God.

Jesus was crucified as a lamb that was slain.

But he rose, and he's gonna return by the power of God as a roaring lion.

You know, we have uh this word weakness in this verse, and I want to throw the definition up because it says, and this is from the Greek dictionary, want of strength, weakness, infirmity of the body, its native weakness and frailty.

You know, this weakness is not that Jesus had an imperfection.

Don't read it like that.

It's not like we could say that, you know, Jesus had a weakness for alcohol or anger or women or anything like that.

This word weakness is in regard to his human flesh and bone.

He aged, he felt physical pain, you know, he bled, he had the ability to die.

That's what this is talking about.

You know, he bore the same flesh and bone weaknesses as we all do in this room here today.

But he was raised by the power of God, it says, and now lives by the power of God.

Again, he came as a lamb, died as a lamb, but was raised in the power and lives in the power of God.

Now, Paul's gonna compare him and those with him to Jesus.

Look at the second half of verse 4.

He says, For we also are weak in him.

So same flesh and bone weaknesses as him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by God's power.

Basically saying, we came in weakness, we came in gentleness to you multiple times, as suffering servants, just like Jesus.

But we've done all that, and if you still aren't repentant, then it's time to cut you off from fellowship with the church in Corinth by God's power.

You know, that's the final step with an unrepentant person in church discipline, is to cut them off from fellowship.

You know, if the person is repentant, and that's always the hope, that's always the goal with church discipline, the final step is restoration.

But if they're not repentant, the final step is being cut off from fellowship with the body.

Still in hopes that they'll come to repentance, but until they do, they're to be cut off from the body.

So Paul's solution is in verse 5.

He says, Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.

Examine yourselves, or do yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you unless you fail the test.

You know, if you remember throughout this whole book, Paul's doubters were more than willing to examine Paul, weren't they?

They were they were picking him apart everything they they possibly could.

Then Paul says, why don't you just turn the tables?

And why don't you use that same examination that you've been using on me and examine yourselves?

He says, you need to examine yourself to see if your faith is genuine.

You know, you do it to me all the time, but have you sat down and done that for yourself?

Have you scrutinized the genuineness of your faith for yourself?

And he says the test is Christ in you.

And if he's not, he's saying, then you failed the test.

And Paul says, please do this before I show up.

Because he doesn't want to sit in that seat of church discipline when he gets there unless he absolutely has to.

You know, it's so sad when someone is in a church and they're found out that they've been living in sin.

And we need to make that distinction, not struggling with sin, but willfully living in sin that they know is biblically wrong and they continue to do it anyway.

And it's sad when that person is confronted and they're unrepentant.

And it's up to the testimony of two or three witnesses to decide if that person is in Christ.

You know, I've been there before in the past and it is not fun.

When there are when people are saying adamantly that, no, I am in Christ, but I'm also going to continue in this sin.

Don't tell me what to do.

And you have to say, you know, as you pray it through in Jesus' name with two or three witnesses, and then you have to say, no, you're not in Christ.

The fruit of your life is not showing that you are in Christ and you are no longer welcome in this fellowship.

It's absolutely gut-wrenching when it comes down to that.

So Paul says, please self-examine and take care of this yours, excuse me, take care of this yourself so that I don't have to help in this process.

Look at verse 6.

And I hope you will recognize that we ourselves do not fail the test.

You know, Paul has already searched his heart, he's talked a lot about this.

Christ is inside.

He's already said that everything he's done as an apostle, he has a clear conscience in regards to all of those things.

He's written about this truth in his letter over and over again.

Now he's saying, now it's your turn.

You need to start doing what you've been doing to me.

Look at verse 7 with me.

But we pray to God that you do nothing wrong.

Not that we may appear to pass the test, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear to fail.

Can you see here how Paul's heart is not to be sure that he appears right or to prove to them that he's right?

His heart is that these people get right with God for their own sake.

Paul could show up and exercise his authority as an apostle and really look strong doing it if he decided to.

But his heart isn't to be right and to look strong.

His heart is to help these people that are living in sin to get their relationship right with God.

And in order to do so, Paul's willing to look weak if that means he looks like Christ.

Think about that.

Paul's willing to look weak if it means that he looks like Christ.

But what he won't compromise on, look at verse 8.

For we can't do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.

If the truth makes him look weak, oh well, he'll remain in the truth.

He doesn't care.

Verse 9, we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong.

You know, if Paul's weakness that he's been boasting about all through chapter 12, or his appearance of weakness to the Corinthians, if that could help Corinth come to repentance and it actually strengthens their faith, Paul says, I'll rejoice.

I don't care about all that stuff.

I just want to see you right with God.

And he even said in chapter 12, I'll boast in my weakness if it has that positive effect upon you.

Look at the second half of 9.

We also pray that you become fully mature.

And there it is.

This, as I already said, this should be the heart of every person in any place of authority over God's church.

Maturity in the faith for all of God's sheep.

You know, this is the purpose of this whole letter: to help Corinth become more mature in their faith in Christ.

Because that's the heart behind discipleship.

That Paul's, and Paul's doing his part to fulfill that great commission through his visits and through these letters.

It's for the maturity of the saints in Corinth.

You know, maturity in our faith, it looks like becoming more like Jesus.

It means seeing the world through a biblical lens and not through a fleshly lens.

It means acting, and the harder part, reacting, in a way that shines Jesus to the world.

It means knowing how to walk by the Spirit, with Him as our guide and as our counselor.

It means being disciplined.

Disciplined in prayer and in studying God's word.

Discipling somebody that is younger in the faith.

That's part of maturity.

Being someone that's less concerned with how the body of Christ is serving them, and more concerned with how they are serving the body of Christ.

That's what maturity looks like, and is what Paul wants the Corinthians to strive for.

Paul goes on in verse 10.

This is why I'm writing these things while absent.

So that when I am there, I may not have to deal harshly with you.

In keeping with the authority the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.

I heard a pastor once say that Paul was not above spanking.

But his time could be so much better used in building up.

I spoke about it a little bit earlier, but church discipline takes so much time.

And it takes so much emotional energy for all that are involved.

I'd be willing to bet, and I thought about this this week, I'm not just throwing this out there, I'd be willing to bet that exercising church discipline takes just as many hours and just as much emotional energy as discipling two people for a year.

Think about that.

Church discipline is exhausting.

So Paul is pleading, please take care of this stuff before I arrive so that I can spend time with you discipling and not disciplining.

You know, it's so much more productive for God's kingdom when people like Paul are able to spend their time discipling instead of disciplining.

Look at verse 11.

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice.

Become mature, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

I just see Paul sitting on the other end of this letter saying, please choose this path.

Please choose this path.

Please heed the instructions that I've laid out in my writings and everything that you've heard me say while I've been with you.

You know, life within the church would be so much better if every one of you becomes mature, is really the heart that I hear Paul giving through this letter.

And I want to kind of pick that passage apart just a little bit, verse 11.

You know, becoming mature speaks of a process.

It takes time, it takes experience, it takes discipline to become mature.

It's a process.

But then he says, be encouraged.

You know, that speaks of a state of being, doesn't it?

Not be encouraged once a week when you're in church.

No, be.

He's saying live in the state of encouragement.

Don't live in the state of California.

Live in the state of encouragement.

You know, I don't know a single person that couldn't use a little bit of encouragement right now.

Do you?

Raise your hand if you don't need any encouragement right now.

You know, whether it's regarding what's going on in the world around us right now, what's going on maybe in our personal life, the body of Christ should be a place where we come to encourage and be encouraged.

So I want to ask you, would you be intentional with that?

To encourage one another, to be an encourager to those around you.

We should be encouraged in Christ, but we should also be the source of encouragement to others if we are really abiding in Christ and being like him.

Then Paul goes on and he says, be of the same mind.

Does that mean that we have to agree on everything?

No, that's not what he's talking about.

You know, in 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote to the Corinthians chapter 2, verse 16, he says, to have the mind of Christ.

And he told them this in the context of the mind of Christ being the opposite of worldly wisdom and coming through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in them.

And if we all have the mind of Christ, guess what?

We're all gonna be of the same mind, right?

See how that works?

And then last he tells them to be at peace.

Again, a state of being, not from time to time, but to have peace, to live peaceably, to be at peace, to make peace, to cultivate peace.

And then he ends verse 11 with, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

You know, this isn't saying, do these things and then God will be with you.

It's saying as you become mature and encouraged and of the same mind and live in peace, God's going to be with you in all of that.

Because it's only by him that those things are possible in the first place.

You know, he's the God of love and peace.

Those aren't characteristics that God's acquired over time.

That's who he is.

And the only way that we can be like him is if he does those things through us.

Look at verse 12 with me.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the saints send you greetings.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

So this is Paul's final farewell that we see to the Corinthian church at the end of this letter.

You know, modern day it would probably say, you know, greet everyone with a holy side hug or a holy handshake.

You know.

All the saints that are in this battle with you, they say hello.

The grace of the Lord Jesus, you know, which is his salvation and so much more, the love of God, which cannot be surpassed, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.

I want you to think about that last one.

The fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

We have a definition we're going to throw up here.

That's koinonia.

And then from the Greek dictionary says fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, intercourse, the share which one has in anything, participation.

That's the relationship that Paul desires Corinth has with the Holy Spirit.

And that's the relationship that we should desire and have with the Holy Spirit as well.

The communion that we should have with him.

You know, when we talk about walking by the Spirit, that's what we're talking about here.

The fellowship, the oneness in which we are to live and to walk with him.

Where we can't tell where he begins and we end.

Unity with him.

You know, this is Paul's desire for this church to walk in the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Doesn't that sound amazing?

You know, when it's put that way, at least for me, it just kind of makes all the cares of the world seem insignificant in comparison to God.

To know that we're saved eternally by the grace of Jesus.

Loved by the God of the universe that desires to be our Father and for us to be his children.

And to walk by the Spirit, God inside of us, desiring that closest relationship that we can possibly imagine.

Wanting to guide us through the chaos of this cursed world that we created for ourselves because of our sin.

He wants us, he desires us that deeply.

You know, if you've been following Jesus for 40 plus years, or maybe you're sitting here and all of this is brand new to you, God wants all of us to know or be heavily reminded how much He cares for and loves each one of us.

And He wants us to not only accept that love, but to cling to it.

You know, part of our maturity is not really something you can put on a checklist.

And that's drawing nearer to the Lord.

That takes time, that takes intimacy, it takes pursuit on our part.

We're already pursued by God.

The only thing holding us back from deeper intimacy with God is us.

He loves us perfectly.

And he's more than willing to go deeper in our relationship with him.

But we're the ones that are always holding back that further intimacy with him.

So as Paul encourages the Corinthians to mature, I want to encourage us to not be stagnant in our relationship with God.

You know, let's self-examine and see where we're holding back in our relationship, where we're not surrendering completely to God.

Those things that we're holding on to that we're too afraid to let go of because we don't know what he's gonna do with it.

Let's invite him into those areas that we have not trusted him to date for whatever reason it might be.

And I let's just do something a little bit different today.

Um, Amy, why don't you come up and just play a little bit of background music?

But let's just take just a couple minutes.

We'll have some music going and let's just sit with the Lord.

Let's self-examine as David prayed.

Allow the Lord to examine him, let's allow the Lord to examine us and just ask him, Lord, what are we holding on to?

What are those areas of our life that we're not surrendering to him?

He wants that intimacy and that deeper relationship.

What's holding us back from going deeper with him?

I'm gonna pray and then let's take that time, just a couple minutes, by yourself, just you and the Lord, and allow him to do that.

Lord, I pray that we would have open hearts right now and a willingness to go deeper with you, to surrender deeper, to abide closer with Jesus and to walk even closer with the Holy Spirit.

Lord, would you do the work that you desire?

Would you shine the light of Jesus Christ in our hearts?

Lord, in all of those places that we have our fists grabbed around.

Lord, would would you help us to release those things?

Would you expose those things to us right now as we sit before you?

We pray in Jesus' name.