Holy Rejoicing (2 Corinthians 1:12-22)

Like I said, we're in 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

We're gonna be reading verses 12 through 22.

Would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

If you're new, why do we stand for the reading of God's word?

This is probably the most important thing we are going to do this morning, because this is God's word.

Everything past that is gonna be filtered through me.

But this is God's word, so this is the most important thing that we are doing this morning.

Verse 12.

It says, Indeed, this is our boast.

The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially towards you, with godly sincerity and purity, not by human wisdom, but by God's grace.

For we are writing nothing to you other than what you can read and also understand.

I hope you will understand completely, just as you have partially understood us, that we are your reason for pride, just as you also are our are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.

Because of this confidence, I plan to come to you first, so that you can have a second benefit, and to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then come to you again from Macedonia and be helped by you on my journey to Judea.

Now, when I plan this, was I of two minds?

Or what I plan, do I plan in a purely human way, so that I say yes, yes, and no, no, at the same time?

As God is faithful, our message to you is not yes and no.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Sylvanus, Timothy, and I, did not become yes and no.

On the contrary, in him it is always yes.

For every one of God's promises is yes in him.

Therefore, through him we also say amen to the glory of God.

Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed us.

He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

Let's pray.

Lord, as we do every week, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this message that you have given us, and specifically for these verses that we're going through here this morning.

But that you would continue that molding process in each one of our hearts, Lord, so that we can become more and more like you on a daily basis.

So we pray that you would do the work and that you would do the speaking here this morning.

And I would simply just be a vessel in which your word comes through, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

May be seated.

So today's message will be a bit shorter since we had the financial update.

But just to give you a heads up, um, we're as we move forward through this uh this book of 2 Corinthians, we're gonna be covering larger chunks of scripture.

And in a few cases, we're even gonna be tackling whole chapters at a time.

Because, like I mentioned last week, a lot of this book is narrative.

You know, it's uh much more of a biography of Paul than it is doctrinal.

We're gonna find both, but there's gonna be some chunks that we're just gonna chew big portions at a time.

Um, like today, a good chunk of this verse, Paul's just explaining his travel plans and his change of travel plans.

And really, what he's doing, he's trying to convince the Corinthians to not associate his change in travel plans with him being double-minded or with him being unreliable.

He'll tell them, you know, we have a clear conscience with all of our dealings with you, including their plans, their travel plans.

And then we'll get to end with, and we'll really camp on this part the most, how we get to see how much God loves us, and how we get to see how much God loves us through all three persons of the Trinity.

So let's jump in.

Verse 12.

The first part of verse 12 says, indeed, this is our boast.

And I'm gonna stop right there because Paul's gonna be using the word boast right here, and he's also gonna be using the word pride in verse 14, and I think we need to understand these words because I think our gut reaction when we hear words like boast and pride is that they're sinful.

But this word boasting, it translates boasting six times in the New Testament, but it also translates rejoicing four times.

The King James version actually says, for our rejoicing is this.

It doesn't use the word boasting.

So I don't think of boasting, we shouldn't think of boasting as being puffed up.

We shouldn't think of it as sinful boasting.

I think we need to think of it as holy boasting, as holy rejoicing when we see the words boasting and pride.

Got it?

Okay, so let's tackle verse 12 in its entirety.

Indeed, this is our boast.

This is our holy rejoicing.

The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially toward you, with godly sincerity and purity, not by human wisdom, but by God's grace.

In the end, Paul is rejoicing in what God has done through him.

It's all done by God's wisdom and grace, he says.

So Paul's not taking any credit other than he and those that are with him have simply been vessels that God has used for his working for his kingdom.

Then he goes on and says that they treated everyone with godly sincerity and purity, not by human wisdom, but by God's grace.

You know, apparently there's some in Corinth that were trying to convince others of this.

So he's really removing the argument that Paul and those with him have been acting out of their flesh.

Rather, he's telling them in their visits and in their writing, they're acting in godly wisdom by the grace of God.

Now, if you remember what we talked about last week, remember the second visit that Paul made to Corinth.

What did he refer to that visit as?

As his painful visit, right?

He wants them to know that everything he did and everything he said, that he has a clear conscience.

That they know that he was not acting out of his flesh.

He goes on in verse 13.

For we are writing nothing to you other than what you can read and also understand.

You know, this sheds some light onto what may have been some of the issues that the church in Corinth was currently going through.

Because he tells them, in my letters, there's nothing written in between the lines.

There's no double meaning in what I've written to you.

Literally, you know, take my writing, literally.

Because we're only writing to you what you can read, and he says, and also what you can understand.

You know, some apparently were doing this too, you know, of, you know, did Paul really mean what he put in the letter?

Or, you know, I see what he really meant.

And don't pay attention to what he actually wrote, but this is what Paul really meant.

So apparently he's facing some of those things in the church in Corinthians.

So he writes, for we are writing nothing to you other than what you can read.

The words that are on the scroll that I sent you.

And also, we're not writing you anything that you can't understand either.

Take it literally, what I'm giving you, nothing between the lines.

He goes on in the second part of verse 13 and says, I hope you will understand completely, just as you have partially understood us, that we are your reason for pride, there's that word again, just as you also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.

Admittedly, this verse is a little hard to untangle, but basically, even though Corinth has only partially understood Paul's writing to this point, he's really hoping that they will come to a complete understanding of what he has written to them.

Specifically about why the apostles are wholly rejoicing over the Corinthian church and why they should be over the apostles as well.

So that when Jesus returns, there can be this mutual boasting or pride for one another between Paul and the apostles that are with them and the church in Corinth.

Verse 15.

Because of this confidence, I plan to come to you first so that you could have a second benefit, and to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then come to you again from Macedonia and be helped by you on my journey to Judea.

So, my first question when I come to a verse like this is why is Paul telling them all of this?

Now, I want us to remember Paul's writing this letter from Macedonia, as we talked about last week, where he had met up with Titus, he received this good news of the good things that were finally taking place in this church in Corinth, and how the church in Corinth actually had a zeal for Paul now.

And then he wrote this letter from Macedonia and sent it to him.

Now let's put the map up.

I want us to remember when we finished 1 Corinthians, Paul says that I plan to go to Macedonia, as you can see up at the top there.

Then maybe I'll spend the winter with you, and then you can send me on my way.

So Macedonia is up here, he's gonna come down to Corinth, maybe spend the winter with them there, I'll talk a little bit, and then send them on his way.

So that was the first plan that he had told them.

But if you remember, in between the writing of 1st and 2nd Corinthians, he makes that emergency short trip, the painful visit, and he goes from Ephesus to Corinth and then back to Ephesus again.

So he has a surprise visit.

So that's the first change in plans.

But then he has a second plan, as we learned here this morning in verse 15.

He mentions here, and apparently the Corinthian church was already aware of this, but his second plan that he gives to them is he tells Corinth, When I'm done in Ephesus, I'm gonna come to you first, and then I'm gonna go up to Macedonia, and then I'm gonna come down, second benefit.

That's what he saw you to Corinth, and then I'll be off to Judea, which is way down over here.

And then what happens?

Corinth receives a letter from Paul from Macedonia.

So his plans are all over the place, and then he tells them, you know what, you're only gonna get one benefit of me visiting.

So from Macedonia, I'm gonna come down and visit you, and then you can send me off to Judea.

So he has some major changes in his travel plans.

And I mention all of this because he wants to make sure that this church in Corinth knows he's not trying to deceive them.

Which is what verse 17 is all about.

But before we get to that, I just want to point something out.

Paul is so humble.

We see that in so many of his writings.

But he also has zero false humility.

You know what that is, right?

That would be where Paul's like, oh, you know, I'm not really a great apostle.

And my visits and my letters, you know, they're really not that much.

You know, people do that fishing for compliments, you know, for affirmation.

Oh no, Paul, you're a great apostle.

And we really did, you know, he doesn't do that at all.

He calls his visits benefits.

15, verse 15, he said, I plan to come to you first so that you could have a second benefit.

First benefit, Ephesus to Corinth, that's benefit one, up to Macedonia, back down to Corinth, that's benefit two.

And there's no pride involved here.

I mean, let's put it in a modern context.

How would you feel if I told you, you know, I'm gonna be stopping by your house later for your benefit?

Boastful, prideful jerk, right?

Paul's communicating.

I'm an apostle by the will of God, and I benefit his people and his kingdom when I minister.

And when I'm with you, Corinth, you benefit.

But sorry, my travel plans have changed, so you'll only have the benefit of me being with her to minister to you once.

Zero false humility in that statement right there.

I think this is just complete confidence that Paul has in his calling.

That anything that's of worth, he knows in his ministry, that it's by the grace of God.

He already said that.

He's not taking any credit for it.

He goes on in verse 17, he says, Now when I planned this, when I planned my travel plans, was I of two minds?

Or what I plan, do I plan in purely a human way so that I say yes, yes, and no, no at the same time.

Basically he's just saying, Do I say one thing when in reality I'm planning to do the opposite?

Do I say I'll be there twice when I really know in my heart that I'm only going to be there once?

And then he says, or do I basically plan these trips in my flesh?

And the question to this is absolutely not.

You know, Proverbs 16, 9 says, A person's heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.

And that's what we see Paul doing here.

You know, Paul had this godly desire to minister once again in person to this church in Corinth.

And he told the church about it.

He said, These are my plans, and we'll see.

And we see in verse 16 that too that he doesn't say, I will be there.

He says, if the Lord wills, basically, I'm gonna, these are my plans in the future.

And so he tells the church about it.

But the route that he planned obviously didn't work out.

You know, anybody here ever been on a mission strip, long-term, short-term, anything like that?

One, two, three, four?

Okay, there's okay, I figured there was probably more.

You know, I've been on a handful myself for various periods of time, eight weeks, six weeks, ten days, you know, seven days, all that kind of stuff.

And I was racking my brain this week, and I can't think of a single mission trip that I've been on where the travel plans went as planned.

I don't know if anybody can relate with that or not.

I see some people very laughing very hard back there.

I went on one mission trip where we're supposed to go minister in Lesotho, South Africa.

And this was with a high school group from Calvary Chapel of Oxnard, and there was about 30 of us going, and the plan was we'd get to LAX really early, then we're gonna have a small layover in Atlanta, Georgia, and then we're gonna fly to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then we were gonna get on a bus and drive to Lesotho.

That was the plan.

So we all get there.

The plane we were supposed to get on had just come from Phoenix and had been struck by lightning like ten times.

And so you were sitting there like, yeah, your plane's not gonna be ready for a couple days, so we're gonna have to put you on three different flights.

Youth pastors worst nightmare, right?

We're gonna split up your group into three sets of ten, and then we're gonna get you to Atlanta, you can get on your flight, and then we'll get you to Johannesburg.

By that evening, we got there before it was even light.

By that evening, there was one group over the Atlantic on their way to South Africa.

There was one group in a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, and then there was my group, and we were still at LAX in a hotel waiting for a flight.

And they the whole thing, and there's just stories.

There was one I was supposed to go uh to East Asia for uh for six weeks to this country, and we ended up in Mexico City.

That's a long story.

But I think God wants to make sure that we're depending on Him before we represent Jesus to those that we are going to minister to.

I see that theme in Scripture, and I've been able to experience it in my own life as well.

Verse 18.

As God is faithful, our message to you is not yes and no.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Sylvanus, Timothy, and I, did not become yes and no.

I think he's saying, don't use the unreliability of our travel plans to say that the gospel that we preach to you is unreliable as well.

You know, I could see from the Corinthians point of view how they might think Paul is unreliable.

He keeps telling us one thing, but then man, he's just all over the place.

So I think he feels the need to let them know that when he told them that he planned to bless them with two visits, that he had every intent to, but his travel plans had changed.

This is probably why Paul spoke of their affliction that they experienced in Asia just a few verses prior, where they were completely overwhelmed by their beyond their strength, it said, and despaired of their life.

It said, then he told them that everything as we just read that he has done, he's done with a clear conscience.

And he wants Corinth to know our message and the gospel, regardless of our travel plans.

Our message, the gospel that we have preached to you is reliable.

Now let's read verse 19 in its entirety.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Sylvanus, Timothy, and I, did not become yes and no.

On the contrary, in him, speaking of Jesus, it is always yes.

For every one of God's promises is yes in him.

Jesus fulfilled every one of God's promises of the Messiah to come in the Old Testament.

People have gone through and counted.

The conservative estimate is that Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies that are given to us in the Old Testament.

One guy went through and counted 527, I think it was, something like that.

Just depending on what you're looking at as a foreshadowing or a type or whatever that might be.

But I think a better way to look at it might be that there are no prophecies that God made that Jesus did not fulfill.

Jesus was the yes to all of those promises that God made to Israel about the Messiah to come.

Look at the second half of verse 20.

Therefore, through him, that being Jesus, we also say amen to the glory of God.

Jesus fulfilled the promises of God.

And through Jesus, we can be confident that all of God's promises are fulfilled and are going to be fulfilled as well.

Can you see what Paul's doing here?

He's saying, God is not double-minded.

His yes means yes, and his no means no.

Our ministry is through the grace of God.

We're just the vessels in which he's flowing through.

So our yes means yes, and our no means no as well.

Verse 21.

Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed us.

The New Testament only uses the word anointed in a handful of places, and it's always in relationship to the Holy Spirit.

Luke 4, verses 18, and verse 18 says, The Spirit of the Lord, this is Jesus speaking, the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

Luke 4:18

We find very similar language in 1 John 2.20 and 2.27 as well, if you want to look at that later.

And then also, if we go back into the Old Testament and we start looking at the word anointed as well, it's always being anointed into something.

You know, we see Aaron being anointed into priesthood.

We see David being anointed to be the king of Israel.

We, us here today, we are anointed by the Holy Spirit into the service of God's kingdom.

You know, we talked a lot about this when we're going through 1 Corinthians about how the Holy Spirit has gifted each and every one of us that follow Christ, not for our own benefit, but for the serving of others, the serving of God's kingdom.

So Paul says, it's God who strengthens us.

It's God who strengthens you and anoints all of us who follow Christ for serving him.

And it's that same spirit that gave us this gospel and this message, Corinth, and gave us a heart to visit you and to write these letters to you.

It's the same spirit.

So, Corinth, please trust us.

I think it's the main underlying message here.

Verse 22.

He has also put his seal on us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

Now, seals in ancient times were a sign of authority.

You know, we see with Daniel in the lion's den in Daniel 6 17, it says, A stone was brought in.

Placed over the mouth of the den, the king sealed it with his own signet ring, and with the signet rings of his nobles, so that nothing in regard to Daniel, this is important, could be changed.

The king said it, he ordered it, he sealed it.

Can't change it.

In Esther, we see the use of a signet ring quite a bit, and it's in reference to sealing documents.

And those documents, once they were sealed, they could not be changed.

Even Jesus' tomb in Matthew 27, 66, they, speaking of the guards, went and secured the tomb by setting a seal on the stone and placing the guards.

Saying, yep, he's in there, nothing's gonna change.

Little did they know.

Things were gonna change and that seal would be broken.

I think for us today, it might be something most relatable as like a brand on a cattle.

You know, something that the owner does and says, I now have authority over that animal, I own that animal.

If you find it on your property, you need to return it.

Somebody else finds somebody else trying to sell it, you know, you need to send those people to jail and give me my cow back.

You know?

The giving of the Holy Spirit is God saying, I now have authority over this life.

They are mine, and nobody can change that.

You know, when the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, God's Spirit went from living in a temple to living in our hearts.

And everything changed for those that followed Christ.

Jesus even said it's better that he should physically leave the earth and that the Spirit comes to us.

You know, because Jesus could only be at one place at one time when he was on this earth, but the Holy Spirit right now can dwell in each one of us at the same time, counseling us and comforting us and helping us and being an advocate for us all at the same time.

That's God's seal on us, his mark of authority.

Then Paul goes on and he uses the word down payment here.

Paul says the Holy Spirit of God is his down payment for us.

We're not living in the completion of all that God has for us.

We're not in our resurrected bodies living in the presence of God forever yet.

We will be, but we're not there yet.

But the fact that the Holy Spirit is in our hearts is a guarantee for that future.

That's waiting for each and every one of us that follow Christ.

Let's put that slide up.

I want to take a word a look at that word down payment.

It means an earnest, and that's not usually a word we use anymore, but look at the second part of the definition.

Money which in purchases is given as a pledge or down payment that the full amount will subsequently be paid.

Now don't think about this in terms of salvation.

You know, like we're only partially saved and then we're going to be fully saved.

That's not what this is talking about.

This is a promise that our future in God's presence in our resurrected bodies will come to be.

And the Holy Spirit, excuse me, the Holy Spirit is God's way of promising that.

And what did we already learn today?

In Christ, all of God's promises are yes and amen.

You know, a fun fact there at the bottom of the slide, the modern Greek for Arabon, I'd probably slaughtering that, is Aravonon.

And I mentioned this because this is the word that the modern-day Greek culture uses for an engagement ring.

It has that same idea of a commitment for something to be fulfilled in the future, just like an engagement ring.

Think about that.

The Holy Spirit in us is that commitment by God of what is waiting for us.

And I want to close with this.

I think as we look at this, that we should be so encouraged.

Every single person that's here today should be so encouraged by these verses.

Let me just read it to you and just take on what God's saying.

Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ and who has anointed us.

He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

This is God's promise that we're his.

And he gave us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us as a promise of the perfect eternity that's to come.

Do you know how much you're loved?

Do you know how much God cares for you?

Do you know how much God is willing to sacrifice for you?

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.

And if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Think about that.

The God of all eternity, beyond any capacity we have to even imagine, wants to spend eternity with you face to face.

He wants to start developing that relationship with him right now.

You know, this should both encourage those that are mature in their faith, you know, to dive deeper into that relationship with God.

But if you haven't gotten in that relationship, this is an encouragement to start that relationship right now with him.

He desires to be with you that intimately.

And don't be fooled.

If you don't have interest in hanging out with him right now, you're not going to have interest in hanging out with him for eternity either.

God wants that relationship and he wants it to grow deeper and deeper and deeper.

Would you please pray with me?

Lord, we thank you for the love that you have literally poured out and shown us over and over and over again.

Lord, you gave your only Son for us because you love us that much.

I pray, God, for each one of us, regardless of where we are, that today would be a day that we take a step deeper into that relationship.

Closer to you, nearer, abiding in Christ, even nearer than we are now.

Lord, clinging to you, surrendering to you, the Father, abiding in Christ, and walking by the Spirit, that downcamon that you've given us, that seal, that promise.

Lord, would you continue to do a work in each one of us, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.