Wednesday, February 23, 2011

2 Corinthians

Insights into the Life, Ministry, and Challenges of the Apostle Paul

 

by Samuel E. Ward

 

2 Corinthians 5

 

February 13, 2011

 

For the sake of context, let us review the what has come before in our study:

 

I.  Paul's Defense of His Conduct and Ministry, 2 Cor 1-7

 

The major sections thus far have contained the following:

 

A.  Paul's Introduction, 2 Cor 1:1

B.  The Best Laid Plans Are Subject to Change, 2 Cor 1:12-2:13.

C.  The Best Response to the Issue at Hand, 2 Cor 2:5-11

D.  The Bothersome Circumstances that Lead Paul to Macedonia, 2 Cor 2:12-13

E.  The Basic Explanation of Paul's Apostolic Ministry, 2 Cor 2:14-7:16

 

1.  The gospel Paul proclaims offers two distinct spiritual aromas, 2 Cor 2:14-17.

2.  The gospel Paul proclaims is preached with confidence and competence that comes from God, 2 Cor 3:1-18.

3.  The gospel Paul proclaims is a privilege to preach and a mercy granted by God to him, 2 Cor 4:1-4.

4.  The gospel Paul proclaims is given to human vessels as proof it is God's power at work in them and not their own.  2 Cor 4:7-15

5.  The gospel Paul proclaims contains encouragement enough to continue in the struggle, 2 Cor 4:16-18.

 

a.  God renews daily the strength that is lost the day before.

b.  God rewards our light and momentary troubles with eternal glory that surpasses the troubles.

c.  God reminds Paul to keep looking past the visible temporal to the invisible eternal where his true hope lies.

 

Chapter 5

 

Paul continues in chapter five to share significant details concerning the eternity that awaits us. 

 

1)   Our temporal bodies will have an eternal replacement from God when we die, 2 Cor 5:1.

 

(2 Cor 5:1 NIV)  Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

 

A colony of small water-bugs living in a pond noticed that every once in a while one of their fellow bugs would climb up a lily stem and never be seen again. They agreed that if this should ever happen to one of them, they would return to tell the others about their journey Sure enough, the day came when one of the bugs found himself going up the stalk and crawling onto the lily pad at the top. He fell asleep in the warm sunshine, and when he awakened he stretched himself, only to hear a crackling sound as his old outer coat fell off. He sensed that somehow he was larger, cleaner, and freer than ever before. Spreading his wings, he flew into the air as a beautiful green dragonfly Suddenly he remembered his promise. But then he realized why none of the others had ever returned. He couldn't go back and tell his friends what to expect because he was no longer a part of their world. Besides, one day they too would experience the wonderful freedom he now enjoyed.

We naturally shrink from the mysterious thought of dying. But we need not fear. Nor do we need a message from a departed loved one. God has told us all we need to know. So let's "walk by faith" and wait in hope. —H. V Lugt

Faith looks beyond the darkness of earth to the brightness of heaven when the master plucks a rose.

 

F. B. Meyer in Our Daily Walk

 

David Egner, a contributor to the devotional Our Daily Bread, wrote in that publication that . . .

 

On August 28, 2003, my good friend Kurt De Haan, the former managing editor of Our Daily Bread, died of a heart attack while on his lunchtime run. When I learned the news, I said to myself, "He's in heaven," which brought me great comfort.

 

A few days later I was talking with my former pastor Roy Williamson, now in his eighties. I asked him about a man from our congregation. "He's in heaven," he said. I also inquired about another person. "She's in heaven too," he replied. Then, eyes twinkling, he said, "I know more people in heaven than I do on earth."

 

Later I was thinking about Pastor Williamson's words. He could have simply said, "He died," or "She died." But how reassuring to hear that those dear saints of God are in heaven. What joy to know that when believers in Christ die, they are instantly with Jesus! The apostle Paul put it like this: "We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). No more pain. No more sadness. No more sin. Only peace. Only joy. Only glory.

 

We still grieve when a believing loved one dies. Grief is love's expression. But beneath it all is an unshakable joy, because we know our loved one is in heaven.

 

Friends will be there I have loved long ago,
Joy like a river around me will flow;
Yet, just a smile from my Savior, I know
Will through the ages be glory for me. —Gabriel

 

God's children never say goodbye for the last time.

 

2)  Our eternal bodies will not know the burdens and suffering of our present bodies, 2 Cor 5:2-4.

 

(2 Cor 5:2-4 NIV)  Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, {3} because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. {4} For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

 

3)  Our guarantee of this promise is the Holy Spirit, 2 Cor 5:5.

 

(2 Cor 5:5 NIV)  Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

 

4)  Our longing is to be with the Lord, 2 Cor 5:6-8

 

(2 Cor 5:6-8 NIV)  Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. {7} We live by faith, not by sight. {8} We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

 

5)  Our goal is to please God and persuade others because we will be held accountable before the judgment seat of Christ, 2 Cor 5:9-11.

 

(2 Cor 5:9-11 NIV)  So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. {10} For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. {11} Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.

 

6)  Our defense has a purpose, 2 Cor 5:12-15

 

a.  If it sounds like we are bragging to you, we are in fact giving information to use to defend us against our critics, 2 Cor 5:12.

 

 (2 Cor 5:12 (NIV)  We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart.

 

b.  If we exhibit a crazy fanaticism in enduring what we do, it is for God's sake, 2 Cor 5:13.

 

(2 Cor 5:13 NIV)  If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

 

c.  If we truly appreciate sacrificial Christ's love, we will be compelled to to share His atoning death to all, 2 Cor 5:14

 

(2 Cor 5:14 NIV)  For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

 

d.  If the redeemed truly appreciate Christ's sacrificial, they will no longer live for themselves but for their Savior, 2 Cor 5:15.

 

(2 Cor 5:15 NIV)  And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

 

7)  Our assessments of others are changed, 2 Cor 5:16.

 

a.  Once, even Jesus was considered a false Christ, 2 Cor 5:16

 

(2 Cor 5:16 NIV)  So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

 

b.  Now, Christians are new creations, 2 Cor 5:17.

 

(2 Cor 5:17 NIV)  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

 

In Charles Dickens' story, A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge, that wizened, hardened, embittered, greedy old man, encounters death in a dream on Christmas Eve. His late partner, Jacob Marley, appears to him, dragging his chains, to tell Scrooge that death awaits him. All his life long, Marley had worked on forging every link in his chain through hatred, greed and unrighteousness. He takes Scrooge on a tour of Christmases past, present, and future. Scrooge even sees his own name carved on a gravestone. The awful proximity of death finally had the effect of changing him. He awoke on Christmas morning a different man.

Dickens does not make any reference to the gospel in his story, but it contains a wonderful picture of what takes place in us when we contemplate the death of Jesus and truly see it for what it is. If we allow new creation to take place because we enter into the death of Jesus on the cross, and his resurrection from the grave so that we have new life, everything changes for us. When Scrooge awoke next day, everything looked different to him-the weather, the light, the people, his relationships, his lightness of step-everything! Awareness of his impending death, and the possibility of being different, had made his outlook on life new and vital.

http://www.pbc.org/files/messages/7174/4223.html

Steve Zeisler

 

c.  Our ministry is one of reconciling others to God even as we were reconciled, 2 Cor 5:18-20a.

 

(2 Cor 5:18-20 NIV)  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: {19} that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. {20a} We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

 

d.  Our message to you is "Be reconciled to God" and become the righteousness of God, 2 Cor 5:20b-21.

 

(2 Cor 5:20b-21 NIV)  {20b) We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. {21} God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

Applications

 

1.  Do you think much about your purpose in life?  Whose purposes are you serving?  Whose standard are you applying in the assessment of the success of your life?  Ultimately you will have to give an accounting to God.  I guarantee that on that day you will care more about how God evaluates your life than your own assessment.

2.  Paul recognized his calling as an ambassador of Jesus Christ to call people to be reconciled to God.  It is not only his, but every Christian's, as well.  We have the good news that men and women can be brought back to God.  It is a sin not to share it.

3.  If you are living at odds with God, then the plea of Paul extends to you today as it did to the Corinthians then.  Now is the day of salvation.


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