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2 Corinthians 13:5-14, 15:1-5
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 6 I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. 7 But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. 8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. 10 For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.
11 Finally, brothers,1 rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another,2 agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All the saints greet you.
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
(ESV)
13:1 This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 2 I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them—3 since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. 4 For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you would open in your bibles to second Corinthians chapter 13, or you can look in your worship guide because we're also gonna be looking at 1 Corinthians 15. Let me kinda outline the next few weeks for you. Next week, we're gonna be looking at the Lord's prayer again. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. The following week, which will be our last Sunday here, we're going to have a lot of our stuff already moved out.
Joel Brooks:We'll have an acoustic service, and I'm gonna teach through. I'm gonna try to teach through the Bible in about an hour. And so if you could pray for me about that, but we're going to go through the whole Bible in an hour, and maybe an hour and 10 minutes. And, hopefully afterwards, you'll have, at least a good understanding of the grand story of the Bible, the grand story of God's salvation and history. And then the following week, we'll be at our new facility, and we'll be beginning, the book of Daniel.
Joel Brooks:I've chosen Daniel for us to look at, the gospel according to Daniel, because I think it is a book that really reminds us of who I believe God has called us to be as a church. So, that's our next 3 week outline tonight. We're finishing up 2nd Corinthians. So, for those of you, it's your first time coming here, we are ending a really long, probably about 6 months study or so, ending 2nd Corinthians tonight. And I'm not gonna preach terribly long tonight because I am gonna give opportunity for some people to come up and share.
Joel Brooks:Let's begin reading 2nd Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5. Examine yourselves to see whether or not whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test.
Joel Brooks:I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test, but we pray to god that you may not do wrong. Not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, that we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for.
Joel Brooks:For this reason, I write these things while I am away from you. That when I come, I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for the building up and not for tearing down. Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration. Comfort one another.
Joel Brooks:Agree with one another. Live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
Joel Brooks:The grace of the lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Pray with me. Lord, we are in desperate need to hear from you and to hear words that breathe life into us. Lord, I come into tonight, tired, scattered in mind. Lord, I ask that you would use my weakness as a platform for your glory, that midst.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. I've shared this story a a number of years ago, but it appears repeating it goes with this message.
Joel Brooks:And I'll give an abbreviated version of it. A number of years ago, I was sitting in a bible study, and the Lord really put it on my heart to go try to find a couple of people living in Northern Ireland. And, and I came home from that study, and I talked to my wife. I said, You know, it's just crazy that the person up there just happened to mention Ireland, and instantly God put 2 people on my heart, and so I think I need to go talk to him. And Lauren, you know, gracious wife she was, she said, Great.
Joel Brooks:We immediately we bought plane tickets, and I flew over there, and rented a car. And I'm driving around in Northern Ireland, and my great planning. I didn't even know these kids' last names. I didn't know where they lived. I just kind of thought those details would work themselves out.
Joel Brooks:And, so I'm driving all around and it's pouring down rain. I've now been in the car for about 10 hours, and I can't even find what looks vaguely familiar. Finally, I find this soccer pitch that looks familiar, and, and I see some kids going inside. I'm knocking on doors, knocking on doors, and nobody will answer. And finally, I see somebody ride a bicycle and they go in.
Joel Brooks:I'm like, I know somebody's home. I go there and I knock on the door, and it opens, and it's one of the kids that I'm supposed to go talk to, a kid named Steven. I was like, Steven? He's like, Joel. He's like, what are you here for?
Joel Brooks:I'm like, the Lord sent me to talk to you. I'm like, okay. Then it got awkward. I came in. He just turned on the TV and watched it the entire time.
Joel Brooks:Presented the gospel completely hardened. He told me where his friend was that I was looking for, a guy named Colin. And so, I went over there. Same thing. Knock, knock, knock.
Joel Brooks:Open the door. Joel, what are you doing here? The Lord sent me to talk to you. Okay? So, we sat down, and we talked, and he listened.
Joel Brooks:And he did not come to know the Lord. I flew home. And that began a many year conversation with Colin in which, every time I would get to go over to Northern Ireland, I would go every summer, sometimes in Christmas, and I would get to talk to him. I brought a friend with me one time. I had to go just for 2 days to do some planning, and we're driving, actually across the Republic.
Joel Brooks:We're not even in Northern Ireland at this point, And my friend really needs to use the bathroom. I said, no, he's pleading with me. I really need to go. I really need to go. I'm like, no, no, just be quiet.
Joel Brooks:Finally, he's like, we've got to pull over. So I pull over to a petrol station. We go into use the bathroom. There's Colin. And I was like, Colin?
Joel Brooks:He goes, Joel. I was like, the Lord's after you. Got to go. And, and left, and that was it. And, the friend, Shay Henson was his name.
Joel Brooks:He was with me. He's like, was that the column you're telling me? I was like, it was. Like, the Lord's after him. Later that summer, I got to talk to Collins.
Joel Brooks:Still didn't come to know the Lord. Truncate a story. I mean, there were times that the Lord broke down his car where he couldn't leave, and I'd say, I'd give you a ride home if you'd stay for Bible study. Great. Next day, car.
Joel Brooks:God breaks down his car and said, well, stay for Bible study. I'll take you home. I mean, the Lord was so obviously after him, yet his heart was hardened for years, years. And finally, one time, we were walking out someplace, and I pick up a blade of grass, and I hold it. I said, Colin, this is your life, and all this field is eternity, and I let the blade of grass grow, and it just go, and it just disappeared.
Joel Brooks:I thought that was a pretty effective, you know, thing there. It was powerful to me.
Jeffrey Heine:Still didn't come to know
Joel Brooks:the Lord, but we're driving someplace at one point, and finally, he just looks at me. And he goes, Joel, how do you know? How do you know? And I presented the gospel to him one more time, And he knew, he knew, and I'll always remember his words. We prayed together, and he said, Joel, it wasn't coincidence.
Joel Brooks:You found me that day. And he goes, Joel, I'm gonna need a hug. It's my best. I'll never try that again. Accent.
Joel Brooks:Alright? But that question, how how do you know? Like like, how do you know God? And how do you know if you, if you really know him, how do you know if you're saved? How do you know if the message you believe is, is true?
Joel Brooks:It's a question that we're actually encouraged to keep asking of ourselves. How do we know? How do you know if you are, the theological word is saved. Paul asked the Corinthians. This question says, you need to ask that of yourselves.
Joel Brooks:How do I know examine yourselves is what he opens this final section with. Examine yourself. See if you really are of the faith. See if you really have faith. It seems at first somewhat of a silly question because Paul is writing to the Corinthian church.
Joel Brooks:These are people listening to the bible being read to them. And yet, Paul says, okay. I know you're in church, and I know you're hearing the bible read to you, but you need to examine yourself and see if you have faith. You're not just a Christian because you're sitting in church listening to a sermon. Now, here's the tricky thing about what Paul says.
Joel Brooks:He asked them to examine yourself, and then he doesn't tell them how. You need to examine yourselves, but he doesn't say what this exam should look like. Is it a pass fail exam? You know, what what what is it? Seems like a pretty big deal here.
Joel Brooks:Heaven, hell, and the balance. Paul just kinda says, examine yourself. And I think he he just leaves it open ended like that for a couple of reasons. For one, he wants them to seek God about it. Examine yourselves.
Joel Brooks:Are you of the faith? What's the test? We'll ask God what
Jeffrey Heine:the test is. Go to him.
Joel Brooks:And then I think also, Paul saying, I just wrote you an entire letter about the exam. The entire letter, I was laying out the case for how does one know if you have genuine faith. Will you accept the letter I just gave you or not? If you remember, last 6 months, we've been looking at how these Corinthians have been examining Paul. They've been testing Paul.
Joel Brooks:They've been asking him, alright, give give us evidence that the if you're a Christian, give us evidence if you're following god. Give us evidence if you're really his apostle and so Paul has been doing that. And as Paul has defended that over and over and over again, he's really been laying out a case for what they need to be examining themselves with. So, all throughout the letter, he's done this, and I want us to go back and just look at a few. First, I want to look at just a couple of wrong ways of examining yourself.
Joel Brooks:Alright. So, these don't walk away thinking these are how you're supposed to examine. So, these are a couple of wrong ways. And one is to think that the proof of being a Christian is that things are gonna go really well for you once you become a Christian. That when you follow God, your life is going to just unfold in this beautiful way, and it's going to be great.
Joel Brooks:If that's the exam that you're putting out to see whether or not you really love the Lord, whether you're a Christian, that you have a wonderful life, that is a false exam. There have been times when Paul had a lot. There's times when Paul had a little. There's times when Paul had great health. There is times when Paul had no health.
Joel Brooks:There was times when he was very respected. And there is times when people dragged his name through mud. He's been in every type of circumstance and circumstances in no way or any kind of evidence. If you're following the Lord or if you're not, you got to put that aside. Another common, but wrong way that we examine ourselves is when we compare ourselves with others.
Joel Brooks:When we begin looking sideways, Paul never did this. He didn't look sideways. In chapter 10, Paul says, he was not like those self proclaimed super apostles who proved themselves by always comparing themselves and commending themselves in comparison to one another. He said, I'm not like that. When we examine ourselves, we're not to look sideways.
Joel Brooks:We're not to ask, you know, well, gosh. I go to church more than that person does. You know, I think I give maybe more than that person does. You know, I I said, well, maybe I don't quite serve as much, but, my heart's really in it when I'm there. You know, and you're always kind of like comparing yourself.
Joel Brooks:Paul wouldn't have any of it. And I realize, we trying not to compare yourself is one of the hardest things to do. I just read a study about when, when men saw women, the first thing they did, you know, 50% of them is they completely checked them out head to toe. And your women, you're like, yeah, I know. That's what men do.
Joel Brooks:Well, they did the study with women. Women check out women from head to toe, the exact same amount as the men. There was no difference between how men looked at women and how women looked at women. It's because they're comparing. So first thing you have to do is size up another person.
Joel Brooks:How do you compare to them? It's what we do all the time. Paul says that you can't examine your faith that way by looking sideways because that is a never ending spiral. It's foolish to do. It's, I kind of think of it as this way.
Joel Brooks:It's like getting with your neighbor and saying, hey, let's have a contest, and we'll compare, like, who could jump up and touch the moon first? You know, and you're like, alright. And you're both jumping and jumping, and you're comparing to see who's higher than the other. But you're trying to touch the moon. Alright?
Joel Brooks:It doesn't matter if you get a little bit higher or this much higher. You're failing the objective and our objective is perfection. We're all failing. And that's not Christianity. It's just trying to do the best you can in comparison to others.
Joel Brooks:Christianity is
Jeffrey Heine:that the moon has come down to us, that God has come down to us
Joel Brooks:and he lets us touch him. God's grace has come to us. We don't have to look sideways and kind of hope God's grading on the curve and that we could sneak in. God comes to us. Let's look at the right way to examine ourself.
Joel Brooks:See if we are of the faith. All throughout the letter for Paul, it really came down to one thing, belief. Do you believe the gospel? By belief, I'm not just talking about up here. Maybe a better word, whenever you find the word faith or you find the word belief, probably a better word that you could put in there is treasure.
Joel Brooks:Do you treasure the gospel? Because that's mind and heart together, which is what Paul is saying here. Paul stated the gospel as clearly as he could in his first letter to them is how he ends the letter, and let me read this to you. It's in your worship guide. First Corinthians 15, he says, now I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you're being saved.
Joel Brooks:If you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as a first importance, what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the 3rd day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12th. Paul is clearly as he could say it to the Corinthians here. He says, Christianity is not turning over a new leaf. It's not trying really hard to live a moral life.
Joel Brooks:It's it's not, hey, I'm going to do something for you, God. And then maybe you can return the favor, do something for me. So, that's that's not Christianity. That's not the gospel. The gospel is that all of us here in this room are wretched sinners, and that Jesus died for our sins.
Joel Brooks:And he was raised back up to life, and now, we get to have that same life. That's the gospel. The gospel is that Jesus Christ lived the perfect life that you were supposed to live, and he died the wretched, horrible death that you were supposed to die. The gospel is what I would call the beautiful exchange. It's when Jesus gets our wretchedness.
Joel Brooks:He gets our sinfulness, and we get his beautiful righteousness. That's the gospel. When Paul is is asking the Corinthians to examine themselves, he's saying, do you believe that? Do you do you treasure that? Do you find your identity in that?
Joel Brooks:Are you placing your hopes and you're placing all of your trust in that? Because if you are, everything changes. You'll be completely different than all those around you. If you really treasure the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because if you are, God has put his spirit in inside you.
Joel Brooks:His spirit is living in you, and you will be different people. There's gonna be new life. There's gonna be repentance. There's gonna be the fruits of the spirit. This will all be there if you believe the gospel.
Joel Brooks:Paul's very hopeful that the Corinthians will pass the test. He's a lot more hopeful than I would be. He's he's very hopeful. Look at this, you know, verse 11 and 12 in this final section. It's Valentine's day.
Joel Brooks:I had I had to get this in her Valentine's week. Finally, brothers, rejoice, aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Now, for the last three chapters, those have been Paul's angry chapters when he's really just kind of laid in, to these super apostles in this part of the church. For those last three chapters, he has dropped the term brother.
Joel Brooks:It's been throughout the letter. He's called them brothers, brothers. These last three chapters is gone. At the very end, he brings it back, and he says, finally, brothers, brothers, I know I was attacking you, but I was attacking you as family. We're family here.
Joel Brooks:And now just imagine the impact that that finally brothers would have as it's going out as being read to a people who have dragged Paul's name through the mud. And Paul is now reaching back to them. He's saying, We're family here. And he says, Finally, brothers rejoice. I want you to be filled with joy.
Joel Brooks:That's my purpose in doing all of this. The gospel brings you joy, rejoice. And then he goes on and he does several exhortations. He says, aim for restoration. Don't aim for retribution, but retro but restoration.
Joel Brooks:Comfort one another. If you remember, he started off the letter to the Corinthians by saying, we comfort others with the comfort we have received and that comfort is the gospel. Says agree with one another. What are they supposed to agree on? It's not the color of the carpet or the pews or you know, the best home group structure there is.
Joel Brooks:He's, he's wanting them to agree on the gospel. The central message of our faith. Agree on that. Live in peace and the God of peace will be with you. And then Paul tells them to greet each other with a holy kiss.
Joel Brooks:Alright. That's awkward. Okay? It's be really awkward. It's you know, we sing things like, I always love it.
Joel Brooks:Like we sing songs about lift up holy hands, and you look around, and you're like, you see 5 hands up, you know, so we can actually say things. And we're like, I'm lifting hands in my heart. Paul is not, he's not saying, you know, kiss one another with a Holy kiss in your heart. He's asking him to do something. This letter is being read out loud to people.
Joel Brooks:He's saying, greet each other with a holy kiss. Kiss and make up. Kiss and make up. I used to hate it when my my mom or my dad would make me do that with my sister, but it's a way of saying, your family kiss and makeup. Let's greet another with a holy kiss is a is a unique saying that Paul uses it this way for the first time in history.
Joel Brooks:It's used this way in this letter. It was common in that culture that you could greet family by, you know, kissing both cheeks. And it was acceptable, though not as common, to greet people of the exact same social class as you. But you never ever greeted people of a different social class with a kiss. You didn't do it.
Joel Brooks:And Paul here is talking to people of all different social backgrounds, all different class systems, and he's saying, greet one another with a holy kiss. And what he is saying is, I want you to look around this room and you know what, You're family. I don't care what the world sees you as. I know we're family. So we greet each other this way.
Joel Brooks:I mean, it had to be awkward for these people, but but Paul was going to push the issue on them. You know, there's a lot of really, unusual Christians out there, A lot of really cool t shirts, bumper stickers, just Christians very, very different for me and awkward that I'm ashamed of sometimes. Alright. I'm not ashamed. I'm embarrassed of them.
Joel Brooks:And then God reminds me, he's like, I'm not embarrassed to call that person my own. Why are you? If they believe the gospel, they're family, no matter all the other differences. You shouldn't be ashamed. Now how can we apply this today?
Joel Brooks:I know you are looking around to the right and left who you're sitting next to this moment. You can't greet each other with a holy kiss. You can. Holy kiss means not a romantic kiss. All right?
Joel Brooks:But what Paul is saying is, as family, we find a tangible way to treat one another like family in Christ. We've, we find a tangible way to do that. Whether it's a kiss or it's a hug or it's a meal, whatever it is, the way that we treat one another here in this room, people outside need to feel like they are on the outside. Okay? They need to realize that this is a family reunion, that we we see each other that way, we treat each other that way.
Joel Brooks:There needs to be something special in the way we talk with one another, the way we are affectionate towards one another. The world needs to see that we're different from them, and we need to feel that we're different when we gather together, and that's what Paul's saying. Now now, why was Paul so hopeful? Hopeful that you know, they were going to kiss and make up that they really were family. They were brothers and that they would be living at peace in a word.
Joel Brooks:The reason he was so hopeful is grace and it's how he ends his letter, grace. Every letter that Paul writes begins with grace to you. Every letter that Paul ends begins with grace be with you. And what he is saying is the grace to you are the words that I'm speaking. The words that you are reading, the truth that you are hearing.
Joel Brooks:And as you are leaving, as you're leaving this assembly, these these words are with you and they are changing you. And what Paul is saying is, I actually believe everything I've written to you about, that I did not need to come to you with persuasive words of wisdom, but I needed to come in just a demonstration of the spirit of power. That I determined to know nothing among you except for Jesus Christ and him crucified, and that's all I talked about in my letters. That the gospel is enough, and all I needed to do was simply to present the gospel and weakness to you, which is what I did in the letter. And I trust that that grace now is working and is with you.
Joel Brooks:Paul is trusting the very message that he has been preaching all along, that God's gospel will have the effect in their lives. And then this glorious benediction reveals how this grace comes to us. It's an unusual benediction. It's a Trinitarian one, which we have, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and that's, that would be the father and then the fellowship of the holy spirit. But it's unusual in its, in its order because all the other times when the Trinity is presented, you start off with the father, the son, and the spirit.
Joel Brooks:Paul starts off by saying the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And I think the reason he changed it here, and it would have been noticeable, is he's he's saying it in the way they experienced it. It was through the grace of Jesus that they came to know God, who's now given his spirit, which will give them the unity and the fellowship, not just with one another, but with him. So hear these final words again as we end 2nd Corinthians. The grace of the lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.