 2 Corinthians 11:30-12:10
What is the significance of visions, revelations, and rapture into heaven (12:1-4)?
What lesson is being taught by a "thorn in the flesh" (12:7-10)?
The good news of the gospel is that those who find themselves weak but boast in God can expect the same message from Christ that Paul received: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (12:9a).
1. Exceptional Jars of Clay encounter the Spirit of God.
In the past
There is no doubt, of course that Paul had profound visionary experiences. This should not be denied in played down.
Paul never derived his authority or the content of his message from such supernatural experiences. This confronts our need to consider private, immediate experience of more value than God’s objective self-revelation in time and space. As important as such experiences were for Paul personally, his private visions never became the subject of his teaching, nor are they held [...Full item]
 2 Corinthians 11.1-21a
1. The danger the Corinthians and we are in (11:1-6).
There are those who risk falling prey to Satan’s temptation, even as Eve did in the garden (11:3; 1 Tim 2:14). Just as the devil deceived Eve by calling into question the sufficiency of God’s provisions (Gen 3:1-13), so too he is seeking to undermine the Corinthians’ and our devotion to Christ by enticing them and us with "another Jesus".
It is as if the Christ of Paul’s gospel is not enough. Satan tempts God’s people by presenting a substitute saviour: In the garden it was the false promise that they could provide for themselves without consequence, in Corinth it was the promise that the real "Christ" would provide for them health and wealth.
Therefore Paul portrays them and us:
1. as the counterpart to rebellious Israel under the law In verse 2 (i.e., replicating the "fall" of Israel (3:14))
2. as the counterpart to [...Full item]
 2 Corinthians 9
Week 1 – 2 Corinthians 8
The issue of giving away money evokes two diametrically opposed responses among Christians:
an awkward timidity amongst some and
an "in-your-face" boldness among the prosperity gospel movement.
In the first case, we fear that "too much" talk about money may offend. Truth is that it directly confronts our materialism and the individualistic nature of our lives. We say, ‘The preacher should talk about God," we mean that the preacher should not talk about money (since, for us, giving is a private affair and nothing to do with being blessed spiritually).
Summary: Spiritual gift of giving is the reflex of our joy in God’s gift to us in Christ. The Macedonians’ joy led to giving, not the other way around. For this reason, the collection is termed a "grace" and a "ministry!"
Week 2 – 2 Corinthians 9
Giving is a response to what God has already done for [...Full item]
Generosity: Growing in the Grace of Giving 2 Corinthians 8:1-15
There is another post on this subject at: why-a-widows-mite-turns-out-to-be-a-lot-more-than-i-thought
“In many respects western identity is established in material terms. We define ourselves by our relation to our material environment; perhaps more than our relation to other people (or even to God). That this has resulted in great material prosperity and great technological accomplishment we can readily acknowledge. But we note a dark side as well: Westerners invariably tend to endow material means with ultimate or final value. Owning a home, for example, is seen as one of the ends of life rather than as a means to other ends. Meaning is attached to accumulating an estate far beyond any conceivable use.
Communicating the gospel will then invariably reflect these emphases. On the one hand, it will tend to affirm the quest for achievement. It might emphasise that God loves us and seeks to help us realise our potential or our [...Full item]
 A sermon from 2 Corinthians 4 on the occasion of Daniel’s ordination.
The prospect of standing before Christ surrounded by his spiritual children at Corinth so excites Paul that he says in verse 15, “It is all for your sake.” All my suffering, all my preaching, all my labour as an apostle is for your sake, “so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.”
Nobody here this morning wants to lose heart. Nobody came in here saying, “I sure hope we sing some songs and hear a sermon that helps me lose heart. I really want to be discouraged this morning by what John says.” Not a one of you. Nobody wants the heart for living knocked out of you. Neither did Paul.
On the contrary, everybody wants inner renewal day-by-day. We all know that feelings of strength and newness and hope and vitality and courage and zest for life last for a little while, and then [...Full item]
 2 Corinthians 5:16-6:13 The story so far! How we show God’s glory when we are jars of clay? OR “Call yourself a Christian!”
How do you know what great Christian leadership looks like? Is it the same as great secular leadership? Particularly, does suffering and weakness in a leader imply they are not living in the power of the Spirit? Paul is relentless in his response: The greatest display God’s power is not the absence of pain or the presence of a miracle, but in faithful endurance in the midst of adversity, through which God “makes many rich” (6:10).
This then is a "leaders identity card." It doesn’t tell us everything about leadership!
1. Jars of Clay leaders live for others (6.1-3)
• The call to leadership is a call to live for others
• Great leaders do not need recommendations from others or bragging (3:1; 5:12)
• The commendation that counts is the faithfulness of God in one’s life, as [...Full item]
 2 Cor 3: 7-18
A Bit of Background
Moses’ breaking the tablets of the law in response to Israel’s sin with the golden calf demonstrated that the Sinai covenant was broken from the beginning.
Although Israel had been rescued from slavery her idolatry revealed that her "neck" remained "stiff," enslaved to sin.
As a result, the Sinai covenant failed in its purpose: , Israel’s on-going experience of the glory of God had been intended to purify them to become a holy "kingdom of priests".
Instead, faced with the sin of the nation, God proclaimed a desire to destroy the people and to start over with Moses (cf. Ex 32:10).
How can God’s glory continue to dwell in the midst of Israel without destroying her?
Initially, God’s glory was forced to dwell outside the camp in the "tent of Hireling," lest God’s presence destroy the people (cf. Ex. 33:7-11). Only Moses (as part of the faithful "remnant," could approach the [...Full item]
 There were lots of things which caused Paul to consider he was a jar of clay. The violence he experienced, the weight of apostolic responsibility, and “people”. People give us our greatest joys and some of our deepest despairs.
The Corinthians people problem.
Paul nowhere mentions the specifics of the offence. Could have been the same as in 1 Cor 5
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? …. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,[a][b] so that his spirit may be saved on the day [...Full item]
 2 Corinthians 1
1. We are Jars of Clay!
Life is a bitch – lie to say otherwise. And we are jars of clay
A biblical life avoids two extremes: content-less expressions of praise on the one hand, and human-centred "testimonies" on the other. Genuine praise is not a mindless act designed to escape thinking about our daily lives, nor is it a means of sugar coating our circumstances. Our praise of God should never be transformed into some sort of Christian "mantra," nor should it be used to make things look better than they really are.
We praise God in the midst of our life, not because things are not as bad as they seem, but because of who God is and of what he does in and through the reality in which we live. Our praise (1:3) is grounded in the praiseworthy character of God himself (1:4-11).
Those who genuinely testify to God’s mercies will present [...Full item]
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Published on: 10 April 2011 at 10:30am.