Sayre Woods Bible Church

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. 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. (2 Corinthians 5:4-5)

While we are in our bodies on this earth, we groan and are burdened.

I had to look up these two words…groan and burdened. They are interesting Greek words. Groan is from a Greek word, stenos, meaning “to be in a narrow place” while burdened is from a Greek word, baros, meaning “heavy in weight.” So we are stuck in a narrow place with weights on top of us. That’s Paul’s picture of life on this earth.

As I get older I am understanding this more and more. When you reach 40, you start realizing how quickly life passes and how easily the body starts to break down. You also start witnessing more and more tragedy. Just this week I talked with someone who lost a precious grandson in an unexpected way, someone who lost a 36-year old friend to an aggressive cancer, and prayed for others who are waiting for test results or who are interceding for loved ones facing serious health issues. Life is beautiful…but it also cruel at times, tragic, hard to fathom. For instance, how do you fully contemplate the tragedy in Haiti? Thousands of parents gone, spouses killed, brothers and sisters missing, children taken away. You almost become numb to it.

Paul says that on this present earth we are like people living in temporal tents…stuck in a narrow place…oftentimes with heavy weights on our shoulders…longing for something better…waiting for heaven…when tears are wiped away, tragedies are ended, and what is mortal is swallowed up by life.

Death is swallowed up. It is removed, disarmed, defeated…and life reigns. O Grave, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55)

This is our hope. And it is guaranteed by God who made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit.

In the midst of life’s struggles, we hold onto the promise that God is preparing us for something better, that our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (4:17).

And in the meantime, the Spirit of God walks with us through this narrow place, giving us daily strength to carry the burdens, and filling us with joy and peace as we pitch our tents on this earth waiting for God’s kingdom.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us (2 Corinthians 4:7).

This is my life verse. At some point during college, I came across this verse and it stuck with me. Liz liked it too and we had it printed on our wedding program. The minister who performed our ceremony spoke on this verse as well.

I can’t remember exactly when I “adopted” this verse. My recollection is that it was sometime during my sophomore year of Bible college. I had entered Bible college with big dreams and, to be honest, an inflated view of my ability to accomplish great things for God…or for me. After my freshman year my home church asked me to be their summer youth intern. I was thrilled. I had visions of impacting tons of youth with my new found knowledge and zeal. But the summer was a failure. Most of the youth…people I knew in high school…were simply not interested or couldn’t quite see me as a leader. My ideas floundered and nothing seemed to connect. One of the low points was a Bible study I had planned and promoted as actively as I could. The night of the study two people showed up. My girlfriend and her sister. Things didn’t get much better after that.

When I came back to school my confidence was shaken. The first day of chapel was a praise/report service where students were invited to share their experiences from the summer. Classmates all around me stood up and shared about successful mission trips, ministry opportunities, people saved, and lives changed. I remember thinking, “I wonder if I should stand up and say that my summer was a complete failure and that as I far as I could tell no one was impacted by my three months of ministry.” But I didn’t. I sat there partially humbled and partially envious of those around me. But God was working in my heart.

At some point that year, we studied 2 Corinthians and the words of 2 Corinthians 4:7 hit me.

We have this treasure… The treasure of knowing Jesus Christ, of reflecting God’s glory, of being indwelt by the Spirit, of being forgiven, set free, and blessed, of being a part of God’s grand plan of redemption.

In jars of clay… We have the greatness of God’s glory in weak, fragile, mortal bodies. We fail, get tired, get sick, get discouraged, get overwhelmed, fight our own emotions, wrestle with our flesh, struggle with doubt, experience tribulation, confusion, opposition, frustration, deterioration. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

To show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. God has given us a great treasure, a great task, a great responsibility, a great ministry…in weak bodies. Why? So that we could not accomplish anything apart from Him. Our mortality drives us to His life. Our confusion drives us to His Word. Our sorrow drives us to His joy. Our weakness drives us to His strength.

It was at that point that I began to understand ministry and the Christian life better. It was not about “success”; it was about faithfulness…following God day by day, growing in love for others, and leaving the results up to Him.

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)

If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! (2 Corinthians 3:9)

We have been given a ministry in Jesus Christ. It is not a ministry of condemnation. The Old Testament law is what condemns. It judges us and lets us know that we are all sinners.

When we read the Ten Commandments, we should not be happy if we think we have obeyed 8 out of 10 (and are pretty sure that our neighbor has only got 3 out of 10). God does not grade on a curve. If we have broken the law at one point, we are guilty of the whole law (James 2:10). We are lawbreakers. We have violated the eternal law of God. We have fallen short of His righteousness. For instance, when we stand in traffic court, the judge is not impressed if we say, “Your honor, in my driving history, on average, I have stopped at 96.7 of 100 red lights. Therefore, I think you should ignore this ticket and rather praise me for my high compliance average.” The law doesn’t work that way. When you break it at one point, you are guilty. And if running a red light is enough to make us stand before a judge and pay a fine, then imagine the penalty for violating even one of the Ten Commandments of the Holy and Righteous God.

But our ministry is not standing on the streets and yelling at people, “You are sinners!” Yes, acknowledging one’s sin is the first step in salvation…just as acknowledging one is an addict is the first step in recovery. But recovery ministries don’t yell at people, “You drunkard!” Rather they confront a person lovingly, knowing their own weakness as well, and then point them to the cure.

We have a ministry that brings righteousness. We have a ministry that points to the only cure for sin, Jesus Christ.

It is a glorious ministry. Later, Paul will call it the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:19-21). We implore people in love, “Be reconciled to God!”

It is the ministry of freedom. We proclaim true freedom. Not political freedom but spiritual freedom. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Freedom from the penalty of sin. Freedom from the power of sin. Freedom from guilt, self-condemnation, excuses, self-righteousness, performance-based religion. Freedom to be loved in Christ and to love God and others in return.

It is the ministry of hope…and since we have this hope, we are bold to share it to others. “Freedom is here. Grace is available. So please come to Christ.”

¹²Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, ¹³I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia. (2 Corinthians 2:12-13)

There are some great verses in today’s reading…but my mind is particularly drawn to verses 12-13.

Paul went to Troas (a city north of Ephesus and about 200 miles northeast of Corinth across the Aegean Sea). His plan was to preach the gospel. And the Lord opened up a door of opportunity for him there. But Paul missed it. His mind was preoccupied. He was so torn up about the situation in Corinth that his mind would not rest until he heard news from Titus.

I love Paul’s honesty. There was really no reason to mention this failure. Why would an evangelist like Paul talk about missing an opportunity to preach the gospel to a city of people who were apparently eager to hear? There were people ready to hear the good news of Jesus and Paul simply left. He said, “Adios,” and went to Macedonia (a region north of Corinth) to wait for Titus there.

The only reason I see for including this in his letter is that Paul wanted the Corinthians to know how much he cared about them. Paul had “no peace of mind” when there was “no peace” in his relationship with the Corinthians. The situation weighed so heavily on Paul’s psyche that he couldn’t even preach until he knew it was resolved.

Wow. I guess Paul took seriously Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount:

Therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23-24).

According to Jesus’ words, unresolved relationships hinder worship. According to Paul’s experience, unresolved relationships also hinder evangelism.

⁵If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. ⁶The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. ⁷Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. ⁸I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. ¹⁰If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, ¹¹in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

Again we are not real clear of the exact situation in Corinth. Either Paul is referring to church discipline against the man living with his father’s wife (mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5) or he is referring to another incident in which someone in the church at Corinth opposed Paul and spread discontent in the church against him.

An article at www.bible.org states the following:

It seems as though the person referred to has committed some offense against Paul, and the Corinthian church has taken up for Paul by censuring that person from their fellowship. It further seems, in the context, as though this offense against Paul occurs at the time of his “painful visit” and his “painful letter,” rather than at the time of the writing of his first epistle.

Whatever the case, the Corinthian church, which was once lax in church discipline, now seems to swing the pendulum the other way and really goes after this particular offender. In fact, Paul has to encourage them “to call off the dogs.” Okay, that’s enough, guys. The punishment is sufficient. Now reaffirm your love otherwise you may lose this person permanently.

Love and discipline. Grace and consequences. Mercy and justice. It is a tough balance.

As a parent, I am faced with that challenge on a regular basis. One of my sons crosses the line and I struggle to know how to be firm and loving at the same time. Sometimes I feel like I let him off easy because I want him to know that I understand and I forgive. Other times my anger and lack of patience seem to get the best of me and I come down too hard, too fast or too harshly. I yell at my kids for yelling at each other…and then realize my hypocrisy…and later find myself asking for their forgiveness for my own lack of self-control.

Balancing mercy and justice is never easy.

Some of us drift to the mercy side…”overlook this one”…”give them another chance”…”it is not that big of a deal”…”love must be gentle.”

Some of us drift to the justice side…”nip it in the bud”…”deal with it now”…”come down hard or they will keep doing it”…”love must be tough.”

In Micah 6:8, God calls us “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” It seems that the only way to truly balance justice and mercy is to walk step by step in humility before God. There is no magic formula. There is no flowchart that covers every possible scenario. We simply have to take the Lord’s hand and say, “Guide me! Help me to know when to be firm and when to be gentle, when to enforce consequences and when to extend grace.”

In Galatians 6, Paul gives the proper balance in discipline:
¹Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. ²Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, ⁵for each one should carry his own load.

Confront…but with gentleness. Deal with it…but watch your own susceptibility to sin. Help solve the problem…but don’t think of yourself as some super saint.

In short, walk humbly with your God.

There are many pieces that have to be put together when you read 2 Corinthians. Apparently the chronology is something like this:

• Paul spends 18 months in Corinth and establishes a church there around AD 50 (Acts 18).
• The church has problems, specifically with immorality, and Paul writes a brief letter to them regarding keeping company with sexually immoral people (see 1 Cor. 5:9).
• More problems develop in the church and Paul writes 1 Corinthians to address them (~AD 55).
• Paul plans to visit Corinth twice after writing 1 Corinthians but on his first visit things do not go well. Paul is challenged by a particular contingent in the church and the visit ends up being a painful one (see 2 Cor 1:23-2:1). Thus Paul decides not to return again…which his critics pounce upon as further evidence that Paul is wishy-washy.
• Instead of returning to Corinth, Paul writes a very strong letter to the church delivered by Titus (see 2 Cor. 2:3-4, 7:6-12).
• Paul eagerly awaits the return of Titus with a report on how things were received. Titus returns with good news and Paul is relieved. This is the occasion for writing 2 Corinthians (~AD 57).

Hopefully that helps you understand the basic history behind Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1-2.

Here are the verses that struck me this morning:

¹So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you. ²For if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you whom I have grieved? ³I wrote as I did so that when I came I should not be distressed by those who ought to make me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy. ⁴For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you. (2:1-4)

Paul is emotional. He is not a Stoic who takes everything in stride. He is not a rock. His rejection at Corinth brings pain. The fact that his words grieved the Corinthians grieves him. He feels their distress. And he confronts them only with “anguish of heart and with many tears.”

This is a far different man than the one who stood by and watched Stephen get stoned to death. The former Pharisee and persecutor has become a tender-hearted, emotional apostle.

Sometimes I think that the more I mature in Christ, the less emotional I should become. I should take things in stride. Be less impacted by others. Be a little thicker skinned. Cry less. Feel less. Let my mind control my emotions.

I am not so sure that is the picture of spiritual maturity.

Paul becomes more emotional not less. He feels pain more deeply. Relationships impact him more. His eyes shed more tears.

It is not surprising. Jesus is described by Isaiah as a “man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3). And the Gospels portray Jesus as a man who was moved with compassion when He saw people’s weaknesses, wept at the impact of death, and cried at the hardness of men’s hearts.

A healthy heart cries. A hardened one doesn’t.

I will never forget hearing my Dad give his testimony at a men’s breakfast several years ago. He broke down into tears. It was the first time I saw my Dad cry. The man who was so self-assured, so strong, so distant to me as a  kid stood there in front of a gathering of men and cried. He never appeared so strong in my entire life. His vulnerability before others showed me his strength. It also showed me that the work of the Spirit was alive and well in his heart.

I pray that the same thing is true of me.

I was thinking of a New Testament book to read through before the Live Like You Were Dying campaign and thought of 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians was written by Paul to the church at Corinth. Once again, Paul has to deal with problems within this church. The Corinthians were a “high maintenance” group of believers. The problem was that they thought they were spiritual and knowledgeable and on top of things, but Paul saw their immaturity and pride…especially in the way they related to each other. In 2 Corinthians, Paul also has to defend himself from critics within the church who regarded Paul as unreliable and unimpressive. They apparently saw Paul’s persecutions and struggles as evidence of his lack of effectiveness and lack of God’s blessing. True “apostles,” in their eyes, were successful, authoritarian, eloquent, able to perform great acts, and recipients of divine visions and mystical experiences.

Here are the verses that struck me today…

⁸We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. ⁹Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

Why does God allow hardships into our lives? Is it a sign that He has abandoned us or that we are under His divine disfavor? Paul gives us at least one reason for hardships in verse 9.

But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

Paul was feeling overwhelmed in life and in ministry. He was in various “troubles” (4), “sufferings” (6), “great pressure” (8), and “despaired even of life” (8). God put him in a situation that was “far beyond” his ability to endure. Why? Why would God allow this?

To increase Paul’s faith. To compel him to rely on God to a greater degree. To cause him to operate on God’s resurrection power and not on his own meager strength.

Difficulty draws us to God. Change occurs in the crucible. Faith grows in the fire.

I often wish there was a different curriculum. But God obviously knows our hearts…and knows what it takes to get us to humble ourselves, stop our busyness, look at life seriously, and seek Him alone.

Posted by Greg McKinney

I must say this is one of the types of passages I most assuredly skipped over when I used to read the Bible. I saw it coming some days ago in Pastor’s reading schedule labeled as my passage to offer a comment or two.

I was dreading it. What’s to say about a list of ancestors? Didn’t seem like a Christmas Eve subject.

So the Lord gives me a little food for insight before sharing…

I’ve just come back from a visit to my own father, who is a resident at Care One in East Brunswick, a nursing home.  He’s been there a ‘couple’ of years now.  We shared with him a couple of re-gifted presents, a sweater shirt too small for me, and a wool ‘beanie’ cap of mine that Donna, my wife, didn’t like on me.  Donna had also baked an assortment of cookies and neatly packed and decorated them as if they had come from Fifth Avenue–the way only she can.

Dad was appreciative of it all, especially the baked goods. He politely declined to try on the shirt and cap, so we described them to him and he smiled. He thought he was dreaming it all, and asked if we were really there with him. He asked the occasion for all this attention and we reminded him it was Christmas Eve, and yes, we were really there.

Dad has a degree of dementia or Alzheimer’s. He is also blind.  Lately he stays curled on the bed, head pressed to his knees, arms wrapped about his calves. He can’t be more than a hundred pounds or so, but that image weighs a ton.

It’s not easy realizing I may never be able to get him out of that one room.  Some son, I tell myself.

It’s hard to leave him at the end of our stays, and I can’t say that I’m getting any more used to it.

Sometimes I wonder about this man, my Dad.  Why this, why that?  Who was he before I knew him? Who was he as a little kid running around his house?  I know he was a pretty good sax man, a boxer, played some basketball, ran track…I wonder about his dad. What would my life be like if my father had done this or that?  What if I had a different…

I don’t relish the guilt.  I wonder what my kids wonder about me…

Back home, I declined going to the church evening service, (no ‘boos’, please) but still felt like sharing.

So I’m wondering about ancestry, fathers and mothers and children and family. I roll it over in my head ‘Greg, the son of Leonard, the son of Enoch…’ I’m getting caught up in thinking of and become amazed at the countless links and branches and twists and turns in my own ancestry that would get me back to Adam.

It leads me to the thinking of the wonder of God’s order. Each successive father and son specifically put into place, into a sequence upon which this creation is based.  We are each born at the properly appointed time, to the properly appointed parents.

Each of the men in Jesus ancestry represents a generation of God’s specifically chosen path for Jesus’ birth. Jesus could have appeared right after Adam and Eve sinned.  Could have been born to Noah, or Abraham or David… But no, apparently the world was not ready. It needed to be prepared in some fashion.  Time had to pass. Millions of people had been planned to come and go first. Historic, and the seemingly insignificant events needed to fall into place.  In my mind’s eye, I picture all of eternity as a mural God has painted.  I picture his index finger tapping somewhere in the middle indicating ‘He will be born here.’

And just as specifically as Jesus had an appointed time, so too do I.  So too, did my dad.  So too, do we all.  So too, have we all had specific parents.

It’s sometimes very difficult to get my mind wrapped around the idea of God having all of history and future days mapped out.  In reality, I only see this very small portion of this mural of a eternity. I cannot completely see how my life will affect my own Grandchildren and their families, much less see how this single night plays out years from now.

The answers to all the ‘whys’ of our parents aren’t all answered for us.  It’s not because there are no answers—there are answers to all the questions—it’s just that the Lord chooses not to reveal them all.  Not just yet.

I know in my heart, when I don’t let it slip, that there is a plan.  A very specific plan. A plan more detailed than any ever constructed. A plan that considers even the hairs on our heads. Our God is not making this up as we go along.  Nothing is left out. “…not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” There is that mural of each of our lives—already painted and signed.  It is the very reason God can assure us with the words ‘all things work together for the good.’

When it’s all said and done, we are one of the generations preparing the world for the second coming of Jesus. At the appointed time…

“Lord, mercifully increase our faith. Ever remind us that you are a God of order and perfect plans.

greg

PS May I simply add that I appreciate all of you–my extended family–and extend my thank you for all of the ways (probably many unknown to you) that you have upheld me and my family this past year. The Lord has blessed through you. So very much love and season’s greetings to all of you.