04.17.2016 2 Corinthians 11 - the Gospel and Culture

4-17-2016 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

We pray that you would open up our hearts and know we need to hear from you. Lord, that we would set aside the distractions and concerns for these moments that our only thoughts or focus would be on Jesus and who you are and what you have to say to us and what you want for us and what you’ve done for us. May we remember those things. Lord there are many things to distract, many things that concern, many things that even cause us to be anxious, distressed, fearful, ungrateful. Help us to know Lord that you have given everything for us. He who did not spare His own son but delivered him up for us all That the things that we truly need you are able, and willing and ready to give. In your name we pray. Amen.

We’re going through 2 Corinthians and we’re in chapter 11. In verse 1 of chapter 11 it says “I wish that you would be patient with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are being patient with me!” Some background again, what’s happening here is that these false leaders, Paul calls them false apostles, are accusing Paul of many things. Some of these things they’re accusing Paul of is being weak, being feeble, being foolish, his message is foolish, he doesn’t understand, he doesn’t have wisdom. And so what Paul’s doing here is he’s saying okay I’m foolish. Well, just bear with me, the foolish one. You want to hear foolishness? And he’s going to use this to reorganize who the true foolish people are-these false leaders and what true wisdom is and that’s His gospel.

Then he says these words-“2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, because I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” In their day when a woman was pledged to a man in marriage in what’s called a betrothal. What would happen is the fathers would get together and they would set up the marriage. Now that doesn’t happen all that much today in our world but they would get together and the father of the girl would give her in betrothal to this man, this other family, to marriage. And then what would happen, because often the girl might be young it might go a year, two years or longer before the wedding would actually take place. In the meantime the father of the bride-to-be was responsible to protect the chastity and purity of the bride-to-be. It was his job and if that did not happen he would be to blame and there would be consequences. Primarily, serious financial consequences to the father of the bride should he fail to protect her chastity and purity. Then what Paul is saying, taking that and using it as a metaphor to simply say that he is the spiritual father of the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 4:15 he says “For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” They had many, many leaders and people coming into port with a trade center. So there’d be all these people coming in and teaching and preaching. There’d be many teachers but you only have one father. In Christ, through the gospel, Paul says I became your father-like Darth Vader I am your father. Spiritually he was their father and he realizes his responsibility. They were the bride and Jesus is the groom. And Paul is saying my job is to present you to Jesus pure and undefiled and he’s concerned.

He goes on next and says “3 But I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by his treachery, your minds may be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

What he does now is he goes back to the original bride, the first bride ever Eve and in once sense if we think about it the purest bride. She up until this point had yet to sin. What Paul is saying here is he’s talking about Genesis 3.

Genesis 3:1” Now the serpent…” So we’re immediately introduced to the enemy. The first thing Genesis does is it introduces us to the enemy and the enemy is a serpent. Now we understand because of the New Testament the serpent is Satan. Well, it doesn’t say Satan here it says the serpent and really they didn’t even come to understand this as Satan until probably in between the Old and New Testaments so they’re not thinking back when this was written that this is all about Satan it was just an animal. It was just a serpent whatever a serpent was, we don’t know. We’ve made it a snake but we’re not sure it’s a snake. He identifies certain characteristics about the enemy. “ Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.” We know the serpent of Satan, the enemy that he is deceptive, he is deceitful, he is a liar and he’s called that throughout the Bible, throughout the New Testament but what this word also means is that he is very skilled at deceiving. He knows how to deceive and he knows how to do it well. He knows how to deceive us. He knows exactly how to do it. He is skilled enough to know where your weakness is, where mine are. He knows where you’re susceptible and he knows where I’m susceptible to his deceit, to his treachery, he knows how to get to us. Paul’s really concerned because he knows how to get to the Corinthians and Paul’s concerned that he has. We know that. I know it, I feel it. There are times where I know he knows where I’m weak and where he can get me. You do too. When you’re in a situation where that’s happening. He’s no dummy in one sense.

“And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from [a]any tree of the garden’?” So we’re introduced to the enemy and his character and then what we see is how he goes about deceiving. He questions God’s Word and the truthfulness of God’s Word. That is the first thing he does. The way he attacks, he attacks by questioning the truthfulness of God’s Word and in questioning the truthfulness of God’s Word, he is also questioning the character of God. If somebody questions your word they’re questioning your character. If they don’t believe what you’re saying they’re questioning who you are and that’s exactly what the serpent does with Eve. His attack is on Eve’s mind and that’s where the enemy attacks. That’s what we’ll see in Corinthians. Your minds are led astray he says. The attack is on the thinking. His attack is on Eve’s understanding and the goal is to get her to doubt the word of God and the character of God. To question God. His weapons are words. They are persuasive and deceptive words. And he uses his word to discount God’s word. And what Paul is saying is this should sound very familiar to you. This is exactly what the enemies are doing, this is what these false leaders are doing. They are using their persuasive words to get you to turn away and believe wrong things about God, about Christ and about the gospel. This serpent was probably an unbelievable communicator. That’s what the false leaders in Corinth are.

The passage goes on here in chapter 3. It says “2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” So Eve answers back and then it says “4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

So the result of this attack and these words and the deception is that Eve believes the lies about the character of God. That is his ultimate goal, to get us to believe lies about the character of God. What he’s doing here is he’s saying Eve the reason He’s telling you not to eat of this tree is because He knows that if you do your minds will be better. He’s keeping something from you. He doesn’t want you to have this because it will make your life so much better if you have this and God is keeping that from you. That’s what the serpent says to all of us. Well if you just had that you’d be so much more satisfied. You think I don’t think God wants me to have that but he says well that’s because God doesn’t want your best here. Eve believes the lie and the consequences are catastrophic.

What lies do we believe about God? That’s the question we all need to answer ‘cause you know we all believe lies about God. You believe lies about God and so do I. And those lies that we believe are going to affect how we act and so we need to zero in on what the lies are.

A.W. Tozer said “What we think about when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” It will determine who we are and who we become. So we need to think well of God. We need to think accurately about God with understanding.

What are some practical things we think about that aren’t right? How do we fall into these lies?

First one and I think this is overriding, the first lie is that God does not love us. I think that kind of acts as a foundation for most of the lies. God does not love us and with that He does not have our best in mind. He doesn’t love us and He really isn’t interested in our good. Sometimes we’ll say yes we believe in one sense God loves us because the Bible tells you so that God loves us. We sang the song but I’ve found we don’t believe God likes us. What I mean by that is He loves me because He has to ‘cause He’s God but if he liked me he’d show a whole lot more concern about the things I’m concerned about. That’s a lie that we believe

Another lie is He’s not concerned about my welfare or happiness. What God’s really concerned about is that we do everything He says whether we’re happy or not.

Another one is that God is disappointed in us and we cannot gain His approval. We can never win God’s approval. That He looks at us and says boy are they a disappointment. Oh well, I gotta love them because they are my children.

Another lie that God is unfaithful to his Word. That He cannot or will not keep His promises.

Another lie is that my sins are so bad that God is unable or unwilling to forgive them.

We all have these lies that we’ve been told, that we believe. What are the ones that get to you? We need to identify them because what we see in the story of Eve is this. When we have wrong thinking about God. When we allow ourselves, we get deceived and we have wrong thinking about God that leads to a loss of devotion to God. Wrong thinking about God causes us not to love God the way we oughtta love God.

Jesus said when they asked him about the greatest commandment of the law he said you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. Inwardly loving God with everything. We focus on all the things we have to do, all the places we have to go but it’s about from the inner most part of our soul loving Jesus Christ with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. When we believe wrong things about God that love for God begins to be eroded, begins to dissolve by false beliefs about God and that leads to improper actions. It is the loss of devotion that leads to improper action and that leads to a broken relationship with God. We see that with Adam and Eve. And then that leads to more wrong thinking about God.

And so it becomes this downward spiral and when we see people who seem like they’re going down, down, down there’s a lie I believed about God and that is destroying my devotion to God and causing this destructive behavior. We can go to the top of that spiral and see the lack of devotion to God that leads to improper behavior and it just keeps circling, circling down and it all begins with a lie. Because what we think about when we think about God is the most important thing about us. We need to always go back and deal with the lie.

2 Corinthians 11 needs to be connected to 2 Corinthians 10 “3 For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down arguments 5 and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ.”

The word thought here in verse 5 of chapter 10 is the same word as mind in chapter 11 that your minds be led astray and what he’s telling us here just like with Eve. The attack is on our minds. On the minds and the thinking and the understanding of the Corinthians. The weapons the false leaders are using are words, persuasive words and just like Eve the Corinthians are being sucked into this. They are moving the people away from Christ. And Paul’s weapons here are words also. Only his words are spiritual words. They are words of the truth, words of the gospel. But they appear to be words that are weak and foolish, simple and insignificant and Paul makes it clear that it is a very foolish and weak word that holds the very power of God. That contain the power of God. The goal of Paul’s words and his weapons are so that the Corinthians might understand and believe the truth of the gospel and that they might obey the truth of the gospel. I think sometimes we confuse things and think that a person just needs to hold certain beliefs. So they can say I believe that so I’m okay. The Bible makes it really clear, sure you believe that but if you believe that then you will live that. You will live out what you believe. It will be seen in your practice. It’s believing and understanding the truth of the gospel but it’s I believe that and it’s transforming who I am as a person.

Let’s go back to chapter 11 verse 4,he says “4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough! 5 For I consider myself not at all inferior to those “super-apostles.”

What he’s basically saying here is what these false leaders have done, they’re preaching a different Jesus and a different gospel. That is the core of it. And that’s always the core of it. It’s always a different Jesus and it’s always a different gospel.

For them it came from two angles. The Jewish angle at the time was saying okay Jesus is fine and grace is fine but in order to really be good you still need to follow the Jewish laws and rituals, you must become Jewish. Gentiles must be circumcised. You must become Jewish. It was adding the Jewish ritual and ceremony to the gospel of grace. And Paul’s saying that is a different gospel, a different Jesus.

In the Greek and Roman world they were trying to enhance the gospel, enhance Jesus with human wisdom, philosophy and ability and persuasion. And Paul’s saying it’s a false gospel, it’s not true.

Both of them were deemphasizing the cross and the suffering of Jesus. They viewed that as shame, offensive and weak. They thought we need to get this up to where people can accept it and really believe it because they’re not gonna believe it the way Paul is telling it.

So, let’s make this practical. 2 Corinthians 11:13 he goes on to say this. He talks a little bit about these super apostles then he says “ 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

What is so amazing is that when Satan attacked Adam and Eve in the garden his words were very, very close to God’s. And in the same way these false leaders that Paul’s talking about are very, very close to the gospel but very far away from it. And those are the most dangerous of all. The closer you get to the truth without it being the truth, the more dangerous it is. That’s exactly what’s going on here.

So what I’d like to look at is there are plenty of false gospels being preached in our lives and in our churches. Gospels that get really close. We know there are cults and we’re not going to go there. We know that happens but what really happens is we take the gospel message and even though the gospel can go into any culture and be heard and understood within that culture. It can relate to that culture. Every and any culture. There’s a difference between that and taking the gospel and culture and marrying them and letting them intertwine with one another and that’s what so often happens and that’s what corrupts the gospel.

I think for us, here’s a big one, a false gospel that is preached is the gospel of the good life. And it comes straight from the Bible and the words of Jesus and it’s on so many of our gospel tracts. The verse is John 10:10 “10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and [a]have it abundantly.”

Okay, there it is right in the bible. That is true. He came that we might have abundant life here’s the problem. Many aspects of our understanding of the abundant life are absolutely nothing like the abundant life that Jesus spoke about. When we think of abundant life we think of it through the culture. What Jesus says about the abundant life directly contradicts our way of thinking about an abundant life. We’ve taken this gospel and we think this is the way it should be and what should be happening and the gospel really just becomes part of the American dream. The health and wealth gospel but there’s so many ways we do that.

Second thing is the gospel of doing justice. Again it gets so close to the truth. Jesus in Luke 4 emphasized the importance of doing justice. He came to do justice, to feed the poor, give sight to the blind. Doing justice is biblical. As Christians we should be doing justice but it can become so much the focus that we forget and lose sight of the fact that it’s only through the cross that a person can come to faith. Jesus said there’s no other name but the name of Jesus that a person comes into a relationship with God. There’s no other way, it is only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that a person comes into a relationship with God, through the name of Jesus. But what happens is through doing good as we ought to we lose the grace that comes through the cross.

Third way, the gospel of morality. I think this is a huge one. We love to connect the gospel with moral behavior and especially sexual behavior, that is our culture. Now let me say this, it is very true that we should behave morally, the Bible is clear on that. The Bible is clear on sexual moral behavior but in making that, in giving that a position that the Bible doesn’t give we forget that Jesus did not come to call the moral but sinners to repent. He came to call sinners not the moral to repent. We see the gospel as simply a form of behavioral modification not spiritual formation. What God wants to do through the gospel is transform us on the inside to deep within our soul. We become people who are so enamored and in love with Jesus and we become so much like Him or at least becoming so much like Him that it becomes natural for us to be moral. We’ve been so transformed because of Jesus we bless those who curse us, that’s what we do. It becomes what we want to do. Now, that process takes a long time. It is a process we are on. I think when we present the gospel we only focus on the forgiveness of sins, the gospel forgives our sins. But what the gospel also does is it gives us victory over sin. That’s really clear throughout the Bible. Jesus didn’t just forgive sin He destroyed it, He conquered it. And in the gospel message there’s tremendous power to change us , to transform us and it needs to be a part.

And then finally, we have turned the gospel into a belief system. The gospel is not a belief system it’s a person. His name is Jesus. And so what we say is as long as you hold certain views, you hold these views then you’re good. God didn’t call people to hold certain views. What did He call them to do? He called them to follow me. That’s our call, follow me. Now obviously there are things we must believe, there are views we must hold. But we are called to follow Him. To walk as He walked, to walk where He walked. Just to be willing to submit to His leading, to give ourselves to Him that He might change us and transform us. We are saved by Jesus Christ. By trusting in his grace we become his follower, we follow Jesus, that’s what he’s after people who follow Him.