2 Corinthians 2:1-11 Epilogue

2 Corinthians 2:12-13: Epilogue to 2:1-11
Theme: Having no Rest in Our Spirit in a Divided Church
Read 2:9-13

Last week I concluded with an application to the question “How do we obstruct Satan in our church?” Unfortunately, I did not have time to give an expanded application, so I have worked that into this week’s message which is an epilogue to the entire section. I’m sure you will be glad to know that this is the final sermon in a series which began last September and was originally only intended to be one message.

If life imitates art, how much the Word of God; and I believe that God has been speaking to us and revealing his will to us in such relevant and spectacular ways from this 2000 year-old letter written in response to some difficulties Paul was experiencing in the church he planted in Corinth. In fact, Paul describes the worst case scenario for the church in Corinth this way in 12:20 (NASB):
For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances;

These are Satan’s devices which he uses in the church. So the occasion which provoked Paul to write 2 Corinthians was the accusations and slander (the devices of Satan) which were being directed at him from the false teachers (the super-apostles) whom he describes as the ministers of Satan.


No Rest in His Spirit:
In v. 12 Paul describes his emotional condition after the disastrous visit to Corinth. After he left Corinth he found himself in a state of spiritual anguish that was probably one of the lowest points in his life and as a result he wrote a ‘letter of tears’ in which he says he wanted to test the church to see if they would actually discipline the man who had wronged him: “For to this end” he says, “I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things” (v. 9).

Paul wanted to know if the Corinthians were willing to defend their pastor. And as we have seen, they were; in fact, they were so willing to defend him that Paul had to write them and beg them to turn from it and forgive the man.

So in verse 12 Paul says that he arrived in Troas because God had opened up an opportunity for him to preach the gospel. But in spite of this wonderful opportunity, Paul had no rest in his spirit because Titus had not come to him there and they did not meet up until Paul went to Macedonia. Doing the work of the ministry is no promise that everyone will love you. In fact it may mean even your closest friends will turn against you. John Armstrong says that “If pastors do the work they are called to do, it will cost them more than ever” especially in this me-centred age. Who is sufficient for these things?

This is a key phrase and a feeling that many pastors share: “no rest in my spirit” over the spiritual condition of my church. Its stated in the negative here, but in other places Paul says it positively; for instance in 2:4 he calls it affliction and anguish of heart.
In fact, all of the affliction that he describes himself as suffering in chapter 1 is the affliction he suffered not so much because the mob in Ephesus tried to kill him, but it was because of the events at Corinth and the personal attack he suffered there. What he is saying is that while he was in Troas, he experienced no relief from the anguish he had expressed in his letter of tears because he had received no word from Corinth regarding how they had responded to it.

I was at a city-wide pastors’ prayer meeting on Wednesday that turned into an impromptu testimony time of pastors sharing some of their difficulties. Some pastors talked about the depression that their wives had experienced as a result of the ministry, another pastor confessed that he was deliberating over leaving his church because he no longer felt like he was the leader there. Another pastor broke into tears as he talked about his pain.

Have you ever had that kind of a job? This is harder! Being a pastor is not a job, or a profession- it’s a sacred, prophetic calling! It’s a calling to shepherd God’s sheep, to watch over their souls and to nourish them with His Word. Jesus said, “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me” (Lk 10:16).

If you want to understand the pastor’s heart for his church, look at how Paul describes it:
· 1:6 he says he was suffered so that his church would be comforted;
· 1:24 he is a coworker for their joy
· 2:4 he says he wrote his letter of tears so that they would know the love that he has for them;
· 2:10 he forgives the very man who caused him grief for thier sake;
· 3:2 he describes the church as his letter of commendation written on his heart;
· 4:8-12 he says he is willing to suffer unto death so that they might live (in fact in Phil 1:23-26 he says that his desire is to depart and be with the Lord, but he presses on in the flesh for the sake of the church and Colossians 1:24 says that he actually rejoices in his sufferings for the sake of the church);
· 6:10 he says he willingly goes in poverty so as to make others rich;
· 6:11 he opens his heart wide to them and speaks freely;
· 7:1 his testimony is that he has never wronged or corrupted anyone;
· 7:4 the church is his boast;
· 7:7 the churches zeal for Paul gives him great joy;
· 11:1 he is jealous for them with a godly jealousy;
· 11:2 he describes his relation as that of a father who has betrothed his daughter to Christ (1 Cor 4:14-15 Paul says that in Christ he became their father and 1 Thess 2:7 he is like a nursing mother to the church);
· 11:7 he is willing to be humbled so that they may be exalted;
· 11:8-9 he never burdened them with his needs, though he had many;
· 11:11 God knows his love for the church;
· 12:14-21 he is worried about the sins in the church;

This is why Paul is in such anguish over the accusations of vacillating and selfishness that he endured in Corinth; and that was just after he nearly got killed in a riot in Ephesus for preaching the gospel. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. An attempt on his life causes Paul less anguish than the false accusations of brothers. This is why it is so pernicious when Satan gets a hold of believers and uses them as his device to divide the church.

I talked about that last week and I listed some scriptures; let me remind you of some of them,
16 These six things the Lord hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
17 A proud look, A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,
18 A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that are swift in running to evil,
19 A false witness who speaks lies,
And one who sows discord among brethren. (Pr 6:16-19).

Pastor and Leadership expert Calvin Miller who teaches conflict resolution at Beeson School of Divinity lists Six Difficult Souls (See The Empowered Leader by Calvin Miller p. 140 ff.):

1. Chronically Arrogant:
This person, he says, suffers from an inferiority complex in which they compensate by being strong willed and imposing their opinions on everyone else. They may only ever hope to be number 2 in their secular job and so they compensate by going after the top position in the church.

Oswald Sanders warns against ambition in the church. He explains that the word ambition comes from the Latin meaning to campaign for power; it suggests attempting to attain social visibility, popularity, peer recognition, and the exercise of authority over others. Anyone who is ambitious to be a pastor has gravely misunderstood the call if they think that’s what it is. Sanders says, “Jesus had no time for such ego driven ambition. The true spiritual leader will never campaign for promotion.”

The Chronically Arrogant assumes that the church revolves around them and so they make sure that they have their fingerprints on everything that goes on in the church and you can bet they have an opinion on every matter and that if they are not in control of it, they are opposed to it. In fact, if they are not included in leadership decisions, their opinions become self-fulfilling prophecies because they see to it that it does. Even when they are included in business meetings, they “leave every meeting a mine field of pending holocaust.”

Miller says that the Chronically Arrogant must be stopped and it is usually the pastor who has to do it! If not, they will destroy the pastor and then they will destroy the church. But he warns, we do not deal with monsters by becoming monsters ourselves and unfortunately, the church never runs out of Chronically Arrogant, according to Miller, there is always a new batch hatching.

2. Congenitally Belligerent: They declare war on leadership
The Congenitally belligerent is another difficult soul. (It must be remembered that “a heart crying to be loved” is the real condition of many of these difficult souls). The Congenitally Belligerent are always aggressive and verbally abusive towards others, especially the leadership. They thrive on conflict and in the absence of it, they are sure to create it.

I remember a couple in our church years ago pulled me aside before the service and they had an air of deep concern. My heart sank into my gut, because this couple was one of those congenitally belligerent couples who were always confessing my sins to me. This time, the issues that could not wait until after the service was that one of the members had used too much cream in his coffee and now there was only half a litre left and I needed to confront the guy immediately. You should have seen their face all through the service: like they had just suffered the worst spiritual abuse.

The congenitally belligerent are always mad. And because the more gentle people are afraid of them, they usually get their own way. Miller says, “to get them out of their fearsome mode, a fearsome challenge must be given.” Effective leaders will have to collide head on with these people.

3. Non Negotiator: They won’t inform
For the non-negotiator, silence is not agreement- it’s aggression. They resort to whining and complaining behind the scenes to attract commiseration. By they time they arrive at a meeting, they don’t need to say anything because they’ve already done the work on the phone before they came.

4. Nitpicker Ammends greatness with smallness
They major in minors and find fault with everything. Miller says, “How often I have seen persons making mountains out of molehills until the church had arrived at a way of life that was only a maintenance project”.

5. Wheedler: Needles leadership confidence
Their whining is so unpleasant that others let them have their own way rather than to have to listen to them whine. Its s form of emotional blackmail.

6. Finally there’s the Yes-Butter
The Yes-Butter meets every great idea with a “Yes but it won’t work because…”

Leif Anderson warns of the seriousness of letting these people control your church. He says, “Empowering [these people by giving in to them and letting their behaviour become the way of getting things done] rewards dysfunction… if they are not dealt with the result is that churches keep dissenters and lose happy healthy people to other churches.” Hebrews admonishes believers to,

14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled (Heb 12:14-15).


Paul took a stand against that behaviour. He didn’t just roll over. 2 Corinthians and his Letter of tears is his stand. Its not a weak, limp wristed, spineless stand. Its bold, courageous, sometimes humiliating, but always godly and loving.

The comfort he was looking to find in Titus was not the personal companionship of Titus, he was hoping for good news that Titus would bring from Corinth regarding the whether the Corinthians had passed the test. We know this because of 7:6:

6 Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.
8 For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. 9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

Application:
There is no such thing as a flawless pastor. John Piper says, if you encounter a difficulty or disagreement with your pastor,

….admonish him in a spirit of forgiveness. I have never talked to anyone in my life who is completely satisfied with his pastor. There is a very simple reason: All men are imperfect. Some people never seem to learn this. and they hop from church to church in search of the flawless pastor. That's hopeless. It is far better to find a church where you feel at home and to consider it your life­long responsibility to help the pastor grow. Everyone would like to change something about his pastor, but how many of us have devoted ourselves to earnest prayer about that thing? And how many have sat down with him and with a humble, forgiving spirit admonished him to change? If we love him we will do it ... and he is not all that scary to talk to.

Nobody in this church has been given the responsibility to confess my sins to any one else. That’s my job. Here are some them: I don’t pray as much as I should; I don’t read my Bible nearly as much; I have not shared the gospel in over a month; I am also prone to gossip; I am jealous of pastors who have more success than me; I grumble against leadership; I enjoy it when someone I don’t like fails; I procrastinate; I avoid confrontation; I am not as organized as I would like to be; I have not spoken to my mother in many years (because of extenuating circumstances); I look at beautiful women and lust; I don’t always signal when I make a left hand turn (or a right turn for that matter); I am bad a returning phone calls; I have been carrying a balance on my credit cards; I watch television programs that have content that I preach against on Sunday morning; I’m not the best communicator (in fact a better preacher could have preached this message in 20 minutes and said it more effectively, but I struggle to put the words together); I am also vain about my personal appearance and spend more time at the gym than I do in prayer.…..

So now, if someone comes to you and confesses my sins, if they mention one of the ones I just told you, agree with them and invite them to pray for me. If it’s not on the list, send them to me so I can add it.