Reading from the revelation that comes from the God who loves you, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. We're going to be looking at leadership in this book, and even the Apostle Paul speaks about his jurisdictional limits. And I think this is a great passage to start with. 2 Corinthians 10, verses 12 through 18. For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves, but they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us, a sphere which especially includes you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though our authority did not extend to you. For it was to you we came with the gospel of Christ, not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men's labors, but having hope that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's sphere of accomplishment. But he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends. Amen. Father, I thank you for your word. And as we dig into the book of Second Corinthians, I pray that you would enable me to clearly, accurately communicate this word, and all of our hearts would be drawn more and more to you as a result of having heard it. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, last week we looked at 1 Corinthians, and it was pretty clear from that book that Paul's relationship to the church of Corinth was pretty tense and pretty complicated. And I want to give you a little bit more background information that I think will help you to understand this book. Now, we speak of this book as being 2 Corinthians, but it was really the fourth letter that Paul had written to the church in Corinth, Paul had planted this church in his second missionary journey. I think last week I may have deviated from my notes and said first missionary journey, I'm not sure, but second missionary journey somewhere around 8050 with the help of Silas and Timothy. Paul believed in team ministry. A lot of times nowadays, people want to go off and do everything solo, including church planting. Paul was a strong believer in church ministry as a team, and his team had been with the church at Corinth for 18 months, and then he left it in the hands of its elected leaders. But he kept hearing about problems, major problems in the church. He wrote his first letter before 1 Corinthians, and it may or may not have been an inspired letter. We're not told, but God clearly did not intend it to be a part of the canon. It was intended just for that church. And there was obviously some misunderstanding of that previous letter, knowing the kinds of leaders that had snuck into this church. They may have deliberately created some of this misunderstanding, but even if that's not true, they capitalized upon it, and they fanned the gossip and the negativity against Paul. Paul then wrote 1 Corinthians around 8055, to clear up quite a few misunderstandings as well as some new questions that had come up. Sadly, that letter was not received very well by the church. In fact, the leaders implied that Paul had no authority, told the people that nobody needed to listen to Paul unless he could produce credentials from the mother church, don't even listen to Paul, and so they're actually displaying a false humility. You know, we need to be under authority. They're not under authority themselves, but that's what they're saying about the apostle Paul. Forget about the fact that he had planted this church as an apostle directly commissioned by Christ. These leaders were planting slanderous accusations against him, and so the letter of 1 Corinthians was basically ignored. But Paul loved them. And he definitely did not want this relationship to die, so he fought for it. And just as he had threatened in 1 Corinthians, he came to Corinth to deal personally with the immorality and the divisiveness and some of the other issues that we looked at last week. Now, that visit did not go well, to put it mildly. He doesn't say that he's kicked out on his ear, but it's very clear that his message and his presence were rejected. He was rebuffed. He was even mocked by the people to some degree and insulted. Paul was not polished. He was not eloquent. He was definitely not good looking. He was poor, his clothing was out of style, et cetera, et cetera. Paul was not a with it leader. Now in contrast, the leaders that Corinth respected were very polished, good looking, very wealthy, successful in the eyes of the world. They wowed their audiences with their oratorical abilities and they gave the people what they wanted to hear in their preaching. They were very satisfying. in their leadership style, and they drew the crowds in. I believe Daryl Dash is correct when he says this. Our most common leadership model within the North American church resembles that of the Corinthians. We long for the so-called super apostles. We want the gifted, the successful, the articulate, the men and women who get things done. Our leaders are allowed to suffer, but only in the past tense. We want winners, people who've beat the odds. In contrast, Paul will speak about true biblical leaders as recognizing their weakness, their total dependency upon God. He will say that they need to be looking not to the wisdom of the world, but to the wisdom of Christ. And continuing the theme of 1 Corinthians, he says that true leaders are consumed with a passion to serve the Lord of glory, or to use the metaphor we looked at last week, before the glory cloud in the temple, everything else fades into insignificance. That's the kind of leadership. So there are really two kinds of leaders. There is the popular leadership style of what Paul sarcastically calls the super apostles, and the not-quite-so-fun leadership style of Paul and his team. So after being rejected at that visit, Paul wrote another letter to them, letter we don't have today. This would be the third letter to the Corinthians. And he refers to this letter as his painful letter, the letter filled with tears, the severe letter is what he calls it. Now, for some reason, the Holy Spirit used that third letter and perhaps the persuasive powers of Titus, because Titus carried that letter too, Corinthians, the Holy Spirit used that to bring the majority to sincere, deep, sorrowful repentance. And Titus is thrilled, and he brings the message back to Paul that the majority of the church had followed through on what Paul has commanded. They had excommunicated the man who was who was married to his stepmom and they had Recognized Paul's authority and they were actually dealing with the things that Paul had commanded them to do So that repentance is actually described. Let me go ahead and read it I don't have it in my notes here, but chapter 7 verses 11 through 12 he says for observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner and what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication, in all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you." So, they had a genuine repentance in—amongst the majority. Now, of course, Titus told Paul that there's still a pretty sizable minority, including these super-apostles, that did not repent. They were not pleased with the reaction of the majority who were now siding with Paul. And so Paul was moved by the Holy Spirit to write the letter of 2 Corinthians to kind of wrap things up assure them of His love, and to convince everyone that the super apostles really are not following the biblical model of leadership that is clearly outlined in the Scripture. So, he's trying to move things forward. Now, I think this book is an incredibly marvelous tribute to what leadership should look like, especially during tense and complicated times. And I might as well tell you what happened after that. So, Titus takes this letter as well to Corinth, And there's another brother who travels with Titus, and this is either in late AD 55, or more likely it's in AD 56. In the meantime, Romans 15 19 tells us that Paul visited Illyricum, And then Acts 22 says he came to Greece, at which time he was at Corinth for three months, staying at the house of Gaius, according to Romans 16, verse 23. Now, I think most people assume during those three months, he completely dealt with all of the remaining problems at Corinth, especially since the majority had been siding with him. He was able to clean things up. So when Paul left Corinth, to travel to Jerusalem. He was going to travel through the port of Centuria by ship, but he got wind that the Jewish people who had rided against him before, were planning to kill him, either in Centuria, or if they couldn't do it there, on the ship, maybe throw him overboard. And so Paul, whose plans are constantly having to change because of similar plots against his life, says, okay, I'm not gonna go by ship, I'm gonna go over land. By the way, these types of changes in his plans are one of the things that these super apostles use against Paul. They say, Don't trust Paul. He's not reliable. Look at all of the times that he's changed. You know, they don't add in there that the Holy Spirit led him to change because he's about to be killed, you know. But anyway, they use that against him, and so Paul even defends himself on this within this book, saying, hey, nobody can predict the future. God—we make plans, we must make plans, but God can sovereignly change them. So enough by way of background, but I think you can see this is really a tense and complicated situation that Paul is trying to navigate. Now, thankfully, this book is really easy to outline. Chapters 1 through 9 constitute Paul's remarks to the majority who have repented and who love Paul and who now cited him, while chapters 10 through 13 constitute his very severe words to the minority, including the super apostles. totally different tone on both sides of the book. Everybody recognizes that. Now, we're going to start with the admonitions to the majority in the first nine chapters. In chapter 1, verses 1 through 11, we find that Paul does not believe in the health and wealth gospel. Huh, imagine that. He does not believe that suffering disqualifies us from being model leaders. These verses, and actually the whole book, constitute the very opposite of what the health and the wealth gospel teaches. Indeed, Paul will say that without suffering, it is highly unlikely that you are following in the steps of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's basically what he says. So let's take a look at some of these verses. Verses 3 through 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. What incredibly wonderful promises. I want you to notice two alls in these verses. He says, first of all, God is the God of all comfort. All genuine comfort comes from God. Now, this will introduce a later theme of false comfort versus genuine comfort, because the world does have a false comfort that tries to avoid troubles, or if you can't avoid the troubles, putting a bandage over the troubles. But the God of all comfort different. He comforts us where? In the midst of our troubles. And we need to make sure that the comfort we give to others flows from God's throne. He is the God of all comfort. And He also says He comforts us in all our tribulation. There is no affliction in No exception to this thing. There's no affliction that you face where you cannot have access to God's comfort. And if you are comfortless, there's something wrong with your faith, how you are appropriating this, because God gives this as an absolute guarantee. Now, God does not promise to get rid of all tribulations for us, does He? He does promise comfort in the midst of absolutely every difficulty. And I think we as leaders have to learn not to despair. Leaders are always going to get attacked, and you've got to learn not to despair. Instead, we need to learn to be like David. Remember David at Ziklag? His town was burned, everything looted, all of the wives of their men were taken away. He'd lost everything, and his men even turned against him. It says, he strengthened himself in the Lord. He had learned, even in the midst not to despair, midst of terrible affliction, not to despair. And why do we go through suffering? Well, verse 5 tells us it's because we're united with Christ. I think the remnant church that is suffering needs to immerse itself in 2 Corinthians. It is an amazing, amazing book. Paul says, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Let's just think about that for a sec. Romans 8 verse 17 says that the only way you can be an heir with Christ is if you also suffer with Christ. American Christians don't like to hear this message. We'd like to bypass that. The airship sounds cool. In Philippians 3.10, Paul made it his life goal not just to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. Those are the two cool things that everybody quotes, but they don't quote the next part of that sentence, which says, and he wants to know Christ in the fellowship of his sufferings. Too many pastors think suffering is wrong, has nothing to do with God. They attribute all suffering to the devil. They rebuke all suffering. But the paradox of this book is that if you are a leader who successfully avoids all suffering, you're also without the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and you're probably unable to extend comfort to other people. I know it's an upside-down viewpoint on leadership, but 1 and 2 Corinthians, everything it says really is upside-down. We're supposed to reject the wisdom of the world and embrace the wisdom of Christ, including in terms of our leadership. Again, using the metaphor of last week, when you stand before the glory cloud, the presence of God, everything else should fade except for His glory, His wisdom. And this is a book designed to transform our views of leadership. And we find later in the book that the super apostles had tried to discredit Paul because, think of this, they tried to discredit him because he was poor, He had bad eyesight, had physical maladies from various beatings and stonings and other afflictions. And they thought, well, obviously God is not for him or he wouldn't be afflicted so much. But far from disqualifying Paul, he says that suffering is a necessary qualification for pastoral ministry, pastoral leadership. You have never been tested for leadership until you go through suffering. Verse 4 says that He comforts us in all our tribulations so that we will be able to comfort others who are in any trouble. So basically, he says suffering qualifies us for ministry. So take heart, those of you who have been through incredible pain and discomfort and tribulation. God can use that powerfully. And he says the same thing in verse 6. He says it in many verses in this book. In verse 8, Paul admits he suffered so severely he thought he was going to die. But in verse 9, he realized this makes him depend upon the God who raises the dead. We are not self-sufficient. That's the bottom line. Our sufficiency is in God's supernatural power. Now, I don't have time to do this section justice or probably any of the other sections in this book, but I think that little section there is a great introduction to the rest of the book, and I think it overthrows much of the evangelical world's views on leadership. I've read a ton of books on leadership. And a lot of them, at least many of their points, are the opposite of what Paul says. In verses 12 through 22, Paul says that true leadership is consistent and faithful. Our yes must be yes, and our no must be no, no matter how difficult that may be. And this imitates the faithfulness and the consistency of God. Verse 20 says, for all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him, amen, to the glory of God through us. Now, we live in an era when creeds and constitutions that leaders have sworn to uphold are routinely broken. And I say creeds and constitutions because pastors who take their vows to the creeds are doing so with crossed fingers almost as frequently as the civic officers are. We live in an age of leaders who are chameleons, who change with whatever pressures arise, and Paul refused to do that. He's basically modeling for us what biblical leadership should look like. Now, another thing that I see in Paul is emotional leadership. In chapter 1, verse 23, through chapter 2, verse 11, or this is what Ken Sandy refers to as relational wisdom, Paul navigates some extremely tough and turbulent emotions that are happening at that church with courage, with care, and a godly goal. He is not intimidated by the emotions of others. and his own emotions are captivated by Christ's grace. Now, if you just write down all of the words related to emotion in that section, I think you'll recognize he is aware of the emotions that other people have. He does not overreact, but neither does he give a clinical, objective, You know, I don't know what they call it, but where you're backing off from the emotions. You've got a distance there. That's what a lot of leadership books at least used to say that you ought to do. No, Paul feels what they are going through. He identifies with their pain and he explains his own emotions and helps others to get through the turbulence to a solution. If you want some fabulous material, I'm not going to dig into it and give you the answers for yourself, but If you want some fabulous material, go to Ken Sandy's new website, rw360.com. It stands for Relational Wisdom 360. I think Gary says that we have free access through the end of June. Is that right? So you've got only a couple days left. You've got some time where you can listen to some of the training materials. But what was it that raised so much emotion? Well, I, with the majority of older commentators, believe it was the discipline of the man in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the man who would scandalously married his stepmother. Most modern commentators think it could not possibly be that man because that's such a he and a sin. Paul couldn't possibly have lifted the discipline so soon. They're scandalized by that idea. Well, they just have a faulty view of what discipline is all about. David Garland goes through every argument that has been raised against this identification, and he says, actually, any other theoretical—because it's only theoretical—problem person that they raise up, or that they think may have been there, actually raises more problems than it solves. So, as I said, it's a failure to understand the purpose of discipline that I think has made many people scandalized by this. Let's just go through these verses. I think they're important. Verse 6, This punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, is sufficient for such a man." Now, there is debate on whether it's the majority of leaders or the majority of the congregation. Either way, there were still many, including, apparently, the super apostles, who hotly contended against this discipline, which to me is astonishing. that people think it's unloving to discipline this man who's married to his stepmother, just an unloving thing to do. But a failure to discipline does not love that man, does not love the congregation. It's a fake worldly love. In any case, the majority agreed with the discipline. And the reason I say it doesn't matter whether it's the majority of leaders or the majority of the congregation, as both are always involved anyway. I'll just illustrate with the last two steps that sometimes take place. There is an optional step before excommunication called shunning. And when the leadership of a church calls upon the congregation to shun a particularly heinous sinner, it is the moral obligation of every person in that congregation to not eat with them, golf with them, have anything to do with that man. Okay? And if they refuse to do that, what they are doing is they are siding with the rebellion. They are going against the discipline. On the other hand, those who engage in the shunning are definitely involved in making that discipline effective. So, that just illustrates how both leaders and congregation are involved in the discipline. Same is true of the discipline this guy got, which was excommunication. Now, obviously, the leaders can remove such a man from the membership roles all by themselves. They can bar that person from the table. They can keep him from talking on the floor. But it's really the congregation that gives effectiveness to this when they then consistently treat that person as if he is an unbeliever. Only God knows the heart, but we're to treat Him, Matthew 18 says, as if they are an unbeliever, and the purpose is to bring them to repentance. And you just don't see this in the modern evangelical church that much. It conflicts with the leadership models they've been trained in. Now, verse 7 gives the goal. This man had sincerely repented, and the church did not want to restore him. They didn't want to invite trouble back in, I guess. So verse 7 says, so on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. So the man had repented. The congregation didn't want him back. And Paul said, look, if there is repentance and there has restitution taken place, you have to forgive him. You have to bring him back in. Now, this is counterintuitive for some people, and they think, well, this guy has caused so much trouble. He has been so divisive. He has sided with the super apostles instead of with Paul. Why would you want such a person back in your congregation? Well, see, they're missing the whole point of discipline. Discipline's not for the purpose of getting rid of a troublemaker. It's to bring repentance and holiness. Now, we aren't told how many weeks or months went by, but Paul was indicating that this man was in danger of being almost swallowed up by sorrow. Presumably, he had divorced his stepmother because it was not a lawful marriage. And Paul indicates that his repentance was sincere. Now, the early church interpreted it the same way I did, with the exception of Tertullian. He was kind of a perfectionist, and he said, if a man like that repented, we still wouldn't bring him back into the church. And so, he said, it must have been somebody who had a lesser sin that Paul's talking about here. But all of the evidence, I think, says the contrary. It's not the seriousness of the sin that matters, but the genuineness of the repentance. Now, verse 8, therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. That's the goal of all discipline. Welcome a repentant lost sheep back into the arms of the church and to reaffirm our love to the person. But really, it takes strong leadership to help a congregation navigate those scary waters. Verse 9, For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. So just as discipline was a test, restoration was also a test of whether these people were willing to radically submit to God. leadership does have to obey God's Word, and they become tests of the congregation. We live in a time right now when there are anarchists out there who just bristle at these kinds of things. If leaders were to do that, they bristle at it, but to me it just shows the spirit of Korah. Anyway, Paul had been far more hurt by this man than the congregation had, and he said, look, if I'm willing to forgive him, you ought to as well. Verse 10, Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ. Lest Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. So what had been going on previously, Satan had taken advantage of the congregation because they were too lenient. Now Satan is in danger of taking advantage of them because they're too harsh. You know, lack of forgiveness? Satan will always take advantage of that. By the way, when the elders ask you, don't be troubled when they say to you, look, I'm just checking up on you. We give regular spiritual checkups from time to time. But we say, is there anybody that you have not forgiven that you need to, or that you've not asked forgiveness of? We're doing that because we don't want Satan to take advantage of you. Okay? It's a spiritual checkup for your welfare. Though there are a lot of other themes, chapter 2, verse 12, through chapter 6, verse 10—big, large section there—definitely deals with Paul's overarching philosophy of the ministry of leaders. And he gives his first principle in chapter 2, verses 12 through 17, where we see a God-centered ministry that relies on God's power, not ours. Verse 12, Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord." So it's Christ's gospel, not ours. It's doors He opens that we walk through, not doors we pry open. And verse 17 says, we should do it not for our own advancement, but as ambassadors of Christ. It says, for we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ. Now, the New American Commentary gives this comment on the word peddling. It says, he does not market the gospel with an eye for the bottom line. To survive in the marketplace, the peddler must adapt to the market, either by making sure that he has what people want to buy, or by tricking them into thinking that they want to buy what the peddler has to sell. This is the essence of the seeker-sensitive church growth movement. It is not God-centered, it is seeker-centered. It is constantly adapting the message and the environment to be comfortable to those that they're trying to attract in for their money and for their statistics, right? Paul refused to have that kind of a man-centered gospel, even if it cost him dearly. Who was he accountable to anyway? He was accountable to God. And in verse 14, he says, he is a bond slave of Jesus, Jesus who would conquered him in order through Paul to make the fragrance or the aroma of Christ in every place. And he knows not everybody's going to like his message. He's okay with that. Verse 16, he says, to the one we are an aroma of death, leading to death. Those are the guys who hate his message. to the other the aroma of life unto life." So yes, he is a servant to the people, but ultimately he's a servant of God to the people. The next principle is seen in chapter 3, that the true gospel transforms lives. It's not just head knowledge. Paul could care less about inflating numbers, or that people rate him highly in his preaching, or he gets, you know, so many likes on Facebook. He could care less about that. What he cared about was whether people were being transformed from the inside out by the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is not accompanying our preaching, no matter how good our oratory, it is useless. It will fall to the ground, is the way that the Scripture speaks of it. So, he is calling for a Spirit-empowered, a Spirit-dependent leadership. And by the way, don't start tuning me out because 2 Corinthians is preaching to preachers. Every one of you is leaders at some point in your life. Even you little kids are probably influencing in a positive or a negative direction your little siblings or other girls and boys in the congregation. And you need to make sure that you are doing this in a God-oriented way, not a manipulative way that glorifies yourself. All of us need to understand Paul's philosophy of ministry. Now, it's obvious. in the first verses of chapter 3, that some were questioning Paul's right to speak, but speak he must, because he's a steward of the mysteries of God, and he knew that the Word of God had power to change people into the image of Christ. I think the image that he uses is incredibly beautiful of Moses being in God's presence, and Moses could not help but change, and his face even glowed. So he uses that illustration to say, Unbelief is like having that veil over the face. Faith is like having your face unveiled where you're being transformed more and more into the image of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I wish I had time to preach on that. It talks about the power of the new covenant. We've got to understand that power, unleash that power in our ministry. Now let's move to chapter four, which indicates that Christ must be the central theme of our ministry. When a leader is consumed by God's glory, he's not going to try to lure people into the church with gimmicks and music and stories or anything else. His goal is to bring God's Word to bear so that the Spirit will take it and transform people. So let's read verses 1 and 2. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. The New Covenant leader's tool is truth, not gimmicks. There is nothing seeker-sensitive about the ministry of Paul in chapters 3 and 4. It's a God-centered preaching with a God-centered goal. And even if people rejected the message, he does not change the preaching. Look at verses 3 through 5. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. Now, all of these principles we're going to be going through are principles we as preachers, especially as leaders, need to embrace. We do not preach ourselves. We preach as bondservants of Christ, with an eye to pleasing Him. And we trust His sovereignty, that His Word will always have God's desired effect. Some people, it will harden. Some people, it will soften. But we preach Christ and the whole Word. And anyone who's been a preacher for very long knows the power of God's Word to sovereignly transform lives in verse 6. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So unlike the rock star preachers at Corinth who drew attention to themselves, Paul likens himself to an ugly clay pot in verse 7. out of which is shining the treasure of Christ." Now, when you look at that pot, you're not enamored with the pot. That's not where your excitement gets. You say, whoa, look at this pot I've dug up. And people say, what pot? Well, you're really talking about the treasure inside that pot, right? And to me, this is so encouraging. Paul's inadequacies encourage me to quit looking at myself. If you're so discouraged because you think of yourself as an ugly clay pot, Say, yes, Lord, I'm glad I'm an ugly clay pot. I want to show forth Your treasure. I want people to see that even in my weakness, Your strength is made manifest. Now, why is Paul even giving all of these instructions? Well, I believe he wants the leaders and the majority to realize that they've blown it, that they have failed in their leadership, and he wants their leadership transformed. Now, I'm not going to have the time to go in the kind of detail I have so far through all of these sections, or we'll never get through the book, but it is a book that deals with what kinds of leadership ministry is consistent with the glory of God in his temple. For example, Biblical ministry doesn't quit when there are trials. Verses 8-10 say, We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. See, many leaders quit when the going gets tough. But God says, if we've embraced true biblical leadership model, we're going to keep going despite overwhelming trials and hatred from the culture and opposition of men. In the next section, that's chapter four, verse 16 through 521, we find what motivated Paul for leadership. How on earth could Paul, despite all of this opposition, keep going and keep going and keep going? Well, we find out that what motivated Paul is quite different than what motivates the leaders of this world. And I wish I had time to preach in depth on each one of these things, because they are amazing. But every one of us leaders needs to be motivated by the things that motivated Paul. Let me at least list them with an odd verse or two. First, Paul was motivated by an eternal perspective. Look at this chapter four, verses 16 through 18. Therefore, we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Second, Paul was motivated by the resurrection in chapter 5 verses 1 through 8. Yes, he experienced incredible difficulties in his body. He groaned in his body, but he also realized that his body meant something to God. It was important. Otherwise, God wouldn't resurrect it. And, you know, when he's in danger of dying in his body, realize, you know, I don't need to fear death because I'm going to be resurrected. There's a number of ways in which that was a motivator. Third, he motivated himself in chapter 5 verses 9 through 10 by the thought of future rewards in heaven. Now, if you knew that for all of eternity you would have a head start in the eternal dominion you're going to be taking, We're going to be dominion creatures for the rest of our lives, all through eternity. If you were to have a head start by the things you do right now, it would really motivate you to please God. And I find it so sad that so many Reformed people think the only reward that we're going to get is we're going to get to heaven and see Christ. Now, all by itself, that would be enough for me, right? That's great reward. But Christ says we need to be laying up treasures in heaven, and He indicates the things we do right here on earth are laying up those treasures in heaven. So think about it this way. Your metaphorical bank account in heaven, when you die and you go there, is either going to start with a balance of zero, or it could be a balance of millions. And that's going to make a huge difference. This is just a metaphor. I don't know what's going to exactly transpire, what the treasures are. But where you start in eternity is going to give you a huge benefit and advantage over other people who are saved, but that's about it. They haven't laid up any treasures in heaven. So, where you start in the afterlife is determined by what you do here, and I think knowing that motivates us to faithfulness. All of these motivators, I think, have spurred me to action despite discouragement. Next, he's motivated by the love of Christ in verses 11 through 18. Verse 14 says, the love of Christ compels us. Very interesting word. It drives us. It moves us. It motivates us. The more we know of Christ's love, the more we're motivated to love and serve others. Now, I preached an entire sermon just on that verse, so I'm not going to delve into it today, but this is a very powerful motivator for my ministry. In verses 17 through 21, he says that he's also motivated by the reconciling power of the message. What could be more exciting and motivating than having seen several people who have gone through sexual abuse when they were growing up finally freed from those things that are tying them down? What could be more motivating than seeing people chained in the chains of pornography, freed forever? What could be more motivating than to see broken marriages progressing so much that they tell you, our marriage is better than when we even started at the beginning? Okay, now those are verses that certainly motivate the individuals. Oh, there's hope for me, Lord, but they also motivate us leaders tremendously. In chapter 6, verses 1 through 10, we see that biblical leadership seeks to be clear of any legitimate offense in ministry. And I say any legitimate offense because it's pretty clear as you read through this book. that Paul was not without some offense. The super apostles were super offended with Paul and that man that was under discipline. Initially, it's clear he was offended himself. He did not initially submit. So Paul was an equal opportunity offender in that in that regard, but he did not ever want to offend God, and he didn't deliberately offend people. In other words, his goal in life was not to be abrasive, not at all. Instead, he was willing to endure all kinds of privations and slander for the sake of others. He says, in much patience, in tribulation, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings. And he goes on to say, these are actually marks of the ministry. Okay, this is not a self-absorbed leadership of the world. This is a leadership that sacrifices for the good of those that it is leading. The world actually sometimes approximates this, especially, you know, soldiers in battles, when they have each other's back, there's some tremendous stories of that. So they approximate that, but these are the kind of marks that church leaders are called to. They really should be marks of every leader. In verses 11-13, Paul promotes honest relationships. He's not content with superficial niceness. In the rest of the chapter, in the first verse of chapter 7, he's unashamed of preaching exactly what God's Word says, even if he's going to be hated by the world for preaching it. Now, this actually could lead to our persecution. We've received a bit of persecution. Pretty mild, right? The picketing and stuff like that. This could receive some kinds of persecution from the world, but God calls us to preach this kind of antithesis, even if it means stepping on people's toes. He called them to be holy and warns them, as members of God's temple, they must separate from all wickedness. I'll just go ahead and read this, because I think it's self-explanatory. 2 Corinthians 6, beginning at verse 14. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part is a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." It's an amazing call to antithesis that I believe the modern Church desperately needs to embrace. Now, in chapter 7, verses 2 through 12, we see that Paul knows how to handle conflict resolution. I, thankfully, preached on this not too many weeks ago, and so I'm not going to mention it again. But if you don't know how to engage in conflict resolution, just encourage or listen to that sermon again. This is a fantastic chapter. And verses 13 through 16, we see that biblical leaders are connectional with other leaders. Now, we already saw that earlier in the book, and you see it in Paul's other epistles and in the book of Acts. And despite his skills, he was never a loner. He learned how to lead others, to involve others in work. A lot of leaders think, well, I can do this faster than anybody that I'm leading. Why don't I just do it? That's missing the point. We need to be connectional. It's for their good that we involve them in these ministries. And by the way, with the exception of Barnabas for a short period over John Mark, Paul strove very hard to be connectional. Everybody thinks Paul was a pretty gruff guy. But despite his gruffness, he worked hard to be connectional. Then in chapters 8 through 9, we have some amazing guidance on tithing, giving above and beyond the tithe, asking for money for mercy ministries. Now, our church has been kind of shy about asking for money, you know, even our offering plate. We have it in the back. We don't collect offerings. And we do it for, you know, a reason. There's so much abuse of money in the megachurch world out there where, you know, these people have yachts and jets, and there's just abuse. And so people tend to overreact and go in the opposite direction. It's an overreaction. Paul was not shy about preaching what God's Word had to say about finances in the church. That's the bottom line. He rebukes them for having mistreated him in their salary, and they're not giving him, well, they gave him such a poor salary, he just said, look, I'm not going to take a dime from you guys. You got such poor attitudes on this. And he got his salary from the Macedonians. And it was really a shaming of them, which irritated them as well. But anyway, it's an interesting thing that Paul talks fearlessly about finances, but he always makes it in a Christ-centered way. Verse 9 says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. He talked about the church messengers that were going to go there to collect the mercy ministry's offering. He spoke of them as messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. He's trying to be real Christ-centered. And I'm just going to go ahead and read without comment chapter 9, verses 6 through 11, some of the most famous verses from that chapter. But this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written, he is dispersed abroad, he is given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. So I think in some ways we may have failed you in failing to talk about stewardship. Now you know this whole year is devoted to stewardship, right? Stewardship of our bodies, of our minds, of our finances, of our children, of everything that we have and that we are. We don't want to avoid talking about this because it really is for your joy to realize when we are faithful stewards, God says, I love giving back into your life, you're a faithful steward here, here's more, here's more, here's more. Whereas when we're lousy stewards, God says, you know what, I'm going to start pulling back what I've already given to you. And so especially in this year when the elders have been focusing on being better stewards of our time and talents and of other things. I think this is a chapter that's worth meditating on, meditating deeply. Even look at it from different angles. You can look from the commands, you can look at the promises that are in there. Gary's given a number of fabulous sermons on stewardship of other areas. I think the next one is going to be stewardship of stuff, right? Money, stuff, And I look forward to that. Maybe you'll preach even from this chapter, since I'm not doing it. But fabulous, fabulous chapter. I get really excited when I start thinking about stewardship before the Lord. It's an adventure. Now, this brings us to chapters 10 through 13, where the tone completely changes. Everything has been fairly positive up to this point, but Paul suddenly takes on a severe tone, and the tone is so different that, weirdly, some commentators think, this must have been another letter that was spliced onto the previous, and evangelicals say, no, that's That's not true. It's much easier to just say chapters 1–9 are to the majority who had repented and now sided with Paul. Chapters 10–13 are to the super-apostles and to the minority who supported them. In chapter 10, verse 1, through chapter 12, verse 21, Paul deals with their slander, accusations, and attacks against his character. Now, if he had just been slandered by people outside the church, he probably would have just left it alone. and ignored it. Almost all leaders have to face slander that they can't deal with. But this is a case of slander within a church that he has jurisdiction over. And if slander from within isn't dealt with, it spreads like cancer and can destroy the church. And so he has to answer the slanderers. And let me just list them fairly quickly. He answers the charge of cowardice, or cowardice, however you pronounce it. I like the South African way, cowardice. He says, don't confuse cowardice with patience. They're quite different things. He said, I've been patient with you, but I am no coward. In fact, if you guys don't start dealing with your sins, I'm going to deal with you with a rod. And Paul was going to—he's slow to pull out the stops, but he was going to pull out the stops if they did not repent of what they are doing. So he said, basically, don't confuse patience with cowardice. In chapter 10, verses 3 through 9, he answers the charge of walking in the flesh. A very frequently quoted section from the book, and here is how he denies that charge. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God. For pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. I have read these verses quoted hundreds, literally hundreds of times. Almost all of them leave out the last part of that sentence, discipline. Eh, it's just not positive enough. Everything else is positive, right? But I find it interesting that discipline is one of those weapons that is powerful in God for tearing down strongholds. And I have personally seen God back up discipline in remarkable ways over the years. Sadly, the vast majority of evangelical churches have probably not engaged in church discipline even once in the last 75 years, if you were to ask them. The vast majority. That's what the statistics seem to indicate. There is no church discipline. They prefer the carnal tools supplied by the church growth movement, and this book is a corrective of the modern church on a massive scale. In verses 7 through 11, he answers the charge of personal weakness. They claim, hey, the reason he's writing to you is because he can't back up his threats. They're almost daring Paul to do something with them. In verses 12 through 18, he answers the charge of overstepping his jurisdiction. Now, jurisdiction is a very legitimate subject to discuss and examine. We leaders must not overstep our jurisdiction. But in their case, it was a bogus charge. And interestingly, the super apostles who lack any jurisdictions are the one who's challenging Paul's jurisdiction. It's really a weird thing. This happens, I believe, when the spirit of Korah invades churches. Anyway, Paul points out that the super apostles have no jurisdiction. He knows exactly what his jurisdictional limits are. As I said, we need to know them. But take a look, just as an example, at verse 13. We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us, a sphere which especially includes you. So he knows his bounded sphere, or his bounded jurisdiction, that God has given to him, and each of the other verses deals with one facet or another of jurisdictional issues. So we as church leaders dare not overstep the family's jurisdiction. The family should not overstep the church's jurisdiction by engaging in communion, or baptism, or house-churching. The state must not overstep the church's jurisdiction, which the church has invited them to do, and they apply for 501c3 status, and a corporation, a corporate status. But God has put all of these bounds in place, and we need to know what they are. By the way, there's other jurisdictional issues you need to know in your business and civics. But in this case, it was a bogus charge. And one other point I think I should make, and this happens so frequently in churches, maybe I've already mentioned, I'm not sure, but this charge almost always seems to be leveled against legitimate leaders by those who have been influenced by the spirit of Jezebel, spirit of Ahab, or the spirit of Korah. And if you don't know what those spirits are, you need to listen to some of the other sermons I've preached from Revelation. But when you start to see too many of those kinds of accusations, begin to examine whether they are guilty of the very thing that they're accusing others of. In chapter 11, verse 1, through chapter 12, verse 13, he defends the office of apostle against the false apostles who used deceit to gain informal leadership influence over the people. And he minces no words about exposing their false credentials and goes to great lengths to defend his own credentials. Now, in the last decade, there have been numerous people who have used false credentials—they've gained traction, you know, on social media—in order to attack the true credentials of leaders in the Church. And it's important that Church members understand these tumultuous times and not be sucked in by the rhetoric of modern super-apostles. Paul's even a bit embarrassed to compare himself to them, but since they boast about being Hebrews and ministers, etc., he shows how they're really nothing, even when compared based on their own presuppositions. So he's arguing against a fool according to—how does the expression go, David? Don't answer a fool according to his folly. Well, this is saying, okay, based on your own presuppositions, you're nothing. Chapter 11, verse 22, and following. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more, and labor is more abundant, and stripes beyond measure, and prisons more frequently, and deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Find that in deaths often. I wonder how many times he got resurrected from the dead. Some people think that's not a possibility nowadays. I actually know of people who have been raised from the dead. I have a relative who was, what's it called, where their body is completely rigid after being dead for a while. Yeah, rigor mortis and raised up. You can ask Kathy about that. But anyway, he goes on to speak of the enormous sacrifices he has made to serve the church and to serve Christ. So he's basically saying, Look, these are bogus attacks, but if you want to argue pitting who's the hardest worker, okay, I'll show you who's the hardest worker, but those aren't the credentials Paul is interested in. He prefers not to argue in an ad hominem way, even though it's sometimes necessary. Sometimes we have to answer a fool according to his folly, but he primarily sticks to the Bible. He gives his credentials scripturally and under Christ. Now, here's the bottom line that I want you guys to understand. and his apologetic about office. Because of so much abuse of church office, and there has been a lot of abuse of church office in the last 100 years, What has happened is people have overreacted, and they have completely tossed the concept of authority, completely tossed the concept of office. And with very convincing rhetoric, they make you look like an abuser if you defend the office. But it is a slander against Christ and against His Word to fail to defend the offices that God has instituted. And so Paul vigorously defends his office. In chapter 12, verses 14 through 21, he answers the charge of lack of love and taking advantage of them. And he shows basically how manipulative this charge is. I mean, how do you even answer that? It's such a subjective thing. You don't love us. Well, I mean, he says, You know, all of these things, are those not love? But how do you answer a thing like that? You know, I don't feel loved by you, Paul. You can't. It's really tough. And so he just basically calls it what it is, manipulation. He says, I'm not going down that path. But in the last chapters, Paul speaks about the advantages and disadvantages of his being personally present there versus writing letters. Each has its advantages, each has its disadvantages, and commentaries draw that out very well, so I'm not going to get into it. There are actually a number of papers and books that have drawn out at least a few of the principles that we've covered today from 2 Corinthians, But the bottom line is that the leaders that the Lord of glory establishes must not operate like the world. That's the bottom line. They must get their wisdom and leadership from Christ, and they must depend upon the power of the Holy Spirit in their leadership. So the two kinds of leadership are worlds apart. One has the power and the blessing of the triune God to back it up, and the other leadership only has their human skills to back it up. So, do pray for us leaders, the elders and the deacons, that we would be faithful to our charge to be God-centered in our leadership. And again, I just remind every one of you, you're all leaders in the making—men, women, and children. You have influence upon other people. And the question is, do you lead with the wisdom of Christ? May it be so. Amen. Father God, we thank You for the lessons in this book, and may we each grow as a result of having studied these. May we grow more and more into the image of Christ. May we follow the Apostle Paul even as he followed Christ. Bless this, Your people, I pray, as we strive to be more like Jesus. And it's in His name that we pray. Amen.