Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / October 1, 2023 | 2 Corinthians - A Scheme of Satan

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October 1, 2023 | 2 Corinthians - A Scheme of Satan · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So uh if you're hopping on with us to 2 Corinthians this week, you're coming in at a little bit of a uh the middle of an argument.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, that can always be awkward when you walk into a room and two people are sort of having this heated thing and you're just like, I'm just gonna walk out now, right?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't wanna.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of what's happening with Paul is uh you'll recall last week he had this hard message about how when there's real conflict between friends and those that we love, and in particular the community of Christ, that he has an expectation that by applying a certain amount of pain, that there will be a joyous sort of unity that results in the end if people, again, are united in Christ.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, Paul was sort of in the process of explaining why he wrote a letter instead of visiting the Corinthians so that he could apply the appropriate amount of pain.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so last week our conclusion was, you know, sometimes in order to reach the joy of unity, we have to have these hard conversations, we have to experience pain at times so that we can have a resolution.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the good news is that uh the individual that Paul had this problem with, and we don't know a whole lot of details, but the individual that Paul had this problem with uh eventually said sorry.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: The pain that was applied to them by the body of believers in Corinth made this individual recognize their faults and say that they had messed up and they wanted to come back.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so the question that then reaches us this morning is uh what do you do when the person who has deeply hurt you says sorry?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what does it mean to sort of walk through the process of forgiveness as Christ would have it?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then, as you'll see in our passage this morning, which is gonna be 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11, at the very end of it you'll see how even this process of forgiveness is something that Satan has a deep desire to be involved in.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna learn more about that at the very end.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're with me, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: We'll read there, and this is our whole passage this morning.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we're gonna be.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, if anyone has caused pain, right, and I'm already stopping.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the the uh just a recognition, right, of what we've already covered about what pain means, and so this is not physical pain per se, but right, the pain that comes out of love and hard circumstances and having this conflict.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone has caused pain, he has caused pain not so much to me, but to some degree, not to exaggerate, to all of you.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: This punishment by the majority is sufficient for that person.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: As a result, you should instead forgive and comfort him.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, he may be overwhelmed by excessive grief.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote for this purpose, to test your character, to see if you are obedient in everything.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone you forgive, I do too.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: For what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your benefit in the presence of Christ, so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So at the very beginning here, Paul is speaking of this conflict, and this conflict was personal.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um we don't know exactly what the conflict was.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: The details are not given, not even the individual's name is given, which actually gives even more credence to the idea that they were forgiven.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Paul didn't want to openly shame them in this letter.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but nevertheless, we don't know what the problem was.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: We just know that Paul had a problem with somebody in Corinth.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it was most likely a personal disagreement and probably an offense that they gave to him, as opposed to some kind of theological disagreement, which he probably would have mentioned.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the other detail that we can only assume is that the uh the offense to Paul was so great that it rose to the level of church discipline.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and that's going to be the other thing that's present here, because at the very beginning of the passage, he says, if anyone has caused pain, which is kind of this like hypothetical statement, right?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, uh, we know they've caused pain.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: But if anyone has caused pain, speaking generally to whomever that might affect, right, um, he has caused pain not so much to me, but to some degree, not to exaggerate to all of you.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the word here is, right, he's saying the majority of you have felt the pain that was done to me.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this amazing concept that's presented here where being a body of believers, being a church that is connected as one under Christ, it means that when you feel pain, you should feel pain.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when you feel pain, you should feel pain.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when you feel joy, you should feel joy.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like there in almost a the uh sense of biology, we are this interconnected organism, or you can even just think of your own body, which is the analogy that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians when he says, right, somebody's the eye, somebody's the toe, somebody's the elbow.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the same thing that is true here.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I have been hurt.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And just like when you, you know, ram a door frame with your toe, and your whole body's like, we're gonna focus on this right now, right?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: That is what's happening here.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's the entire body is responding almost as this defense mechanism against the one who has offended Paul.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that isn't true for every single slight that ever happens, that it sort of rises to this level.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: But here in Corinth, Paul was not only sort of the father of this church and the authority figure, but he was a deeply loved member.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so even though he's in Ephesus writing right now, um, the, or later on in Macedonia, I should say, uh, the truth is that the Corinthians were dealing with the one who had hurt Paul even though he was absent.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so when it comes to this church discipline, you know, uh, we did bring this up last fall when we tackled 1 Corinthians.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hard concept for us to wrap our mind around because it's so unusually conducted in our world today.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: The idea that an entire church might censure one person was something that was much more common back then.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was a little bit easier to do when churches, you know, were a couple dozen people instead of a bit larger.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: But what's happening is that the same principle that was applied last week is being applied this week on a larger scale.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So last week, if Paul is saying, hey, sometimes in conflict out of love, we do the painful thing so that there might be unity and joy later on.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now we are extending that into this broader circumstance of the entire church where they are saying, Hey, as a as a body of believers, sometimes we go through pain so that the individual or the party will understand the problem, the significance of the grief that they have caused, that they will grasp how painful their actions are, and they will respond.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: There are many lessons I hope that you can take away this morning, but one of them is that Christian discipline, and this applies actually to the personal as well as to the corporate or wide scale, is that it is not punitive, but it is restorative, meaning that it is not intended when church discipline happens or when these uh sort of boundaries are put in place.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: They are not there for the purpose of intentionally hurting or taking revenge or bringing shame to somebody, which is so often the way that we often interact with the world, right?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: We want to just make the other person feel the pain that they have caused us.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's punitive.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and Christian discipline is not that.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Christian discipline is a measured response with the ultimate desire of restoration and rejuvenation.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: The only reason they're going through this is so that hopefully this individual might turn back from their behavior and be restored in fellowship because we are united in Christ.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so, even though we might not hang out with each other outside of Jesus, because of Jesus, we have this unity in this fellowship.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what happens in this story.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: We actually find out later on in chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians, but this individual, whomever they were, that gave an affront to Paul, excuse me, they said they were sorry, they repented of their behavior, and then they wanted to come back.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hard situation to be in.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hard situation to be in where so much pain has been caused.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, letters are being written that made it into the Bible, okay?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you have done that, you have hurt somebody.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So much pain has been caused in the situation.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody, we don't know, you know, again, we don't know exactly what the discipline even was.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Were they entirely kicked out?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Was it just that they couldn't uh take a part in the Lord's table and communion?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know, but some sort of formal action was given that brought grief to the person, that brought pain.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it was intentional so that they would repent, they would turn back, they would say, I messed up.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And now that it has had its desired effect.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so then, right now we have a new situation to deal with.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, previously it was just, well, this boundary, this separation is in place, up and until they they decide to turn around.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: But now they've turned around.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do when somebody who has caused so much pain says sorry?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul says here in the text, in verses six through eight, he gives a new prescription.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, This punishment by the majority, meaning sort of that formal church-wide action you took, is sufficient for that person.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: As a result, you should instead forgive and comfort him.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Those last three words, and comfort him, are going to be really important.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, he may be overwhelmed by excessive grief.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when the time comes for forgiveness, uh, it's true that it is often easier to love the idea than love the process.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is what C.S.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis says.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um the concept of forgiveness, we love to be forgiven, right?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: We like that idea.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: We think people should forgive us.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes because we judge ourselves based upon our intentions and we judge other people based on their actions, that normally gives us a more sort of comfortable internal dialogue.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, we love the idea of forgiveness until we are asked to forgive somebody else, particularly in a hard circumstance.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: We don't get credit for the easy ones, right?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this Bible also has this concept like if you only love those who love you, like it's not really love.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: The love that extends to those who hate you and despise you, he's like, now we're talking.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now this is some biblical love that we're measuring out.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so the forgiveness that we're measuring here, we have to understand Paul, even though he's um he's not making light of the situation, but he's using language that already shows that he's practicing this, right?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: When he says at the beginning, if anyone has caused pain, or later on in the passage, when he says, if I have forgiven anything, well, Paul has definitely had to forgive something, this grievous thing that was done against him that made him have, that constituted the painful interaction, right?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: He had to write the painful letter because of some of these things.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So he absolutely had some to forgive, but he's already in the process of forgiveness.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: But forgiveness does not make sense in the way that the Bible describes it.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: If we take out Christ from the equation, there is no earthly reason to continually forgive people who hurt you where you have nothing to gain if it was not for Jesus.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And yet this is the thing that we sort of press into is that following Christ asks us and means that we do hard things.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And one of those hard things is that we mimic the forgiveness of Jesus.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't make sense, but this is what we do.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, and then this is one of the problems that Paul brings up.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: He says, otherwise, if you do not forgive the one who has repented and turned back and says that they are sorry, if you do not forgive them, and even make the sort of this overt gesture of love, he says you're in danger of making them bitter, that they will be overwhelmed, as he says, by excessive grief.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and we've experienced this before, maybe not in the case of forgiveness, but like imagine or recollect when you were in a job and you had a boss that said, Hey, I've got this promotion ready for you.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you'll work some overtime, if you'll take on these extra clients, if you'll sort of do X, Y, and Z, like you're gonna be on track for this thing.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so you work and you work and you do all the things, you jump through the hoops, and then the time comes for the promotion, and your boss says, Hey, actually, we gave it to somebody else, right?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you not only is that disappointing, but it takes away your motivation and you end up feeling bitter because you said, I did the things that you were asking me to do with the expectation that it was going to lead to something.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so you sort of walk back 2,000 years into the situation with this person, and they go, okay, I know I messed up, and I've understood that by the fact that there's some distance from my friends that is based in Christ and is painful, and I don't like that anymore, and I want to go back and I'm gonna change my behavior.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then they're met with this sort of cold, icy wall.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Where they say, you know what, actually, like we know that we said when you left that if you repented that you could come back, but we we've actually decided that that deal has passed.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: We are no longer offering that one anymore.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you can only imagine how bitter that might make somebody, especially when it is coming from a church and from people who are professing to have the forgiveness of Christ in them.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: When as Christians we fail to forgive in a way that reflects Christ, it sends mixed messages.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's like October 1st being 90 degrees.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: It should not be happening, okay?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the way that it works or should work.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we have this thing to live up to.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so by continuing to shut this person out, actually, even though that might be the most comfortable, but sometimes satisfying thing to do, it can actually cause more harm and it can bring grief to the situation.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um you can think of the biblical story of the prodigal son, right?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Where the wealthy father has given everything to his son, but his son runs, he has two sons, and one of them sort of runs away and squanders his wealth and ends up losing it all and comes crawling back.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you have the other son who has done everything technically right and has, you know, always been honorable to his father and all these different things.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when the prodigal son returns, when the one who was lost and far away and had certainly abused his family's name and hurt his father when he comes crawling back, the father, if you know the story, takes off his ring, puts it on his son, and he says, You know, welcome back.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna throw a feast for you.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad that you are here.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've missed you and I've wanted to see you for a long time.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine how different that story would be if the other brother was the welcoming party, right?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: When the prodigal son comes back and the proud one who has always stayed there says, Yeah, I thought you'd come crawling back on your knees.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you stay away?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: We never wanted you here.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want you back anymore.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: You've you've lost your chances, you've missed your opportunities, you belong out there with the pigs that you were eating with previously.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, we get a picture of God and the Father who so lovingly welcomes us back, even though we don't deserve it.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: The prodigal son is a good example of this kind of thing, and it also helps identify some of the pain that is again present here, even in the process of forgiveness.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: But lest we think, though, I'm not gonna let you off easy, right?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, I think I can do that.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna get harder.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because lest we think that welcoming somebody back is just not being mean to them anymore, or that we are just not offering them the coldest shoulder any longer, the command that Paul gives is that they need to comfort them and reaffirm their love to them.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oof.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's the hard part.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: They the Corinthian church, in order to complete this interaction, right, because it has its desired effect.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was not necessarily perpetual, especially because the individual has returned.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been perpetual if they had just decided to go off and squander themselves like the prodigal that never returned, but now that they've returned, this thing has to come to an end.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And as part of that coming to an end, the concluding piece there is they are to be welcomed back with love.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: The one who hurt them so deeply is supposed to receive the prodigal son's welcome.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the part that so often gives us trouble, is because we don't like doing that.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, I don't know, I can't speak for you.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's hard for me.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of those people that has a little bit more of the ingrained sense of justice, right?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: That mercy is not one of the spiritual gifts that God has given to me in abundance.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I struggle with this idea because I very much am a you messed up, you paid the price.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is the result.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: It goes against me and my fleshly nature, separate from Christ, to extend the undeserved grace, to uh make not only uh give the olive branch, but intentionally ask them, like send 20 olive branches their way.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I have to remember that this is what Jesus has done for me.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: I am only modeling that which my Savior has already done.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I am not being asked to do something that he has not done.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: I am only trying to mimic him as poor away as I am able to, what he did for everybody on the cross.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 take this idea.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another just as God also forgave you in Christ.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Bearing with one another and forgiving one another.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone has a grievance against another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: As you reflect on the undeserved joys and mercies that you have received because of Jesus, and extend those undeserved mercies and joys to other people, just know you are following in line with what your Savior has asked you to do and what he has already done before you to do.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: This concept in the Bible is very, very clear, which is that the power and the ability and the sort of mental and emotional capacity for you to be able to do the hard things like suffer with joy or forgive those who have caused pain is because you have a Savior who has suffered so that others might have joy and even have joy in suffering, and to forgive those who have caused pain.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: The motivation that we have is simply that we have this overflowing amount of forgiveness that is basically making us burst at the seams, and there's an expectation that we should be able to extend some of that to the world around us.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when we fail to do that, when we hold back, then sort of this process reverses itself.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul, like in the book of Romans, he says, you know, what does that make us out to be when we are struggling to forgive other people?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then it flows back on Christ and it begins to make a commentary about the way that Jesus hasn't forgiven us because we are so stingy with our own forgiveness.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: We hold forgiveness like it is this commodity instead of an unending well that Jesus allows us to draw from over and over and over and over again.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: You say, how in the world could there be love in this circumstance when this one who caused pain is coming back?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it begins with this idea that the community itself was represented by Christ.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so when a member of that body Was wandering off and then returned, the church felt whole again.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think I shared with you last week, Hannah and I and our family, we just went um to Colorado on vacation, and we stayed at this friend's cabin, right?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And when we've gone on vacation there, uh last year we went to the same place.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: We bring puzzles, okay?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we're, I guess, those people.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we like puzzle on vacation.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so last year they did this puzzle and uh finished it after the whole week, and there was one piece missing.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: One piece missing, and you know, you know what that's like, especially those like thousand piece puzzles.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, we're so close, but it's not finished.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: So one puzzle piece is missing.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: We go back this year, bring a different puzzle.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting on the countertop, the puzzle piece from last year.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Other people have been in and out of that cabin since us.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: It is not like, you know, it was this hermetically sealed chamber after we left and we just didn't see it.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody else had found it, placed the puzzle piece there, assuming, I guess, that the puzzlers would return eventually and left it there.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so now that puzzle piece got brought back to its rightful companion here in Topeka, and now it's been rejoined.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a fun moment when they they figured out that they didn't just have an extra puzzle piece for this year's puzzle, but that it belonged to last year's.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's where it goes, that's where it belongs, that's where it fits.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: There was rejoicing.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the image of this individual that has walked away and has come back is that uh the pain that they have caused, no matter how grievous, should not be more.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: As long as they are repenting and returning.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: That is an important step, right?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: But if they are coming back, that that pain that they have caused does not supersede the grace and mercies of Jesus Christ.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: So there are four reasons that Paul gives here in 2 Corinthians 2, verses 5 through 11 for why somebody should practice forgiveness.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is to avoid unnecessary grief.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: If we continue in the process of sort of this distancing, this condemnation, even this discipline, uh, that we can cause an unnecessary amount of pain that will do no good.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: The second is that uh it's an act of obedience.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he says there when he talks about how they are following after Christ.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I even wrote this letter to you to make sure that you would do this thing.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about how concerned Paul is for this individual that caused him pain, that he's like, I've left.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm, you know, however many hundreds of miles away from you.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm writing you this letter to make sure that you know that this individual who came back, and Paul would have received his report from Titus.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's how he knows that this happened.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the response from his painful letter.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Titus says, It worked, it happened, the thing, you know, I wasn't totally sure, but it worked.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is now writing another letter saying, make sure that you do this for obedience.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Third, because it reflects our own forgiveness in Christ.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul says there in that passage, he says, You are forgiving them, and Jesus is watching.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the Greek means there.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's like Jesus is in your presence, he's there with you, and he is overjoyed at the fact that you are forgiving others like he did.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: But fourth and finally is the section that probably drew your attention at the beginning of this passage, which is when Paul says that it is in order to avoid the schemes of Satan that we are to forgive people, and that we are not unaware of his plans.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about that for a second, right?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, God's enemy.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not mano imano, it is not a competition.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: God always wins and wins in the future.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's the book of Revelation.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Spoiler alert.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to Satan, he is nevertheless an adversary.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: That is what his name literally means.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Satan, the devil, the other names that the Bible gives to them, to him.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: This being is a liar, is a thief, and is a murderer.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Satan is going to take any person, any situation, any thought, and is going to try and use it to not only fight against God's kingdom, that's sort of the bland way to talk about it.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: But you think about the parable of the sower, and it says he's trying to steal souls.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's trying to prevent as many people as possible from coming to know Jesus Christ.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: He is the enemy.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to understand that this enemy has had this goal since the very beginning that he rebelled against the Lord, that in his pride, he is going to try and tear down every single good thing that God is creating.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so, 2,000 years ago, that was trying to tear down the church in Corinth.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Satan had a vested interest in seeing this church fail.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: We extend to today, and we say without any hesitation that Satan has a desire to see Topeka Bible Church fail, or any of the other churches here in Topeka, or any of the other churches across the world, Satan would love for them to be torn apart, rended as useless and unable to serve in their capacity for God's kingdom.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: He would love that.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, Paul then brings in this comment.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, just so you know, the fourth reason that you should be forgiving this person as Christ is because if you don't, you're doing exactly what Satan wants you to do.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Satan now has a vested interest in this situation.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the mundane circumstance, I mean, sort of like across a lifetime, the mundane circumstance of forgiving somebody has now taken on cosmic proportions, where the decision of whether or not to forgive this individual as Christ would, is something where Jesus and Satan are on opposite sides.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the decision that they make is going to flow into one or the other.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is going to further the aims and the goals of one or the other.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so in Christ, Jesus says, forgive this one, even though they have caused you pain, even though they have hurt you.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because now you are showing the world what it means to follow Jesus.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have Satan over here, who has already received a boon, by the way, by the fact that this individual committed sin in the first place.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he's already received this boon by this difficulty, this circumstance being present at all.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul says there's a way that it can get worse, which is now, if, as we've described, we don't bring them back in.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: That this person is embittered by the church and they walk away from their faith because we are not a forgiving community.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the the, if you could say the wonderful thing here, though, is like Paul said, we are not unaware of his schemes.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're not unaware of his schemes, not because we are smarter than Satan.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like if we're playing tic-tac-toe, Satan is checkers, and God is 3D chess, okay?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like the reason that we understand these things was because the Lord has revealed them to us so that we might understand and be able to fight against Satan by the power of God.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so anything that is good, Satan would love to turn and create evil and havoc and chaos with.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so this thing that should be good, which is reconciliation, Paul says, there's an opportunity here, though, where we push people away and it ends up embittering them and drawing them further away from God than they perhaps were previously.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's important that we think about more things in our life from this kind of perspective.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Especially those kinds of, I know this doesn't entirely relate to forgiveness, but especially those kinds of circumstances where we feel like nobody else is affected, where we feel like our sin doesn't change anybody else or hurt anybody else.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: That there is always sort of a battle being played in our hearts and our consciences and the way that we live and think and act in this world.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that we need to think more often about what it looks like for our behavior to be representative of Christ or the enemy, which is really the binary situation that we're in.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so, with that, with those four reasons, we sort of propel ourselves forward into this okay, I am willing to forgive, but it is hard.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing I kind of want to leave you with is it's going to like keep getting harder, okay?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, well, that was not very hopeful.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're right, it was not.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: But it's going to keep getting harder.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Luke 17, verses 3 through 4, be on your guard.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says this.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if he sins against you seven times a day and comes back to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: You must forgive him.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: You must forgive him.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ugh.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the difficulty that we have with that command right now is just our flesh waging against the Spirit of God.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever circumstance it is, maybe, you know, maybe you're in a situation where you need to forgive somebody else.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in a situation where you're waiting for forgiveness.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: And whatever it is, and whatever's going on there, we still have to be able to apply the teachings of Christ and follow after him because we are called to be obedient.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: And we are called to do the hard things because when we do those hard things, that is when Jesus is proclaimed to the world.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: We don't get credit for the easy things.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't proclaimed when you do the thing that everybody else would do.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, come on.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: When you know Jesus and you trust in Jesus, man, this is part of picking up your cross daily, is doing the hard things.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the one I'm gonna present my little boundary here though.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: My one boundary is that the process of forgiveness does not mean that pain never happened in the first place or that it didn't matter.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: It also doesn't mean that bringing somebody back into the fold, showing them love, uh, choosing to care for them and rejoice with them in spite of their behavior, it doesn't necessarily mean that they return to the previous position that they once held.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: There are still things with wisdom that we do, right?
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about just one quick example.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like you have a great friend, and you tell them a secret, and over the course of the next couple months, you realize that that secret didn't just stay with that friend, that they have begun to share that with other people, right?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of this, you have this hard conversation with your friend so that you might be able to have joy on the other side.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then your friend repents.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: They say, I'm so sorry I broke your trust.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so sorry I did that.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: That was so foolish of me and hurtful and painful, and I wish I wouldn't have done that.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I could take it back, but I can't.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Will you forgive me?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then you are now in the position where you say, I do forgive you.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, let's go out to dinner.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's rejoice over the fact that, you know, we are friends again, and that we are able to share things with each other.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: But you still might choose that you don't share your deepest secrets with that person again.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: But we can hold these things sort of in concert with each other because forgiveness is not about just saying we go back to the way that everything was 100% beforehand and we entirely forget what's going on.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's this sort of legal situation, which is how the Bible describes our forgiveness in Christ, which is that we no longer bear the penalty of our sins that we have committed, right?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: We no longer bear need to face the punishment of those sins.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: We've been brought into full fellowship with God, and he shows us immense love.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: But there are also parts of the Bible that say too much is given, much is expected, and more will be given.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: There are still situations in our life where wisdom is required in engaging with these things.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: But if you can understand kind of the broad concept that I hope I'm trying to present here, it is that on the whole, we need to be much more of a forgiving people than concerned about the minutia of sort of these boundaries and details and specifics of bringing people back in.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: That far more often we are going to be in alliance with Christ and following after him when we go beyond even what might seem reasonable in our forgiveness, and to forgive the person that maybe doesn't deserve it because we don't deserve it.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so while there is room for a conversation about, hey, this person so hurt me, what does it mean to bring them back in?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: The bigger conversation is why is it so often that we fail to bring the person back in, even though Jesus has brought us back into fellowship?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: So my question this morning, and here in a moment we will turn to the Lord's table together and reflect on this.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: My question this morning is to avoid unnecessary grief as an act of obedience, as a reflection of Christ, to spoil the schemes of Satan, who is in need of your forgiveness?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Who do you need to extend that gift to?
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Who needs to hear the intentional words of love?
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: Who needs to be comforted?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Who maybe needs to be brought in out of the cold that they have been in for so long?
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: As we reflect on these things, here in a moment, I'm going to step off and we'll just think about this.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: But keep in mind as we do the Lord's table, the Last Supper, where Jesus was speaking to the disciples about the sacrifice that he was about to make for the sins of the entire world who did not deserve his forgiveness, but he gave it to them out of love.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's think about that, how we can be more like that.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then in a moment, I'll come back up and we'll take the Lord's table together.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: In the same way also he took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we come before you.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we ask for your forgiveness as we have been unforgiving at times to other people.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, there are many places in our life where we have not always followed your example in forgiveness.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: And God, we know that you forgive us for that.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, please help us by the power of your spirit to forgive those in our lives who have wronged us, who have given us pain, to not hold that weight on our shoulders any longer.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: But God, to renew that fellowship.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or at least, God, let that circumstance go so that we might have joy and they might have joy as well.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: God, we desire to follow after you in all of these situations.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we pray, Lord, that in the next time that somebody hurts us and they ask for forgiveness, God, that we would remember the fact that you have done it for us over and over and over and over again.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for these things.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the gift of the cross that we have the privilege to follow, even though it is hard at times.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks everybody.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.