Conviction and Repentance

Text: 2 Corinthians 7:2-16

Focus: Repentance

Function: To help people distinguish between shame and conviction.

Form:

Intro:

I have to admit that last week's sermon and this weeks sort of go hand in hand.

Paul defended himself to the Corinthian Church. He had made some enemies there because he caused them some pain when he dealt with a man who was openly parading an incestuous relationship within the church.

In this chapter, he acknowledges how Titus, one of his deputies, reports that they had indeed taken him back as their pastor.

At the beginning of today's passage, even though they have forgiven him, he reminds them again to accept him back. Sometimes, forgiveness is a process.

Last week we looked at how to defend ourselves.

This week, we will study the bigger picture, the work of the Holy Spirit that brought about this reconciliation.

In the book of Acts, on the day of Pentecost, when the tongues of fire fell, the loud noise drew a crowd, people heard the good news in their own languages and the 120 began to speak in tongues, a few people scoffed and claimed that they were drunk. Peter preaches a rather a bold sermon.

He tells them: “repent and believe.” (Acts 2:38)

Repentance is a call to a change of heart which leads to a change in the way we live.

This week, we will work at understanding conviction and repentance.

In verse 10, the passage spells it out with contrasting ideas: Godly grief versus Worldly grief.

One grief leads to life, the other grief leads to death.

The world has a sorrow, a grief, that leads us to death.

Paul is careful to point out that the Corinthians were motivated by Godly, not Worldly sorrow.

What is worldly grief?

I was interested to find out that there were many great theologians, especially in the Dark Ages, who preached on the subject. And, they spoke to their congregations with language similar to what is now considered to be the medical condition of depression.

They described it as the debilitating effect of either the neurological/medical problem of depression, or the neurotic problem of depression.

I believe Paul is speaking of the latter.

It is the kind of sorrow, or grief, that is produced because of shame -or misplaced guilt or unresolved anger.

Let me re-read verses 9-10: ⁹Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance; for you felt a godly grief, so that you were not harmed in any way by us. ¹⁰For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.

His letter caused them a lot of grief. And the grief caused by it lead them to repentance. Repentance means a change of direction. It means that because of the grief, and the fact that their solution wasn't working, they decided to change direction.

Paul is speaking of “good grief.”

But before we go there, let us focus on what good grief is not. It is not depression.

Throughout my first counseling psychology course in college, the professor kept reminding us through the course that 99% of neurotic depression, that is, depression whose root cause is from circumstances and not, for example, a result of medical condition, he told us the root cause is anger that we feel powerless to address.

Those who have experienced depression know that it is a life-sucking illness. It can tear down the mightiest or most prominent of men and women.

Let me clear, some depression starts with a medical condition that leads to this grief. That grief can also develop a psychological component, but first and foremost, it needs medical treatment.

But for others, it starts with a psychological issue. It can be the result of failure, or an unwillingness to face a bad situation. It leaves the person trapped in a circumstance in which they believe there is no remedy.

Good counseling, then, according to my professor, was to empower people to do something about the root cause of their anger and that will ease the depression.

Now, most of those people have altered brain responses and oftentimes will also need medical treatment. I am not a doctor, but my training has drilled that important truth into my own counseling ministries.

Depression is a killer. And as I mentioned, a lot of it comes from shame.

Paul acted to heal them. He did not shame them.

Shame is guilt for which we feel that we can not achieve forgiveness. It is never from God. REPEAT: IT IS NEVER FROM GOD.

God is the God of grace. God is the God of unconditional love. He has already forgiven us and He does not need to hold our past over us anymore.

Shame is from the devil. You have probably heard the phrase, “The next time the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future.”

Godly grief is much different. In the case of this scripture, it lead the Corinthians to repentance, to change.

Sometimes, in some theological circles, we call this Godly grief the conviction of the Holy Spirit. It is important that we are careful to distinguish the subtle difference between worldly grief, depression, undue guilt or shame and Godly grief, good grief, or conviction.

Good grief always leads to positive action. It leads to repentance. It leads a person out of one situation that is keeping them prisoner into the freedom of Christ. It can be small or huge.

In the case of the Corinthians, they finally accepted and supported his judgment in the way he dealt with the man who was carrying on the incestuous relationship.

And they had a change of heart, both about the man and about Brother Paul.

The good news was that the man himself experienced this godly sorrow, and it also lead the man to repent and change his behavior. The man apparently came before the church, apologized and asked for their forgiveness.

In Matthew 13:33, Jesus said that the good news of the kingdom would be contagious and it would spread.

It appears that it started with the man, and it spread to the entire church.

And the church had the joy of restoring the man to their fellowship.

Godly grief, Holy Spirit conviction can lead to sleeping better at night from clearing a conscience, forgiving an enemy, (it should lead to) freedom from addictions or giving up the sin of greed and selfishness.

It changes hearts and the courses of lives.

2 Corinthians 3:17 says, God is Spirit and where the Spirit of God is, there is Freedom!

God's Spirit is with us to free us. He moves in our hearts.

My dad also worked at a small Christian college. One morning, he found the radio stolen out of his vehicle. 15 years later a man came into his office, asked him if he owned such and such a vehicle 15 years before, dad admitted that he did and the man gave him $50 to replace the radio that was stolen.

The man told dad that he had just found Jesus and he wanted to repent for stealing the radio.

In Luke 16: Zaccheus was stunned that Jesus would come to his house. Zaccheus was a greedy sinner and he knew it. He got rich off of his greed. But Jesus singled him out to love him. He was so overwhelmed that he repented, gave half of his wealth to the poor and paid back everyone he cheated. (Luke 16:8)

The good grief that got a hold of him changed him. Romans 2:4 tells us “The kindness of God leads us to repentance.”

It is a call to change. But it is not a call to shame. We may, most likely we will, admit that we have fallen short of God's will. We will confess our need for redemption. But it never comes with the sort of shame that leads us to depression and death.

Shame is always Satanic. Shame takes away our hope. Shame makes us feel worth less.

But Godly Sorrow, Holy Spirit conviction, Good grief always affects us with the power to change.

We know that in God's help and strength, we do not have to slaves to the things that only destroy our own lives and the lives of those around us.

I have heard a lot of preachers preach both shame and fear.

Neither of those come from God.

So how do we discern the difference?

When I feel like I am in the wrong, I always test the source to see if it is shame or good grief.

If I feel like a complete and utter failure, then I know it is just that old nasty spirit of depression, that spirit of death talking.

On the other hand, if it comes from God it comes with hope. Sometimes it leads us to radical change, but it always comes with the hope that with God's help, we will make positive changes for the good.

Godly sorrow leads to hope.

Do you need hope today?

How to Defend Yourself

Text: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13

Focus: Discipleship

Function: To help people react well to criticism.

Form: Bible study

Intro:

From our text this morning: ⁸in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; ¹⁰as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

How can we “have nothing” and yet “possess everything?”

When I was a kid, I loved singing the song: “I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart!”

But sometimes bad things happen, and at that moment we don't feel any joy?

What happens when we are harmed, when we feel like we have a right to revenge, and we give all that up to obey Christ and forgive?

In those words, having nothing, but possessing everything, Brother Paul reminds us of the tension between the future hope of the peace in heaven, which we possess and the present reality of dysfunction.

Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Trials are promised us. And they prove our character. Criticism is one of those trials.

Brother Paul finds himself having to defend his ministry, his job, and his calling.

What happens when we are criticized? How do we obey Christ in the middle of criticism?

What is the appropriate way to defend ourselves?

These are the times when our Christian Character is truly proven.

Paul is their pastor and he has been the victim of unfair criticism.

He had planned a trip to visit them, but God prevented it and enemies used that to say that he was “wishy-washy.” That is nit-picking.

Then there was a sect of Christians who were very legalistic and they preached that every Christian must also perform all of the laws in the OT.

They accused Paul of not being true to God's word.

It was sad because he was criticized by those whom he had given up everything to reach.

He was attacked by his own children in the faith.

By this world's standards, he had every right to ask God for revenge.

But he acts like Jesus in the face of criticism. He continues to love them.

Instead of writing them off, instead of treating them in the nasty way they were treating him, he continues to love them and he keeps on trying to win back their love and support.

Instead of fighting fire with fire, he fights it with love.

First off, he isn't afraid to defend himself. He reminds them of all of his suffering for them. Look at verse 4,5: ⁴but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, ⁵beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;

Now sometimes, people can speak of how they have been offended by someone else in order to place them in a position where they owe them something in return. That isn't love, it is manipulation.

These aren't manipulative words that are intended to shame them because they had not sacrificed as much as he had. No, these are words to remind them that his commitment to Christ and to them is solid.

After he speaks of his suffering for them he begins to answer the personal charges against him. He speaks of his integrity, verses 6,7: ⁶by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, ⁷truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;

Most of these terms we understand well. Purity, holiness of spirit, our spirits set apart to God, truthful speech, God's power, not ours, knowledge.

We understand that. He didn't waver in his commitment to them.

But that phrase “weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left” bears some explaining. I want to unpack that.

The image of what it was like to carry a sword and a shield is a romantic notion to us, but to these readers, it as a picture of power.

When I read “Weapons of righteousness,” I can imagine fundamentalists taking it out of context.

After all, Jesus said, “turn the other cheek.” He told Peter to put away his sword when He was arrested. He told Peter that living by the sword brings death by the sword. It isn't a way for us to live.

The word “weapons” can lead to some pretty aggressive, and even mean-spirited, actions that are done in the name of Jesus. But, it is God's word so we aren't going to ignore it.

Let's go deeper into the meaning of this phrase.

Weapons... ...Righteousness.

What does righteous really mean?

A righteous person, according to the bible, can be either persons who 1) consistently does the right thing, like Job, or Daniel or Jacob's son Joseph. These men were faced temptation and didn't waver. Or it can be persons 2) whose sins are covered by God's grace like Jacob who lied and cheated his brother, or David, who committed murder, or Peter, who denied the Lord.

Weapons of righteousness in this passage refers to his actions of doing the right things for them.

As you probably know, the word Righteous means “just.” A righteous person is a just person. When Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, because he was a just man, he covered for her and married her anyway. (Matthew 1:19) The New Living Translation states Joseph as a good man.

We have to be thoughtful in the translation of this phrase because all kinds of hateful deeds have been done in the guise of “weapons of righteousness” as if that is an excuse for not extending God's love and forgiveness to any group of people who get marginalized as “the other.”

The metaphor weapons of righteousness goes on in the text: “on the left and the right hand.” It is an expression from the culture again. It means a sword (right hand) and a shield (left hand), that is assuming one is right handed.

Paul, because he is just and loving, has a shield, to defend them. And, because he also has an offensive weapon, he can be pro-active and strike at the root of their problem.

But understand that throughout the bible, sin, almost always, is injustice.

In the OT, there are three main things that God punishes: 1). Idolatry, 2). Lack of faith in His promises and 3). Injustice.

Read through the prophets, every single message has to do with those three topics. And, the majority of those have to do with that third one, injustice.

I mention that this makes me nervous because I know how easily Weapons of righteousness can be taken out of context and people end up doing the wrong thing in their moral causes.

They nit picked Paul. Jesus was nit picked.

The Pharisees were “offended” by Jesus' “sin” of healing on the sabbath. Never mind a wonderful miracle of restoration happened.

But they claimed to be true defenders of the true faith. Nope. They were using religion to promote themselves and attack “the other.” And the sad thing, is that in their moral crusade, they killed the Lord himself.

As the Church's leader, Paul upset the church. He acted defensively and offensively to heal the church. He did what they didn't have the power to do.

So, In these chapters, we find Paul fighting for his ministry. He has been criticized by people, people supposedly who were of the faith, but they were criticizing him because he wasn't religious enough. He was “too free” in his faith. He wasn't bound by the letter of the law, instead he followed the Spirit of the law.

It was just like politics. They made mountains out of molehills in order to maintain their own power base.

But Paul was just living out Jesus teaching about the Kingdom of God being in the heart. True spirituality comes from inside the heart when a hard, hateful, or un-compassionate heart gives up selfishness and starts loving, forgiving and sharing with others.

He lives it out. He doesn't quit on them or lower himself to the level of his critics.

And Paul is pleading with them to re-examine him.

It is like he is saying, in spite of the way I was received by you, I want you to realize that what I did, I did to protect you. But I didn't just place a shield between you and the problem, I also used went on the offense against the one who was hurting you.

There was a specific problem in this church. We read about in 1 Corinthians 5. He dealt with a man who was involved in incest whose actions were harming the entire church.

Paul was a shield and a sword against this wrongdoing and his actions caused him trouble with the Church. He finds himself defending his ministry with them.

That is why in his defense, he first reminds them of his own willingness to suffer loss with them as he was helping them deal with this very real problem in the church.

He didn't just work to stop the problem and then abandon them for greener pastures somewhere else. He kept with it.

So, he says to them, look first at how I am wiling to suffer through it with you and second, look at the fact that I provided both a shield and a sword to protect you.

And there is good news. The man repented, confessed his sin and sought forgiveness from the Church.

In my own experience, sometimes a person repents and the whole congregation gets to see the power of forgiveness and restoration. Other times, the person doesn't repent. But in the end, either way, the congregation is in a healthier place.

Paul was willing to share with them in the suffering.

Paul wasn't seeking revenge. He was seeking healing and reconciliation.

He wasn't even seeking vindication, he was seeking their love.

So he asks them these questions: “are you now healthier?” The answer was yes.

Then he says to them, “open your hearts up to me again.”

This was a messy situation in the life of that Church. And God brought them through it.

Thank God for men like Paul who have the courage to do the right thing no matter what it cost them. Thank God they have the faith to keep to their post in spite of opposition. And thank God that the future of the Church is in God's hands, not ours, or mine.

So what is the best way to defend ourselves?

1^st Always seek the welfare of others and your integrity will stand up to scrutiny.

2^nd Don't quit on people. Paul's best defense was that in spite of how he was being treated, he acted to defend and protect others, even his enemies.

Remember, Jesus said: “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:43-48)

3^rd After the dust settles, loving remind them to keep on loving you.

Our Hope, It's in the Lord!

Text: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Focus: Grace

Function: To reinforce grace

Form: Bible Study Narrative

Intro:

I enjoyed meeting Jesse's sisters during her father's funeral. One, of them, Edna, likes the humor of taking things too literally. For example, if someone says, “let me be honest with you....” She would reply with: “will you also tell me when you are not being honest?”

Sometimes people use exaggeration in speech to get a point across. Sometimes people say less because there is a part of the story that needs to remain hidden. Hence the phrase: “Let me be honest with you....”

When the mentor, Paul, is writing to his two young charges, Timothy and Titus, 5 times he gives this phrase from verse 15: “It is a trustworthy saying....”

He is telling them this part is very important and should never be forgotten.

In other words, this is something that I want you to repeat. This is something in which there is no debate. This is a truth that is settled. And this is a truth that needs to be emphasized over others.

The Truth? “Jesus came to save sinners.”

It is like Paul is saying to Timothy: “Son, in all you do in ministry, don't lose sight of Jesus' purpose. He came to save sinners.”

The word “save” in the Greek is sozo. It is a body word. It's a medical term. It means to heal.

A literal translation would be: Christ Jesus appeared in this world to heal sinners.

Sinners. I am one of them. It is important to Paul as well because Paul is impressed by grace that just keeps on flowing.

From his own story, he points out the extent of Christ Jesus' attempts to heal a sinner.

As it turns out, before he was a Christian, he was an enemy of everything Christian.

When Stephen, the first martyr for the faith was killed, Paul was right there, making it happen. The text tells us that he was watching over the belongings of those who did the killing. (Acts 7:58-8:3) It says it in such a way that it implies that behind the scenes was Paul (then known as Saul) and that he was part of the group that whipped the mob into a frenzy so that they were willing to commit this murder in a lynch mob fashion.

Paul describes himself as a sinner of the worse kind because he was behind the murder of the first Christian martyr. And he felt that he was worse than others because he wouldn't get his own hands dirty, instead, he used a mob to accomplish his purposes.

He was a murderer. And as a murderer, he targeted Christians. In Acts 8, we read that he then goes on a campaign to have Christians arrested. It got so bad that the Church had to flee Jerusalem.

He caused the Church to be in great fear of him and his judicial power over them.

He was their enemy.

It got so bad that when he finally does come to Christ, the first reaction of most of the Christians was that this was merely a ruse designed to infiltrate their inner circles so that he could identify them and have them arrested. (Acts 9:1-19)

And after wrecking havoc in Jerusalem against the Church to the point that they were forced to flee for their lives, breathing murder and hate, he heads to Damascus to arrest those who fled.

On the way, He literally meets Jesus.

The story is told. A blinding light from heaven appears and Saul is stricken blind.

God speaks to him and asks him why he is resisting God.

Saul doesn't understand and asks the voice how he is resisting God when he believes he is serving God. He says: “Who are you, Lord?”

And God answers: “I am Jesus.”

Immediately Saul believes in Jesus. God changes everything in his life. He changes his name to Paul. He becomes the first missionary. He brings the gospel to the entire world. And he writes many of the books in the New Testament. And eventually, he himself is beheaded for his faith.

But when he is first converted, he has a problem. The vision is so intense that it causes him to go completely blind.

He is lead by his cohort, the men with him who were to help him arrest Christians, into Damascus.

And there, while he is making request of the people in the Church to come and talk to him, they are hiding from him. After all, he is still with the people who were there to help him bring Christians back to Jerusalem in chains.

But finally, a Christian prophet named Annanias, hears from the Lord. The Lord Jesus tells him to go visit Paul, pray for him to be healed (he was blinded) and then baptize him.

Annanias is offended at the request because as far as he knows, Saul is anything but a Christian and it seems as if he is playing right into the enemies hand.

Remember last week how we learned that the Holy Spirit works in ways that we cannot imagine?

It is happening here. First off, this man, Annanias is given the gift of prophecy, one of the spiritual gifts we read about.

Second, the worse enemy of the Church has now become one of her greatest helpers.

And the Holy Spirit touches the hearts of the believers in Damascus.

The Church is Damascus is amazing.

Lead by the prophet, who is lead in a supernatural way by the Holy Spirit, they receive and forgive Paul without any more fear or resentment.

I think that is an amazing example of forgiveness.

The prophet, in order to prove God's forgiveness of Paul prays for him, his sight is restored in a way that is obvious to everyone, scales fall from his eyes.

And then they baptize Paul as a new Christian brother in the Lord. In a matter of seconds, from these people's eyes, he goes from their worst enemy to their brother in the Lord.

This is about grace. And Paul remembers Jesus grace to him. He remember that Christ Jesus forgave Paul before he ever believes in him.

Straight from heaven itself, Jesus Himself shows kindness to Paul

Paul didn't believe. But when the Lord addressed him as a man, man to man, or God to man, he knew that grace was real.

Paul is grateful that Jesus didn't abandon him to his hatred of Christians.

Back to the “trustworthy statement” that Paul makes to Timothy in this passage.

Christ Jesus came to heal people from their sin and brokenness.

It is important to remember that Jesus appeared on earth to heal sinners.

Last week we saw how the Holy Spirit got the attention of the whole city of Jerusalem with this loud noise and the tongues of fire and the gift of tongues and the ability of unbelievers to hear the good news in their own language.

We saw that God did what no human could have done.

God did a miracle to win a crowd.

This week, God does a miracle to win a single person.

That is the value of every sinner in the eyes of God.

And this is personal to Paul. Paul remembers that among sinners, he is one of the worse.

And yet, it seems as if God goes the extra mile to heal him from his sin.

I want to focus on that idea of healing.

We can look at our deliverance from sin and brokenness two ways, both are correct. We are saved from sin (1) and, we are healed from sin (2).

Sin and brokenness separate us from God.

Romans 5:8-9 tells us that to be saved means that the penalty for our sin has been taken off of us and placed on Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ died in our place. Jesus Christ died on our behalf.

Before Paul was a Christian, he was busy trying to earn favor with God when he was persecuting the Church.

His hope was in his own performance. And so, just like other religious zealots, the consequences of his zeal, the cost in human lives and relationships didn't matter to him as long as he could prove to God that he deserved God's salvation.

He was busy doing the wrong thing. His hope was in his own performance.

And then he met Jesus Christ. He met Jesus in a very personal way, right there on the road to Damascus. He met Jesus during his campaign to persecute Jesus by having his followers arrested.

God's grace flowed freely to him.

And he learned that there nothing he could do make God love him more.

God loves us. His plan is to heal and restore us.

Let me read to you that passage from Romans 5:6-10:

^6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

^9-10Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. (AND) If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life!

Listen to these words again: (AND) If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life!

We are saved.

But it is much more than that. We are healed by God.

He saved us to heal us.

The two go hand in hand.

We are changed, transformed and our minds and reactions are renewed.

God's salvation is not merely a fire escape from hell. It is redemption. It is restoration to all that is right. It is a calling back to loving and caring for others, as much as God cares for us.

And it is proven to Paul. Who, while an enemy of God, is sought out by God in a fantastic way.

That is how much God cares for people.

He seeks and saves the lost.

Remember, the greatest rejoicing in heaven is when a lost sheep comes back. This is what brings joy to God.

From heaven, Jesus himself delighted to call Paul back to Him. It was and still is Jesus' joy.

Paul reminds Timothy of this primary purpose of Jesus.

So how do we look at sinners?

There is a change in Paul.

In the middle of an act of sin, the persecution of the Church, God heals and restores him to God's family.

Before that change, Paul was offended by the sins of others.

His religious zeal was nothing more than sin. And it comes from a form of self-righteousness. It springs out of the fact that he was taking it upon himself to force others to be like him.

Instead of looking at people as those whom God gave the life of His Son to heal, he merely takes offense at them.

And he changes.

He can't hate sinners, because he one of the worse.

He no longer resents them.

He knows this because God didn't hate him when he was steeped in one of the worse forms of sin: self-righteousness and judgment of others.

How do we look at sin and sinners?

Do we take up an offense against others?

Or, do we, like Jesus Himself, look at them as people that God is in the process of healing?

Salvation is healing.

It starts with our own acceptance of grace and the healing Jesus gives.

Paul is amazed that in spite of himself, God's love touched him.

How do we look at our own sinfulness and brokenness?

This grace and mercy always begins here (point at my heart).

It starts with that prayer: (looking toward heaven) Save me! Heal me! Lord Jesus, I believe!

Paul had no idea what changes would take place in him.

Instead of being a bitter religious zealot, he becomes a grace filled preacher.

It is hard for us to admit that we are still broken people.

But remember, when Paul was God's enemy, Jesus Himself came down from heaven to heal and restore Paul.

He admits that he is the chief of sinners.

And Jesus is the chief of healers.

Our hope is and always will be in Jesus.

(End with prayer for renewed grace)