It's good to be back and I want to thank you for praying. Many of you have asked me how the weekend went last weekend and it went very well. I think I had the opportunity to speak to about 175 singles from Atlanta. There were many non-Christians there as well as Christians and judging from their response and the questions and interaction, it was a good time and I'm grateful to you for your prayers and trust that we will all find that because the Lord is good, it was a profitable time for them. So thanks very much. But it's good to be back. It's always good to come home and see familiar faces and be in a familiar and safe place and be among family. It's interesting in reading through this passage and in thinking about it this last week. I was again struck by the Apostle Paul's affection for his people, for these Corinthian believers, whom he administered to and among whom he had lived for many, many months and to whom he returned both in person and then by letter. These two letters that we have and then the letter which actually preceded these first two letters, first and second Corinthians that we have. It's interesting, again, to think about the Apostle in his relationship to these folks and as I was thinking about this all last week, this question sort of came to my mind and the question is, what do you have when you get several hundred Christians together in the same place? What do you have there? Now the polite answer and the theologically correct answer is the church. As the polite then say that when you get two or twenty or two hundred or two thousand Christians together, you have the church, Jesus said, wherever two or more gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them and that's the church. Whether it's two or twenty or two hundred or two thousand or twenty thousand or two million, that's the church. But there's another answer to the question, it's not quite so polite but it's on target. What do you have when you get two or twenty or two hundred or two thousand Christians together in the same place? You have a mess. That's what you have. You have a mess. A general assembly this last year, the outgoing moderator, Frank Brock, talked about revival. Talked about revival within the church and his own longing to see revival within the church and then he asked the question, are we ready for revival? We say we want it, we pray for it and all of that but do we really want it because you know what you get when you get revival? You get a mess. You get sinners aware of their sin. You get pagans who up until that moment were to wear the fact that they were sinners and they all come because there is some water that's flowing forth. There are some streams that are refreshing people and cleansing people but when they come they don't leave their bags at the door. We might like for them too but they don't. They come and they bring their mess. Our elders has this great little poem that he periodically has mentioned to me. To dwell above with those we love or that will be glory. To live below with those we know. That's a different story. When Paul writes to these folks in Corinth, when he writes to folks in Galatia, when he writes to folks of Colossia, when he writes to folks of Thessalonica, whenever he writes one of these letters he's writing to address a mess, isn't he? And this lengthy correspondence of Paul's to the Corinthians is like a family scrapbook although it's not very flattering because you see the family in its truest light. And what you have is a mess. Two letters filled with Paul's response to the mess, theological problems, questions, confusions, moral problems, confusions, questions, relational difficulties, I'm a Paul, I'm of a Paulist, I'm of this guy, I'm of that guy, divisions within the church. It's all there. I suppose the first thing that ought to be said, it's hard for me to learn this lesson but I suppose the first thing that ought to be said as you read through 1st and 2nd Corinthians is that when you come to the church you ought not to be surprised that it's a mess. There is a lot of mess here. The question then becomes after you've sort of faced the truth about yourself and I would encourage you to personalize this and not be thinking around the room about the mess that exists around you but the mess that you yourself are and then which we are together. The question becomes how do we respond to this or how did Paul respond to it? How does the mess get cleaned up? How does the mess get cleaned up? Do we have any reason to think that in some measure, in some real measure, it will get cleaned up whether we think of it personally or corporately. How does the mess get cleaned up? Well first of all Paul understands and it's reflected in this passage very, very clearly. Paul understands that he has a pastoral obligation which is accompanied by an authority, a pastoral obligation accompanied by an authority to address the mess and to seek to clean it up. The source of that authority is not himself. The source of that authority he says in verse 10 is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The Lord has given me this authority for edification and not for destruction. It's awfully important that you keep in mind as you read Paul's letters that he was not elected by some democratic process. It's awfully important that you remember that the Apostle Paul was set apart by Christ called to be an Apostle, equipped to be an Apostle, and then commissioned by Christ to execute his office. He wasn't elected into this position, but he was summoned to it by Christ and the church confirmed that he was called to this particular office. The church acknowledged that he was an Apostle of the Lord Jesus. That happened in Antioch. That happened in Jerusalem, at least those two occasions and many others, where the church acknowledged that Paul's ministry was a valid ministry, that his gospel was a true gospel, and they then affirming and confirming that the Lord had set him apart commissioned him to take the gospel to the Gentiles. But what stands behind it is the call of the Lord Jesus Christ upon his life. His pastoral obligation to these Corinthians has an authority associated with it, and it is an authority which comes from Christ himself. If you think about it, that fact opens up a window, opens up a door into which we can peer and see a distinction, a distinction that exists between the church and every other institution or organization on the face of the earth. Because the church is a divine and supernatural institution and organization. It has a union with the risen and ascended Christ. It is organically connected to Jesus. It cannot survive. It cannot exist, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, in an ongoing uninterrupted way, communicating his grace and his sustaining power to it. The creation would dissipate in an instant, in a nanosecond. If God were to withhold his sustaining power from the creation, he upholds all things he Bruce tells us by the word of his power, and the church exists by the power and grace of Jesus Christ. And anybody who serves in any leadership capacity within the church serves in that capacity not ultimately because of some democratic process, but ultimately because Christ has called that person and set that person apart and commissioned that person to serve him in that capacity in the midst of his people. It was true of Paul, and I want to suggest to you that it's true of elders. It's true of ruling elders. It's true of teaching elders. It is true that there is a confirmation process for us, just as there was for the Apostle Paul, but understand that it is a confirmation process. The church is not a democracy, I've said this before. It isn't a democracy. It is a monarchy, and it is ruled by the crown prince of righteousness, the Lord Jesus himself. And he summons those who will serve him in these ruling and governing and pastoral capacities, and he gives to them an authority in the same way that he gave this authority to the Apostle Paul. And Apostle is different from an elder, but the elder after the Apostles passed from the scene, have that authority devolved upon them. And Christ continues to exercise his rule and his reign through those whom he has set apart. The authority comes from Christ. It's a divine institution, not a human institution. It is a supernatural institution, not a democracy. It is ruled by Christ through those whom he has set apart for that purpose. And the second thing to notice about this is that Christ has a purpose for this authority. And the purpose which he has for the exercise of this authority, his authority, which extends to elders and is in the interests of the people, his purpose for that is that they might be built up, that they might be edified and not destroyed, not destroyed. He says that in verse 10 as well. The authority is from Christ and it is with a view to the building up of the people of God. Everything that God does, just allow this to stick some place up here. Everything that God does, he does for two reasons, his own glory and the goodness of his people. Everything that God requires, everything that God commands us to do positively, everything that God prohibits, everything that God commands us not to do. Everything that God would call us to, he calls us to because he loves his people. He commands what he commands and he prohibits what he prohibits for the good of his people in order that they might be built up. Everything that the Lord does in orchestrating the affairs of all men and all nations, he does for his church, Paul tells us in Ephesians 1. Everything that God does in ordering my personal circumstances, my personal affairs, as confusing, as frustrating, as sometimes grievous and painful as that might be. Everything that God puts his hand upon, he puts his hand upon for the good of his people. And the Apostle Paul emulates God himself in his pastoral office. When he writes to the Corinthians, he writes to them because he wants them to be built up. When he visits them, he visits them because he wants them to be built up. When he rebukes them, he rebukes them because he wants them to know life and not death. When he corrects or teaches or admonishes, he does that because he wants for them to experience joy and delight in their salvation. He's motivated by one thing. We've seen it over and over again, it seems to me in this letter. He has motivated by his love for these people that they might know the fullness which Christ intends for them. As much as it's possible to know that in this fallen world. So it is an authority which originates with Christ and the goal of that authority is that these people might be built up. Now, I want to say something to you and I'm not doing this to blow my trumpet or the horn of anybody here at St. Paul's who's in a leadership position. I want you to understand that as we face extraordinarily difficult, pastoral situations, we are not driven by trying to get these very difficult, very natty, very hard pastoral situations all tied up in nice, nice, neat little packages as quickly as possible so that we're done with the inconvenience of them. I can tell you that the ruling and teaching elders of this church are doing the best that they can to model the pastoral method of the Apostle Paul who sought to do everything that he did for those two reasons, the glory of God and the good and well-being of his people. It isn't always easy. It is confusing and perplexing and if we had the clarity of the mind of Jesus, if we had the limitless knowledge which Jesus has, I'm sure our course would be much truer and much more brief as we seek to address these things. But Christ is pleased to work through sinful, ruling and teaching elders but I want you to be encouraged. And for some of you, this has more application than for others. I want you to be encouraged that this group of people is doing the best that it can to bring the wisdom that it has to bear in difficult situations for the good of this church and for the good of the people involved. That's what Paul did and that's what we want to do. For edification, not for destruction. These elders don't sit around in a premeditating sort of way and scheme how to hurt people, how to make life difficult for people, how to make life miserable for you as a congregation. If there is premeditation, if there is thought, if there is consideration building up to edification, to correcting, to bringing glory to God and gladness to the hearts of these people. So it's an authority which comes from Christ. The purpose of it is edification and building up. And there's another thing that seems to me that is characteristic of Paul's pastoral method as he deals with what is inevitable in any church and that is the mess, the mess that comes because we are sinners. He is extraordinarily patient, extraordinarily patient. And in that, it seems to me, he is emulating the God of heaven and earth as well, who when he revealed himself, when he disclosed his name and exegeded that name or explained that name or expanded that name, what did he say? The Lord, the Lord, Yahweh, Yahweh. The self-existing, self-defining creator of everything that exists, he is who he is, he will be what he will be, he doesn't need to be elected into his position, he doesn't require opinion polls in order to determine what to do. The Lord, the Lord, who is slow to anger and who is abounding instead fast love. God is extraordinarily patient, that patience is written all across the face of the Old Testament who for generations and centuries and millennia was patient toward Israel and who, if we are honest with ourselves, we would have to acknowledge has been extraordinarily patient with us. How is Paul's patience seen? How is it evident that he emulates this patience in God? He says in the first verse, this will be the third time I am coming to you. And then he cites this Old Testament passage by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. It's a rather unusual application of that Old Testament text, but what the apostle is saying in effect is, I have come to you or I am planning to come to you now a third time as a witness. The first time I came to you, I came and preached the gospel to you. The second time I came to you because some of the imperfections and issues and difficulties and problems which you brought with you when you came to Christ were still there and they needed to be addressed and now I am about to come to you a third time, a third time coming to witness to you of the goodness and grace of God coming a third time to witness against you regarding these things which will only destroy you and bring dishonor to the name of God if they are not correct. But you see his relationship with the Corinthians existed over a long period of time. It is so easy for us to read our Bibles and see history telescope, see months and years and even decades reduced to two or three pages or to thirteen chapters. And to think that we have to act quickly, to think that we have to do something now when it is the manner of the Apostle Paul and the manner of God in his relationship with us to be extraordinarily patient and to wait and to take time and to encourage and to exhort but not quench a smoking flax or break a bruised reed. That is not his method to be precipitous to act too quickly. He is his method, his pastoral method as he executes this pastoral obligation to be extraordinarily patient. Now he wants to make very clear to these folks that delay and so the exercise of patience does not mean a reluctance to use the authority in a sharp way he says in verse 10 if necessary. He is not reluctant to do that if the situation should warrant that but rather than acting precipitously rather than acting in sharpness it is the Apostle's manner, his pastoral manner to be patient. So this authority comes from Christ, the purpose of it is edification, building up encouragement and not destruction and it is characterized by patience.
In addition to a pastoral obligation there is a congregational duty, there is a response from these Corinthians. As Paul comes to them and seeks to correct these problems he admonishes them to listen to what he says and to respond to it. Very quickly the situation in general while there are specific problems in general the situation is this. The Apostle is gone and in his absence these false apostles have come in and Paul's Gospel is the simple, pure undiluted Gospel of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. We talked about it two weeks ago in Reformation Sunday. What it is that the Apostle cared to preach and to protect is that a person is restored to a right relationship with God on the basis of the finished work of Christ. That means Christ's life of obedience in behalf of those who have broken the law and his death upon the cross as a substitute for those who deserve to die. That is the work of Christ, his life of obedience and his death upon the cross and a person is restored to relationship with God not on the basis of anything that he has done but solely on the basis of Christ's finished work received by faith. That's how a person may know that there is peace between him or her and God. By receiving with the empty hands of faith this finished work plus nothing and these false apostles would come in and they'd say, oh, faith in Jesus is important. You need to believe he's the Son of God. You need to believe that he died for sinners. But you also need to go to Sunday school and if you don't go to Sunday school not only will you be missing a blessing but you'll be out of God's favor. You need to be circumcised. You need to be this. You need to be that. You need to keep this part of the law. You need to eat right. You need to observe certain days and certain customs. These people were saying faith in Christ is nice and it's important but this needs to be attached to it and Paul would have none of it and these false apostles who came and preached this different gospel would say, no, Paul doesn't know what he's talking about. Christ doesn't speak through Paul. Christ is speaking through us. Paul is the false apostle and so Paul as he comes to the end of this letter, admonishes these folks, encourages these folks and says to them as he seeks to exercise his pastoral authority in correcting all of these problems. He says to them in verse 5, examine yourselves. Look at yourselves. In other words, hear what it is that I'm saying and consider it and the particular point of application for these people is this. Basically, if you believe what the false apostles say about me that I don't really represent Christ, that Christ really doesn't speak through me, that I haven't really understood the gospel. How do you account for the fact that you are Christians? Exam in yourselves. If you are in the faith which he believes that they are, if you are in the faith, that is the authentication of my ministry. That is proof positive that I have understood the gospel and that I have preached it to you. You have responded to it and embraced Christ and basically what the apostle is suggesting to these folks is that they take a step away from this controversy, examine themselves, and acknowledge the good and gracious and merciful and kind thing which God has done in communicating the gospel through Paul to them and they then should properly be giving thanks. He's saying to them, remember who you were, remember what you were, remember what you've come from rather than questioning my integrity rather than casting aspersions against my ministry rather than doubting its authenticity, look at the fact that you are the fruit of it and give thanks to God. Exam in yourselves. You are in the faith, glory in that. To dwell above with those we love, O that will be glory. To live below with those we know, that's a different story. I'm not naive, I'm not foolish in some ways, but I'm not naive and I'm not foolish about our condition as a congregation and that we are a collection of great big sinners who've been rescued by a greater grace and I'm not saying this because I feel the need to defend myself or to defend elders who have made decisions over the course of the last five years. I'm only encouraging you about this because I'm under obligation as a minister of Christ to preach the whole council of God and seek to apply it to the whole of congregational life. And what I want to suggest to you is that when you are tempted because if something someone has said or some decision which you see being made which is not what you think it ought to be and you are tempted to doubt the viability of this ministry. When you are tempted to call into question whether or not we've understood the gospel and are doing our business the way it ought to be done, when you're tempted to do that, may I encourage you to examine yourself and ask yourself whether or not with all of its faults and foibles and the weaknesses that are found here in its pastors, in its elders, in its deacons, in its lay people, whether or not God hasn't given us a pretty good thing here at St. Paul with all of its difficulties, with all of our weaknesses, with the mistakes which we may make and certainly have. Is it not a therapeutic, wise, advisable thing for us to heed this admonition from Paul to get outside ourselves, to examine ourselves and acknowledge that we are in the faith that Christ has redeemed us, that Christ has made us a body in the family. And then by that, with the hope which Christ holds out to us, that one day we will dwell above with those we love and it will be glory, we are not in view of all of that. Be inclined first and foremost to give thanks and to celebrate what God has done in our lives as individuals and what He's doing in the life of this church. And I ought to say, and I know you know this, this church isn't me, it's not Bob, it's not Bob and me, it's not Bud, it's not Bud and Bob and me, it's not Frank, it's not Frank and Bud and Bob and me, and I'm not going to bore you with a list of 500 names. It is all of us together and God has given us, it seems to me, just as God gave through the ministry of the Apostle Paul, a pretty good thing to them, he's given a pretty good thing to us, let's be encouraged to check ourselves and take a step outside ourselves and examine ourselves and acknowledge that we are in the faith and we have a precious, precious thing here. So there's a pastoral obligation and there's a congregational duty and there is an expected outcome. The Apostle says in verse 9, we pray for this that you may be made complete. The word complete describes what a physician does when he resets a broken bone. I fell out of a tree when I was about eight years old and shattered my left elbow. When I got to the hospital they stuck this bottle of ether under my nose and put me out because resetting a broken bone can be extraordinarily painful, it can be excruciating. Being made complete as we live together and slam into one another is not always a pleasant experience. But the Apostle prays to that end and this business of living together is one of the means which God employs for the completing, the second of the brokenness within us and it's interesting that the verb is in the passive voice. The Apostle doesn't say, I pray that you will complete yourselves as though we had it within us to complete what is lacking, to set what is broken. He has every expectation that the God about whom the choir sang this morning, who rejoices over you, who sings over you, who delights in you, who rejoices over the one in front of you and behind you, who sings over that person, who delights in that person. That God is the one whom Paul has in mind when he says, he prays that they might be made complete. God will bring to completion what he has begun in our lives. God is creating a thing of beauty in us and through us and there is an expected outcome in which we can take great confidence and by which we can be comforted. I told this story before about this world renowned pianist who was scheduled to do a performance in a particular concert hall and this mother wanted to take her young aspiring piano student to this concert, but he didn't want to go. She took him anyway and they had seats in the front and just before the concert was to begin maybe as an act of rebellion, who knows he got up out of his seat and ran up on the stage and sat at the piano and began to play a very rough rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Lots of imperfections, lots of slipped notes and the whole thing was a mess and the stage manager was a gasp at this little seven-year-old boy sitting up there where the great pianist was about to play. And just as he was about to rush out on stage, the pianist grabbed him by the shoulder and told him to stop and the pianist himself went out and came up behind the boy and put his hands on the keyboard around the boy and whispered in his ear and said, and this is a true story and said, don't be afraid, don't stop, I am here, keep playing and the pianist improvised around the little tune, the little imperfect messy tune that the boy played and with his improvisation created a thing of beauty. In the midst of all of this imperfection that we see, in the midst of dwelling below with those we know, God is creating, reshaping, fashioning a thing of beauty in your individual life and in our life together, and God be praised for that, let's pray together. Lord, make our hearts glad, fill us with joy as we live together, as we are sinners in the same place, and give us joy and gladness as we remember that you are at work doing, exceeding abundantly, above all we could even think to ask for or imagine, according to your riches in Christ Jesus, O Lord, do your work here, be relentless in doing it, that that thing of beauty and glory might emerge, that you might be glorified, that we might be glad, we ask for Jesus' name, amen.