Unveiled Faces-Before The Lord, Before Man

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Unveiled Faces: 2 Corinthians 8:16-9:5 Before The Lord, Before Man One of my favorite bands of all time is the Gaslight Anthem from new jersey, In an interview with the singer, Brian Fallon, he described the emotional crisis that he endured in putting the newest record out. -He was terrified that he was out of songs, that he had nothing left to say. When they finally put together the record, it was markedly different from their previous releases. He worried that they had made a mistake. -In his panic he pulled out his copies of Springsteen records, the clash, and joe strummer. He listened to their progression the way that they had developed as an artist. That was what gave him the confidence to put the record out. Sometimes what we need in the midst of our darkness is to see someone walk the road before us so that we ourselves can walk it with confidence. we need to see faithfulness modeled. In the fall of 2016 we began a series working through the book of 2 Corinthians. This portion of scripture is one which is a gift to us in so many ways. Because it shows us the apostle Paul at his lowest, at his most dejected, and in the midst of profound suffering. Paul finds himself in the face of tremendous criticism, yet he addresses his darkness not with despair but with steadfast faithfulness in the character of God. The Background of 2 Corinthians is important to understanding the flow of the book, and because we’ve been out of it for 6 months and others of us are new to Corinthians altogether it’s worth just reminding us of how 2 Corinthians came to be.

The Background: Corinth was a bustling city, in many ways like a modern day LA or New York. Many of the aspects of Corinthian society were tied to idolatry, and so to become a Christian and to be a faithful Christian meant that you were going to be the odd man out culturally.

The Corinthian church is founded in 50 ad, the event is documented in Acts 20 went bad almost immediately. Paul sends an initial letter to the corinthians which has since been lost. The Corinthians misunderstand the letter and think that Paul wants them to cut themselves off from the Non Believing culture altogether -In order to correct this misunderstanding Paul sends a second letter, which is in your bible as 1 Corinthians. Paul says something that likely sets them off -“Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” For the Corinthians in a materialistic culture this doesn’t sit well. Paul is poor, and challenged, and shipwrecked, and nearly loses his life over and over again. -The Corinthian response is rejection, “We’ll find our own apostles to immitate, ones who aren’t prone to suffering and misfortune. Around 54-55 ad Paul sends timothy to check in on the church, timothy relays the bad news that they have rejected Paul’s authority and so Paul pays a personal visit. Here he is publicly opposed and rejected by the church. -Following this Paul sends what is called a, “Tearful letter” which is harsh, demanding that they repent before they shipwreck the church and turn completely from the Gospel. Some people receive it. In light of there repentance, Paul writes 2 Corinthians in order to quell their lingering concerns and set them back on the correct path

Here’s the heart of the corinthian criticisms of Paul, and I think we’ll find that they’re alive and well in the church today.

He writes impressive letters: but in person he’s not an eloquent speaker, they would rather have someone who is a gifted public speaker. -This sunday I went to another church in the area, more formal and liturgical. The minister wasn’t interesting. He more or less read directly from the manuscript. But that man preached the text faithfully. What he said was true, and it was biblical.

I was struck by the fact that in most american churches, a boring speaker who preaches truth would quickly be replaced with a skinny jeans craft brew pastor that teaches heresy. That Corinthian longing exists in all of us.

He suffers too much to actually be called by God, if he was really an apostle, bad things wouldn’t happen to him. If this is not the fundamental narrative of American Christianity than I don't know what is. -So often we speak of God, “Closing doors through difficulty” in spite of clear words from him. “Maybe if you were really an apostle things wouldn’t be so bad, and maybe if Jonah were truly called to Ninevah there wouldn’t have been a boat ready to go to tarshish.” Is this not the great inclination in our hearts? To seek after spiritual leaders who believe in nothing, who risk nothing, who call us to nothing so that our comfortable and anemic Christian lives can remain in tact while we cover them in a veneer of piety and spirituality?

Paul Can’t Be Trusted: Because Paul has refused to take money from the Corinthians in the past, the new leaders they’ve elected have begun to circulate rumors that Paul is fleecing the flock. He’s keeping a record of what they owe him so he can manipulate them in the future. -Maybe you’ve experienced this, the friend who’s doing nice things for you with an ulterior motive. Maybe they’ve bought you lunch a few times, but they’re not really interested in serving you for the sake of it, they’re storing up favors.

The Text at Hand: This brings us to our passage for today, because with the Corinthians finally moving to a place of repentance, Paul has informed them that the Church in Jerusalem is suffering tremendously. He asks them to donate to a collection of money that the Churches are participating in as a form of disaster relief. -But Paul also knows that there are still those in the church who doubts his integrity. So let me read out text.

Earlier this week Corey and I discussed the service just briefly, and he asked what I was preaching on. I asked him to take a look at it and let me know what he thought, when he came back in to the break room his only response was, “Good luck.” At first glance there’s not much to say here about this, yet I think there’s an internal logic here that will convict us if we give attention to it. Paul, rather than visiting himself has chosen to send 3 people to receive the Corinthian donations for the poor believers in Jerusalem. -One of them is Titus who you might be familiar with because he gets his own lettering in the New Testament. -The other two are not named, one is considered a famous gospel preacher among the churches who has been appointed by other leaders, there is another man who the text says has been, “tested and proven trustworthy.”

For the Glory of the Lord: How is this collection for the glory of the Lord? The easy answer is that any time we give money to the poor and needy we glorify Christ. That’s certainly true…but it goes so much deeper in this case. This is gentile money coming in to help suffering Jewish Christians. These are two people groups that outside of the gospel wanted nothing to do with one another, and now they’re sacrificially giving to meet one another’s needs. -There was a time where Jews wanted no part in Gentile relationships, they didn’t want their money and they wouldn’t take their help, there was time where gentile’s view the jewish people as backwards and regressive. If you’ve grown up in the church you might actually miss how revolutionary this is. But for someone who hasn’t spent their life in Christianity they can recognize that what exists in the church when she is at her best is otherworldly in its power.

I was talking to Frank about the very real differences that exist in the body and how we are united in an uncommon way. Most of us would not naturally be friends with each other. We are too different culturally, too interested in different pursuits. Our career paths would never intersect. Yet here we are sharing the table of the Lord together and caring for one another in uncommon ways. Yet in his very body on the cross Christ has torn down the wall which separated humanity, and created from every Tribe, Tongue, and Nation a new humanity. I

The Heart Behind The Representatives: The honest assessment of this is that Paul’s approach to collecting money is woefully inefficient. After all, this is a church of maybe 50 people tops, the size of this room…and probably about as broke as this room. It’s not like they’re going to send back wheel-boroughs full of money. It’s not as though Titus is expecting more currency than he can carry. -Why then does Paul send these three people to collect the money? The answer is found in verses 20-21 Paul’s concern is that the way that he conducts this collection be above reproach not just in the eyes of God, but in the eyes of other people. He doesn’t want to allow room for questions of his integrity, even if he knows in his heart that he’s not doing anything wrong. Paul is not functioning under this Tupac ethic that, “Only God can Judge me.” What an indictment of the way that so many of us conduct ourselves. Conversation with Sam Landrum, “I don’t care about what other people think, it’s between me and God.” That’s easy enough for us to say, it sounds wonderfully spiritual, that we only care about what God thinks of us. But do we care enough about what other people think of the Lord based on the way we operate in the world under his name?

There are some in here who are crippled: Some of us are crippled by what other people think about our choices, and that often comes at the

cost of being faithful. My intention is not to encourage you to be paranoid about what everyone will think about every choice you make. The Apostle Paul is no slave to other peoples opinion. He makes that much clear throughout the rest of this letter and his other writings. Yet he also recognizes that it’s not enough to throw the, “Only God can judge me flag.” -As someone who represents the Gospel Paul is interested in operating in the world with an uncommon sort of integrity…the sort which requires he be less productive but infinitely more faithful. I’m not calling you to a sort of paranoid, looking over your shoulder in fear of others opinions sort of life. But understand that just as Christian care across racial boundaries is the glory of Christ, Christians who fail to walk with integrity and faithfulness heap scorn on the gospel. When we were last in Scotland we were asked by the local community center to go door to door with a survey, asking basic questions about peoples needs. At the end of the survey we were able to ask them some questions about their religious beliefs. -One of the houses that we spoke with was a young family, the mother told us that she was spiritual but not religious. The father said that he was an atheist, yet based on the posture of his response I asked him why he felt that way… -“I was hanging out with some catholic folks and they ended up stabbing me.” So there’s a few thoughts that went through my head, the first was, “Dang that sucks.” The second was, “Well good thing I’m protestant, I knew Luther was on to something.” But in the end I think I was just left frustrated, because the faithlessness of these Catholic Christians had hardened this mans heart to the idea of a faithful God. -This is an extreme example, yet the temptation exists for all of us. To walk in a manner that is faithless. To operate without boundaries to our integrity. But as the people of the faithful God, we bust also be a people who are faithful. In our relationships, in our finances, in our occupation and education.

May you and I learn from Paul's example: To aim to walk in an honorable way in the sight of God, but also in the sight of man so that they might see our good deeds and glorify our faithful God.