Measuring Success In MInistry

Transcript

GR 1825
01/17/2016
Measuring Success in Ministry
2 Corinthians 11:16-27
Gil Rugh

We're going to return to our study in 2 Corinthians today, so if you would turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 11. I turned on the news this morning to see what was transpiring in the world and there is much being talked about, the affairs of the world. We talked somewhat about God's prophetic plan as we got to the end of the past year. I would encourage you to be reading in some of the prophetic passages and particularly Ezekiel 38 and 39, see the nations and what is on the horizon in God's plan. Remember when you read Ezekiel 38 that present day Iran is what the Bible knows as Persia. I couldn't help but think as the world's attention is drawn to all these things, again the most important thing going on in the world, the most significant thing in the working of God is the proclaiming of the message of salvation that He has provided in Jesus Christ. And you and I as God's children are privileged to be part of that work that God is doing in the world. We bring to the world the message of salvation by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ the Son of God. We testify to the power of God's saving grace because we have experienced that when we recognized our sin and placed our faith in Him.

I couldn't help but think of that as we come back to Corinthians. The Apostle Paul is carrying on a ministry in a very different time. But you know there are many similarities. Seemed like Rome was the focal point and it certainly was the power of the day. And you know during Paul's ministry, Roman emperors come and go but it doesn't play an important role in what God has to say through Paul. God is taking care of that. God is carrying out His plan, but the focal point is what is the Apostle Paul doing and servants like him. One emperor is going to be replaced by another, that will have consequences for everyone in the Roman Empire, but it is not the important thing. And the one who seems to be nothing but a struggling, relatively unimportant, unsuccessful man is carrying out the most important job on the face of the earth. That is the Apostle Paul

He is writing to the church at Corinth. It is a difficult church, it is a church that he established, it is a church that manifests the greatness of God's grace in many ways but it is constantly struggling. It opens itself to the influence of false teachers, false teaching. And that has a corrupting influence on the church. And that is what Paul is dealing with in 2 Corinthians 11. He is talking about it in a little different way. He is going to talk about it as foolishness. Because what has happened, the church at Corinth has been influenced by the world around it and it begins to measure success, measure being a servant of God by worldly standards. And Paul doesn't measure up.

So he started chapter 11 by saying “I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. But indeed you are bearing with me.” And he comes back repeatedly to this issue of foolishness. Down in verse 16, “Again I say let no one think me foolish, but if you do receive me as foolish. What I am saying I am not saying as the Lord would, but as in foolishness.” This whole issue of foolishness and what Paul is being pressured to do he says is foolishness from God's perspective. What he is going to do is tell them how great he is, how successful he is, that “I am the genuine article and the others are counterfeits.” Now that is always a difficult task. If I would tell you this morning, I just want to take the time to tell you what a great preacher I am. In fact I am above all the others you might look at. You would probably be heading to the exit, so we'll turn off the exit signs. It's foolishness. It's like telling people, when people say I think you are proud and you try to tell them, no, I'm not proud, I'm humble. There is just nowhere to go with that. And this is where Paul says I am boxed in because of you adopting a worldly standard for evaluating a ministry, and I have to become foolish and show you that I am the genuine servant of God. And you have had your eyes turned aside from what is true.

So he says in verse 2 he is doing this for their benefit. 2 Corinthians 11:2, sections we've been through, “I'm jealous for you with a godly jealousy.” There is the picture, I have betrothed you to Christ, I want you to maintain your purity of devotion to Him. “I am afraid,” verse 3, “as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” So what I am doing in this foolishness and the boasting I am pressured to do, I only do it because I see it essential for your spiritual well-being.

The problem, verse 4, “If one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we've not preached, or you receive a different spirit you have not received, a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.” Something is wrong. Another teacher comes in, you've sat under my ministry, you are the result of my ministry but now your attention is turned aside. That's where he starts in verse 5, “I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles.” We have to go to foolishness. I have to tell you that I am not an inferior apostle. What he is dealing with is down in verse 13, “Men that are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.” And that's what Satan does. The difficulty for the church is not outside, it is inside. The pressure to conform to the world is there but the real damage is done from the inside. And that's what Paul is telling them.

There are false apostles. So you can see, they are claiming to be genuine representatives of Christ and to promote their error they have to show that Paul is not genuine. And if he is not genuine, the message he preaches is not genuine. That's why he said in verse 4 “If one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached or a different Gospel which you have not accepted.” This is a serious issue. The problems comes, verse 15, “His servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.” Now it gets confusing. You know it is one thing to deal with religions out there, it's another thing to deal with conflict within with those who say, I believe what you believe. That's what is going on here. They claim to be there serving the cause of God's righteousness, but it is not true. But there is enough truth in what they say to cause confusion. And that's why we constantly remind ourselves, we must not just focus on what you agree on, you must focus on what you disagree on. And that's what Paul has to do here.

This involves many people. Verse 18 he says, “Since many boast according to the flesh.” Many, the hoi paloi, the paloi, the many. Sometimes used, we carry it over into English, the hoi paloi, the masses, the many. That is what he is talking about here. “For many boast according to the flesh, so I'm going to boast also.” So I'm going to adopt your standard of evaluation with a twist, as we'll see in a moment. That's why he says this is foolishness. Many are boasting and the Corinthians have been taken in.

Back up to 2 Corinthians 2. Paul has talked about his ministry of the Gospel, giving off the knowledge of Christ. “It's a fragrance of life to life and death to death.” These are serious matters. Then he says in verse 17, “We are not like the many,” again the hoi paloi, the many, “peddling the Word of God.” Already at this early time in the church's history, twenty years old from the starting of the church in Acts 2, and now there are many who are peddling the Word of God. Remember we have studied this. That word to peddle means to corrupt something to make it salable. You alter it and change it so it will look better so people will be more willing to buy it. Already Paul says many are acting as hucksters with the Word of God. They make adjustments and alterations so that it is more attractive to people. But he says we speak genuinely as from God, in Christ in the sight of God.

This is what Paul is dealing with in the church at Corinth, this has infiltrated in among the church. These men don't come proclaiming a different religion, they come proclaiming Christ, believing in Him as the Messiah, His death and resurrection. What more could we want. As we are going to see, they say that is not enough. That's all good, we agree on that but there is more. And that's the problem that confuses people.

Come back to Acts 20, I want to mark a timeline here. Acts 20 gives a history, the book of Luke, Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke, gave a history of the earthly life of Christ. Then he continues in the book of Acts, continuing the ministry of Christ from heaven in His church that is established in Acts 2. So the book of Acts is the history, the continuing history of Jesus Christ's ministry, now from heaven through His Spirit in the church. Now the Apostle Paul's conversion was recorded in Acts 9. He is traveling and in Acts 20 the first three verses we are told that he comes into Macedonia. Now why we are here is this is when he writes the second letter to the Corinthians. So he is going to talk about many things that have happened to him. I come here because I want you to realize all of these happened before Acts 20 in Paul's ministry. He is saved in Acts 9 so everything he is going to write through the rest of 2 Corinthians 11 happens between Acts 9 and the beginning of Acts 20, because it was in these opening verses of Acts 20 that he wrote the second letter to the Corinthians. So obviously things after that hadn't happened to him yet. If you keep that in mind, it will give you a better appreciation of what he is going to say have already taken place. When we get to Acts 20 we could say Paul is about in the middle of his ministry without being overly precise. But he has had a ministry going on for a number of years, maybe he has had a ministry for say 15 years and he has 15 years left. Something like that. So you see we are about at the midpoint. The book of Acts is not concerned to give the biography of the Apostle Paul. It's the history of the church and Paul is just the key figure in the last part of the book of Acts as Peter was in the first part. But it is not recording all the details of these men's lives because the point is to show how the church developed and moved along. And these men played a role but there is much in their lives that is not recorded, particularly Paul.

You come back to 2 Corinthians. The measure of success, and it hasn't changed. These men look at who is the best speaker, who is the most personable, who is the most successful, who has planted the most churches, who has the biggest church, who is taking in the most money. These are the kinds of things that become a measure, just like down to today. We like success, the people who have books that are written that you want to read on church growth are about men who have large churches. They are successful. The danger is, that is a worldly evaluation. The measure is faithfulness with the truth.

Come over to Revelation and in Revelation 2 and 3, the book of Revelation is the last book in God's revelation to us. And here Christ addresses the churches, seven churches and their condition. The most successful from a human perspective, a worldly perspective is the church at Laodicea. So in Revelation 3:14ff Jesus evaluates them and He says in verse 15, “I know your deeds, you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. Because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of My mouth.” The church's evaluation, “I am rich, have become wealthy, have need of nothing.” Here is a church that has learned the secret of success. They are obviously of a good size, they are fitting into the world, they are not known for being narrow and antagonistic, nor have they jumped off the other cliff and are opposed to Christian truth. They have learned to fit, they are successful. But not in Christ's eyes. There is no commendation for them.

Back up to Revelation 2 and look at verse 8, and He addresses the church at Smyrna and he says in verse 9, “I know your tribulation, your poverty.” You are really rich, from his perspective you have spiritual riches. The church at Laodicea did not. They were poor and blind and naked spiritually, Christ said. Here, I know they blaspheme those who say they are Jews. They are not, they are a synagogue of Satan. And it is going to get worse, don't fear what you are about to suffer. Some of you, the devil is going to cast into prison and you are going to be tested and have tribulation. But be faithful. The end of verse 10, “until death.” That is not a bright future, humanly speaking. This is a church that is encouraged and commended, and no rebuke. But that successful, fit-in church, it is not too passionate about truth, but it's not passionately opposed to truth. We strike what they would call a balance. There is no commendation for that, Christ says I can't stand it.

We come to that because that is what Paul is dealing with. I clipped out an article from the newsletter to see how we evaluate things, how do we get to this. We have these mega churches and one of the leaders has been Rob Bell at Mars Hill Bible Church. Some of you are familiar with that. He has impacted many people, it is a mega church with multiplied thousands attending. He resigned there several years ago to go to California. They get restless. He was succeeded by a man who is now stepping down. It says Kent Dobson will leave his role as teaching pastor of the mega church in the spring. And here is what he says. “I have always been and I'm still drawn to the very edges of religion and faith and God. I've said a few times that I don't even know if we know what we mean by God anymore.” Now this is supposedly a huge evangelical mega church and the preaching pastor says I don't even know if we know what we mean by God anymore. But that's what he is drawn to. He says that's the edges of faith. I would say that's not the edges of faith, that's outside the boundary. At any rate, he says that's the thing that pulls me. I'm not really drawn to the center, I'm not drawn to the orthodox or mainstream or status quo. He has been pastor there since 2012. But it is successful, he writes books. The former pastor, they sometimes get decent reviews in the evangelical world. This is the kind of church we have? The pastor who follows him has a ministry there and says I don't even know if we know what we mean when we say God anymore. But it is successful from the world's standpoint, attracts young people from Christian homes.

This is what Paul has to deal with. If you measure Paul by the world's standards, he is not going to be the one you follow. That's what he is dealing with in 2 Corinthians 11. So what he is going to do, he says in verse 19, “You being so wise tolerate the foolish gladly.” So if that's what it takes, you tolerate anyone who enslaves you, devours you, takes advantage of you, exalts himself, hits you in the face, to my shame I must seem weak by comparison. Here is the problem, these false teachers have come in and they really take advantage of these Corinthians. I remember years ago I was watching a false teacher on a Christian channel, they had access to back then. I could mention his name but I won't right now. And very popular. Do you know what he was bragging about? People sometimes criticize me because I travel in my own private jet. But that just is a testimony to how God uses me, and He wants to take care of His servants. He doesn't want me sitting around wasting my time in airports, so I'm proud to tell you God provides a private jet for me. And the people are clapping. I wonder, is that the measure? But for him it was. This is what Paul is dealing with.

He says I seem weak by them. Is Paul as good a speaker as we are? Has he been as successful? Look at him. Do you know what Paul is going to do? He is going to turn it now upside down. I'm going to be foolish, I'm going to brag. I'm going to show in the standard that counts I am superior to them all. The last part of verse 21, “In whatever respect anyone else is bold,” and here he has to say it again, “I speak as foolish, I'm just as bold.” Here is the measure, let's measure ourselves by boldness, boldness with the Gospel, boldness in ministry. Let's get some foundational things out of the way first of all.

Verse 22, “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are the descendants of Abraham? So am I.” He gives insight into the teachers he is dealing with. They are probably Judaizers. They plagued Paul's ministry. They were the tools of Satan. The letter to the churches of Galatia is written to deal with the Judaizers. It permeates the situation. Because here is the problem, the Judaizers were Jews, and indication here why Paul would say, are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Let's get the foundational thing out of the way. Because the Judaizers were those who were Jews but they professed to have placed their faith in Christ as their Messiah, as the One who died and was raised from the dead. That was costly for a Jew. To declare yourself a follower of Jesus the true Messiah of Israel was to cut yourself off from mainstream Judaism. So there was a price to be paid. The problem was that's not all they believed and taught. The Jerusalem Conference, remember, was called for that in Acts 15 where Paul and Barnabas and others gathered together at Jerusalem with the Judaizers and the other apostles. Peter is there, James is there and so on. We have to hammer this out because what the Judaizers said, all this about Christ is true but it is not enough. If you don't get circumcised and keep the Mosaic Law you can't be saved. We'd say now it's not enough to what they believe, it's the error they promote that goes with that. There is much we agree on. That's why it becomes confusing. False teachers, remember in 2 Corinthians 11:13, “they are false apostles, they are deceitful workers, they are disguised as apostles of Christ.” They are “disguised,” verse 15, “as servants of righteousness.” So they come in, they have great personalities, they are good communicators. And they seem to have a logical argument. We not only believe that Jesus is the Messiah and you need to trust Him, we also realize that God gave the Old Testament Law and He intends for that to be part of our faith also. So Christ is just the completion of the Law but it's not the end of the Law. So now we believe in Christ and we also believe in the Law. Now you have confusion because you have the people with the best personalities and the best communicating abilities and both visible signs of success. Who are you going to follow? And we see it is permeating the churches.

Back in 2 Corinthians 2 Paul said we are not like the many who are peddling the Word of God. Here he calls them false apostles and deceitful workers. This is serious business. The church doesn't get torn apart by the Hindus' influence, by the Muslims' influence. Their teachings are not what confuse. Do you know what confuses the church? It's when people come in and claim to believe the same thing we do but they bring error with that. Now we have to get this sorted out. And this is what Paul is having to deal with.

So “Are they Hebrews?” He uses three expressions here—a Hebrew, an Israelite and a descendant of Abraham. In one sense they are all the same, but there is a distinction. A Hebrew would be someone, a Jew who had the Jewish language, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Jewish customs. More a Palestinian Jew, Jews who lived in Palestine, in the land of Israel. There were the Greek Jews who had moved out of the land to other parts and had adopted a lot of the Greek customs, maybe had to learn Hebrew, had abandoned some of the customs of the Jews. So when he says are they Hebrews, so am I, well, Paul was born in Tarsus, evidently was raised and he studied in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, so he knew the language, he followed the customs. “Are they Israelites?” Remember the name Israel, back in Genesis 32:28, Jacob. Remember we go from Abraham to his son Isaac to Isaac's son Jacob. That's the line. And Jacob's name after wrestling with God, the angel, his name is changed from Jacob to Israel. So he is part of God's chosen people because the line has to go Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Remember Jacob has a twin brother, Esau. So the line has to be here the chosen people. So to say I am an Israelite, he's part of the chosen people. Just a further emphasis. Are they descendants of the seed of Abraham? So am I. It's all the covenant promises given in that covenant line—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs. I am part of that.

Understand this is where they talk about even in the Mideast, people of faith and descendants of Abraham. But it's not enough to be a descendant of Abraham. You must be a descendant of Abraham through Isaac, through Isaac to Jacob, and from Jacob to the twelve sons of Jacob. There are other descendants of Abraham—Ishmael, children he had with his second wife Keturah in Genesis 25. Other descendants like Isaac, you have Isaac, Jacob and Esau. The line doesn't go through Esau. So the line is crucial. So what he is establishing here, as far as Jewishness, these false apostles have nothing up on me. You can't get any more Jewish than I am in all areas. He uses this argument in Philippians 3 when he gave somewhat of an abbreviated testimony as well.

Now let's get down to more specifics that are going to separate us out. “Are they servants of Christ?” This is really hard. I mean, you are going to declare that you are a better, greater servant of Christ than someone else, he just hates to go there. He says “I speak as if insane,” I speak as someone out of his mind. I mean, this is a rebuke to the Corinthians. Why should I have to be going through this with you? Because you have become enthralled with the false teachers. “Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane, I more so.” I am declaring I am more a servant of Christ than they are. Now when you look at the marks of what identifies him, well as a servant with his boldness. Remember, he is bold, in fact he is more bold, more of a servant. How is a servant identified? Being like his master, being faithful to his master. Jesus said, remember, it's enough for a slave to be like his master. “If they persecuted Me they will persecute you.” Paul is going to say I am a better servant, let's measure it. And he is going to say I have been in more labor, I have had more persecution. I have had more suffering. Paul, that's what marks you out, not how many churches have I planted? How big is my biggest church? How much money do I take in? No, that's not what marks you out, that's not what Christ said will mark out His followers. So here. I am out of my mind. It's just not right for me to be trying to tell you I am a better servant, but I am. That's what he is saying.

So here we go. “In far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.” Wait a minute, I didn't think we were going to talk about this. I thought you wanted to know how many people we have in our church, what our budget is, how many conferences I speak at, how many….. fill-in-the-blank. We're turning this around now. It's not who is the best speaker, it is who suffered the most, and I am above them in all these things—more labors, more imprisonments, more beatings, more facing death. Okay.

What he is going to do now is give details. You have the summary in verse 23, “more labors, more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.” Let's just go through some of the details. First, “five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.” And thirty-nine lashes is a Jewish punishment. In Deuteronomy 25 the first three verses give instruction regarding this kind of discipline for a fellow Jew. He could be given forty lashes, it came to be they gave thirty-nine. One reason could be that if you went over forty you were guilty, the person might die. You had humiliated them beyond reasonableness. So they counted thirty-nine, that way you had some space if someone miscounted. Secondly it became the practice, they used a three-pronged lash. There were three whips in it bound together so every time you hit him, he was getting three. It had to be delivered with all your strength. They first started out with a certain number on the chest, then you were turned over and they gave the rest on the back.

Now we went to Acts 20, remember. What is interesting is none of these are recorded in the book of Acts. We are reminded, that's why I said, remember the book of Acts is the history of the church. What is recorded about Paul is because of how God uses him in the church, but it is not to give the biography of Paul. These all would have occurred before Acts 20 because he wrote 2 Corinthians in the opening verses of Acts 20. By that time he had already on five different occasions received thirty-nine lashes from the Jews. That is remarkable. If that had happened to me, that would be important enough to be included. It's not even written, we wouldn't know about that. We sometimes read the book of Acts and see how things move along so difficult, five times. If it were forty lashes, 5 x 40 is 200, knock off 5, that's 195. Any wonder he would write to the Corinthians and say I've had enough of this, I don't want to be bothered by anybody about these things anymore. I bear in my body, Galatians 6, the brand marks of Jesus. I mean, these false teachers come around promoting themselves. I'll take off my shirt and compare my brand marks. He says that is just like the stamp that I belong to Christ. These aren't negatives, they are positives. I've been faithful with the Gospel, I've been bold with the Gospel, I haven't backed off. We are not told what the circumstances were. The Jews had liberty, great liberty under the Romans in their own area, the Romans were primarily concerned about peace. They don't want anybody unsettling their authority and control. And so the Jews were given latitude in dealing with Jewish issues. And Paul who became all things to all men wasn't looking to be considered an outsider in that sense. He wanted to keep an open door to ministry. I don't know, five times given thirty-nine lashes. I don't think you'll have many of these false apostles stepping up and saying I was beaten six times. Keep in mind, we are in the middle of Paul's ministry when he writes this letter. Thirty-nine lashes.

Verse 25, “Three times I was beaten with rods.” Now beating with the rod, the “likter,” is a Roman punishment. And we know about one of these occasions because it is recorded in Acts 16. Remember at Philippi? The authorities there beat Paul and then threw him in prison with Silas. Then the Lord opened the gates of the prison, and when the community wanted to come and turn them loose, he said, what do you mean? You beat me, a Roman citizen. It was against Roman law to inflict this punishment on a Roman citizen. Roman citizens were above this kind of treatment. Why didn't Paul claim his Roman citizenship earlier? And that one in Acts 16 is only one, there were two other occasions where he had this punishment inflicted upon him that aren't recorded in Acts. Amazing, you see where he is going with this. If we're going to do boasting, and I don't approve of boasting at any time, but I am declaring myself to be a greater servant than they are. By the standard of measure that Christ gives who suffered the most? Well, you can see where we are going.

The problem with the Corinthians, we all are, we live in a world that is enamored with success as they see it. And that carries over to the church. And we like famous people, we like people that are “fill-in-the-blank.” Paul wouldn't have been one of those, calling someone to give a conference on church growth, you're not asking how many times he was beaten. But Paul here . . . And he said in verse 23 he was beaten times without number. Now Paul can add up, we have eight times in verses 24-25 and those are just examples. There are other occasions, unofficial occasions, I take it where he was beaten. When I say times without number, here is where I had the official Jewish punishment, the official Roman punishment. I've been beaten times without number and we're only in the middle of his ministry. Amazing.

All right we just started here. “Once I was stoned,” and we have the record of that in Acts 14. So he was stoned, dragged out of the city for dead. We get concerned about punishment that won't be too harsh—did the person being punished suffer too much. In the Old Testament God ordained stoning. He said that's the punishment, capital punishment. They had swords, they could have cut off their head and run them through and it would be over. Stoning is a terrible way to go. You know what they do when they stone someone? Those that are involved, they gather the people around, they all have their pile of stones and they just start throwing them. One hits you in the arm, one hits you in the leg, one hits you in the chest, one hits you on the side of the face, another hits you on this side of the face. They keep doing that until you are dead. Can you imagine what the person looks like? It's not one stone and you are out, you are done. It is a terrible way to go. Paul experienced that. And you know what? God supernaturally raised him up. They drag him out of the city as dead and he gets up and goes about his ministry. Didn't mean there was no pain in going through it to get to that point. So that's the one time he was stoned.

“Three times I was shipwrecked and I spent a day and a night in the deep.” In those days lifeboats and life vests, those were luxuries. Lifeboats even, many ships didn't even have them. And never enough for everybody, just a piece of wreckage. Three times. Do you know what? The one recorded in the book of Acts happens later, in Acts 27. These all were earlier occasions. We know of a fourth because it happened in Acts 27, these three happened before Acts 20. And who knows what happened in the last part of his ministry? We know that last one because it is recorded because it is significant. Different commentators list anywhere from nine to twelve different trips Paul took where there could have been shipwreck. Interesting to read, if you read in some of those commentaries, the comments about secular writers of what they looked at as ship travel in those days. It is always associated with death. This is what Paul went through, this is just part of why. I have to carry the Gospel.

So for a whole night and a whole day he is floating around out in the middle of the water on a piece of wreckage, waiting to see if someone comes by. This is different than the way these false apostles promote ministry. This is different than the way we promote ministry today also, I think.

“I've been on,” verse 26, “frequent dangers, frequent journeys, in dangers.” Now here you just pile these up because all the journeys in those days, here is what happens. “In dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren.” Paul lived a dangerous life. This person here says I am drawn to the edge. He is not drawn to the edge in the biblical sense, he's drawn to the edge in the worldly sense. Here is the man who lived on the edge, everywhere he went and everything he did was always on the edge. Rivers, in those days swollen rivers and so on. He's walking, he's traveling, have to get across. Robbers, look at the map of the region of Galatia where the Galatian churches were. We know something of that from what gets on the news and so on from modern day countries. See what that's like. If you have a band of robbers get after you there, beat you up, rob you, kill you, who is going to know? Drag you off to those desolate regions and nobody ever knows what happened. He left on a trip and we never heard from him again. You have dangers from the Jews, dangers from the Gentiles, didn't matter whether he was in the city or the wilderness. The last one is the one you ought to note, “danger among false brethren.” Paul puts it all on that level. From the false brethren in the churches, they impose that kind of danger to Paul also. That's what he is concerned about here. These false brethren in the church at Corinth pose a great danger to him.

You know the devil doesn't do new things, he just keep recycling the old. Pause a minute and come over to 2 Peter 2. Peter writes, “False prophets also arose among the people.” How did Satan work with Israel? He infiltrated among Israel with false prophets that turned the people away from faithful, pure devotion to their God and brought about the ruin of the nation. “There will also be false teachers among you.” This is not something difficult. We read the Old Testament history and say, how did the Jews get turned aside like that? Why would they listen to those? You have Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and Hosea and Amos. Yes, that makes no sense. Do you know what the devil does? The church starts up, he is ready—infiltrate it with false teachers. Works just as well, worked in Israel, it works in the church.

And then we come along, come back to 2 Corinthians 11, we want to be nice, we want to show we are loving, we want to show we are understanding, not be viewed as intolerant, unloving, unbending. When that becomes our concern, what we want to be known for is faithfulness to our Master. Don't expect the world to understand. The world never understood Paul, he'll come to his end as a martyr. If we get the idea, we want to fit. We look at churches and they seem to have a good reputation or people, we're not out to court a bad reputation but we are out to be biblical. Paul says this is what I want to be measured by, this is how you tell if I'm genuine or not.

“I've been in labor,” 2 Corinthians 11:27, “and hardship. Through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst often without food, in cold and exposure.” And he talked about his labor and hardship in writing to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:8. In his first letter to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:10 he says comparing me to other apostles I outworked them all, but “not me, the grace of God which was working in me.” And when you take full advantage of the grace of God at work in you, you end up with a Paul. Been in a lot of trouble, lot of sleepless nights, he got a lot of things to deal with. “Hunger and thirst, without food, cold and exposure.” I'm going hand to mouth, I get to the next town and I have to get a job as a tentmaker, I have to work at night and through the day and try to share the Gospel at night, and it's a hard life. And when I am traveling there are no hotels, I am just outside.

And then you come to verse 28, and all that is just the external things. We are comparing what it is to be a true servant, in addition to this I have the daily pressure on me for the concern of the churches. You know that daily pressure of anxiety, concern. This is a godly concern, he is concerned for the Corinthians, concerned for the Galatians, concerned for the Colossians that no one deceive you with empty philosophy and so-called knowledge. It's constantly on my mind, how are they doing. It is a concern. There are difficulties in the churches, that weighs on him. We have difficulty, of course it weighs on you in our church. I mean, it's just there. My intense concern.

“Who is weak without my being weak?” I mean, Paul identifies personally. He is concerned in his first letter to the Corinthians, he wrote about weak Christians. In 1 Corinthians 8-10 Paul wrote to them about how you have to be careful with the weaker brethren, take them into consideration. The Corinthians were so puffed up with knowledge and their own importance and success, they are running over the weak Christians. He had to write to the Romans about this in Romans 14. He says I am concerned, I have the weaker Christian on my mind and their growth and development and maturity. Those who are led into sin, that's an intense concern. That's what he is dealing with here. Going on in Corinthians, these false teachers are leading the Corinthian church and the believers in it away from the purity of devotion to Christ. Back in 2 Corinthians 11:3. They are accepting error that is corrupting. That's a spiritual disease to undermine their spiritual health. That weighs on me, I have intense concern for that. All of this together, and I'm not done. He'll go on into chapter 12. These are just some of the things externally and internally I'm dealing with. Now let's measure who is the faithful servant and who is not.

Come back to Luke, we'll end here. Paul is unique, he is an apostle. I'm not an apostle, you're not an apostle, but we are called to a similar kind of life of commitment. You know what concerns me? The danger of becoming like the church at Laodicea. We lose our passion, we lose our zeal, we lose that commitment. And church is just one of the things we do, our service for Christ is one of the things we do. But there are so many other things and more and more the other things press in upon us because part of the intention of the world is to get hold of you and your time, your energy, your thinking. And we live in prosperity and there are so many things to do, to be involved in. We pay our entertainers in the millions and hundred of millions of dollars because we need to be entertained. It's important. And if we're not careful we as believers lose the passion and zeal.

Here is what Christ said. Luke 14:25, “Now large crowds were going along with Him.” Isn't that good? Now we can build on this, draw them in. He's going to sift them out. “He turned and said to them, if anyone comes to Me, does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” He's not saying you hate them in the sense of despise them. It is the sense you cannot be My follower part time; you cannot add Me to the baggage of your life. I supersede everyone and everything. Your mother and father are not more important than me, you husband or wife, your children, your life are not more important than Me. “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” And that was clear, we know what it was like, Christ carried His cross to the point of crucifixion. It depicted humiliation, scorn, rejection, the lowest of the low.

Down in verse 33, “None of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” He says, count the cost. I'm not looking just to collect a large group. Those who become My disciples must be passionately My disciples, they must be committed to Me more than life. Their possessions, their family. Life is Me. That's how Paul lived his life. Doesn't mean we are all going to suffer like Paul did, but this passionless, get-along, easy, comfortable Christianity is not biblical Christianity. If we are not careful we just begin to accept as genuine what the Scripture sets out as not. Where is our commitment? Do we have that same passion? I love the Lord more than my life. I would lose all for Him. I am ready to do that. Those closest to me that I love most in the human realm pale into insignificance compared to the love I have for Christ. If you took it all tomorrow because of the boldness of my testimony, I would give Him thanks. A passion in our service.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of the salvation that we have in Christ, the riches of Your grace, a grace that continues to work in our lives. Lord, You have privileged us to live in prosperity. Lord, I pray that that prosperity might not be corrupting, pray that we will be diligent about Your service, we will be careful about those that we give our ears to, our attention to. May we be faithful. We pray in Christ's name, amen.