Author: Ryan Hale

In these days, Muslim apologists try to poke holes in the idea that Jesus is, himself, God. They say silly things like:

Jesus never said, “I am God, worship me!”

And they say that because Jesus never said those precise words, he must therefore not be God. You see? Our logic is perfect. Jesus is not God. He is a prophet, and nothing more than a prophet!

To me, this strongly suggests that they have never actually read what Jesus did, nor what Jesus said.

I was reminded of this today as I read through Mark 2. The Pharisees and the rest of the Jewish people were trying to figure out who Jesus was. Jesus, through both his words and his actions, allowed them to see. Here are three examples in this one chapter:

First, some friends come to the house where Jesus is staying in Capernaum. They can’t get in because the crowds are so numerous that the doorway is blocked so they go up on the roof, dig a hole, and let their paralytic friend down on a mat through the hole in the roof. Jesus looks at the paralyzed man and instead of immediately healing him, Jesus tells him that his sins are forgiven.

The Pharisees who are there ask themselves, “Who is this that forgives sins. Only God can forgive sins!” And of course they are correct. Only God can forgive sins.

And yet Jesus tells the Pharisees that he wants them to know that he has this authority. Remember, only God can forgive sins, just as the Pharisees said. So what does Jesus do to prove that he has that authority? He asks whether or not it is easier to forgive sins or to tell the paralyzed man to pick up his mat and walk. And that is exactly what he was. The man is healed and he walks out of the house.

So the lesson is clear. The lesson isn’t just that Jesus can heal a paralytic. It isn’t that he was such a great teacher that there was a crowd there such that the friends couldn’t come in. The lesson is that Jesus is God! The Pharisees were exactly correct. Only God can forgive sins. And yet Jesus not only forgave them, but he also proved through the miracle that he had the authority to do so.

But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Mark 2:10-12

Next, let’s look at how Jesus refers to himself. With Levi, Jesus hangs out with the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes. Jesus refers to them as the “sick”. Sick from what? Sick as a result of their sin. They are spiritually sick. They have the disease of sin corsing through them. But Jesus refers to himself as the doctor. He is the one who has the cure for their sickness. He is the God who can take away their sins. He is the one who can make them well.

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Mark 2:17

However, Jesus doesn’t stop there. He also refers to himself as the bridegroom. When the Pharisees come to ask Jesus why his disciples don’t fast like John’s disciples, he explains that the bridegroom is here. No one fasts while the bridegroom is with them. It is time to party! It is time to celebrate.

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

Mark 2:19-20

Why would Jesus refer to himself as the bridegroom? The people of Christ are his bride. He has come to marry himself to them.

But maybe we can understand more from the question of fasting. The disciples and the Pharisees fast in their devotion to God. They take time to focus upon the Lord, not upon themselves and on their own needs, but upon God.

But if the bridegroom is with them, and we are referring to Jesus who is with the disciples, and the disciples are in question because of their lack of fasting, Jesus is saying that they don’t have to fast because the bridegroom is with them! God is there in their midst!

Now, finally, Jesus is questioned as to why his disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath. Jesus points out that even David and his men did what was unlawful by eating the bread in the temple that was dedicated to God. That was considered to be unlawful as well, and yet they were celebrated for what they had done.

So Jesus says that the Sabbath is intended to serve the people, not the people to serve the sabbath. The Sabbath should give rest, but if the people can’t eat, we shouldn’t be slaves to the Sabbath. In other words, you do not simply follow rules thinking that you are going to please God by following the rules. There is a need, in this case, a need to eat. The Sabbath should not stop them from eating.

Jesus is, though, even more pointed in his explanation. He says that he, himself, is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Let’s remember where the Sabbath came from. First, God had rested on the seventh day, a rest that continues to this day. That seventh day never ended.

Then, God commanded the Israelites in the midst of the 10 Commandments to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy. The Israelites were commanded to do no work on that day. It was to be only a day of rest.

So keeping the Sabbath was commanded by God. But now, Jesus says he is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the Lord over a command that was given by God? Yes, because he is, himself, God.

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:27-28

Should we think that, in our feeble minds, we can come up with arguments that suggest that because Jesus didn’t say exactly what I think he should have said, he is therefore not God? No, that makes no sense. In fact, let’s think about what would have happened. Imagine that Jesus does exactly what Muslims suggest that he should have done, saying:

I am God, worship me!

Immediately, Jesus would have been taken for a crazy man, or a blasphemer, or both. He would have no credibility. No opportunity to do what he was actually there to do. He wouldn’t be able to teach his disciples. His timing would have been man’s timing for his death, not God’s timing. That would have been pretty silly and worthy of a lot of doubt…exactly how we should think about our Muslim friend’s arguments.

Instead, Jesus is revealing himself to the people. Those who had eyes to see and ears to hear would be able to do so. They would be able to see Jesus’s miracles, hear that he was giving forgiveness to sinners, and understand that he had the authority to do all of these things. May God forgive us for placing our own expectations upon Jesus.

Jesus was beginning to get some notoriety. He had healed Peter’s mother-in-law there in Capernaum and when word of what had happened got out, the news began to spread. The people of the town and around the area lining up at the door of the house where he was staying and now it was on. Jesus’s fame was beginning to spread and he could start to build his ministry.

But after having healed all of those people and going to bed for the night, Jesus gets up early in the morning and goes away to pray. He needs to hear from the Father. He needs to talk about what he has seen and determine the next steps. The ministry could really begin to grow here in Capernaum. What should he do?

In the meantime, the disciples come looking for him. The people had been looking for Jesus, so they came to fetch him. After some time, they do finally find him, but what does Jesus tell them that he will do? He says exactly the opposite of what they are expecting: It is time to leave.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Mark 1:35-39

The disciples had better get used to this. Jesus will rarely do what they think that he should do. He has work to do that they don’t really understand. He has priorities that they most certainly don’t understand. The disciples are in for a wild ride, one that will be quite confusing for them.

It is clear that God’s priorities are different than man’s priorities. Jesus is God and he is thinking differently than all of the men around him. They are thinking that they need to set up their ministry, open their shop, make a name for themselves with this teacher that not only speaks with authority, but heals people with a word of the touch of his hand. Jackpot!

But Jesus’s priority is that all will hear. He doesn’t care about crowds of people. He cares about all people. Capernaum is not enough. Others must hear as well. One city seems like enough to the disciples, but for Jesus, it isn’t enough until the news of the kingdom of God goes everywhere.

We also have the same tendencies and temptations as the disciples. We have been given a mandate, a plan. The scriptures tell us that Jesus has called us to make disciples, and we see churches planted. We don’t need anything else. We need to be faithful with what we have been given and do what we have been asked to do. With the little that we have, God will do the rest, so let’s stay focused on the task that he has given to us.

Not too long ago, someone taught me that there is a point, an end, to discipleship. That point is that the other person might fully follow Christ, that they would go on to do the same things that you have learned, and more. I am discipling someone because I want them to know Christ and live in him as much as I do, and even more.

Paul tells the Corinthians that they need to examine themselves to confirm that they are, in fact, in Christ. Confirm that they know him. Confirm that they are walking with him.

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you —unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed.

2 Corinthians 13:5-7

He is telling the Corinthians that they need to make sure that they are in the faith. There are many reasons for this, of course, but this isn’t what Paul is most concerned about at the moment. He wants to make sure that this church isn’t full of people who are there for the social connection, but are instead there in community to know and glorify Christ.

Paul wants them to make sure that they are truly in the faith. Do they believe what they have been taught? Do they practice what they have been taught? Actually believe and practice?

In the end, Paul says that it may turn out that they have failed. Maybe he and his apostolic band of brothers haven’t fully fulfilled all that they were supposed to do to help the Corinthians become who they were to become. But as we stand before God, that will be a conversation that God has with them, with Paul and his compadres. God will also, though, have a conversation with each of the Corinthians. Were they in Christ?

What is more, and this is the reason that I wanted to write this today, Paul says that, if they are in the faith, Christ is in them! What does that mean? It means that they don’t need to keep coming to Paul to get the answers. They don’t need to argue with him as to whether Christ is truly speaking through him. Why? Because they have Christ within them already! He is already there. They, the Corinthians, simply need to listen to what he is saying.

There are a couple of lessons here, I think. First, I think that it is important for those of us as leaders to continue to remember that the people that we are working with have also received the Holy Spirit. As believers, they have Christ within them as well. And Christ wants to speak to them and through them. And Jesus doesn’t need our help. He doesn’t need my help. He can do all of the talking and instructing and leading and guiding that he wants to do, even without me.

The second lesson is for each person, that we need to pay attention. If we are in Christ, we must follow him. We must do what he tells us to do. It isn’t the responsibility of the leader of our church to tell me what to do. Yes, they have authority, but the greatest authority is that of Christ. What he says needs to be done. And if he says it, and it isn’t happening in my life, I don’t need to wait for the leader to point it out, or lead me to do it. I need to listen to Christ. And the more that I do that, the more that I learn to hear his voice and do what he says. And that will produce an ever-increasing strength of faith and action as a result of Christ in me.

Very often we want to show ourselves worthy, whether it would be worthy of love, worthy of respect, worthy of attention, worthy to be paid, and so much more. This happens regularly in our relationships with other people, but also in our relationship with God. People do “religious” activities, things that they believe that will make God pleased with them, and in that way, God will put a type of stamp of approval upon them.

Our relationship with God certainly doesn’t work that way, and over time, neither do our relationships with other people. As we get to know other people, and they get to know us, we are known not only for our strengths, that which we have put forward for others to see, but also for our weaknesses, those things that may make us seem less worthy, or unworthy, of whatever it is that we tried to be considered worthy of in the first place.

As Paul writes 2 Corinthians, there is a situation happening that others are coming in to Corinth to present themselves as true apostles, or as Paul says, “super-apostles”. They are preaching a gospel that Paul suspects is different than the Gospel that he had preached to them. And they hold themselves up as being the real deal because they are great speakers. They are gifted in preaching and teaching, and the Corinthians are beginning to judge Paul in the light of the giftings of the other teachers. They have said that Paul writes forcefully, but he isn’t very impressive in person. They have said that he seems timid and doesn’t speak well when he is with them.

But Paul isn’t deterred. He knows that the kingdom of God isn’t an issue of how forcefully you speak, or how well you teach. Paul is confident in the Gospel that he has spoken to the Corinthians and he is aware of both his own failings and what his detractors say about him. He isn’t worried, because this isn’t about him. He isn’t trying to get the Corinthians to follow him. He is working to convince the Corinthians that the Gospel that he has preached to them is correct, and if there is any other Gospel that they hear, they have been misled.

Paul realizes, and tells the Corinthians, that it isn’t his strength that is the question, but it is his weakness. It is in his weakness that he should boast:

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

2 Corinthians 11:30

Paul has a long list of reasons why he is a true apostle, and significantly more than anyone else that might come to them. But that isn’t the issue. Those reasons, in the end, are actually nothing because it is actually Paul’s weaknesses that are at issue.

But why would that be? Why would Paul want to put forward his weakness and boast about that to the Corinthians? Or to anyone else for that matter?

It is because Paul is attempting to point the Corinthians to Christ, not to himself. The other “super-apostles” hold themselves up as having great virtues. They hold themselves up as having great talents, and they attempt to have others follow them because of those talents. And the Corinthians are enticed. They are worldly and they see the worldly talents and are seduced by them. But Paul is trying to explain that the kingdom of God works in precisely the opposite way. He is strong only because of Christ. The truth is that he is weak and any strength that he has, it is because of the strength that Christ has put within him.

And this is the same truth also for us. Each of us also is weak. Anything that we would boast, anything that we would say about ourselves, we should recognize that it isn’t of ourselves, but it is of Christ. The world wants to hold up the frail talents of individual human beings, talents that will soon pass away and mean nothing. But in the kingdom of God, Christ is King and he and his kingdom will last forever. Our boast is our weakness because Christ has made us strong.

Can you imagine trying to measure the length of a board by using the board itself? Or taking your height by looking at yourself in the mirror? No, of course not. That would be absurd and ridiculous because that isn’t possible. You cannot take the length of a board or your own height by using your own standard.

Or here is another one… What is my weight? Am I too heavy? Too skinny? If I measure that, in either direction, based on my own self and how I felt about myself yesterday, I can end up either in unmerited self-loathing or self-approval. Why? Because I have been measuring myself against myself.

Instead, as we measure, we need an external, standard measurement against which we can measure. In the case of length or height, maybe that would be a tape measure. In the case of weight, a scale and a chart to show me healthy ranges. Those would be proper ways to measure, not based on my own feelings or comparing myself against myself.

And yet that is what Paul says is happening with those who are commending themselves to the Corinthian church. There are some people who are attempting to have the Corinthian church follow them instead of Paul, telling the Corinthians that they are the proper apostolic person for them to follow, not Paul.

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you.

2 Corinthians 10:12-13

Despite the fact that Paul was the one who took the risk in sharing the Gospel, in preaching, making disciples, and starting the church in Corinth, others have now attempted to move in to take on the mantle of leadership. It is likely because the people in the church have preferred what they have done to teach them and allow their worldly lifestyles to continue unabated, there are now divisions amongst them, divisions that have harmed, and are continuing to harm, the church just as Paul has been pointing out.

So Paul is now trying to tell the Corinthians that it is because of these self-comparisons that these other apostolic-type leaders are claiming such leadership over the Corinthians. They have moved in, seeing themselves as the right person to lead the Corinthians. Not because they have been the one to start the church, but because they have looked at themselves in the mirror and decided that they were right. They measured themselves by themselves, not by what had actually been done, but by their own standards.

This caught my attention today because I see this happen throughout the spiritual world today. Yes, I see exactly this same situation that Paul is referring to, but it shows up in other ways as well. We frequently also compare ourselves with ourselves based on our own righteousness. We build ourselves up in our own eyes. We don’t realize that there is a standard outside of ourselves. We see our own selves as the standard and that is the standard by which we measure ourselves.

The place that I actually see this the most is with regard to holiness. Our righteousness before God. We consider ourselves to be righteous because we haven’t done a particular sin in a little while. We act religious, so we call ourselves righteous. And it is simply deception. It is a house of cards that is simply waiting for a slight breeze to make it fall.

Before God, which is the true measurement, the true standard, we are simply dirty in our sin. God is holy, and we are not. There are several examples that I can think of in the Bible where people realize this, but the one that always comes to mind first for me is that of Isaiah. As he stands in God’s presence, he experiences the holiness and the glory of God. He himself has been chosen. He is the one who will speak for God. Yet as he stands before God, he declares that he is a man of unclean lips, and he is from a people of unclean lips. Isaiah realizes his unholiness as he stands before God’s holiness.

But if Isaiah never realized the holiness of God, he might continue to think that he was a good guy, a righteous guy. He might compare himself with himself. He had been chosen as a prophet. He had been the one through whom God is speaking to the Israelite people. He is in great shape, isn’t he? But yes, that is simply comparing himself with himself. Instead, as he stands before God, he realizes how little he is, how unclean he is, as he stands before the holiness of God.

So as we walk forward in our lives, and especially in our spiritual lives, let us not compare ourselves with ourselves. Instead, let us be people who rightly measure and compare ourselves with a just and true measure so that God can use us in the way that he would like because we have seen who we truly are and what God has done, and is doing in us.

I love this last statement that Paul makes in 2 Corinthians 4. He is, in essence, using a play on words to make an incredibly important point, I think:

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18

Paul says that we must fix our eyes on what is unseen. But how is that possible? How do you fix your eyes on that which is unseen? How can we see what we cannot see?

Paul has been talking about the glory of Christ revealed through his disciples. He said that, on the one hand, they carry around the death of Christ in their bodies. These bodies, of course, are the things that are seen.

But Paul goes on afterward to also say that they do this so that the life of Christ would be revealed in those same bodies. Life, though, is a thing that is unseen.

You can’t “see” life. You can see the body. You can see it in motion. You can see it move, speak, and react and those are the effects of life, but that isn’t specifically life. Life is something that is unseen.

And yet Paul says that they are fixing their eyes on the things that are unseen. You see, we spend most of our time thinking and worrying about the things that are seen. What we will eat today. How we will pay our bills. What we will do today. How someone will think about us, and how they will react to us. These are the things that we spend the majority of our time thinking about.

Paul says that, instead of these things, they are fixing their eyes on the things that are unseen. The glory of Christ. Christ living in people all around them. The Kingdom of God at work within them and through them. These are the things upon which he is fixing his gaze.

Why? Because these are the only things that last. All of the things that are seen will go away. They will all be destroyed. Burned up. Gone at some point.

None of those things that we are spending our time, energy, and money worrying about, talking about, nor working toward will last. Only those things that are unseen will be what will last forever.

So we have a choice. Do we fix our eyes on the things that are seen? Or do we fix our eyes on the things that are unseen? Do we work for that which will be gone soon? Or do we work for that which will last forever? Which would you prefer?

Now, which will you do?

Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper that the cup of wine that he was giving them was his blood of the covenant that was poured out for the forgiveness of sins. But what is this new covenant that Jesus was talking about?

Jesus is referring to the fact that he would soon go to the cross. He would soon give himself, according to God’s plan, as a blood sacrifice, as payment for their sins. In fact, Jesus says that his blood is given for many for the forgiveness of sins.

His body would be broken on the cross and his blood would be poured out so that people from all over the world, both Jews and Gentiles, those that would place their faith in Christ, could receive grace and mercy from God. This now would have the effect of “opening the curtain”, allowing everyone access to God, through a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the New Covenant to which Jesus was referring. God will be our God through Jesus Christ – who is God himself – and we will be his people. We have a direct relationshp with God through Christ and faith in his death and resurrection to allow us to live an eternal life with him.

It is with this in mind that I read 2 Corinthians 3 this morning, noting that Paul commented on the fact that God made each of us ministers of the new covenant. Here is what he says:

Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant —not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:4-6

Paul talks about a “confidence” that we have. What confidence is he referring to? He is referring back to the previous paragraph where he speaks of the Corinthians, saying that they, themselves, are their letter of recommendation. They are the fruit of Paul’s work, his ministry. They are the ones that have the Spirit of God living within them as a result of their faith in Christ. Paul notes that it is not with regard to adherence to the law that they are saved, but it is walking by the Spirit that they have been given life.

Paul says that their competence to be ministers comes not from them, nothing that they would be able to offer from a human perspective. Furthermore, following the rules hasn’t enabled them either. No religiosity will allow Paul, nor any other believer, neither the confidence nor the competence to be ministers of the new covenant. Instead, what they have to offer comes only from God’s enabling, through the Holy Spirit, because it is only through the understanding given by the Spirit that we can understand what God has done for us through Christ.

Through our normal, human way of thinking, the adherence to the law makes sense. There is a standard and we must live up to the standard to be able to please God.

But in fact, this is not how God decided that the new covenant would work. Instead, God knew that we couldn’t live up to God’s standard. His standard is holiness. His standard is righteousness. But we are not righteous. We are not holy. We are sinful human beings, so we need a way that we can be made holy, and God himself gives a sacrifice that will make us holy.

And it is through this way, and only this way, that we can come to God. Only through being made holy by God can we be known by him. Only through the blood of Christ can we enter into the new covenant. That is what Jesus explained to his disciples, and now it follows what Paul has explained as well. We have been made ministers of the new covenant, allowing others to also enter into relationship with God because of what he has done within us through his Spirit.

To say the least, Paul has had a bit of a tumultuous relationship with the Corinthian church. He had stayed there in Corinth for about a year and half and now is traveling and planting churches in other places as well. He is sending letters back to them, trying to both reprimand and teach them.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul had spoken to the Corinthian church pretty severely. He was very direct in his correction of them. It is possible that there was even another letter yet with additional correction and reprimand to them for all that they had become and the way that the church was behaving. But now, Paul sees fit, instead of traveling to see them, to go elsewhere. Their relationship may be at a breaking point, so instead, he chooses to send yet another letter, 2 Corinthians, to speak with them in a more soothing tone.

Paul has already given them the instructions that they need. Now, it is important that they carry out the instructions. They need to manage the situations properly, and they need to do it locally. Paul can’t continue to send letter after letter with correction after correction. He can’t continue to come to them to be the one to manage the situation in the church. It is for the local church to take on the responsibility, to handle the various situations that they have in their church.

I think it is for this reason that Paul talks about what the church must do with regard to the “offender”:

If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

2 Corinthians 2:5-11

It is teaching moment for the leaders of the Corinthian church as well. They have been continuing to write letters to Paul, asking for instruction, looking for direction. Now it is their turn to take on the mantle of leadership. Paul urges them to forgive them person that had caused them grief, to give him comfort, and show love to him. Now, it is their turn to be obedient, to do what he had written to them, to give correction there inside of their own house and come to the place where they are able to forgive those who have offended the others.

This is an important step. There comes a time when you need to provide a little more slack, even coming to the place where you cut the cord. Not “cut the cord” in the sense of cutting relationship, but in the sense of allowing the child to grow and take responsibility for managing themselves. Paul has been a type of father figure to the church in Corinth. Now they need to grow and become fully formed as the body of Christ. It is time for him to send them forward, to allow them to make the decisions, to become mature and like adults in their work in leading the church.

Given this, Paul is urging them in their actions to take, but now it is up to the leaders of the church to carry out the plan.

So Paul is showing wisdom, even in the midst of the distress that he has felt, both there in his work in Ephesus, but also in his relationship with the Corinthians. Even though he had intended to go to Corinth, he realized that it was better to send a letter instead. He wanted to allow them the opportunity to do what he had told them to do. He wanted to allow them to grow in the midst of the situation that they were in.

Paul is writing again to the Corinthians and he speaks about the comfort that God provides to his people, but he also speaks of suffering that occurs and the reason for it.

Paul tells the Corinthians that he doesn’t want them to be uninformed. This time that they have had in Asia has produced great fruit. Paul is in Ephesus and has been teaching the disciples there, seeing the word of God continue to spread throughout the province, and even seeing new churches begin to pop up throughout the province. This has been a great boon for the Kingdom, but it has also come at a great cost to them in the sense of the pressure that they have faced along the way.

Paul says that the pressure that they had faced was beyond their ability to endure. Think about that. Paul is the same person who tells us that he has been kidnapped (!), threatened, beaten, arrested, accused of legal wrongdoing, stoned, ridiculed, shipwrecked, and more… and here he says that the pressure that they were experiencing there in Ephesus was beyond what they could endure. He even said that he was despairing of life itself. Under these conditions, he didn’t want to go on.

Paul had been suffering, but there was a reason. The work was moving forward. The people were hearing the Gospel. Churches were being started. The Kingdom was on the march.

But the biggest reason was a personal lesson: that they would learn to depend upon God instead of upon themselves.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

2 Corinthians 1:8-11

Our God is a God who raises the dead. And if our God raises the dead, what do we have to fear? We can despair of life. We can live in unbearable conditions. We can even be killed for the work that we do, and yet we have hope. Let me say that again. Even though we can be killed for what we do, we have hope.

Why? Because our God is a God who raises the dead.

We need to be reminded of that at times. We need to be reminded of the significance that Jesus was raised from the dead. We need to understand how important that is, how critical of an understanding it is that, even in death, we can have life. In fact, death must come so that others may live. Jesus spoke of this fact with regard to a seed that is planted in the ground. It is put to death under the ground so that life may grow. Only in this way may we see new life.

Paul also spoke of the comfort that we receive from God. God has not only allowed us to have strife and distress, he has also given us comfort. In fact, Paul says that the distress that he has felt has been for the comfort in the Gospel that the Corinthians would feel. However, at the same time, Paul says that the comfort that he and his team feel is also for their comfort. He desires that they would be comforted in their salvation in Christ. Paul wants them to understand and know the comfort that is from God:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

So yes, there is suffering. But there is also comfort that our heavenly Father gives to us. Paul desires and hopes for the Corinthians to experience the same sufferings but also the same comfort that they themselves, the apostles, experience in their daily work.

The Gospel that Paul told is sometimes contrasted with the Gospel that Jesus told. Frequently with Paul, in his epistles, we see a discussion and an emphasis on the death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins. And of course, this is a correct interpretation of the Gospel.

But at times that is contrasted with the Gospel that Jesus told. He spoke, routinely, of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Jesus preached and told parables about the Kingdom of God, and so there is an impression left to some that Jesus and Paul were speaking about different things.

But in fact, that is not the case. I think, instead, that we can often read the scriptures the way that we want and determine them to say what we think they should say instead of having them say what they say.

As I look at 1 Corinthians 15, I see that Paul is telling the Corinthians, whom he has been correcting and reprimanding, to come into unity as one body under the headship of Christ, and now he is going to remind them of the Gospel that should unite them. Paul starts with Christ’s death for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus takes the punishment upon himself and receives both the blows and the death that we deserve upon himself.

But the story doesn’t end there. Jesus is raised from the dead. He comes alive again. He defeats death, and he says that we, as those who follow him, will one day do the same. We will also be able to defeat death and we will live together with him forever.

And it is this last part that I want to focus on today. Paul continues in his recitation of the Gospel, talking about Christ’s return. He says that Jesus will return and the Father will put all things under Christ. Jesus is already the King, even if not everyone recognizes him as King. Yet there will be a day that will come when everyone will bow, because they must. Here is what Paul says:

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

1 Corinthians 15:22-28

The Gospel is not limited to the death of Christ. Nor is it limited to the resurrection of Christ. Those are extremely important elements because the death of Christ speaks to the purchasing of the people away from the kingdom of darkness to come into the kingdom of God. Jesus does this with his blood, and without paying that penalty none of us would be able to enter the Kingdom of God.

In addition, Jesus is resurrected from the dead and that is also a critical part of the Gospel because without Christ rising first from the dead, we would go on to continue also in our death without having a new life in Christ. So we also place our faith in Christ so that we can one day rise from the dead.

We see, though, in this scripture, that Christ will return, and when he does, all things will be placed under his feet. Jesus will reign as King. Everything will be under him. This is the Gospel of the Kingdom, the Good News that all evil will be wiped away. The Good News that there will be one King over all and we will serve him. The Good News that all things will come under the authority of Christ, to praise him and worship him and he will receive glory forever. This is the Good News, the Gospel of the Kingdom. This is the completeness of the Gospel, the synthesis of what Jesus seemed to have emphasized and what Paul seemed to have emphasized, the Gospel that Paul is explaining to the Corinthians is a full Gospel to explain how Christ has come for us and we will be his people, living within his Kingdom, forever.