Apostolic Boasting, 2 Cor 1:12-22, others

Themes from 2 Cor

Apostolic Boasting

2 Cor 1:12-22, others

1. Apostolic Boasting    

2. Apostolic Wants

3. Apostolic Explanation

4. Apostolic Anointing

1. Apostolic Boasting    

2 Corinthians 1:12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 13 For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and acknowledge and I hope you will fully acknowledge-- 14 just as you did partially acknowledge us--that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you. 

2. Apostolic Wants

15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 

16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. 

17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time? 

3. Apostolic Explanation

18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 

19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 

20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 

4. Apostolic Anointing

21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 

Let's take a look at the text:

Boasting among Christians is usually considered a bad thing. Parents correct their children for making too much of their studies, their abilities in sports, Bible memory, and many other things. The boasting we try to get rid of in our children and ourselves is a boasting of arrogance--if I can use the biblical category from James 4:16. 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

There is also the arrogant boasting when it comes to God-given salvation. Paul writes in Eph :8-9 about this. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

If we had something, make that anything to do with our salvation we could claim some responsibility for it. What Paul is saying under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is that people have nothing to do with bring about this salvation. It is all of God who calls and grants this full and free salvation. We are not saved because of anything we are or anything we have done. If we think that is the case, our boast is arrogant and we detract from the marvelous grace of a loving God. We have nothing to boast about when it comes to salvation. All we contributed was the sin that had previously kept us from comfortable fellowship with God and the experience of being saved according to the truth revealed--this is what God's salvation should look like: these are the evidences (1 John); these are the fruits (Gal 5:22-23); and these are more general characteristics (Tit 2:11-14).  All of those are produced by God after he has given salvation freely to sinners. And, there is so much more. But, nothing we can boast of outside of God and his work for us and in us by the Lord Jesus Christ.

That means there may be a boast in a proper subject that is boating about the work done by another. It is the Lord who gives us this perspective as well. In Jeremiah 9 we find these words in verses 23 & 24: 23 Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, A. that he understands and knows me,

B. that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."

A. is about those in whom God has worked and given understanding according to his truth and his revelation.

B. And, more importantly, who the Lord is and what He does upon the earth-- who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness. All that God does or allows has one or more of these attributes about it. His unfailing love, justice without any hint of injustice and that which is ultimately right defined by the Lord's standards, character and acts.

So, there are some things, even in the old testament, that are worthy of our boast--worth talking about and telling others about as well. In the New Testament, this theme is found as well, 2 Cor 10: 17 "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

And a chapter earlier in 2 Cor 9 and in our main passage for today, we find the doctrine of mutual boasting by the apostles and the church as they tell others about the good that has been in them or through them. Yet, we find the boasting has limits in the passage before us.  

Let's look at the text:

1. Apostolic Boasting    

2 Corinthians 1:12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 

The Apostles are boasting about themselves and the work God gave them to do. They look at the Corinthian church as living proof of the efficacy of their ministry. The Apostles did what God called them to do. A Church was brought into existence. It is now being nurtured from afar by letters and the hope of Paul to visit with them--as we will see.

Their collective boast is not an arrogant one, but an example of humility and grace--like all Christian boasts ought to be. This is what they boast about-- A.simplicity and godly sincerity, 

They acted in such a way that adorned the gospel. They used nothing to manipulate through complex schemes. They behaved simply--and as we read the record of the history of the Apostolic churches in the New Testament see that means simply preaching and discussing the Word of God. The two words for teaching mean the authoritative declaration of God's word and dialogue about the same. What a simple methodology. They didn't use call banks and sociological and psychological methods to form a church, they worked with simplicity and in godly sincerity.

Someone once asked George Burns what made him such an effective actor. He replied,  "Sincereity…if you can fake that you have it made." There are seminars about church planning that include instruction on the subtleties of personal relationships. Among things taught is how to make someone think they have your full attention in order to win them over. That is manipulation that does not adorn the gospel. Another is to focus on building relationships to the point where people will feel guilty if they ever leave. These methods are going on in plants in our area. The apostolic method of which they boast, interestingly enough starts with simplicity and godly sincerity. Notice the adverb before sincerity--godly. As God is sincere so too should we be. 

This is contrasted in the text with….

B. not by earthly wisdom

There are techniques people use to gather a group of people together. They are given a purpose to rally around. The problem is any group can use those principles and have a measure of human success. Churches are not after earthly gains, but spiritual ones. When you use worldly or earthly methods, you get a worldly church with the world's problems. People who think like the world do not make for good church members--eventually, their allegiance to themselves or some contrary scheme will be manifest.

What we always have is the undeserved hand of God so we can say…

C. but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 

We should always pray that God would pour out his grace on us. Ryle made an acrostic out of the word to facilitate is being remembered:

God's

Riches

At

Christ's

Expense

All of this should be a reminder of that Grace. It is simplicity with sincerity and a lot of grace that plants and builds churches. That is why we pray for God's grace over and over again. We pray for God to give grace as much as we do for Him to glorify Himself. It is what He has promised to do. We might be looking for the wrong things in line with human or earthly wisdom and miss the grace and glory of it all. As Paul wrote:

13 For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and acknowledge and I hope you will fully acknowledge-- 14 just as you did partially acknowledge us--that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you. 

Here is that mutual boasting in verse 14. At that last day, when the final accounts are given and the books are opened, Paul expects the Church in Corinth -- with all of its problems --  will be among the things of which he will boast and that they will have reason to boast about him.

This presents a difficult problem for the 21st century preacher. How do you apply these words to the church to whom you are preaching them?  How do you apply them without arrogant boasting?

The Lord has worked in wonderful ways in the past 20 years or so here at Heritage.  There have been many true professions of faith; there have been some false professions. The men who have served as pastors of the church since its constituting have labored with simplicity and sincerity with fear of the Lord and the expectation of his grace that He has given. There have been many baptisms. People have learned about their Lord in particular, and have an enlarged view of God more generally. We have also had our struggles due to contrariness and sin. At times the elders or elder had to rule according to the wisdom of God as they understood it with the expectation that the true sheep would hear Christ's voice through the undershepherd and would follow. This expectation came from Heb 13:17 and other places: 17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. 

I fear for some for whom I must give an honest accounting on the day of judgment. I can't change what they have done so that I might boast in them on that day, but I can pray for their repentance in accord with the truth. God knows all things--even those things never made public--things of which no one can boast.

Back to the text: We find Paul expressing a series of….     

2. Apostolic Wants

15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 

It was the mutual boasting Paul was sure of. Because of all the reasons the church had given him to boast, he wanted to visit with them again--he wanted to go there first in time. He goes on to explain, lest they had heard something contrary to their expectations.

16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. 

Corinth would have been on Paul's way to Macedonia--the travel route would have gone through the city. In Paul's mind there seemed to be some turmoil about where to go, when to go there and how long to stay. He is expressing something about this angst in the next verse. The ESV renders it this way in a series of questions:

17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time? 

Humanly speaking Paul may have wanted to do one thing, but more information came to him that changed his plans. That may make it seem as thou he is changing his mind arbitrarily, when he is not. He has promised to visit Corinth again. They seem to have understood this as meaning soon when it may not have. And, to complicate it, if Paul goes to Macedonia, the best way is through Corinth where it only makes sense to stay with one or a few families while on his way. In saying Yes to a visit, parameters might change to make it shorter or not at all. That would make his yes seem to be no and not yes. To some who do not understand providence and the complexities of making decisions in the ministry, this could undermine Paul's integrity when some say, He says one thing and does another. I know. People have done this to me. Plans made by humans can change and sometimes needfully so. Providence is not always easy to see on the road to us. Therefore as we learn in another place, let us always understand our word as being adjacent to if the Lord wills. But, the believers in a place like Corinth were mostly if not entirely new.

3. Apostolic Explanation

18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 

Paul's word or perceived promises to the Corinthians have not been unkept promises. He has not said yes and no to them about the same matters. As God is faithful, he has directed the Apostle in spiritual matters.

Travel is one thing, but it should not affect what the Apostolic Band has said to them about the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are two differing categories of words. The one may fluxtuate, the gospel will not, nor can it ever change in its simplicity and sincerity. Travel plans and ministry to many churches compounded by many possible things can get rather complex. You can always count on the gospel being true it is a large YES as the truth of God. 

19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 

There is no No with the truth of God. The gospel they proclaimed was and is always yes--that is it cannot change from being true it is always the same you can count on that, because….

20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 

All the promises are YES or as the NKJV puts it Yea and Amen. All the promises God has ever made will be kept. Many up to their day in the first Century had been kept. Back to the first promise in the garden that one would come to crush the serpent's head as it would bruise the heal. All of the prophecies about the coming of the messiah and the life of Israel came to pass or were given so that the Jews would know Jesus was the messiah. HUmdreds of prophecies were spoken.

There are others that are yet future to our time and beyond. All of them are yes and Amen. None cannot but come to pass. They will all be fulfilled. God can be trusted. What Jesus said about salvation and the place to which the dead will go can be banked as true. God's very character of truthfulness is behind what God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit has said. God the Father spoke in ancient times. They God spoke in the person of the Son and then the Holy Spirit finished the inspiring work he began so long ago to give us the scriptures. IN them are all the promises and all of them are yes and yes, or yeah and amen.

It is through this word and especially the promises that the believers are saved and nourished in the faith. It is the…

4. Apostolic Anointing

21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 

That same Spirit who inspired the scriptures is the one who establishes the hearts or true believers then and now. It is his work to make alive and then to keep alive through the nurture of the church.

The Spirit is a guarantee. A guarantee assures the thing promised will be delivered and do what has been promised.

Interestingly enough, in Corinth where there were alledged manifestations of the Spirit of God, they still needed scripture to put things right. That scripture was the letter from the Apostle Paul.

In our day, certain scriptures have been put aside on the mistaken notion that God tells different churches differing things.No He doesn't. The gospel is the same to all it is God's yeah and amen throughout all this age. God chose to write the church a letter rather than give them an extraordinary utterance of one kind or another. He did it because he loves them and he loved successive generations of the church who would need this teaching--of the priority of fixed written revelation over any other kind. And, think of the abundance of translations that we have. Of all ages, we are most blessed.

Many have turned it into profound confusion. Let's get back to simplicity and sincerity with proven men of godly wisdom taking the lead in all things by God's grace. And when we see it in the text say, at least to ourselves, Yes, yeah, or Amen.