Pauline Epistles Reflections on the .ppt

Reflections on the Church
& Suffering
© John Stevenson, 2010

The Question of
The Question of
Suffering
Suffering
• Why does God allow it?
Why does God allow it?
• What is to be the Christian’s
What is to be the Christian’s
attitude toward suffering?
attitude toward suffering?
• How does Paul develop this
How does Paul develop this
theme in 2
theme in 2nd
nd
Corinthians?
Corinthians?

Defending the Faith
Defending the Faith

The Second Epistle to the
The Second Epistle to the
Corinthians
Corinthians
• The most biographical of all of
The most biographical of all of
Paul’s writings.
Paul’s writings.
• This epistle is written some time
This epistle is written some time
after 1
after 1st
st
Corinthians. Some of the
Corinthians. Some of the
problems in that first epistle had
problems in that first epistle had
been settled; some still remained.
been settled; some still remained.
– The legitimacy of Paul’s apostleship
The legitimacy of Paul’s apostleship
had been brought into question.
had been brought into question.
– Another collection for the church in
Another collection for the church in
Jerusalem.
Jerusalem.

Occasions for the Epistle
Occasions for the Epistle
• Paul explains why he has not
returned to Corinth (1:15 – 2:4).
• Restoration of a repentant
believer (2:5-11).
• Encouragement to complete an
offering for the church in
Jerusalem (8-9).
• To affirm his apostleship and
teachings which have come
under attack.

Personal Practical Personal
Chapters 1-7
Chapters 1-7
A presentation
of Paul’s
apostolic
ministry
Chapters 8-9
Chapters 8-9 Chapters 10-13
Chapters 10-13
An
encouragement
of the
Corinthians’
financial ministry
A defense of
Paul’s apostolic
ministry
Outline of 2
Outline of 2nd
nd
Corinthians
Corinthians

Introduction (1:1-11)
Travel Plans: Why Paul didn’t come
to Corinth (1:12 - 2:13)
Presentation of Paul’s Apostolic Ministry
(2:14 - 7:16)
Collection of a Love Gift for the Jerusalem
Church (8-9)
Defense of Paul’s Apostolic Ministry
(10:1 - 12:10)
Travel Plans: Paul’s upcoming trip
to Corinth (12:11 - 13:10)
Conclusion (13:11-14)

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and God of
all comfort; 4 who comforts us in
all our affliction so that we may be
able to comfort those who are in
any affliction with the comfort with
which we ourselves are comforted
by God.

2 Corinthians 1:8-10
8 For we do not want you to be
unaware, brethren, of our affliction
which came to us in Asia, that we
were burdened excessively, beyond
our strength, so that we despaired
even of life; 9 indeed, we had the
sentence of death within ourselves in
order that we should not trust in
ourselves, but in God who raises the
dead; 10 who delivered us from so
great a peril of death, and will deliver
us, He on whom we have set our
hope. And He will yet deliver us…

2 Corinthians 2:1-3
2 Corinthians 2:1-3
1 But I determined this for my
own sake, that I would not come to
you in sorrow again. 2 For if I cause
you sorrow, who then makes me glad
but the one whom I made sorrowful?
3 And this is the very thing I
wrote you, lest, when I came, I
should have sorrow from those who
ought to make me rejoice; having
confidence in you all, that my joy
would be the joy of you all.

2 Corinthians 2:4
2 Corinthians 2:4
For out of much affliction and
anguish of heart I wrote to you with
many tears; not that you should be
made sorrowful, but that you might
know the love which I have especially
for you.

2 Corinthians 2:6-8
2 Corinthians 2:6-8
6 Sufficient for such a one is this
punishment which was inflicted by
the majority, 7 so that on the contrary
you should rather forgive and comfort
him, lest somehow such a one be
overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
8 Wherefore I urge you to
reaffirm your love for him.

14 But thanks be to God, who
always leads us in His triumph in
Christ, and manifests through us the
sweet aroma of the knowledge of
Him in every place.
15 For we are a fragrance of
Christ to God among those who are
being saved and among those who
are perishing; 16 to the one an aroma
from death to death, to the other an
aroma from life to life. And who is
adequate for these things?

2 Corinthians 2:17
2 Corinthians 2:17
For we are not like many,
peddling the word of God, but as
from sincerity, but as from God, we
speak in Christ in the sight of God.

2 Corinthians 3:1-3
2 Corinthians 3:1-3
1 Are we beginning to commend
ourselves again? Or do we need, as
some, letters of commendation to you
or from you?
2 You are our letter, written in our
hearts, known and read by all men; 3
being manifested that you are a letter
of Christ, cared for by us, written not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the living
God, not on tablets of stone, but on
tablets of human hearts.

2 Corinthians 3:4-6
2 Corinthians 3:4-6
4 And such confidence we have
through Christ toward God. 5 Not that
we are adequate in ourselves to
consider anything as coming from
ourselves, but our adequacy is from
God, 6 who also made us adequate as
servants of a new covenant, not of the
letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter
kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Old Covenant
Old Covenant
The letter
The letter
New Covenant
New Covenant
The Spirit
The Spirit
Tablets of stone
Tablets of stone Tablets of human
Tablets of human
hearts
hearts
The letter kills
The letter kills The Spirit gives life
The Spirit gives life
If the ministry of the
If the ministry of the
death, in letters
death, in letters
engraved on stones,
engraved on stones,
came with glory…
came with glory…
How shall the ministry
How shall the ministry
of the Spirit fail to be
of the Spirit fail to be
even more with glory?
even more with glory?

Having therefore
such a hope, we use
great boldness in our
speech, 13 and are not
as Moses, who used to
put a veil over his face
that the sons of Israel
might not look intently
at the end of what was
fading away.

14 But their minds were hardened;
for until this very day at the reading of
the old covenant the same veil
remains unlifted, because it is
removed in Christ.
15 But to this day whenever
Moses is read, a veil lies over their
heart; 16 but whenever a man turns to
the Lord, the veil is taken away.

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face
beholding as in a mirror the glory of
the Lord, are being transformed into
the same image from glory to glory,
just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4:3-5
2 Corinthians 4:3-5
3 And even if our gospel is veiled,
it is veiled to those who are perishing,
4 in whose case the god of this world
has blinded the minds of the
unbelieving, that they might not see
the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God.
5 For we do not preach ourselves
but Christ Jesus as Lord, and
ourselves as your bond-servants for
Jesus' sake.

2 Corinthians 5:10
2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all
appear before the
judgment seat of Christ,
that each one may be
recompensed for his
deeds in the body,
according to what he has
done, whether good or
bad.

2 Corinthians 5:11
2 Corinthians 5:11
Therefore knowing
the fear of the Lord, we
persuade men, but we
are made manifest to
God; and I hope that we
are made manifest also
in your consciences.

2 Corinthians 5:20
2 Corinthians 5:20
Therefore, we are
ambassadors for Christ,
as though God were
entreating through us;
we beg you on behalf of
Christ, be reconciled to
God.

2 Corinthians 8:1-2
2 Corinthians 8:1-2
Now, brethren, we wish
to make known to you
the grace of God which
has been given in the
churches of Macedonia, 2
that in a great ordeal of
affliction their abundance
of joy and their deep
poverty overflowed in the
wealth of their liberality.
Macedonia
●
Corinth

2 Corinthians 8:6-7
2 Corinthians 8:6-7
6 Consequently we urged Titus
that as he had previously made a
beginning, so he would also complete
in you this gracious work as well. 7 But
just as you abound in everything, in
faith and utterance and knowledge
and in all earnestness and in the love
we inspired in you, see that you
abound in this gracious work also.

2 Corinthians 8:8-9
2 Corinthians 8:8-9
8 I am not speaking this as a
command, but as proving through the
earnestness of others the sincerity of
your love also.
9 For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was
rich, yet for your sake He became
poor, that you through His poverty
might become rich.

2 Corinthians 9:6-7
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
6 Now this I say, he who sows
sparingly shall also reap sparingly;
and he who sows bountifully shall also
reap bountifully.
7 Let each one do just as he has
purposed in his heart; not grudgingly
or under compulsion; for God loves a
cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:8-9
2 Corinthians 9:8-9
8 And God is able to make all
grace abound to you, that always
having all sufficiency in everything,
you may have an abundance for every
good deed; 9 as it is written, "He
scattered abroad, he gave to the poor,
His righteousness abides forever."

10 Now He who supplies seed to
the sower and bread for food, will
supply and multiply your seed for
sowing and increase the harvest of
your righteousness; 11 you will be
enriched in everything for all liberality,
which through us is producing
thanksgiving to God.

12 For we are not bold to class or
compare ourselves with some of
those who commend themselves; but
when they measure themselves by
themselves, and compare themselves
with themselves, they are without
understanding. 13 But we will not boast
beyond our measure, but within the
measure of the sphere which God
apportioned to us as a measure, to
reach even as far as you.

2 For I am jealous for you with a
godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to
one husband, that to Christ I might
present you as a pure virgin.
3 But I am afraid, lest as the
serpent deceived Eve by his
craftiness, your minds should be led
astray from the simplicity and purity of
devotion to Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:4
2 Corinthians 11:4
For if one comes and preaches
another Jesus whom we have not
preached, or you receive a different
spirit which you have not received, or
a different gospel which you have not
accepted, you bear this beautifully.

1 Boasting is necessary, though it
is not profitable; but I will go on to
visions and revelations of the Lord.
2 I know a man in Christ who
fourteen years ago-- whether in the
body I do not know, or out of the body
I do not know, God knows-- such a
man was caught up to the third
heaven.

3 And I know how such a man--
whether in the body or apart from the
body I do not know, God knows-- 4
was caught up into Paradise, and
heard inexpressible words, which a
man is not permitted to speak.
5 On behalf of such a man will I
boast; but on my own behalf I will not
boast, except in regard to my
weaknesses.

7 And because of the surpassing
greatness of the revelations, for this
reason, to keep me from exalting
myself, there was given me a thorn in
the flesh, a messenger of Satan to
buffet me-- to keep me from exalting
myself!
8 Concerning this I entreated the
Lord three times that it might depart
from me.

9 And He has said to me, “My
grace is sufficient for you, for power is
perfected in weakness.” Most gladly,
therefore, I will rather boast about my
weaknesses, that the power of Christ
may dwell in me.
10 Therefore I am well content
with weaknesses, with insults, with
distresses, with persecutions, with
difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when
I am weak, then I am strong.

Look through these epistles
Look through these epistles
and look for principles on…
and look for principles on…
Groups 3 & 4
Groups 1 & 2
The Purity of
the Church
The Unity of
the Church

What happens when a church
What happens when a church
moves to one extreme or the
moves to one extreme or the
other?
other?
Unity Purity

Pauline Epistles Reflections on the .ppt

Pauline Epistles Reflections on the .ppt

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Pauline Epistles Reflections on the .ppt