2 Corinthians 2:5-11 A Community of Redemption

                     RD V. 5-11

 

The IQ test A test that seeks to determine your true mental potential unbiased by culture, by comparing your scores to the scores of other adults who have taken the same test.  IQ Intelligence Quotient

 

Today we are going to consider our AQ –Take a AQ test - Acceptance Quotient Compare w/ Corinth.

A)It is clear in this passage that the Church in Corinth was having a hard time accepting, forgiving and restoring an erring brother who had repented.

 

B)Who was this Person? Some Bible teachers believe this was the individual who was attacking Paul and his ministry.  -

 

C)But in v. 5 Paul plainly says he has not grieved me. 1)Which would seem to indicate that his first offense was not against Paul.

 

D)And  v.10 says that Paul says when you forgive him – sign to me he has repented – I will forgive him too.

 

E)If the offense had been something personal towards Paul, we would expect it to be the other way around.

1)Paul forgiving and then encouraging the Church to forgive.

So a lot of other Bible teachers believe that this is talking about the man in 1 Cor. 5 who was sleeping  with his Step mom{ Involving sexually with his fathers wife.  – ( I agree) turn there

                                  1 Corinthians 5:1-8

 

 

So this was the situation: Man was carrying on with his Stepmom – fathers wife.

A)A practice that was even beyond what the Gentiles and the Romans were into. { they didn’t hold back

 

B)Corinth was a place that was into Sex – flaunted sex – Temple goddess Aphrotite celebrated sex

1)Temple prostitutes – recruiting new members

 

C)But this was something that went beyond what they were even comfortable with.

 

The problem in the Church at Corinth is they knew that it was happening – tolerated

A)In fact v.2 Paul says they were puffed up about it meaning – they were taking pride in how tolerant they were being

 

B) “We are really progressive – into grace”

1)There was no shock – part of everyday conversation - 

 

C)Paul rebukes them – saying – you should have mourned when you heard about this

Mourn for the Man – ripped off by sin

Sin destroys – especially sexual sin

 

1 Corinthians 6:18

“Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”

 

 

Mourn for the Church – their Testimony was blown

A)The world looks on and says “we don’t even approve of that – you are worse than we are”

 

B) Mourn because the testimony of Christ is blown

 

C)Paul said you need to deal with this the man needs to be confronted-

1)now the fact the woman isn’t mentioned at all would lead us to believe she was an unbeliever

 

D)So Paul said that the man needed to be confronted and if he didn’t repent – Paul said deliver him over to Satan for ………. spirit might be saved

 

Now there was a two fold reason in dealing with the man who was in Sin.  1st it was for the man

A)His soul – His salvation was at Stake.

 

B)This was to be done in love Matthew 18 – Restoration/ reconciliation the goal

 

Not we hateful vengeneful – you heathen  

A)But more of an attitude that would say:  “look if you think that lifestyle is going to satisfy you – go for it”

 

B) “Go after it – Just don’t do it here – Get your fill and when you are still empty and come to your senses – we will still be here.”  Prodical son

 

C)The idea of putting him out is treating him like an unbeliever – Pray for him – Evangelize him

1)Encourage him to turn from his sin and turn to Christ

 

The Destruction of his flesh doesn’t necessarily mean bodily harm – although it could include that

A)Sin does take it’s toll on the body – ages you

Diseases – addictions –

 

B)But the idea behind the destruction of his flesh – is that he would come to the end of his flesh –

1)The world has a way of beating us up – doesn’t it

 

C)Beat up enough – Come to the end of ourselves – 1) Always Key in coming to the Lord – End of the flesh end of self –

 

2)End of trying to live to please self

 

D)The hope would be that by being out of fellowship the guy would miss it and come his senses –

1)Wake up – realizing what he lost

 

      Not as affective today – so many Churches

So the first reason they needed to do this was  = for the Spiritual health of the man –

 

The 2nd reason was for the spiritual health of the Church – a little leaven ….. leavens … Lump

A)Leaven was the yeast that they put in dough to make a rise – always linked to sin

 

B)Reason is sin like leaven – spreads – a little bit of leaven affects the whole loaf{ sin the whole body 

 

C)The leaven in this context is this out in the open sin of this man – left undealt with – spread

1)PURGE IT OUT –

 

Now understand something:

A)We all sin – There is not a person in this room who is without sin. We all sin – daily – miss the mark

 

B)I don’t care how wonderful you think your spouse is he/she is not perfect.

 

C)That is why the Church is called a hospital – we come to Jesus the great Physician to get better

1)We come to Jesus to be made whole – we come here admitting – I need a doctor –

 

D)That is what makes the Church different from a bar –

1)In the bar pp know they are sinners – messed up

They are there to forget it – mask the pain

E)They are looking to that atmosphere and the Alcohol to help them feel better about themselves

 

The Church is like a hospital because we come here not just looking to feel better – but to get better.

A)We come expecting to leave different from how we came – we come expecting to be changed –

 

B)We come seeking answers and a cure – not just sympathy and understanding

1)Come seeking pp who understand our problems and struggles and are there to help us overcome

 

C)That is what makes us a Community of Redemption

1)We are a group of pp who are being set free – renewed and changed day by day

 

Now if we come together simply to say –Yea I am all messed up I am into sin – but Jesus loves me anyway

A)We are no better than the bar – just looking to feel better about ourselves for an hour or so

 

B)No our purpose is we come to celebrate our Savior who died to purge out the leaven

1)We come to celebrate our submission to His care

We come to celebrate deliverance – victory

 

C)Doesn’t mean that we still don’t struggle at times – but we are not giving ourselves over to sin

1)Problem here – Man was giving himself over to sin

   The rest were fine with it – { Not good – not right

So Paul said deal with the man - that is what they did and apparently it worked.

A)He repented – broke off that relationship { Prodigal came home – great story

 

Aa)Turned back to the Lord and wanted to come back to the Church –

 

B)New Problem: They weren’t real keen on forgiving him and restoring him – so that is what Paul is dealing with in 2 Cor 2 – turn back there

 

C)Why were they having this problem ? Not sure we can only speculate – but I want to throw out a couple of ideas.  Things I have experienced

 

 

V.6 Paul says that the punishment was carried out by the majority –

A)Leads me to believe there was a minority – that wasn’t to keen on doing this

 

B)It is possible this guy sought an audience with the minority – in order to bad mouth the majority

1) Can you believe those guys – they think they are so perfect – I know some of their struggles {hypocrites

 

C)I have seen that a lot – when someone gets disciplined in this way –

1)They leave casting rocks – taking shots

 

D)That gets back to the Church – gets back to those who took part in the discipline –

1)Sometimes can be hard to get over. –

 

E)Easy to become resistant to restoration

 

Another possibility is they just went to the other extreme.

A)From Liberals to Pharisees – Older brother syndrome – no way – am I accepting him back

 

B)I think all of us – have done that before – Casual about something – God convicts us

1)Then we get Militant – I can’t do that – no is going to do that.

 

C)Given to extremes – That was a pattern in the church in Corinth with many things

 

We are not sure the reason for their reluctance – but Paul writes to say – You need to forgive and restore

                2 very important reasons

 

#1 For the man’s sake! V.7 – So he is not swallowed up by sorrow.

A) Not  DEVOURED by guilt { consumed

1)    Sin brings feelings of Guilt – feel guilty because we are guilty – often because we see the damage our sin has caused

 

B)Godly sorrow works repentance. 2 Cor 7:10 –

Godly sorrow contrasted with worldly sorrow.

A)Worldly sorrow – sorrows over the fact that I got caught – sorrow over the damage

 

B)Godly sorrows sees the sin as first and foremost against God – affecting my relationship with God

 

C)Leads to repentance –a change – going in the opposite direction – different attitude

1)Not trying to justify sin / make excuses cast blame

Taking FULL RESPONSIBILITY

 

Cc)Fruits of repentance: Full ownership / brokenness/ humility -

 

D)The man’s sorrow had brought him to repentance = to  Change

1)But now Paul would say – don’t let the guy be devoured by his sorrow –

 

The Devil loves to use condemnation – pulls us down makes us feel unworthy

A)He loves to use Christians to  administer that condemnation –  Loser – cold shoulder

 

B) Only army that shoots it’s wounded

 

C)) But when someone has truly repented – the Lord forgives them /forgotten – washed clean / but it is also important that we forgive –

 Forgiveness is the medicine that helps to heal broken hearts.

 

D)It was important that the church assure this repentant member of their love.

 

This is what makes the Church a community of redemption.

A)Other communities might forgive – but they rarely fully restore.

 

B)What does forgiveness and restoration look like?

 

First, it is a promising "I will not let my attitude toward you be governed any longer by this offense.

A)It has been put aside. My treatment of you from here on will be as though this had never happened."

 

B)It is a promise you make never to bring it up again.

1) In marriage many problems go on for years and years because we tend to go back and dig up all the past,

 

C)Which is an indication that restoration really hasn’t happened.

 

2nd , it is a promise not to pass it on to anybody else. A)When a matter is forgiven it is to be forgotten.

 

B)Now in this case everyone knew – but the pt would be that is History now –{ see them in Christ 

1)He has shown fruits of repentance

When we are having a hard time forgiving and restoring – it is an indication we have forgotten how greatly we have been forgiven by the Lord

 

...be tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

                     Ephesians 4:32

 

That is the basis, therefore, for extending forgiveness to others: "Freely you have received, freely give," (Matthew 10:8 KJV).

 

 If we don’t forgive { We open the door for Bitterness to destroy 

 

 

Which leads to #2  Paul gave: they must forgive the offender for the church's sake (2 Cor 2. 11).

A)The Greek word Take advantage

 

B) It has the idea of cheating someone out of something that belongs to them 

1) When we are ignorant of Satan’s strategies, he is able to take things from us that belong to us in Jesus, things like peace, joy, victory, fellowship

 

“Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil.”                

                                    Ephesians 4:26 

 

C) When we have bitterness & unforgiveness in our hearts we give place to the devil in our lives { Roots of Bitterness – many Defiled

 

 

D)Don’t be ignorant – don’t allow the Devil to cheat you – rob you – take advantage of you

 

 

The Church becomes a place like no other –

Imperfect pp being made whole – loved cared for

 

Hospital