I ask you to please turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. You can find that on page 966 of your Pew Bible. Second Corinthians chapter 6 verses 1 through 13, that's our passage for this evening. Just remember that we just came out of the message of reconciliation of which we are ambassadors in chapter 5 and that the Lord has given Paul and also to us the responsibility of carrying this message and the Lord works to save sinners through the sharing of the gospel. that we pick up here at 2 Corinthians chapter six, starting at verse one. Working together with him then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, in a favorable time I listened to you, in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way, by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech, and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as imposters and yet are true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold we live, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything. We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return, I speak as to children, widen your hearts also. Praise God for his holy word. Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, we do thank you for all of scripture, for every passage. We thank you that you comfort us, that you challenge us, that you make the gospel clear to us. We do pray that as we look through this long list of things that Paul speaks of this evening, that we might understand what we've heard and that you might apply it to our lives and that we might be encouraged. In Jesus' name, amen. If any came in late, if you don't often look at the sermon notes for this particular sermon, you probably definitely want to get those. I did make extra copies. You might wanna go out or send a kid out or something to get them for you, because you heard a big long list of 27 things. And I'm going to do all of these in one sermon. And so this will help you this evening. So does any, who knows what a biopoem is? You ever heard of a biopoem? Kids, you ever work on a biopoem? Oh good, well I'll give some parents some ideas for some more homeschool assignments. So it has the word bio in it, which means life. It's a biographical poem that uses single words or short phrases to describe yourself or someone's life. Sometimes you can also find bio-poems on gravestones. One example I came across, is there any Texans here? No, I didn't think there were, but alright. This is a Texan. It was written on the grave marker of Sam Houston. So, on Sam Houston's grave. great Texan, a brave soldier, a fearless statesman, a great orator, a pure patriot, a faithful friend, a loyal citizen, a devoted husband and father, a consistent Christian, an honest man. Well, what we have today in our passage is kind of a biopoem for the Apostle Paul, especially in verses 3 through 10. He describes his ministry life with 27 short words or phrases, really. They're really phrases. Paul gives this list to the Corinthians for a purpose. And it's so that they might truly believe that he is God's ambassador delivering God's message of hope in Jesus Christ. Paul's list here is designed to prove to the Corinthians that his endurance in ministry through many dangers, toils, trials, and snares is further proof that his ministry is from God. So he gives us a sort of a poetic or lyrical defense of the legitimacy of his ministry. And we'll look at this passage under three headings. First verses 1 and 2, God and Paul working together. verses 3 through 10. Paul's defense of his ministry, that's what I'm going to call Paul's biopoem. And then point three, God and Paul's plea, verses 11 through 13. This sermon will take probably a bit more concentration than we're used to for the evening, so, you know, sit up straight and thank you, Jim. And, you know, we'll get going here. So looking at verses 1 and 2, these two verses build on what we just read and just heard about as far as Paul's God's ambassador and that God himself is making his appeal known through Paul. Paul and his ministry team are partners with God. They're working together with God to make Christ known. And Paul continues to make his plea to the Corinthians here by referencing Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah 49 that we read, that it's now been fulfilled, that day of salvation that they were looking forward to has now been fulfilled, it's now here through the work of Christ. Chapter six, verses one and two, working together with him, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Here's where he quotes Isaiah. He says, in a favorable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. So Paul's reference to Isaiah here in this section is he's saying those things that Israel was going to be looking for in exile, that restoration is now here, that long-awaited day has come. Just a previous chapter he said that we are new creation. So the kingdom of God is right now, as reconciliation is offered right now. The new creation has burst into this age and it's making all of the old things new, new in Christ. And this is an exciting message and those in Corinth would have rejoiced in this news. But at the same time, they would have wondered, perhaps, or perhaps they were getting an earful from some false teachers. If Paul's message is about the forgiveness of sins and righteousness and kingdom of God and new creation ministry, if all this is true, then why does Paul continue to experience so much suffering? I mean, if his ministry, if his message was true, wouldn't his life look more prosperous, more new creation-y, more kingdom of God-like? Well, many of them were still using worldly standards to measure truth instead of heavenly, Holy Spirit standards to measure Paul. Well, Paul responds to this thought, this underlying current that's there in Corinth starting in verse 3 when he says, we put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found within our ministry. Paul's whole life is a testimony to the authenticity of his message. And so then beginning in verse 4, he gives 27 reasons or he makes his case 27 different ways to try to persuade and convince the Corinthians that his message is from God. Now, explaining the significance and structure of these verses is a great challenge. It said there are 27 things here. They break down into sets of nine with subsets of three. There's a lot of subsets and a lot of subsets to subsets. And so, what I've done here, that's why we have the handout. So you can see what the subsets actually look like. And together with some help from a few skilled commentaries that I found helpful, I put these verses together in a form that I think will help us see the structure of this passage and understand what Paul's doing here. And what he's doing is he's showing that his great endurance actually authenticates his message. So this is Paul's sort of lyrical defense of his ministry. You can see that it's been divided into four main sections or four stanzas if we want to think of it like a poem. And to kind of help us see those, I placed a heading at the top of each section. And, um, this doesn't completely match the ESV cause the ESV there's sort of extra Greek words in, in this, uh, and the ESV smooths it out quite a bit. And so I kind of retained those. And so you can see that there's an actual structure. If you just look at it, you see that, uh, some of, some of, the sections it says in, in, in, and then through, through, through, and then as, as, as. So, trying to pull this out a little bit. This is where I'll take us a little more concentration. So, I want to read through this and we're just trying to, we'll just survey these basic parts. And we're just trying to get a general feeling for what Paul is doing. And then, by the way, in our third point, we'll have, you know, four very specific applications. So there's a lot of explanation tonight, but we will get to some specific applications. So here's how it reads, how I put it together here. Paul, by great endurance in a blizzard of trials, in afflictions, in hardships, in calamities, in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in sleepless nights, in hunger. By great endurance in the Holy Spirit, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in truthful speech, in the power of God. By great endurance through spiritual weaponry, through the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. By great endurance as we are evaluated by spiritual standards, as imposters and yet are true, as unknown and are yet well known, as dying and yet behold we live, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything. So by great endurance you can know that our message is from God, God's ambassador. So here in these 27 phrases we get the entire story of Paul's ministry as an apostle as he suffers for Jesus Christ. It's a whole biography here and the key to understanding what he's doing is the phrase in verse 4, by great endurance. Paul's great endurance in trials and how he's able to endure speaks to the truthfulness and authenticity of his message and speaks to the fact that he really is God's messenger. So we'll just look at these briefly here. On section one, we see what John Chrysostom calls, he calls this a blizzard of trials. There are nine trials, and the nine trials seem to be organized in sets of three. The first set of three are general trials that Paul experienced everywhere he went when preaching the gospel. His afflictions, his hardships, his calamities, those were his close and constant travel companions. including multiple shipwrecks and near-death experiences for the cause of Jesus Christ. Now, the second set of three seem to be troubles that he experiences. They come to him from others. Paul and his ministry companions were beaten with rods in Philippi. He was flogged, meaning whipped with 39 lashes, by Jews five times. He was beaten with rods an additional three times by Romans. He was frequently near death. He was frequently in prison without freedom and cold. He was involved in riots. He was a danger of being a victim of mob injustice. And then there's a third set of troubles. Hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger. Paul's call to ministry is a call to costly discipleship in his service to Jesus. He worked hard. He had another job. He was also a tent maker so he could make money so he didn't have to take money from the churches at times, so they wouldn't think he was in it for the money. He stayed up late. He worked hard. He was constantly plagued with serious anxiety for the churches. And no doubt Paul was traveling, too busy to eat or food was in short supply. Seems that work-life balance did not exist for the Apostle Paul. Now with his many trials, we wonder how did he continue then? I mean, none of us feel like we could endure this list. How did he continue with such great endurance? Well, he could only carry on with great endurance through the gifts and sustaining power of the Holy Spirit in his life. To take a licking and keep on ticking, that was a work of the Spirit of God in Paul's life. So next in Paul's biopoem here are eight graces, or eight gifts of the Holy Spirit that enable Paul to endure so many trials. The first set of four, eight and there's two sets of four, are purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness. Now these are not natural virtues that Paul had. These are gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is purifying Paul, conforming him to the image of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's the Holy Spirit who gives Paul wisdom. It's the Holy Spirit who gives him ears to hear and a heart to trust in Christ, who opened his eyes to the truth of the gospel. The Spirit works in Paul to keep him going patiently, even in the midst of these trials, and it's the Spirit that works kindness in and through Paul as he sees all the kindness that he received from the Lord. The second four graces begin and end with the Spirit and the power of God. Paul endures in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in truthful speech, and in the power of God. The Holy Spirit and the power of God at the beginning and the end of this section emphasizes that Paul loves even when he's rejected. And he has the courage to speak the truth, even when it results in a beating. It's the power of God, the Holy Spirit at work in him. Paul can endure because he's strengthened by the Spirit of Christ. And then in the third stanza, great endurance through spiritual weaponry. Paul explains that he's also able to endure through the use of weapons of righteousness. He paints a very aggressive picture. He's got righteousness in his right hand and in his left hand. And both of these things, this is his status and who he is in Christ, and it's his way of life. Paul's status is righteous in Jesus Christ. And as Jesus gave to Paul his very own righteousness, the righteousness of God. But in addition to this, as Paul is new creation, also the old has passed away and the new has come. Paul's being conformed more and more to the image of Christ. This means That as he suffers and serves, he's also growing in personal holiness. And we're not getting to much application until point three, but as we go, everything that we're saying about Paul is true of us as Christians. Paul's character defends him in his ministry, whether he's honored or dishonored, whether he's spoken of well or whether he's slandered against. Either way, Paul knows he's righteous before the Lord. And no matter what others might say, his motives to preach the gospel are pure and true. Paul knows that. So then, it is with this comfort, with these spiritual weapons, that he can endure anything wicked that anyone says about him. The fourth major section of Paul's lyrical defense of his ministry, it takes the form of seven triumphant paradoxes. Told you you'd have to stay awake and focused for this one. Right? Paul demonstrates that some would indeed judge him by worldly standards of success, but those are not his standards. His standards are Holy Spirit, heavenly standards. They're God's standards. Now, I'm gonna briefly touch on each of the seven, and to keep this concise, I'm paraphrasing what R. Kent Hughes says in his commentary on this, because we have to find a way to get through these in a timely manner, because hot dogs are waiting. First, seven things here. We are treated as imposters but are true. Despite his critics, dishonor, and slander, Paul knows before God that his apostolic call in ministry, he knows he has confidence that they're from God and that they're true. And then he said, as unknown and yet well-known. This Pharisee of Pharisees, remember Paul was a well-known Pharisee, had become nothing to those that he used to run with. His old crew, they would have hated him now. In 1 Corinthians 4.13, Paul also said, we have become and are still like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things, in this translation anyway. Those are strong words, but he doesn't care. He doesn't care that he's not famous anymore. He doesn't care that he's not known well and spoken of well in Jewish circles. He doesn't care because he's known by Jesus. The third, as dying and behold, we live. Paul was slowly, he was basically being beaten to death. He was ill, he was stressed, he lived a dangerous life for the cause of the gospel. He was probably decaying and literally slowly felt like he was dying every day. Probably every joint ached and his body probably felt like death after all of these things that happened to him. But he could say, behold, I live. I live in Christ. He was energized for the day, even though he knew that that day would likely result in even more suffering. We read as punished and yet not killed. This could also be translated as disciplined and yet not killed. See, God disciplines those whom He loves, and Paul surely experienced painful discipline from the Lord as we all do, and yet the Lord did not crush him under it, He strengthened him through it. The fifth one, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. A different Hughes, Philip Hughes, also wrote a commentary on 2 Corinthians. I guess if we get any Hughes here, we can expect them to write a commentary on 2 Corinthians. He describes as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. He says, we should think of no sorrow, no disappointment, how severe could ever interrupt, let alone extinguish the joy of salvation, with its vision of unclouded glory to come. For this joy was found upon the sovereign supremacy of God who overrules all things and causes them to work together for good to those who he has called. And finally, the sixth and seventh, we can take them together. As poor, yet making many rich. As having nothing, yet possessing everything. Paul gave up all his earthly status and his standing to follow Jesus Christ. He often had little more than the clothes on his back. He even had to ask his friends, you know that coat I left there, bring me that coat, because he was cold. And yet his ministry in earthly poverty made others rich in heavenly currency. As they heard of the resurrection, the resurrection riches made available to them through the cross of Christ. Paul was used to make others rich in Christ. And he himself dipped into that same heavenly treasure chest. And even though he had little in this world, he had everything in Jesus Christ. He was a billionaire in the world to come. This is how Paul endured his blizzard of constant dangers, toils, and snares. He's made to endure by the power of the Holy Spirit. He used Holy Spirit weapons of righteousness, and he's triumphant by God's standard. The fact that he suffered so much, and then still kept the faith, and still kept preaching, this should be the extra proof to the Corinthians that his message is from God. Who would endure all of this for a message that was a lie or a message that didn't make you rich or your life easier. Why would he keep enduring this unless it was true? So after this compelling bio-poem, basically proving that his ministry is true by evidence of his endurance through all that he suffered as God's ambassador, why would I go through all this if it wasn't true? Why would I keep contacting you even though you reject me and I've written you tons of letters? So he gets to the point in verses 11 through 13 and pleads with them. We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return, I speak to you as children. Widen your hearts also. In essence, Paul's saying, as God's ambassador, as his co-laborer, be reconciled to God, for now is the day of salvation that Isaiah saw from a distance. He says, I know some of you still don't believe that I'm God's true ambassador, but my authenticity is proved through great endurance. I've suffered so much in the service of Jesus Christ. I've laid it all on the line for you. Our hearts are wide open to you. We're an open book. Now I beg you and plead with you. Open your hearts to us. Please hear this message. We love you and through us God the Father is loving you. Will you not receive us in our message? We have labored a long time. and we're not giving up on you. Will you receive us to receive us and our message is to receive the love of Christ and eternal life. So Paul continued then to reestablish his authenticity through his endurance and many trials. We spent a long time on explanation here. We have a clear view of why Paul spends so much time defending his ministry and his message. So now we want to take away four quick lessons from this passage for us. How does this apply to us? Lesson one, suffering in the Christian life. The first is this, what we learn here, Jesus teaches us that discipleship is not easy. It's costly. He says that in this world we will have many afflictions. And as Paul said in chapter one, we all share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. That means that we're united to Christ. That means that our life follows the pattern of Christ's life. First comes suffering, then comes glory. Paul reminds us that our constant suffering does not mean, it doesn't mean that God's not pleased with us. These marks, these scars that we have from our suffering, instead, they prove to us, they authenticate, they remind us that we belong to Jesus, and that we walk the road that He walked, first suffering, then glory. And this also helps us to see God's great purpose in our suffering. He's conforming us to Christ. At the same time, He's also making Christ known through our suffering. As He comforts us in our suffering, we're able to comfort others. Our trials and God sustaining us in them, this is evidence to us, and we'll talk about this a bit more in a moment, it's evidence to us and it's evidence to the world that we belong to Jesus Christ. Second lesson, you will endure. Our second takeaway is that we do not endure these trials in our own strength, but it's by the Holy Spirit, the power of God at work in us, enabling us to endure. This is a comfort to us to know that it's not up to us in our own strength to hold on to Jesus. but that he sends his almighty spirit to hold on to us. And he holds on to us even tighter in the midst of our trials. This is a promise to every Christian here. You will endure in the power of the Holy Spirit. That promise for Paul, that reality for Paul is our reality. Lesson three, evaluating our work with heavenly standards. Our third takeaway is to listen, examine, and to open our hearts to Paul's message. Let us reflect. If we did this with our own poem, so to speak, our own Christian biopoem, what would it look like? Would parts of it look and sound like Paul's? I hope so, sometimes. But in reality, a lot of it would sound more like in whining, in complaining, in entitlement. Reflecting on this passage gives us an opportunity to see where we fall short in our view of the Christian life and what we're expecting from it. We can repent of our sins and then beg God, Lord God, give me more of your Holy Spirit. so that when I look back on my life, it might look more like this, my bio poem might look more like Paul's, and Paul's was a reflection of the life of Jesus. Work this life in me. And our fourth lesson, endurance, authenticity, and evangelism. Paul's life pointed, it proved, it spoke to his authenticity as an ambassador. Over time, Paul suffered constantly and he did not quit. He did not grow bitter. He kept suffering even at the hands of the Corinthians. And yet he kept on loving them and preaching the truth that Jesus saves. I was reminded recently by Jeremy Chong at his, the Czech's banquet. He said that city ministry is a ministry of rejection. That's what the Christian life is. That's what Christian ministry is. It's a ministry of rejection and yet we keep going because we know we have a powerful message that Jesus saves. Paul's consistent witness in the midst of his trials made his message as an ambassador more legitimate. We can learn from this as our non-Christian family members, and our friends, and our co-workers, and our neighbors, as they see us suffer in life, and suffer for Christ for long periods of time. They see us experience many, many trials and temptations, and yet they see us still clinging to Jesus Christ. Sometimes our sufferings that go on and on and on, yes, they certainly sanctify us, but they're also witnesses to other people. Look at them. They're still clinging to Christ, even though it's one problem after another. This speaks to them. It says to them, there must be something real about this Jesus thing. Look at how even how hard their life is, and they've still been sustained, storm after storm. You know what, I want that for me. This type of credibility actually causes some then to open their hearts wide to us and they're open then to hearing the good news that Jesus Christ saves, cleans, and sustains sinners. So our great endurance in the midst of our trials and reliance upon the power of the Holy Spirit also is a witness. It authenticates our message as ambassadors from God, holding out that message of hope to all that is lost. This is a hard message, but it's an important message, and it does motivate us to continue to cling to Christ in our trials, knowing that He never, ever lets us go. So be encouraged in your trials. They're hard, but they're not a curse. And your endurance in them is evidence to you that you belong to Jesus Christ and are called to be an ambassador of the good news. Be encouraged in your trials because you are not alone, but the Holy Spirit sustains you with heavenly weaponry Be encouraged in your trials because through them, God is making Jesus Christ known. At times, our lives may not look blessed by worldly standards, but it's more than blessed as we've received all heavenly riches. People will see this and the Lord will use your great endurance, even as imperfect as it is, to open wide all hearts that need to see Jesus. Let's pray. Our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, we do ask that you would encourage us. Encourage us because our Lord Jesus saw the hard road ahead, and yet he had the greatest of endurance. He did not lose heart when he was rejected. He did not say, no, thank you, or I'll pass on the cross. No, in the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, our Lord Jesus endured so that we might be forgiven our sins, so that we might become the very righteousness of God, and so that we might get to do, get to do kingdom work, get to be your partner as your ambassadors wherever we go. Thank you for a wonderful Savior and for this privilege to share the hope that we have with others. Give us opportunities in Christ's name, amen.