Paul Finally Meets Titus and Rejoices

Okay, well today we're going to start looking at chapter 5, chapter 7, verses 5 through 10. And actually this is going to be part 1 in a sense. So actually we're going to finally have the meeting between Paul and Titus. It's going to happen in these verses. So it's been long anticipated. So I'm going to kind of go back and repeat a little bit from last week and kind of show the connection with the whole book actually. So let's just look at the outline here.

In verse 5, Paul returns to the subject of his anticipated meeting with Titus that he told us way back in chapter 2 in verse 13. He talked about that meeting, and then in verse 5, he kind of connects it up. So 5 connects up with 2.13. I'll show you a picture of that in a second. So then in 6-7, he talks about God's comfort how Titus comforted him when they met in Macedonia. He was comforted by the report that Titus had about the Corinthians and how effective his letter was.

And then we're going to see in 8-10, the last part of today's message, about sorrow. Godly sorrow leads to repentance. And it's just really key to understand what the word repentance means in the New Testament. It means a change of mind. It doesn't mean you're sorry. And that's something that we talk about a lot here at Holly Hills. Repentance is a change of mind. And we're going to see repentance used kind of in a different way, not in terms of salvation, but in terms of deliverance of the Corinthians to correct doctrine and a correct view of who Paul was.

And then when I finish up next week, Mike will continue on. Actually, do I have that right? Yeah, okay. I'm sorry, this is next week right here, 11 through 16. And then Mike will pick up in Chapter 8 in the following week, starting on the topic of giving. And the first topic is the giving in the Macedonian churches.

Okay, so let's look at this little... I decided to go back to bubbles, you know, I'm into bubbles. Okay, so the first bubble says, and this is trying to make the connectivity between Chapter 2 and Chapter 7. So way back in chapter 2, we studied basically. Now when I came to Troas for the gospel, I'm going to show you a picture of that. So Paul went from Ephesus up to Troas, to the north. I had no rest from my spirit, not finding Titus my brother. And I went on. He departed Macedonia.

And then we have this interlude. And in this interlude, we have what we've been studying since about October of last year. It's what is a true ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's described starting in verse 14 of chapter 2 all the way through 7 up to verse 4. What's a true ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ? And then in 5 we pick up with the same topic again that we started back in 2.13, but if you notice, One, he just departed in verse 13, then we jump over the interlude to 7.5 and he says, when we had come into Macedonia, so he departed, now he's come into Macedonia, we had no rest, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side, conflicts without, fears within. So if you notice, Both his spirit and his flesh were, you know, he was in anxiety about what had happened with this letter he had sent to Corinth and what had happened to Titus too.

So here's a little picture from Paul's third missionary journey and most people think this is part This description that we're going to read about Macedonia is part of that journey. So Paul's in Ephesus. I circled Ephesus there. And he goes up to Troas. I assume by land. I don't know. Maybe he could have gone any way. And then from Troas he goes up to Macedonia. And people that I read think that he possibly met met Titus in Philippi. Because that's part of his missionary journey. Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea. So they think that he possibly met, this meeting occurred in Philippi.

But we don't have a scripture that actually says that. It just says Macedonia. Okay, so now. So here's today's verses. I guess I'll probably read them just one more time. It never hurts to read them again. Jim read them, but let's just read them one more time. For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest. We were afflicted on every side, conflicts without, fears within.

But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus.

And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he comforted He comforted in you and he reported to us your longing your mourning your zeal for me So that I rejoiced even more so we see six and seven are about a lot about comfort like five is about his anxiety and we're gonna look at that pretty closely and then six and seven about God's comfort for that anxiety and then eight nine and ten are about this whole topic of godly sorrow godly sorrow results in something and it's really You know, I don't think that there's too many other places in scripture that talk about this This is a kind of a unique section talks about godly sorrow and someone pointed out. This is one of the times where emotion Emotion seems to be in play here a lot of times we talk about We have faith in the facts and that's absolutely true but here God is saying that this godly sorrow that kind came from him by Paul's letter had a result and repentance and a change of mind for the Corinthians so it's kind of cool so starting in 8 for though I cause you sorrow by my letter I do not regret it though I did regret it so he he came to position of not regretting it but initially he regretted it sounds like double talk there I know for I see that the letter caused you sorrow though only for a while so then he's going to rejoice in verse 9 now I rejoice not that you were made sorrowful so sorrow wasn't the intent but that you were made sorrowful, and this is key, to the point of repentance. For you were made sorrowful according to God's will, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, But the sorrow of the world produces death.

Pretty cool stuff in here. This seems like a down period for Paul in his writing. Well, he doesn't have many down periods. It's all good stuff. Okay. So I'm going to start out.

We've already seen that he came into Macedonia. He finally arrived in Macedonia. So when he first arrives in Macedonia, he hasn't seen Titus yet, and he says, our flesh or our body had no rest. And rest here signifies, it's not absence. He wasn't tired in the sense that he was tired from toil.

He was tired because he was anxious. He was in anxiety. And actually, like I pointed out before, back in 2.13, it was no rest for my spirit. Here's no rest for his body. It's all about this anxiety that he had about the letter and about Titus. We are afflicted on every side. Being afflicted is the idea. It's a present passive. He's being acted upon. Actually, in a sense, he's being acted upon by his sin nature. And this is actually kind of a good thing.

When you look through Scripture, The Apostle Paul is a giant, right? He saw the Lord personally. He was trained for three years. How could a guy know more about the Lord Jesus than Paul, right? Why should he ever be anxious? Well, he was anxious, and this actually is good news for us. He's a man like every other man.

It's a pressure, how Malloy had rendered it, you feel the pressure by the circumstances in your life. You're pressed in by those circumstances. And actually, that word afflicted is a word we saw back in chapter 4. We had these pairs of, we had afflicted but not crushed. And it's actually part of a set of four. Afflicted, perplexed, persecuted and being struck down are what Paul in that section calls, those are typical responses of a man, a believer can have those responses, but he doesn't want them to go take the next step. He doesn't want them to be crushed.

So going on with that, from conflicts without, so he says conflicts without, so this is possibly maybe physical conflicts, It could be, Vine points out here that his definition that this word is used in terms of the battles, legal battles, and we see that in Titus 3.9, but avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strifes and disputes about the law for the unprofitable. So it could be that kind of conflict. We're not totally sure. He says fears within, phobos, fear, dread, terror. Merriman thinks it's fears in relating to Titus' well-being. But I think it could be both. Titus' well-being and what was the effect of his letter he sent to Corinth.

So now I found a little picture on the internet of Titus and Paul. And it was a selfie they took back then. It says, this is a golden piece. You're not going to find this too many other places. But if you type in Titus and Paul, you'll find it. But anyway, that's supposed to be a joke. It's my poor attempt at a joke.

Anyway, and that's actually a verse Titus, my true, My true child in a common faith or a like faith But but God how many but gods we have in scriptures are really cool, but God Now God in contrast to these afflictions who comforts? parakaleo to exhort by way of consolation encouragement and It's present tense continuous action.

So God's in the business of comfort. He's in the comfort business You thought that comfort in was in the business of comfort, but God's in the business of comfort different kind of comfort though We saw a couple verses back in way back in chapter 1 He's called the father of mercy and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our afflictions and it has a purpose in that We will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. So comfort is what God is bringing Bringing to Paul. He's bringing his comfort And so now he tells us, you know, he specifies it who needs God's comfort and And it says, but God who comforts the depressed.

It can mean lowly, including the idea of affliction. It can mean depressed of mind. Merriman kind of translated it, God's comforting the cast down. So one takeaway is you could make the case that Paul was downcast. He was downcast by his circumstances. He hadn't seen Titus. He hadn't gotten any news of what had happened with the letter. So he was downcast.

We also see that this wasn't the first time that Paul was kind of in anxiety or being downcast. And this is a verse that I have used before in the past, kind of pointing out a really interesting aspect of Paul's life, that he did have anxiety. and despair in his life.

So it says in 2 Corinthians 1.8, which we covered back a while ago, For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, for our afflictions which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of our life. So we see that Paul was acquainted with anxiety and despair.

That was part of his life. And that should be a comfort for us, a man who had That's typical of a human condition with a sin nature, I would say. But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us, so I would say this is Paul and his team, has us there, by the coming of Titus. So Titus coming to him had an effect upon Paul and his team of people that work with him.

And coming here is a really cool word. It's a rapture word. If you've been looking at Revelation there a lot and other things like that. It's parousia, denotes an arrival. It has like a two-fold meaning. It's an arrival and the consequence presence, the physical presence. So what Paul is saying here, and the same word is used for the Lord's return. I'll tell you what he says in just a moment. Let's just go back to what we'll expect from the Lord here.

In 1 Thessalonians 4.15, For this we say, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming, this word parousia, the coming in physical presence, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. So it's use of the coming of our Savior. And in this context, it's use of the coming of Titus.

He came in his physical presence with Paul was very encouraging. He says, not only by his, Titus' coming, So Paul receives God's comfort by Titus' coming and his physical presence with him. But also by that which he, Titus, was comforted in Eucharist. So he's going to tell us here, it seems a little twisted, a little bit hard to sort out, but Titus received God's comfort from his time with the Corinthian church.

And this comforted Paul. It's sort of like, have you ever had your kids maybe go off someplace, and they stay with maybe a relative or whatever, and maybe they had a hard night, they didn't sleep well, or something like that, and you find out that your grandma or grandpa or somebody comforted them, and that comforts you. You say, well, that's neat. They comforted them, and that fact comforted you. So Paul's kind of saying that the fact that the Corinthians comforted Titus is comfort to him.

So next we're going to see more detail of his report. And this is the section that's going to talk about this godly sorrow. So we kind of move from the comfort discussion into this godly sorrow. Actually, I'm getting ahead of myself for a little bit. Let's talk some more about the report, and then we'll get to the godly, the sorrow part. And he tied his report to us. to bring back word from, so he brought back word from the Corinthians, and there's actually three parts of this, I believe.

It was the Corinthians longing of their earnest desire, your mourning, and the idea of one's sorrow. Somebody has something on there, it sounds like. Okay. It's Mike. Okay. And thirdly, your zeal for me, Paul. So there was a longing, the Corinthians longing for Paul. There was a mourning, and it has the idea of sorrow, and I think we're going to see that more in focus in 8, 9, and 10. The Corinthians felt affection for Paul and wanted to see him again, so that Paul rejoiced even more. I thought this was good. The more Titus told him about how things went, the more the apostles' spirits were revived. He was very encouraged by Titus showing up.

Okay, now we come to the sorrow part. Okay. For though I cause you sorrow by my letter, or actually it's a definite article, the letter, So we'll talk about sorrow and about the letter here. So sorrow is the idea, it's in the active voice, to cause pain, grief. Actually it's translated grief in a lot of translations. The word grief, I cause you grief. It's a fact, error's past point fact.

So what letter is Paul talking about here? So from best, you know, you can tell from what we have, we have two letters from Paul to the Corinth. We have 1st and 2nd Corinthians. So this letter seems to be something that was written in between 1st and 2nd Corinthians. It's sometimes called the letter of sorrow or the stinging letter. And he says, I do not regret, I do not regret it, the letter of sorrow. He presently, so he came to the position that in the present time as he wrote this, he didn't He didn't regret it.

To feel regret is the idea to be bothered or upset about something. And regret doesn't go anywhere. Regret is just feeling bad. And we're going to see that's important because we're going to see there's a... The idea of regret and repentance are kind of the opposite of one another. Repentance results in a change of mind. Regret, just you feel bad. Regret is not the same as repentance, a change of mind.

So this is how Paul feels now as he writes the verse. So the second part of the verse 8. Though I did regret it. So he looks back and he says, and this is continuous action and pastime and that's actually for you. Greek geeks, that's actually the imperfect tense. We don't have too many of those in scripture.

So in the past, he did regret it. Probably when he was in anxiety, right? He said, oh, why shouldn't I have written that letter? He imagined all kinds of bad things. But he came to a position that he didn't regret it. This is how Paul felt in the past before hearing Titus's report from Corinth. For I see that the letter of sorrow caused you sorrow." So he saw that it accomplished his purpose. It accomplished God's purpose. The words he wrote, I assume God inspired him to write that, they accomplished God's purpose.

So verse 10 will tell us about this object. They were feeling sorry only for a while, only for a season. It was temporary. So verse 9. Now I rejoice. Now it's interesting. They were made sorrowful. He believes that was the right thing to happen. Now he's going to say, why does he rejoice? Why does he rejoice over that sorrow? So now we're going to see it. Now I rejoice. I'm glad. Present tense. He continuously believes that.

Not that you were made sorrowful. So they were made sorrowful by the letter. They were acted upon by the letter at a point in time. Paul is not rejoicing because they're in a state of sorrow. He just didn't want to make them feel bad. He didn't want to make them cry. We've heard a lot of letters about that. Make somebody cry. Anyway, Bonnie's kind of smiling. So sorrow wasn't the objective.

It's what sorrow produced. And remember, this is what is shown to be godly sorrow. But you were made sorrowful unto repentance. Sorrow, the emotion, led to repentance. And here's what I mentioned before. Sorrow is an emotion, right? It's a feeling. Here's one of the few times in scripture where an emotion, God wants to use this emotion to lead to repentance. We need to define repentance here, and we'll do it shortly here.

Repentance, metanoia, Mental activity, a change of mind. So it's not feeling bad, it's a mental activity, a change of mind. And it's used many times in terms of salvation, but it's not used in that sense here. It's literally, Macaulay has it, to change thinking or viewpoint and thus contact. Your thinking and viewpoint changes and thus your conduct changes. This is not repentance unto salvation. When repentance is used in that sense, let me give you a verse where it is used for salvation so you can contrast it.

In 2 Peter 3.9 it says, The Lord is not slow about his promises, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us, not wishing that any to perish, but that all should come to repentance. Repentance in the salvation passages is synonymous with coming to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a separate thing. But repentance here is going to be a different thing.

We'll see shortly what that's about. You were made sorrowful according to God, or you were grieved according to the will of God. And it's used three times in 9, 10, and 11. The first of three times is here. It is sorrow according to the standard of God. It's according to God's will and according to God's standard. This is not man producing sorrow, it's God producing sorrow. The sorrow that ends up in a change of mind is a sorrow that's according to God. So that, the purpose of that, you might not suffer loss in anything through us.

So this is kind of what I thought, if the Corinthians continued in their current state, they would suffer loss. They had got off on some bad doctrine from the false teachers. They had doubted who Paul was or what he had done. So they were off on a sidetrack. And he wrote them to correct that. But when they repented or they changed their mind, they were now back in the will of God. And that's what Paul's rejoicing about.

Verse 10. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God Or you could say also, for the grief according to God. Again, it's according to God's standard. The subject of this first statement, that's the subject in verse 10, produces, so this, what's cool about this, this sorrow produces something. It just doesn't lay there and just you feel bad and it produces something. It's to work something, to produce something.

Merriman says it's to stimulate our minds to a change in thinking. Repentance to salvation, so the next part of the verse, for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces or stimulates repentance to salvation, not to be regretted, or you could say without regret. So first of all, repentance is a thinking change. So think change. Repentance, think change. A change resulting in a conduct change. God is changing the believer's mind through sorrow.

Regret is not part of the picture here, and if you look at there's a verse that in Matthew 27 I'll read it for you here that uses the word regret and It's not translated regret, but it used it's the same word and this is a Judas the Jews felt regret But unfortunately didn't go anywhere.

It went the wrong way. I should say hmm then when Judas who had betrayed him saw that he had been condemned that Christ had been condemned and He felt remorse, or he felt regret, and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. So it seems like at that point, if he had changed his mind about Christ, it's interesting. He did his bad stuff. He could have changed his mind, but no, he just felt regret.

The last part, to salvation. So what is salvation? What is salvation being talked about? What do we mean by salvation in this context? So I think this is salvation in the sense of deliverance. You know, salvation in Scripture, you look through all the different usages, times it occurs in Scripture, and sometimes it just means they're delivered from a bad situation. They're delivered from harm. I think that's what it applies. It's a deliverance idea. The Corinthians needed to have a change in mind about what they were taught and about their attitude toward Paul. They needed to be delivered from that thinking.

But the sorrow of the world produces death. I'm going to have more to say about that statement there by Merriman in a second. So in contrast to that, godly sorrow produces repentance. The sorrow of the world produces death. This is sorrow not from God as a source. It's temporal spiritual death or separation.

So I like the statement by Constable, the world's typical superficial response does not result in a change of mind, but leads to resentment and bitterness. The sorrow of the world, people are bitter their whole lives. They're sorry for something that happened. They're bitter their whole lives. It never goes anywhere. It never is resolved. So now, I had a few thoughts from Merriman. OK, first thought. And he kind of summarizes the picture here.

Paul said I wrote to you Corinthians a letter and God used it to bring you to sorrow The sorrow reached its goal which is repentance and the repentance led to To you a deliverance in your thinking they were delivered from their thinking how they were thinking about Paul how we're thinking about his teaching Repentance always leads to deliverance because your mind is changed and that's the core meaning of repentance Thank you. So think change And lastly, you are delivered from false viewpoints or false doctrine. So one last thought, I just thought about, you know, it's neat to come, when you come into contact with God's Word, as we study God's Word here in our body here or in Bible studies, you come face to face with His Word. And God's desire is to change your mind about what He's saying, to have a truthful picture.

So it's not the same picture for us here, necessarily. But it is the same idea of changing your mind. God desires by His Word to change our mind to see it as He sees it. Alright, so let's close. We thank you, Father. We thank you for your wonderful Word. We thank you for being able to study it and understand it. We thank you for this time. In Christ's name, Amen.