Jesus Christ is in you

Good morning. We're certainly glad to have Brian and Julia with us this morning. I don't know how they're going to make that commute every week though. It's going to be a little rough. Here we are finishing up the last part in our study of 1st and 2nd Corinthians. We'll be completing 2nd Corinthians the entire chapter, 13, and that will wrap up our study here.

In the first four verses, one of the things that Paul does is to begin repeating, in essence, some of the things he had told them at the end of chapter 12. He tells them, for example, that he's coming for the third time. and that he's going to have to deal with some issues there that remain among those in the church body. One of the things we've noted is this is actually, if we look at the evidence in 1 and 2 Corinthians, actually the fourth letter that he has written, at least, And it's interesting that while there is some progress evident in the letters, there's also some persistent problems. This is a problem-ridden church, no doubt, that Paul is writing to and dealing with.

There are some there who are just simply entrenched in sin. They don't see a need to change their mind about it. They just can't quite see why there's any need to change anything. If anything, their perspective is that Paul needs to do some changing. One of the things that we had brought up last week, Paul had talked about those who had sinned in the past and who had not repented. That is, not change their mind.

We pointed out that repenting is not feeling really, really bad. We kind of did it somewhat jokingly of the blues. It's not feeling really, really bad. Right? It's not that. Repentance is not crying and weeping and feeling really, you know, badly and expressing a lot of emotion, although that may be involved. The real core is a change of mind from a spiritual perspective.

That's what repentance is and that's what he was looking for from the believers, especially those who seemed entrenched in the sin. They need to be changed in mind, not just so that they feel badly about things, but so that they're restored to fellowship. Fellowship with the Lord and fellowship with the other believers that are there in the church body. And by the way, breaking fellowship with the Lord results in breaking fellowship with other believers ultimately. Paul will have to deal with some very hard issues because there are some people who are persistent in some very severe sins. They are committed to immaturity, spiritually speaking.

One of the things he brings up right off as he starts off this chapter is he talks about two or three witnesses. He drew from a principle that was actually used for determining capital punishment. under the Law of Moses. But that principle of two or three witnesses is used in order that there be consistent testimony and significant testimony to verify an accusation. That's why he would bring this up. He says, I'm going to have to have two or three witnesses to deal with the various things that are going on so that we're not dealing with hearsay, we're not dealing with gossip, but we're dealing with solid testimony about what's actually taking place. He says, I'm afraid we have to bring things out in the open and say things for what they are. This principle of two or three witnesses certainly comes out of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament, but it's not only carried forward here where he's not talking about carrying out capital punishment.

It's even something that Timothy is referred to, 1 Timothy 5.19, where Paul wrote to him, do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Solid evidence, solid testimony, not something conflicted, not something flimsy. That's this principle of two or three witnesses here. He isn't putting the believers under the law, that's not the point.

And besides that, the two or three witnesses was for capital punishment. What he is doing is drawing from a principle that will get to the truth and avoid hearsay, gossip, and flimsy evidence. He is bringing up this principle, however, here as a warning. He says, this is what I'm going to have to do when I come. I don't want to have to do it, but that's what I'm going to have to do if there isn't some change of heart and change of mind.

Here's the poetic pattern in the last part of verse 3 and into verse 4. And it kind of breaks into three sections that have some similarities there that you'll take notice. All three of those sections, mentioned Christ, all three of them talk about might or power, and all three of them mention weak or weakness. This first part, the end of verse 3, references Christ in the believer.

Even though there were people who were sinning, the Christ who was in them was not weak. The Christ who was in them was mighty. It was simply availing themselves of the Christ who is mighty. That was the shortcoming. There, at the end of verse 4, he talks about the believer in Christ, weak in him.

The believer is in Christ. Both these parallel truths are critical. They're critical for living righteously. They're critical for dealing with sin. Christ in the believer and the believer in Christ. Both of those truths. Now, when we get to verse 5, this is going to be a fun one. At first you might think that verse 5 is about those in the church in Corinth who need to make sure that they are saved.

And you have probably heard it quoted that way. It's kind of a double check. Well, Paul isn't really saying that they need to do that. I don't want to put anybody in shock. I know this is a startling thing to tell you. But Paul isn't actually saying, be sure that you are saved.

And why do I say that? He has said repeatedly that these people are indeed saved. He said that from the very first verses on into subsequent chapters. Furthermore, he has just said that Christ is in them. This is in verse 3 at the very end. That's the part that we showed there in the poetic pattern in verses 3 and 4. One of the ways that I think help clarify this, what I've done is to translate the words consistently into English. So at the end of verse 5, it says, unless indeed you are not approved.

And then what we will notice here is approved and unapproved, approved and unapproved. Those words, at least in the basic form, are only used of believers. Only used of believers. would be additional evidence that he's actually talking about believers.

You see, the problem was not that they need to check to see if they were saved. The problem was they didn't recognize, they didn't know that Christ was in them. That's their difficulty. That's their problem. So that's what they would have read, especially seeing that pattern of approval and not approval. with reference to both themselves and to Paul himself and those who were working with him. That again fits the pattern that this word throughout the New Testament is only used of believers. It's never used of unbelievers. Paul wants them to examine to see if they are being in the faith, not are they in the faith or not as a matter of being saved.

Christ is in them, but do they even recognize it? That's what he's trying to get them to see. Do they even know it experientially? That's the problem. He says, do you know that Christ is in you? Do you know it? Do you realize that? So it's not a matter of their being saved, but of living in the faith that they had once placed in Christ.

Just like I have here in the picture where these guys are all pushing this hot rod and somebody says, what? This hot rod has an engine? Why didn't you tell me? Why are we doing this pushing? Right? It is possible for a believer who is eternally saved to be living without the slightest idea that Christ is mightily within them. You have the power of Christ, but you're not living like it. All these people are pushing this hot rod, all the while, if the engine was turned on, it could peel out and leave them in the smoke. Right? And this is the way it is for many believers. Here they go along as if they were simply an unbeliever, not realizing, not recognizing that all the time, all the time, Christ was within them. All the time, they were in Christ. oblivious to that fact.

So Paul wants to get this point across. This word that's translated recognize means to know intimately, to know deeply. Do you deeply know that Christ is in you? Do you see it? That's what he's trying to get across to them. And a good question for us to ask at any time, do we deeply know that Christ is within us? Oh, I don't mean just as a, yeah, checklist. Yeah, I believe that. Do you know it in your experience? Have you made that discovery? I hope you have. That's what Paul's trying to get them to see. They're apparently not seeing it. the point he makes in this passage, and in fact he's made it all throughout 1st and 2nd Corinthians.

We are in Christ and He is in us so that we might walk with Him. What do we mean by walk? One foot after the next is a walk, right? One step at a time, every step we take, every day that we take that walk, walking with Him. Walking with a recognition that we are in Him and He is in us. Walking when we're going through regular, ordinary, everyday circumstances. Walking through the tough times. Walking when the times are really good. All the time, walking with Him.

In fellowship and intimacy. See, it's not a matter of saying, oh, I went through my daily checklist and I prayed 15 minutes and I read the Bible for five minutes. I'm good. No, we're talking about not a checklist item. This is talking about fellowship with him, intimacy with him. This is talking about the concerns and cares of your heart. The thoughts of your heart are conveyed to him because he's right there. You're in him, he's in you. You can't get any more intimate than that. So that we might behold him and be occupied with him. We behold Him through His Word.

That's what 2 Corinthians 3.18 says. We behold Him through His Word. We are occupied with Him.

You know, there will come a day when all these pews will turn to dust. I hope it's not in the next five minutes. But anyway, there will be a time when all these pews will just simply turn to dust. They will be gone. There will be a time when all the things that our care and concern will be passed, and all eternity will be spent being occupied with Him. He wants us to start that now, not later. Being occupied with Him in the course of each and every day. Does our Lord want us to do the right thing and not do the wrong thing?

Yeah, He does. But God is not delegating. Do you realize that? God is not a delegator. He is not delegating something to you. He wants to do it in and through you. That's His intent. God never gives you an assignment for you to go off and do. That's not at all what He has in mind. He never intended that we just do it. He always intended that He do it through us. Always. God never delegates.

He wants to live our life, not to have us do it. God does not want us to check in and say, Lord, how am I doing? He says, that's not what I had in mind at all. I don't want you to check in. I don't want you to think that you're to go off and do it and check back with me once in a while. Oh, every Sunday or every morning or some interval like that. I don't want you to do that. I want every moment of every day to be my life lived out through you. That's what he has in mind. The only way for that to happen is our fellowship. What's amazing is all we did was fellowship with the Lord. And during that time, he does the living. during the time we fellowship with him. He does the loving.

Paul realizes that he may have a very difficult task in front of him in dealing with this church. This church he is hoping, he is praying, he is writing with the intent, with the hope, that they'll realize what's going on and make the change themselves. He does not want to come and deal with things if He doesn't have to. He wants them to realize that they are in Christ and Christ is in them. He wants them to come to their spiritual senses on their own. You see, here's the interesting thing.

For us to walk by our own strength with our own resources and look at the Christian life as somehow God's delegated assignment to us is spiritual insanity. It's spiritually nuts. That's not how God wants us to live. You see, living here on this planet is not your job.

I'll put it this way. You're fired! You know when that firing happened? When we were crucified with Him. We were fired. I think that's beyond fired, isn't it? We're fired. Why? Because I've hired somebody else. It's Christ. And you're still going to be around here, but He's going to do it through you. As far as you doing it, that's not your job. You're fired.

And that's good news. In the last part of this chapter, this passage, verses 11 through 14, there is this poetic pattern. You have it on side two, page two of your handout there. And I've done some kind of slight expanding of the translation, and I put it this way.

Finally, brethren, you all must be rejoicing. You all must be made complete. You all must be comforted. You all must be of the same mind. You all must be living in peace. And the God of the love and peace will be with you. Let's ask this question. He repeatedly says, you all must be. That's the form he put it in. Imperative. Is he putting them under law? Is he putting them under law to say you must be? I see heads very slightly going back and forth this way. He is not. You see, here's the thing that is often misunderstood.

Grace doesn't mean we don't have any requirements. Grace is different because there's a different motivation. Grace is different because there's a different enabling and empowerment. That's why grace is different. It's not that grace doesn't have any requirements, it does. But the motivation is different.

The law says, you better do this or else. If you want God to forgive you, you had better forgive first or he won't. That's the law. Grace says, grace says, forgive, this is Ephesians 4.32, forgive because you've been forgiven. You see the difference there? The law says if you want to be blessed, you had better obey. And if you don't, you're going to be cursed. Grace says you're already blessed.

Ephesians 1.3, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. So grace is not something that has no requirements.

It, in fact, may have requirements that the law never dreamed of. You see that? What do I mean? Let me give you a for instance. I may be under grace allowed to do something, but I will not do it if that offends and stumbles my brother. You see that? So I may under grace have a requirement the law never dreamed of. But that's good. That's good.

Because even with that, I'm not withholding some action because of a threat, I'm withholding an action because of grace, because I've already been blessed with every spiritual blessing. And withholding that action that I am free to do because of grace, because of love, comes along with an enablement and an empowerment that the law never did. Do this and live. The law commands. but gives me neither feet nor hands.

A better way His grace does bring, it bids me fly and gives me wings. He is not putting them under law. These are grace imperatives. They're imperatives based on the logic of who they already are in Christ, the forgiveness they already have. Because of grace, you must be rejoicing. Because of grace, you must be made complete.

You see that? Now, verse 12 says, greet one another with a holy kiss. And boy, I have a real hard time putting it under law with that. OK. The one thing I would say about that, though, is I would I would point out this. We as believers have a relationship that is very special and unique and eternal.

The people that are sitting in this room alongside you are people with whom you will spend eternity. Let your greeting have a difference. Let your greeting have a difference. There's something very special about the other brothers and sisters that are sitting in this room.

And finally, the last part, the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God, and I would suggest to you that's indicating or implying the Father, 1 John 3.1, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. We'll take a look at that more in a little bit. So we've got these three sections here. Now, let's take a look at that, be rejoicing.

Rejoicing doesn't come from the circumstances around us, but from seeing our blessings in Christ. The circumstances around us may be very difficult. They may be even deeply saddening. But that's not why we're rejoicing. We're rejoicing in the blessings that we have in Christ, in the hope that we have in Him.

Philippians 4.4 Paul writes to the church at Philippi, he says, rejoice in the Lord always. And by the way, that's the same verb form, you must rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. And by the way, when he wrote that, he was writing from prison with a cantankerous Roman guard chained to him. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice.

Now, be made complete. By the way, that's a picture of Brian in his younger years. So, be made complete. What's he talking about? Well, let's take a look. This means to be on the path of being made spiritually mature and growing. To be on the path of being made spiritually mature and growing. This is one way Paul could have put it. He could have put it as grow up, right? But that's what he was looking at. Be made complete. Be brought to the place. Be along the path towards being mature. That's what needs to happen there in the church body.

As a church body, Ephesians 4, 11 through 16 defines this best. And the focus is upon the person of Christ. I have it here on the screen and we won't spend much time on it because we haven't that much time. But I will point out That as you look at especially these passages that I have highlighted in blue verses 12 and 13 and 15 and 16, the focus is upon the church body but also ultimately upon Christ himself.

What does that maturity look like? We all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. That's maturity. Want to know what maturity looks like? It looks like Christ.

Be comforted. That's not comfortable. He didn't say, you must be comfortable. No. He says, be comforted. And what does that mean? He had written actually a great deal about this word comfort in chapters 1 and 7 of 2 Corinthians. It means to be settled and directed by receiving the ministry of the Lord and believers who are called alongside to comfort and exhort and encourage and all those other call alongside words. To urge and comfort and exhort. That's what it means. And what does it mean here, but receive it, receive it. It's one thing to be able to come alongside another and to comfort and encourage and exhort and urge.

It's another thing to have a mindset that receives it. Apparently they were not having a mindset to receive it. Someone comes alongside you and you push them away. So this is an interesting thing. It's not just the willingness to share in the life of another, and to come alongside, to be called alongside, but it's also the willingness to receive it. And this is written in that way. You need to be willing to receive it. When the Lord comes alongside you, or when the Lord has a believer come alongside you, be willing to receive it.

Be of the same mind. Now, is he talking about just multiple brain transplants, or what's he talking about? Cloning? No, you see this is not just a setting aside of the differences because you don't agree. Very important. Being of the same mind is not setting aside the differences when you don't agree. That's not what he's talking about.

We saw that in 1 Corinthians 1.10. I urge that you say the same thing, he wrote them. I urge that you say the same thing, that you have no doctrinal differences between you and you be of the same mind.

Being of the same mind is not saying, I know we disagree, but we'll just get along. No. It is, in fact, being of the same mind, having the same judgments and the same perspective on things. Is that possible? It's not just possible. It's exactly what God has in mind. It's being in the same mind because we have the mind of Christ. That's what he told them in the second chapter of 1 Corinthians. We have the mind of Christ. We do. If you're a believer here this morning, we have the mind of Christ. Secondly, it's beholding the same Christ. We're not beholding a different Christ, you know.

The same Christ is in all of us who believe, and we are in the same Christ. There is multiple bases. There are multiple bases for unity. Be living in peace, which is apparently not what they were doing, means to live and act peaceably with one another.

2 Corinthians 12.20 is where Paul had said that he was concerned about the strife and jealousy and angry tempers and disputes and slanders. And he went on with some other words I ran out of room for. He was concerned that that's what he was going to find. So what does he end with here?

He says, you need to be at peace with one another. That's what it looks like. That's what it looks like when you're all walking with the Lord. At peace with one another. We said last week, church politics is of the flesh and of the devil. It's not what God has in mind. No, of the same mind, living in peace, saying the same thing. Now at the end of these commands, he has, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Paul wrote this at times when he had given his readers things to do. You know that list of commands? No, you must do this, you must do that. He would write this alongside those lists of things to do. Why would he do that? Because he didn't want them to see it as God's delegation or Paul's delegation. He says, as you do these things, God will be with you in the process. And that's exactly what he has in mind.

The doing of anything for us as believers is to be God's working. You know that you don't have to do one single good work that God hasn't prepared beforehand, and you don't have to do one single good work on your own strength. God has nothing of that sort in the mind. In Philippians 4, 8, and 9, a similar example, This is, for a number of people, kind of a favorite passage. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

That's the same word in Romans 6.11 that's translated reckon or consider. You must consider these things. It's an imperative. It's something you're called to do.

But, and the things you have learned and received and heard and seen, and by the way, all four of those words, learn, receive, heard and seen, are all active voice. That is, you don't learn passively, you learn actively. You receive actively. You hear and see actively.

In me, that is in Paul's life, it says practice. It means do them. And it is an imperative. But as he gives them those two imperatives, what does he finish it with? And the God of peace will be with you. As you do these things, they are not your independent assignment from God. God is right there all the way along to empower and to enable so that it's not our life that lives these things out, but Christ's very life.

It's no longer I who live, Galatians 2.20, but Christ who does the living in me.

The very last verse here, it represents God the Son, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. And one of the conclusions we can draw from this, and I think multiple passages bear this out, the entire Trinity, all three persons of deity, are involved in who you are, and in how life is to be lived out, and in what and where your blessings are. all three persons of the Trinity. Craig Johnson was teaching a Thursday night study a few weeks back when I was gone. He got to teach a passage in John 14 that says, you are indwelt by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity, the entire Godhead is in you, is involved in how your life is to be lived out.

That is amazing stuff. This is wonderful truth. The grace and love and fellowship that are shown in this Trinity, if you will, are not just nice bonuses. They're not just little extras. They're essential to who God is. God is love. That's one of the explicit statements of Scripture. God is love. And He's not wimpy skimpy love. He is infinite love. God is grace and He is not wimpy skimpy, right?

There has from eternity past been fellowship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is now and ever will be. You are invited into that fellowship. You are invited into that fellowship. It is a work of the Holy Spirit that you have been placed into the body of Christ. All of God is involved in all of you now and forever. Never an exception to that. All of God is involved in all of you every single day of your life and when this life is over. Now as we're finishing 2nd Corinthians in our series of studying 1st and 2nd Corinthians I'd like to finish it off by having us stand together.

I'd like you to sing with me, How Deep the Father's Love. We're going to do it a cappella, so that's an experiment, okay? How deep the Father's love for us, How vast beyond all measure, That He should give His only Son To make a wretch His treasure. How great the pain of searing loss The Father turns His face away As wounds which mar the Chosen One Bring many sons to glory Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon his shoulders.

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers, It was my sin that held him there, Until it was accomplished, His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished. I will not boast in anything, No gifts, no power, no wisdom. But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer, But this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom. I'd like you to remain standing and read along with me the very last verse of 2 Corinthians here. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.