TEACHING

LENT 3, SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2023
10:30 AM (kids! + communion)
SECOND CORINTHIANS SERIES FINALE
Wounded Healers + Testing & Blessing with Shel Boese
2 Corinthians 13
Paul teaches three important principles for growth and maturity in wrapping up his letter to the Corinthians. These three principles apply to us and our lives. Maintaining a healthy church requires we are applying these energized by love.

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Teaching Notes:

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PRE-TRIP + OUTLINES
Baker 
    2. The Third Visit as Stern Accountability 13:1-10
       a.  The ‘Testimony’ of the Third Visit 13:1
       b.  Warning: Christ Will Deal with You Powerfully! 13:2-4
       c.  Authentication of Faith 13:5-7
       d.  Edification: The Purpose of Paul’s Letter 13:8-10
E. Closing Exhortations, Greetings, and Benediction 13:11-13
NIV APP
Paul’s Final Appeal for the Repentance of the Rebellious (13:1 – 10)
Paul’s Final Words of Exhortation and Benediction (13:11 – 14)
JOURNEY THROUGH THE TEXT
Paul’s Final Appeal for the Repentance of the Rebellious (13:1 – 10)
1This is the third time I am coming to visit you. By the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter will be established.  2 I said before when I was present the second time and now, though absent, I say again to those who sinned previously and to all the rest, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone

• Deut 19:15 is quoted here - dealing with malicious witnesses.
  
  • “You shall do to the false witness what the false witness meant to do to the accused. So you shall purge the evil from your midst”
    
• Paul might be threatening in-house judicial action against various Corinthians—perhaps those supporting the false apostles—unless they get their house in order (BW3, 469).
  
• Church discipline for people using their tongues to sow division and church discipline for sexual boundary-breaking, was expulsion.
  

3 since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak toward you but is powerful among you.  4 For indeed he was crucified by reason of weakness, but he lives because of God’s power. For we also are weak in him, but we will live together with him, because of God’s power toward you.

• BW3 - If there is still need for proof, he is an authorized and empowered agent of Christ. Jesus is strong in their midst, even through weak Paul.
  

NT Wright 140, “The Messiah was crucified in weakness, but he lives by God’s power! That is the basis for everything he does; that’s why he can say that his own strange blend of radical weakness and spiritual power are the sure sign that the Messiah is indeed at work in him, and speaking through him… pastors still find it difficult to maintain the balance [between] tyrannical rule… or never dare to warn people about the consequences of wicked behaviour, never exercising discipline at all....”
“Often it is only the wounded who can heal. Often it is only those who have themselves received the sentence of death (1.9) who can sit as judges” (NT Wright, PFE2C, 141).
Peroratio 13:5-10 - the Last Harangue: The Defense Rests 

• A brief emotional appeal The goal is to restore his former relationship with his converts and to make sure that they will endure in the faith and be judged as approved by God - and this will be shown by how they treat and recognize his genuineness.
  

5 Put yourselves to the test to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize regarding yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless, indeed, you fail the test!
6 And I hope that you will realize that we have not failed the test! 7 Now we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong, not so that we may appear to have passed the test, but so that you may do what is right even if we may appear to have failed the test. 8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the sake of the truth.  9 For we rejoice whenever we are weak, but you are strong. And we pray for this: that you may become fully qualified.  10 Because of this I am writing these things while absent, so that when I arrive I may not have to deal harshly with you by using my authority—the Lord gave it to me for building up, not for tearing down!
Paul’s Final Words of Exhortation and Benediction (13:11 – 14)/Closing Greeting and Remarks

• Like his letter to Galatians he continues pressing hard until the final blessing.
  
  • In Galatians, it begins with no thanksgiving and 2 Corinthians he does not offer a list of thanksgiving about things he was thankful for with them, but praises God for God's work of comfort 1.3ff.
    
• “The closing to 2 Corinthians supports this thesis. Paul closes his letter with additional commands (13:11), greetings (13:12), and two farewell benedictions, one for peace and one for grace (13:11, 13). In each case, his closing highlights a main theme of his letter.
  

11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice, set things right, be encouraged, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. 

• NIV App Com. : “Note how Paul begins his final exhortations by reminding the Corinthians that in Christ they are all “brothers,” a reference to their standing as believers.
  
  • Keeping the commands of 13:11 does not make one a Christian; rather, being a Christian means that one will keep these commands. The obedience of the believer is the link between the reality of God’s presence that he or she already enjoys, as a matter of grace, and the continuing reality of God’s presence in the future.
    

12  Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. 13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  

• This is the only place in Scripture where we have the phrase “The Love of God” (BW3 475).
  
• [the kiss] “should be seen in a living context of people who are building a new sociological reality rather than in restrictive eucharistic or liturgical terms”. Paul was the first popular ethical teacher to instruct members of a mixed social group to greet each other with a kiss when they met.
  

• Here the beginning of Trinity theology is in view—it’s the economic Trinity—the persons of God in their roles in relationship to us believers and creation.
  

FINAL WORDS

For Reflection and Discussion

(NT Wright 2 Cor. Studies, and Others/Our Own)
“This letter has the sure touch of someone who prays for his people, loves them unreservedly, and remains personally open to them, involved with them and vulnerable before them. It is a deeply risky position to be in, and yet Paul persists.”

1. Thinking over your day, what words, activities and thoughts have reflected the character of Jesus, and in what ways have they not? (YOUR words, activities, and thoughts)? 
   
2. In 13:4, Paul says that Jesus showed both weakness and power and that Paul himself does as well. Throughout 2 Cor., how has Paul shown a mixture of weakness and vulnerability on the one hand, and power and strength on the other?
   
3. What are the consequences of ministering, either solely in power or solely in weakness?
   
4. Why is it so difficult for leaders in ministry to maintain a balance between power and weakness?
   
5. How might being centre-set on Jesus vs. having a fuzzy (or bounded) mindset, help keep things on track for a church?
   
6. The Corinthians had been asked by Paul for proof that the Messiah was really living and speaking in and through him (13:3). Paul assured them that plenty of proof will be forthcoming if they are so bold as to challenge him in person. But now he turns the tables on them and suggests that they, too, should submit to a test. What of a test is Paul talking about in vv. 13:5-10?
   
7. The very centre of what it means to be a Christian, is that the signs of the Messiah’s life, his crucified and risen life, are present in believers. When you look at yourself, how do you see that Jesus is living and active in you?
   
8. Paul’s prayer is that the Corinthians are complete and mature (13:9). What would maturity look like for the Corinthian church?
   
9. What does maturity look like at Pilgrim Baptist Church?
   
10. The simple instructions of 13:11-12 are very demanding. Why are they important for a Christian community that experienced tensions and conflict?
    
11. 13:14 is one of Paul’s most famous lines. How have you seen each aspect of V. 14 in this letter to the Corinthians?
    
12. How does this verse sum up what being a Christian is all about?
    

pray: For the power of the Gospel to be lived out in your life: that, through your weaknesses, the world would see the living King Jesus. Also, spend a few moments praying verse 13 as a blessing for yourself, others, and our Church.