Introduction:
A. Today is Mother’s Day, so we want to take a moment to honor the mothers among us.
1. William Goldsmith Brown wrote: “The sweetest sounds to mortals given, Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.”
2. Thank God for moms – the good ones and the not so good ones – the ones who have gone before us and the ones who are still with us.
3. Prayer
B. Last weekend was our annual youth rally, and what a great time it was.
1. I want to express our appreciation to Jon for his good work and leadership.
2. And I want to thank all the servants who worked hard to make it such a positive experience.
3. Praise God for your generous outpouring of money, food, time, and hospitality.
4. Every investment we make in our youth will produce great dividends in the future.
C. Today we want to return to our “Learning to Lean on God” sermon series from 2 Corinthians.
1. In today’s Scripture section we want to notice Paul’s credentials as an apostle.
2. What was it that made him the real deal, while his opponents there in Corinth were imposters?
D. Are you able to recognize an imposter when you see one?
1. Here’s a few cartoons to help us get to thinking about recognizing imposters.
2. Which is the real mouse in this cartoon?
3. Can you tell which of these is not a real bunny?
4. Can you identify which is not a real penguin?
5. Can you tell if this is really a shark or a goldfish?
6. Here’s one more cartoon: The investigator said, “Good job, Mrs. Dale. When did you realize the contractor was an imposter?” She replied, “When he showed up on time.”
E. When I was growing up, I used to like to watch a TV show called “To Tell the Truth.” Do any of you remember that show?
1. The show challenged a panel of four celebrities to correctly identify a contestant who typically had an unusual occupation or experience.
2. This central character was joined by two imposters who pretended to be that central character.
3. The celebrity panelists questioned the team of challengers. The imposters were allowed to lie, but the central character was sworn “to tell the truth.”
4. After the questioning was complete, each member of the panel voted for which of the challengers they believed to be the central character.
5. Once the votes were cast, the host asked, “Will the real [person's name] please stand up?”
6. The central character then would stand, often after some brief playful feinting and false starts among all three challengers.
7. Prize money was awarded to the challengers based on the number of incorrect votes the impostors drew.
F. Today as we work our way through the text, we will be asking “will the real ‘Super-Apostle’ please stand up.”
1. What was it that made Paul the most authentic apostle and servant of the Lord?
2. As we answer that question, we will be challenged to examine our own authenticity as a follower of Jesus. How real is our discipleship?
I. Understanding the Word
A. One of the things we will notice as we work through this chapter is that Paul will have to do some things that are completely distasteful to him.
1. Paul is going to have to draw attention to himself, and Paul is going to have to compare himself with his opponents in Corinth – he is not comfortable with either of these practices.
2. We will see him apologize every time he engaged in these practices.
B. Let’s read verses 1 – 6: I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. 2I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. 5But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those "super-apostles." 6I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. (2 Cor. 11:1-6)
1. Paul began by using a vivid picture from Jewish marriage customs.
a. Paul imagined himself as the father of the bride, arranging a marriage for his daughter.
b. Everything has been agreed upon; the husband-to-be is delighted, and so is the bride – or at least she was; but now the father is suddenly worried that she’s going to get itchy feet, and run off with someone else.
c. The bride, in Paul’s illustration, is the church in Corinth; the bridegroom is Jesus.
d. But while Paul’s back is turned, the church in Corinth starts eyeing other men – his opponents.
2. Which led Paul to draw upon another well-known theme in Jewish and Christian thought – the temptation and rebellion of Eve in the Garden. (Gen. 3)
a. Just as Satan seduced Eve into taking the forbidden fruit, Paul is concerned that his opponents in Corinth have seduced the church and drawn it away from Christ.
3. It is clear that there were men in Corinth who were preaching their own version of Christianity and were insisting that it was superior to Paul’s.
a. And it is equally clear that they regarded themselves as very special people – super-apostles – much greater than Paul.
4. Unlike some other opponents that Paul faced elsewhere, it doesn’t appear that the ones in Corinth were requiring adherence to the OT Law in addition to Christ.
a. No, the false teaching in Corinth and the different gospel that was being preached was much more subtle.
b. The true gospel that Paul preached included a Messiah who suffered unspeakably, and who calls His disciples to deny themselves and pick up their cross daily and follow Christ.
c. These teachers who had come to Corinth after Paul had toned down this hard, rough edge of the gospel.
1. It didn’t fit with their social and cultural aspirations.
2. It didn’t sound so good in terms of rhetorical style.
3. And it certainly didn’t give them the reputation and status they were hoping for.
d. If a person really believes in the suffering Messiah, and patterns their life accordingly, then they would end up looking like…like Paul.
5. Next Paul drew a contrast between himself and these false apostles.
a. They may be far better equipped orators than he was…They may be the professionals, and
he a mere amateur in comparison, but in the end he knew what he was talking about and they did not.
b. Paul knew what he was talking about, because he knew the real Christ.
C. In the next paragraph, Paul took on another of the charges being leveled against him.
1. Look at verses 7-15: Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? 8I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. 9And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. 10As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. 11Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! 12And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. (2 Cor. 11:7-15)
2. It appears that Paul never accepted financial support from the church he was working with.
a. He worked with his hands making tents to support himself, and he accepted contributions from other churches.
b. Even though Paul maintained the right for financial support from any church he was working with, he had deliberately given up that right so that nobody could accuse him of using the gospel simply as a means for making money.
3. Why were the Corinthians so annoyed by his refusal to receive support from them?
a. For one thing, according to the Greek way of thinking, it was beneath a free man’s dignity to work with his hands.
b. For another thing, in the Greek world, teachers were supposed to make money from their teaching, and there was never an age in which a man could make so much money from their teaching.
4. Added to that was the fact that Paul’s opponents made Paul’s independence a charge against him.
a. His opponents accepted financial support and then claimed that the fact that they took it was proof that they were the real apostles.
b. They maintained that Paul refused to take money for his teaching because his teaching was not worth anything.
c. His opponents wanted to pull Paul down to their level of materialism so that his independence would not be such a contrast to their greed.
5. Paul concluded this section with some of his harshest words against his opponents – ultimately he concluded that they were in service to Satan.
a. He called them false apostles, deceitful workman, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
b. They were simply doing what Satan often did – hiding their real identity.
6. These were shocking statements that were designed to cause the Corinthians to realize that they had to make a choice.
a. If Paul’s opponents were right, then Paul was wrong.
b. But if Paul was right, then his opponents were wrong, and they were not merely offering a harmless variation of the gospel – they were in service of the enemy.
c. And they were to be adequately and sufficiently punished for their wrongful actions.
D. Paul now was forced to do the very thing he hated to do – compare credentials – like one guy comparing how big his bicep is to someone else’s.
1. Someone might say, “I have my Ph.D from Harvard. Where did you get yours from?”
2. Look at verses 16 – 21a: I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. 17In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. 18Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. 19You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! 20In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. 21To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that! (2 Cor. 11:16-21a)
3. Note the sarcasm – Paul apologizes for not exploiting them – that he was too weak to bully them and manipulate them.
E. He continued: What anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. 22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. (2 Cor. 11:21b-22)
1. They claimed to be Hebrews, so was he – this is probably a reference to the spoken language of the Jews.
a. Many of the Jews of the dispersion had forgotten their native tongue and only spoke Greek.
b. Those Jews who could still speak Hebrew looked down on the Jews who could not.
c. So Paul said, “They speak Hebrew…so do I.”
2. They claimed to be Israelites – God’s chosen people – those who lived in Palestine.
a. Paul’s opponents may have been looking down on Paul because he was from Tarsus and was not from Palestine.
b. Paul replied that he was also an Israelite – his lineage was as pure as any Israelite.
3. They claimed to be descendents of Abraham, but he was also a descendent of Abraham just as much as they were.
F. Paul then turned the boasting to that of being a servant of Christ.
1. Look at the rest of the chapter: 23Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. 32In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. 33But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands. (2 Cor. 11:23-33)
2. Paul decided to boast about things that are so different than the things his opponents were boasting about.
a. The teachers who have been influencing the church in Corinth in Paul’s absence had been commending themselves.
b. They boasted of their achievements, they had wallowed in a culture of fame and success and showy rhetoric.
3. Now, to answer them, Paul lists his own “achievements,” all of them are things that any normal person in the Roman world would be too ashamed to mention, let alone celebrate.
4. Paul’s greatest credential was the amount that he had suffered for Christ – which is exactly what Jesus had told him would happen. “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:16)
5. On the one hand, Paul’s presentation is so creatively comedic, but on the other hand, he is deadly serious.
6. As he wrote his personal letter of recommendation for himself, he began by listing all the things that would normally disqualify a person right away: prison, beatings, official floggings, stoning, and shipwrecks.
a. In the ancient world all these would mean not only that you were an unsavory character whom most people would have avoided, but that the gods must be angry with you as well.
b. The dangers Paul faced and the hardships he endured were not the sort of thing that cultured and educated people, like Paul’s opponents, would have put up with.
c. They would have insisted on a military escort, or at least traveled with people who could protect them.
d. They certainly wouldn’t have gone hungry, or cold, or without sleep; that would be too demeaning.
e. Yet these are the very things that Paul boasts of.
7. The crescendo of the entire passage is verse 30: If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
a. Case in point, Paul tells the story of his humiliating experience of being smuggled out of the city of Damascus by being let over the wall in a basket.
b. He must have hated with all his great heart to run away as a fugitive in the night.
c. Would any of Paul’s opponents ever tell a story like that about themselves if it were true? I don’t think so.
G So, will the real “super-apostle” please stand up?
1. Is there any doubt that Paul’s life, his dedication, and his humility confirm that he, indeed, is the real apostle?
II. Applying the Word
A. What lessons should we be attempting to apply to our lives?
1. First, we should beware of being drawn away to a different master.
a. We have promised to walk with Christ and to serve Him only.
b. We must beware of being seduced by Satan and thus being unfaithful to Christ.
c. The world and all its trappings are so inviting.
d. A self-serving gospel like the health and wealth gospel can easily entice us.
e. We must strive to be true to Christ and to His call of discipleship.
2. Second, we should be challenged by the extent to which Paul was willing to suffer to serve the Lord.
a. How much are we really willing to suffer for our faith?
b. How much are we really willing to sacrifice for our Lord?
c. How much time are we willing to give in our service to the Lord?
d. How much responsibility are we willing to shoulder for the good of the kingdom?
e. Is our walk with Christ far too compartmentalized or is it far too cushy?
f. When we look at what Jesus suffered for us, and what Paul was willing to suffer for Christ, hopefully we will be challenged to be more involved and consumed by the work of the Lord.
3. Finally, we should make our greatest boast our need for the Lord.
a. The goal of the Christian life is not to get to a place where we don’t need to the Lord, but to get to the place where we depend on the Lord completely.
b. Our boast should never be “look at what I have accomplished or what I have become for the Lord.”
c. Our boast should always be “look at what the Lord has done for me and through me.”
d. Our boast should be “look at how weak I am, but look at how strong the Lord is.”
e. Next week, Lord willing, we will get into chapter 12 where Paul will talk about his “thorn in the flesh,” and how God’s power is made perfect in weakness.
f. Let’s learn to find the freedom to express our weaknesses, our fears, our failures, and just how much we need the Lord.
g. None of us are perfect, and none of us have it all together, and that’s okay.
h. We all need the Lord and we always will.
i. I hope and pray that none of us ever get to a place where we don’t think we need the Lord any longer.
j. If we are going to boast, then we should boast in the Lord, and we should boast of our weaknesses and of the Lord’s mercy and grace and strength in our lives.
k. Christianity is not about power and perfection, rather it’s about humility and dependence on the Lord.
l. May God help us to learn to lean on Him.
B. Paul was the real super-apostle because he whole-heartedly served the Lord and completely depended on the Lord.
1. Let us do the same and therefore be real followers of Jesus.
