HoHum:
It’s that time of the year to get our Christmas cards and letters in the mail. I am all for Christmas cards and I enjoy receiving them but Christmas letters can be difficult to make and difficult to receive. Some problems with a detailed Christmas letter outlining our lives over the last year.
We give our activities over the past year like a shopping list. No commentary, boring.
We try to make ourselves and the past year sound better than humanly possible. People grow sick of our self promotion.
We are painful honest but suck all the joy out of the holidays and the past year.
Family members get upset because we say unflattering things about them or they misunderstand what we say about them.
Leave some family member or friend out of the letter and they are upset.
WBTU:
Paul knew the dangers of writing a Christmas letter or of posting things on Facebook or Twitter. Therefore, he did not do that in these verses. Yes he did but not with ink or paper or keyboard.
Thesis: Let’s talk about Paul’s (and every Christian’s) letter.
For instances:
We are the letter (Vs. 3- You show that you are a letter)
Not that Paul never wrote a letter, he did because 2 Corithians is a letter. However, he is saying that the most important letters are the ones written by our lives.
Dead Poets Society- the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
Our letter is dictated by Christ (vs. 3- from Christ)
The greatest of all, Jesus Christ- the Son of Man and the Son of God, wrote nothing (yes, John 8 says that he wrote on the ground with his finger but we don’t know what he wrote)
John describes him as the Word. The Word come down from heaven. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” 1 John 1:1, NIV. Jesus was the ultimate Word or letter sent from God.
In the same vein, we are to be letters dictated by Christ. Christians, little Christ’s.
Our letter is written not with pen and ink or with a keyboard but with the Spirit of the living God (Vs. 3)
The Holy Spirit through the Word of God, the Bible, convicts us of our sins. When we are convicted of our sins, we respond to the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, by belief, repentance, confession, and baptism. Acts 2:38 says that we receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives within us. “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”” Galatians 4:6, NIV. What does He do within us beside this?
Helps us to live the Christian life. We want to please the Lord by following His commands. When God gave the OT Law, He wrote it on tablets of stone. In the OT sense the law is external thing, and we need something within us to be enabled to do those commands.
“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Romans 7:18, NIV. We need something inside of us
Our letter is written not on paper or on an electronic gadget but on the heart (Vs. 3- Not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts)
““This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”” Hebrews 10:16, NIV.
The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life- 2 Corinthians 3:6
This letter is known and read by everybody (Vs. 2)
Everybody that we come in contact with reads us. Every Christian should let his Christianity be visible before the world. “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16, NIV.
I’d rather see a sermon than hear one anyday. Christians' lives are the only Christian books the world reads. IGNATIUS wrote, "Give unbelievers the chance of believing through you.”
A NEW CONVERT TESTIFIED THAT HE HAD BEEN SAVED BY READING A COPY OF THE FIFTH GOSPEL. No, it wasn’t Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. It was the Gospel according to Mike the butcher. Mike was an earnest Christian whose godly life and testimony had been used of God to save this man.
This letter is meaningful to others (Vs. 2- Written on our hearts)
The Corinthians letters (lives) were written on Paul’s heart. They meant a lot to him.
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, NIV.
This letter is the result of ministry (Vs. 3- result of our ministry)
The test of ministry is changes lives, not press releases or statistics.
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”” Romans 10:14, 15, NIV.
Everyone is a minister. Need to pass it on to others. “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 1 Peter 2:12, NIV.
So What? Two things
As Christians we should not only be concerned with our letter but with the letter of others (Vs. 1)
Reason that Paul wrote 2 Corinthians was to defend his apostleship with the Corinthian Christians. There were false teachers who were discrediting Paul’s ministry and causing the Corinthians to speak poorly of Paul. These false teachers brought letters of recommendation from others to back them up. They were saying to the Corinthians that Paul had no letters of recommendation from anyone so he must be less important than they. How sad that the Corinthians followed these boastful and proud teachers and broke the heart of the man who had rescued them from judgment. Paul and his companions planted the church at Corinth.
“We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange--I speak as to my children--open wide your hearts also.” 2 Corinthians 6:12, 13.
This was not Paul pouting that people no longer liked him. He was concerned about their salvation. “I 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. But 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. For 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.” 2 Corinthians 11:2-4.
We have in our midst some who have served as elders here for many years. They love you in a similar way that Paul loved the Corinthians. They are concerned about you. “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Hebrews 13:17, NIV.
Concerned about attendance, especially Sunday school attendance, concerned about involvement. If have concerns share them with the elders. Should not be interested in getting our way but in seeing that the gospel and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ are advancing.
Concerned about your letter. What will your letter say?
What kind of letters are we producing? (Vs. 2- You yourselves are our letter)
This applies to everyone. What kind of disciples are we producing here at Pleasant Ridge?
EVERY CHRISTIAN WHETHER HE LIKES IT OR NOT, IS AN ADVERTISEMENT FOR CHRISTIANITY. The honor of Christ is in the hands of His followers. We judge a shopkeeper by the kind of goods he sells. We judge a hospital by the kind of service it offers. We judge the carpenter by the things he makes. We judge a church by the kind of people it produces. Men judge Christ by the way His followers behave.
You are writing a Gospel, a chapter each day, By deeds that you do and words that you say. Men read what you write, whether faithful or true. Just what is the Gospel according to you?
