May 22, 2002 2 Corinthians 13:11-14
“There is no ‘I’ in team.” Most of you are probably familiar with this term. The basic meaning is that you have to work together in order to win a game. It can’t be a “one man show.” For instance, in Michael Jordan’s earlier years in the NBA, he would try to take the team on his shoulders. But after a few years of failure, he finally learned to make his team get involved. When he did, they finally started winning.
In the same way, Paul wanted the Corinthians work through their differences and come together as a team - to get along and go forward so they could get some things done and go forward as a congregation. So Paul concluded his letter with this final plea -
Finally, brothers, good-by. Be restored. Be admonished. Be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All the saints send their greetings.
14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
So today we’ll see how -
We’re Really Not That Different, Me and You
I. Our God works together for our good
The last words that Paul wrote the Corinthians were what we call the Apostolic Blessing. It reflects
the very clear doctrine of the Trinity - three Persons in ONE God. Paul was praying that this Trinity would WORK TOGETHER as ONE God for the benefit of the Corinthians.
Think about how important that is. Greek mythology portrays their gods in a totally different light. When another god became mad at Zeus, this god then took Zeus’s son and put him on earth unbeknownst to Zeus. So in order to protect him, Zeus in turn gave his son a special helmet and sword to protect him. Imagine if God worked that way - if the Holy Spirit did one thing that only had to be counter-acted by Jesus and improved by the Father - if they worked in competition with one another - each vying for the power position. What a mess this world would be! As we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday, we can celebrate that our God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together for our GOOD!
Paul starts out by talking about the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace stands for a gift that is undeserved and unmerited. Doesn’t that word typify Jesus whole life? This past month I received a call from a lady who asked for some food. She didn’t have any money - had just moved - and wanted to feed her teenage daughter. She lived way on the north side of town, and sounded genuinely in a bind. So I decided to pack up some extra meat from my freezer and take it out there. But on the way, I got to thinking to myself, “I don’t even know this lady. What am I doing spending an extra half hour to hour of my time to give this lady some meat? I have a sermon to write.” I wasn’t feeling so gracious when my time was taken up.
But then I got to thinking about it - Jesus spent a lot of his ministry taking care of people who needed help - healing the sick, feeding them, and taking care of them. They didn’t “know” him. Some of them probably didn’t come to listen to Jesus - but just to be healed. But Jesus didn’t turn them away on account of that. Why not? Because his whole ministry was one of grace. He was constantly giving things to people who didn’t deserve it. Long before we existed, Jesus decided to die for us anyway. He decided to take our sins on his shoulders, and give us His righteousness. He didn’t say we had to work for it. We didn’t have to ask for it. He would just give it to us. That, my friends, is grace. Jesus says, “I know you don’t know me. But I know you. I love you. Here, take this cleansing. Have my riches - my perfection. Let me give you an eternity in heaven.”
If you notice something else about Jesus ministry - is that he was always communicating with his Father. Luke 6 says, One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. Before Jesus went to the cross, he spent the night in prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane. It was at that time that Jesus asked, “if there is some other way to save the world, let me take it!” But what was the Father’s answer? “This is it. Judas is on his way - go and meet him!” Jesus didn’t just sit in heaven and think to Himself one day, “I think I’ll go and save mankind.” 1 Peter says, He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Chosen by who? God the Father! And so Jesus - like a soldier on a recon mission - was constantly talking with His Father - conversing with Him over the plan of salvation.
Why do I mention this? Because it displays to us that the Father is not just a God of power and might - El Shaddai - but first and foremost - a God of love. That word for love is very similar to grace - it agape - meaning undeserved love. When you see the wonderful creation that the Father has designed - that’ undeserved love! The way the ecosystem of this earth makes it possible for birds to sing, fish to swim, and people to breath - that’s undeserved love! When you see people who want nothing to do with God enjoy a sunset - a lobster dinner - a wonderful job - that’s undeserved love. When you see our world be able to develop wonderful remedies for diseases and viruses - that’s undeserved love. When we see our world enjoy the finest amenities - air conditioning - motor vehicles - airplanes - that’s undeserved love.
But the greatest love that God the Father showed for us - was SENDING His ONLY Son - Jesus to die for us. In just four years with my oldest son, I have grown very attached to him. Even though he is far from perfect, I still love him very much. One of the most difficult things I have to do is to take my son in for shots or to see him sick and suffering. Imagine then, if someone asked me to give my son’s life for someone else that I love - to take on their diseases - even though I believe my son would go to heaven - I wouldn’t be able to do it. Think about the great LOVE and SACRIFICE that it must have take God the Father to send His Only Son to die for us and to punish HIM in our place. How difficult it must have been for God the Father to put Jesus through hell for the sins of the world! What a display of God’s selfless LOVE - His undeserved love he has for us!
But let’s not forget the third person of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit! Paul’s final wish was that the fellowship of the Holy Spirit would be with them all. That word for fellowship is really used in a wide variety of ways throughout the New Testament, but the main meaning is to share something in common with someone - often in an intimate way. You know how there are some people in your life that you just love spending time with? When they enter the room with you, it brightens up your day and puts a big smile on your face. Remember when Peter, James, and John were up on the mount of Transfiguration with Jesus - and God appeared to them? That’s how they felt in the presence of God. They didn’t want to leave. That’s the kind of experience that Paul wanted the Corinthians to have - to have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with them.
Imagine if you never opened the shades of your house in the morning. It could be as bright as midday - and you wouldn’t enjoy it. When the Holy Spirit enters our life - it’s like that grace and love of God come shining in our homes - and brighten up our lives. The work of the Holy Spirit is just as important as the work of Jesus and the Father - for if he didn’t open our shades we would live in a world of darkness, fear, and despair - stumbling around for a light.
When you saw the theme of today’s service - Trinity Sunday - how many of you thought, “bummer”? If I were to talk about a doctrine of Judgment Day or predestination or the hardening of the heart, you might have thought, “that sounds interesting.” Or if I said, “today we’ll cover how to live together as a husband and wife”, some of you might have thought, “good! Practical!” But the Trinity - hmmm. If someone said your biography were boring, or they yawned, how would you respond? Probably offended or angry - right?
Nonetheless, God in His mercy has revealed Himself to us. And the neat thing is that this is not some boring biography about someone else that has nothing to do with us. This is the biography of all three Persons who work TOGETHER as ONE God for our good. Even though they are different persons - they’re really not that different as one God. Like a finely tuned machine you can’t help but stand back in awe of our Triune God. The Father creates our world and sends the Son. The Son brings salvation. The Holy Spirit then brings the Son into our hearts and cleanses our hearts through faith. All three persons of the Trinity - although different - really aren’t that different as one God. This God works together and orchestrates our creation and salvation. This isn’t boring to us. It involves our beginning, salvation, and end. It IS relevant!
II. So we can work together for His good
It’s this idea of unity that Paul was trying to get across to the Corinthians as he told them to “be of one mind”. If our God is a God of UNITY - who works together - and wants us to pattern ourselves to be like Him - to act like Him, then how would God want us - as Christians to act? Together, right? As a matter of fact, Paul often compared the church to a body which was to work together. Someone has to be the feet, to do the walking. Someone has to be the hands - to have the feeling. Someone has to be the brains - to do the thinking. So if we all work together with a common faith in the Triune God - we can get some stuff done. But if we don’t, things can get real ugly real fast. God has neat ways of illustrating this. Earlier in this letter Paul told the Corinthians - Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. Paul pictures putting a cow and a donkey under the same yoke to pull a plow - the yoke would be all crooked, they’d walk at different paces and get nothing done. In the same way, things can get real ugly when a husband and a wife or a pastor and a congregation do not share the same philosophy in life. When couples have different spending habits - it leads to big arguments and often times divorce.
That seems to be what was happening in Corinth. Things were getting ugly. Paul had planned on visiting the Corinthians twice and told them that - once on the way to Macedonia, and once on the way back. But he didn’t follow through with his plans. In 1 Corinthians 16:5 Paul explained why: After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you -- I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. Paul didn’t want to just go to Corinth for a short time. Plus, there were certain issues going on in Corinth that needed to be resolved. If he came right away without giving them a chance to straighten themselves out, he would have had to spend his time there disciplining them.
What made matters worse was that Paul had some opponents that showed up in Corinth after Paul had set up the congregation there. They were very polished speakers and professional looking men. But instead of helping Paul’s ministry, they decided to try and steal his flock out from under him by ragging on Paul in any way possible. Evidently, they couldn’t find anything big to discredit him with, so they latched on to one little thing, this change of travel plans. His opponents must have said, “if you can’t trust him for the little things, then how can you trust him for the big things? This shows he is untrustworthy.” That is what makes this seemingly minor issue a major issue. These accusations were tearing the Corinthians apart. It was getting to be a real mess.
So Paul finally had to tell the Corinthians - such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. If you read the tone of 2 Corinthians, you can easily see that Paul was upset over their following these slanderers - for the “super-apostles” were tearing them in two. They weren’t accusing Paul of doctrinal heresy. They were getting people up in arms over a change in travel plans and over how good of a speaker he was. It was ridiculous. Paul had to admonish them and try and restore their unity.
Does the devil use the same tactics today? You bet he does. It happens when members - instead of just trying to help each other, openly say things to each other that expose the weaknesses of each other. Things like, “this pastor doesn’t have a very great personality.” Or, “I think so and so is kind of a snob.” Or, “he doesn’t know how to dress!” When we exposing the blemishes of each other and nit-pick to find anything wrong - then divisions start happening. When you meet behind closed doors and say, “the church council spends too much money on this. . .” or “the choir was out of key,” etc., it just leads to dissension. What makes it worse is when the people who could be good leaders within the congregation and help the ministry of the congregation - like the “super-apostles” - instead become the greatest critics. The devil loves it when these divisions occur - not over doctrine - but over dwelling on weaknesses. He loves it when he hears you talk Christians talk with one another about the weaknesses of another Christian. Why? Because it’s talk like this that causes division. It’s talk like this that doesn’t lead to peace.
Paul had told the Corinthians what he needed to say. He rebuked them and defended himself. It was time to wrap it up. And so he concluded his letter with these words - Finally, brothers, good-by. Be restored. Be admonished. Be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. What was Paul basically saying? Take this rebuke to heart. Allow yourselves to be rebuked. One of the hardest thing to do is to tell someone to stop slandering - to stop ridiculing. Why? Because it involves pride. If I am so busy seeing the weaknesses of others, then I won’t be seeing my own weaknesses. And if I’m not looking at my weaknesses, it will be hard for me to swallow the fact that I may be causing divisions by my nit-picking of other Christians. Many times when someone does have to be rebuked, they will then become angry with you. This was a precarious time for the congregation of Corinth.
But notice that Paul still - after all this writing - even though the Corinthians were weak - still called them “brothers.” As brothers, they still had the peace of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. They still had the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ - knowing that he died for them - and the love of God. And if they still had the Holy Spirit within them, they still had the ability to be restored and admonished. As long as the Triune God of Unity was still living in them, they had the ability to stop the bickering and stop the judging and to accept Paul as their pastor and leader. Their road could either lead to leaving Paul and the Corinthian congregation to follow the super-apostles, or leaving the super-apostles to stick with them. It was up to them. But Paul’s prayer was that they would make the loving and peaceable solution - to stick with him. As long as the God of love and peace would be with them, they could make the right decision. Then they would be able to greet each other and their brothers with a holy kiss of love.
I suppose there are many faults that you can find with this congregation, your pastor, and your Synod. You can say that we’re too stuffy. You can say that we don’t have enough young people. You can say that we don’t do enough to reach out. You can say your pastor doesn’t work hard enough. You can say he isn’t as friendly as other pastors. You can say there isn’t enough youth group activities. You can find blemishes. There are plenty of them. And you can expose them and exploit them and tell your friends about how you wish we were this or that. But is that the loving thing to do? Is that the peaceable thing to do? No. The peaceable thing to do would be to try and work together - to help your brothers and sisters overcome their weaknesses. The loving thing would be to offer your services to try and correct or improve what could be done better. The unifying thing to do would be to forgive the faults of your brothers in Christ and live with them in spite of their weaknesses - to greet each other with a holy kiss in our 21st century way - by saying good morning and smiling to fellow Christians that you have a hard time getting along with. That’s what God wants for us. Just as HE works together for our good - so WE can work together for our good.
Colin Raye once sang a song about a woman who decided to leave the man she once loved because she had always dreamed of loving someone more exotic and said to him, “we’re much too different.” But in his heart’s defense he told her, what they had in common, was strong enough to bond them for life. He said, “look behind your own soul and the person that you’ll see just might remind you of me - I laugh, I love, I hope, I try. I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry, and I know you do the same things too. So we’re really not that different, me and you.” So she searched for greener pastures, but never could forget, what he whispered in her ear. Either time or truth or maybe both led her back to his door. As her tears fell at his feet, she didn’t say I love you, what she said meant even more, “I laugh, I love, I hope, I try. I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry, and I know you do the same things too. So we’re really not that different, me and you.”
We have people from all different vocations and backgrounds within this congregation. We have people from Texas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas - you name it. Kansas State fans, KU fans, Packer fans, Chief fans - a wide variety. If this were a social club, it wouldn’t float. Sometimes it is hard to live together with our differences. But remember, we aren’t here just to drink coffee and talk. An amazing thing has happened to us. The same God who worked together to create us, and die for us, has sent His Spirit into our hearts to unite us around a common belief in someone who lived 2,000 years ago. The triune God has united us to a common faith. Even though as Christians we may have different interests, different tastes, and different philosophies, we really not that different. We have a common faith in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We have a common confession. We have a common Spirit. So we can live at peace. We can be of one mind. Why? Because, we’re really not that different, me and you. Amen.
