The Message Is...: God is in Control (2 Corinthians 1:12-22)

PRAY

An American country newspaper had been running a series of articles on the value of church attendance. One day, a letter to the editor was received in the newspaper office. It read, “Print this if you dare. I have been trying an experiment. I have a field of corn which I ploughed on Sunday. I planted it on Sunday. I did all the cultivating on Sunday. I gathered the harvest on Sunday and hauled it to my barn on Sunday. I find that my harvest this October is just as great as any of my neighbours’ who went to church on Sunday. So where was God all this time?”

The editor did print the letter but added his reply at the bottom. “Your mistake was in thinking that God always settles his accounts in October.”

That’s often our mistake as well, isn’t it – thinking that God should act when and how we want him to act, according to our timetable rather than his. The fact that our vision is limited, finite, unable to see the end from the beginning, somehow escapes our mind. So we complain, we get frustrated; we accuse God of being indifferent to us; we do not live by faith[1].

This fickleness is exactly what led the apostle, Paul to write this second letter to the new converts in Corinth. In today’s talk, we will look at how Paul was Living for God (vv12-17), how Paul was Living with God in Control (vv18-22) and then we’ll look at Our Response.

LIVING FOR GOD (vv12-17)

Paul starts today’s section justifying his recent travel plan changes. It is clear that some in Corinth were spreading rumours and starting to think differently about Paul and his motives. Perhaps some were even saying he was fickle and untrustworthy because he had not followed through with what he had promised. Just like that farmer who had written that letter to the editor, some of the people of Corinth were complaining. How could Paul’s message be trustworthy now, if he himself cannot be trusted to do what he said he would?

It’s like a court case. The expert witness is on the stand giving their expert testimony in some high profile case when the opposition stands and starts asking their questions. They start to unpick the testimony and before long, the witness has been discredited because of a decision they had made in their past which has influenced their present testimony.

The people of Corinth had lost all credence in Paul and his testimony because he had failed to follow through with his promise of returning to them. Perhaps, they had been listening, as we are aware, to false teachers and false prophets who were trying to steer these new converts away from God. And so Paul states categorically in verse 12-14:

Now, this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace. For we do not write to you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Paul had been labelled as someone who dropped his plans to follow what he wanted. He was being branded as someone who was fickle and unreliable, someone who didn’t care much about those he had led to Christ.

Therefore, he used this opportunity to prove his integrity and godly sincerity (v12). Everything he had done, all the work he and his colleagues had done were done so with God’s grace. Everything he had done, all the work he and his colleagues had done were done so with God’s grace. Paul was not someone governed by worldly wisdom (v12) and he most certainly did not make decisions about his ministry in a worldly manner (v17). He reminds the Corinthians his plans are made according to God’s will and purpose (v12, v18, vv20-22).

LIVING WITH GOD IN CONTROL (vv18-22)

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is the world’s busiest airport measured by aircraft movements, (landings and take-offs). In 2014, movements averaged 2416 per day that works out as almost two movements per minute. That is one landing and one take-off every minute every day. It’s no wonder the job of flight controllers is so stressful. Imagine the chaos and carnage that would result if there were no one to direct the traffic?

Now imagine the world as an airport and every individual, all 7.4 billion of us as an aeroplane, coming and going as we pleased. Now imagine God as that single flight controller keeping track of our movements for all of human history and according to the Population Reference Bureau, as of 2015, 108.2 billion people have ever lived (that is a lot of plane movements!). But it is not just the movements of human aeroplanes this flight controller tracks, but according to Matthew 10:29, every living animal on the face of the earth are also tracked. Untold billions of landings and take-offs.

In the current chaotic climate of the world, does it not feel like God has lost control?[2]

But in verse 18, Paul reminds us that God is faithful. Paul emphasises the importance of his work by using God as his witness. He links his message and work to Christ Jesus in v19 and reminds the Corinthians of the consistency of Christ. For v20 states:

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ.

No more were the Corinthians to think Paul’s message was either “Yes!” or “No!” but in Christ, it is always “YES!” No longer should they be indecisive and mistrust his message, because the Gospel of Christ preached to them in v19 is not ambiguous but 100% crystal clear that all God’s promises are “Yes” in Christ Jesus (v20). Paul is saying, this is the important part, this is the important part, Christ Jesus is not like worldly fads that come and go, one minute they are “Yes, let’s do this!” and the next, “No, that’s not right!” Paul emphasises that Christ has, is and always will be consistently ‘Yes!’

My son, Josh encouraged me yesterday when I was wrestling with this passage. He reminded me of our work together on the book of Daniel. That the entire message running throughout Daniel, is that God is in control. Irrespective of what is happening around us, irrespective of what terror, evil and untold misery is occurring the world over. Irrespective of the current chaotic climate we find ourselves in today, we can be assured, because Paul was assured that God is in control.

OUR RESPONSE (vv12-22)

So how do we properly respond to this doctrinal truth that Paul reveals to us?

Well, vv12 – 14 tells us that our lives must be focused entirely on Christ. All our relationships and interactions with others, our family, friends and work colleagues, even the stranger on the street must reflect that we are living for God. We must live as citizens of Heaven with integrity and godly sincerity. We must live by God’s grace and not on worldly wisdom. Every aspect of our lives must reflect our true citizenship, our true identity in Christ Jesus. As soon as we do something that focuses us away from God, we are conforming to the world’s standards.

Does anybody remember the fidget spinners or the bottle flipping and don’t get me started on the infamous dabbing? All three hit schools across the country last year. They were the latest fad. Every student was seen trying them out. They were the bane of every teachers’ existence. They were complete wastes of time that had no function, advantage or reason. As a result, they were all short lived! My sons would now say, “They are so last year!”

Verse 17 calls these crazes fickle and worldly and only served to focus us away from what truly matters – as v19 tells us, Christ and Christ alone.

C.S. Lewis wrote in his brilliant book, Mere Christianity, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither!”[3]

As we examine our lives this morning, who do we see as being in control? Are we people driven or Christ driven? Do we care more for what people think about us than what God thinks about us? Are we fickle, worldly, easily turned to latest fad or fashion? Do we live an indecisive life, saying “Yes” and “No” in the same breath, instead of living for and in Christ Jesus who is emphatically, “YES”?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Paul wrote to the Romans in 3:22-26, we are fully justified in Christ Jesus. We no longer need approval from this fickle world we live in.

Did everyone get that?

We are fully justified in Christ Jesus. We no longer need approval from this fickle world we live in.

Verses 21 and 22 of today’s passage tell us:

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Let us, therefore, focus on Christ so we can join Paul and his colleagues in one voice and say, “Amen to the Glory of God!”