What Ministry Is All About, Part 16
In our message, STOP SIGNS FOR JESUS (2 Cor. 11:16-33), we continued our focus on the third and final section of the book of Second Corinthians which emphasizes the defense of the Bible. Paul, to defend the Word of God here, calls his opponents- the false apostles- to a duel of foolish boasting (2 Cor. 11:16-18). Because so many Christians in Corinth were trusting in the outward credentials of the unsaved men (2 Cor. 11:13-15) who degraded, devoured, defrauded, derided and defamed them (2 Cor. 11:19-21), Paul reluctantly agreed to show everyone he was equally qualified to them in terms of their worldly standards:
- Are they Hebrews? So am I.
- Are they Israelites? So am I.
- Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I” (2 Cor. 11:22)
We see here, it is not wrong for us to use any position, role, or ability God has given us to point others to the truth of the Bible. As Christians, we are STOP SIGNS FOR JESUS urging both the lost to be saved as well as drifting brothers and sisters to live for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20-21 & 2 Cor. 6:1, 11-14, etc.). Even Jesus, our preeminent example, at times spoke openly about who He was and the power that He had at His disposal (e.g. Matt. 26:53).
And after matching impeccably the outward credentials of his opponents, Paul went beyond their false claim to be “ministers of Christ” showing he was the real thing through suffering (Acts 9:15-16). Not only did “Satan[’s]… ministers” not know Jesus (2 Cor. 11:14-15), but they had no interest in suffering for God (Gal. 1:10, etc.). Paul admitted here that boasting about Christ in this way was acting like a madman (2 Cor. 11:23a NET), but he did it anyway to prove that he was an apostle of God so the church there would believe the Bible (2 Cor. 11:23a NLT).
We have here a deep self-disclosure of Paul… more detailed than the book of Acts on some of the things he suffered (2 Cor. 11:23-27; 2 Tim. 3:12, etc.). But even greater than these physical sufferings which would have killed most people, Paul was weighed down more by the unending internal pressure he felt for the church’s well-being (2 Cor. 11:28-29).
Paul turned the world’s standards and values upside down as he reflected the kingdom of God truthfully- boasting in his weaknesses (2 Cor. 11:30-31 NLT; Phil. 3:9-11, etc.). This man, who had everything the world had to offer, now was hunted by the world as he was smuggled out of “Damascus… in a basket through a window” in that city’s walls (2 Cor. 11:32-33; 1 John 5:19, etc.). *For more information on this message, please see SBFC’s June 1, 2025 sermon above.