Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: As we seek to serve the Lord Jesus, to labor for him, to speak of him, to care for his people, to reach the lost, as we seek to do these things in our weakness, and as we come up against our own limitations as we will and as we do, we begin to discover that there is another power at work within. And we see the Lord Jesus at work in us and at work through us.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller and glad that you're with us today. Jonathan, I think those who are believers are going to be super encouraged by today's program because this is one of these truths that I think is so important for us to to grasp, to wrestle with, and to celebrate the fact that Christ is in us.

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, it is one of the most wonderful truths that we discover through the word and through the course of the Christian life. You know, the more we go on as Christians, I think the more we become aware of our weaknesses, of our limitations, of our frailty. And to discover in greater measure that the Lord's power is at work within by his spirit is such an encouragement and is such a help. And we discover it is really our only means of achieving anything for the Lord and our only means of enduring in the Christian life. But it is a wonderful truth and it is here for us in the word of God.

And I think we're going to be encouraged together today.

Steve Hiller: Well, let's do that. Open your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We'll be in chapter 12 and 13 today as we begin this message Christ in you. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, today we come together to the end of the monumental Corinthian correspondence, the concluding section of the second of two magnificent and weighty letters, letters in which Paul grapples with the reality of sin in a complicated church, the reality of opposition to his apostolic ministry, of conflict and of tension, of repentance and of restoration, of failures in discipleship and of hope for the future. And as the Apostle Paul draws these two letters to a conclusion, he takes everything back to the very heart of the matter, to what it means to be a genuine Christian, to what it means to be genuinely, spiritually alive and to be walking with Jesus Christ.

Verse 5 is really the key of this final section. Notice it again with me. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? What is the test of true Christian faith, of authentic conversion, of real spiritual life? It is whether or not Jesus Christ lives within a person by his Holy Spirit. If Christ lives in me, if Christ lives in you, then we are genuine Christians, we are spiritually alive. And here in these final verses with with all the water that's gone under the bridge in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, Paul wants to end here.

He wants to end with this. This is the final thing of pressing importance, the reality and the experience of Christ in you. Now, as we begin to think in these terms and speak in these terms, I wonder if they are terms that are familiar to you. In your understanding of the gospel, is the Christian faith fundamentally about knowing Jesus Christ through faith and having him live within you by his Holy Spirit? Is the Christian life in your understanding about allowing the Lord Jesus Christ to live his life in you and through you as you walk with him?

Is that concept familiar to you? And is your notion of the Christian faith and the Christian life shaped in that way or are these things new? Now, if these things are new to you, let me simply say this at the outset of our time together today. This is an exciting discovery you're about to make. It's an exciting discovery because genuine Christianity is not simply about knowledge or assent to facts. It's not merely a creed or a confession, important though those things are. Fundamentally, the Christian faith is about knowing Jesus and having his life lived within you by his Holy Spirit.

The Christian faith is fundamentally about being united to Jesus by his spirit such that we are in him and he is in us. That's authentic Christianity. That's vital Christianity. That is true spiritual life. Now, as Paul draws this great letter to a close, he deals with various issues, of course, that have been bubbling away throughout both 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. And he draws a lot of the threads together. We We won't be able to unpack everything he mentions here. We don't have time. But what I do want us to see in the time we have is what he teaches us about the nature of true spiritual life, of Christ in you, of Christ in me.

Two features, two evidences of this genuine spiritual life and genuine spiritual experience. Here they are. Number one, resurrection power for service. And number two, repentance for life transformation. Those are the two. We'll begin with the first, resurrection power for service. One of the major issues that's been running through both 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians is the issue of believers at Corinth questioning Paul's authenticity, questioning his authority, questioning really his ministry. The heart of the criticism seems to be that Paul's ministry was not viewed as being powerful enough. His rhetoric was not polished enough. His authority was not strong enough.

His presentation was not compelling enough. And an added element has recently made things a little bit worse for Paul. Paul has taken the decision to decline financial support from the Corinthians. We don't know the full story behind that and why Paul chose to do it. But clearly he saw that with the dynamics at Corinth being what they are, receiving financial support from the Corinthians was going to make things worse for him. He would have been fully within his rights to take the support, but he chose not to. And no doubt that was the right decision, but the strategy did backfire on one level.

You see, the Corinthians lived in a trade center and they understood business. And as business people, they were offended that their teacher was not willing to receive their money. To them, there was something fishy about that. They didn't like it. And they wondered if there were perhaps some underhanded motives behind Paul 's decision. And so his decision arising from a servant heart and a lover of these people, his decision to serve without cost among the Corinthians has actually become now another reason for them to criticize him. It's made him look even weaker in their eyes.

After all, a really compelling traveling teacher in the Roman world would command a high price for their instruction in the marketplace. But here is Paul and he is taking nothing. So Paul looks weak. But he wants to remind them of the fundamental nature of the Christian life and of Christian ministry. He wants to remind them of the gospel and of who Jesus is and what it looks like to serve in the strength that he provides. Notice again how chapter 13 opens. It's the third time I'm coming to you, says Paul. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

I warn those who sinned before and all the others and I warn them now while absent as I did when present on my second visit that if I come again, I'll not spare them. Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. Now, sense behind those words, the criticisms of Paul that stand behind them.

He's weak. He's ineffective. He does not have spiritual power behind his ministry. And Paul's hearing all that and he's saying, look, in addressing the sin within this church, you will indeed see and feel the spiritual power behind my ministry if I show up again and find that these issues have not been resolved. Yes, I am weak in and of myself in many ways, but make no mistake, the power of Jesus is at work within me. Now, as Paul opens up that reality, he takes us back now to the cross of Jesus and to his resurrection from the grave.

He takes us back to the heart of the gospel to who Jesus is and what he has done in saving us. And as we think about these things, we remember that the all powerful son of God came down from heaven and he came to us in weakness and humility in his earthly ministry and he humbled himself even to the point of death on a cross that he might purchase our redemption, that he might pay for our sin. And many looked on the Lord Jesus Christ in his earthly ministry and they saw weakness, didn't they? But his physical frailty and his death on the cross was not the whole of the story.

The Jesus who died in agony was raised in victory, for he was crucified in weakness but he lives by the power of God. That is the divine power of God worked a miracle on the third day and brought Jesus to resurrection life. The power of God overcame even the grave. Now, that's Jesus. That's who he is. And Paul says, I am united to that Jesus by his Holy Spirit. And that Jesus lives within me. And I embrace weakness even as Jesus did in his earthly ministry, but I also know spiritual strength even as he did in his resurrection.

And you will see both those realities in me and in my ministry second half of verse 4. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. Paul has been at pains to teach us throughout this letter and especially in chapter 12 that for those who would walk with Jesus and serve Jesus, spiritual strength is actually found in and through weakness. As we embrace weakness and experience frailty even as Jesus did in his earthly life, we will experience the very life of Jesus at work within us by the Holy Spirit.

Now, that's what Paul taught us so wonderfully back in chapter 12 as you may remember as he shared with us of his own personal experience of suffering, of of the thorn in the flesh as he speaks of it. You may remember this chapter 12 and verse 8. Speaking of this thorn in the flesh, whatever it was, Paul says three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it might leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. It's in the reality of weakness that we come to see the power of God because in our weakness, God does things in and through us that we could never do on our own.

Steve Hiller: Well, you're listening to Jonathan Griffiths here on Encounter the Truth and we'll get back to the teaching in just a moment. But we'd like to extend a special invitation to all our listeners in the greater Toronto area. On Monday evening, October 19th, Jonathan will be hosting a special event for listeners at Tyndale University in Toronto. You can get more information at our website encounterthetruth.org. Enjoy a warm evening of fellowship with other Encounter the Truth listeners. Get encouragement in your walk with Christ and learn more about the reach and impact of the ministry. That's Monday evening, October 19th at Tyndale University in Toronto.

Again, get all the details and register at encounterthetruth.org. Back to the message. Here's Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: I don't know what your view would be on electric cars and hybrid electric cars. Don't know if you have an opinion on that. As with any new tech, some will be early adopters, some will be late adopters, and some will be, you know, refused to ever adopters. I I'm at very least a late adopter on this one. I don't really feel great about the electric thing yet. I imagine just getting stuck on a long journey somewhere with nowhere to charge the thing. I kind of feel safer with a full tank of gas. But a couple of years ago on a trip actually to the UK, we picked up our rental car at the airport and found that we've been given a plug-in hybrid.

The thing had a a gas motor and an electric motor and you could plug the thing in and you could charge it. And I thought to myself, okay, here is my chance, you know, to be convinced to move forward, to buy in. Probably this will will convince me. So I, you know, I figured out the charging system and found a place to plug the thing in overnight and I I was kind of excited to see how this would go and how much money we would save on on gas. So we charged overnight and the next day we jump in the car and off we go.

The The little electric motor in the thing whirs kind of pathetically and sort of whines as we're going and I I watched the power gauge. And I tell you, after 10 minutes, you could see the charge just moving down in real time. I think it lasted a grand total of 20 minutes until it was totally flat. And And the whiny little electric motor, I I think the the motor in our kids' remote control car actually has more more umph. It was hopeless for actually driving. But but the relief kicked in when the charge was totally depleted and the electric motor stopped trying to do anything and then the gas engine fired up and kicked in.

And it was just it was wonderful. It felt like we could actually get somewhere. Two motors, one weak, very easily depleted, one much more powerful that kicked in when the power was needed. Well, suffice it to say I wasn't sold on it, but the image was useful for a sermon, so I'm glad we had the rental. You see, you and I, we have two sources of strength within. One is weak and very limited and another one is all powerful. And the truth is you and I only experience the second when we push beyond the limitations of the first.

It's only when we we reach the end of our human capacity in weakness that we discover that there is indeed an altogether different power within. And it's at that point that we begin to see God doing things in and through us that we could not do ourselves. That's what Paul discovered. That's how Paul lived. That's what marked Paul's ministry, weak in the eyes of the world, weak in and of itself but enabled by supernatural resurrection power within. As we seek to serve the Lord Jesus, to labor for him, to speak of him, to care for his people, to reach the lost, as we seek to do these things in our weakness, and as we come up against our own limitations as we will and as we do, here's what happens.

We begin to discover that there is another power at work within. And we see the Lord Jesus at work in us and it worked through us. That was Paul's experience. And he wants the Corinthians to understand that this frailty and weakness are not a sign that his ministry is lacking authenticity, but rather any weakness they see in him is simply a conduit for the Lord Jesus to be at work. And if they watch and if they will listen, they will see Jesus and they will hear Jesus in and through the ministry of the Apostle Paul.

And actually, if we examine all that Paul has to say to us in this section, which we don't have time to do in detail, we will see signs and evidences all over the place that Paul recognizes that his ministry is actually the ministry that Jesus is doing in and through him. Paul recognizes that ultimately he is not the one doing the ministry among the Corinthians. Jesus is doing it and Paul is the agent. He's doing it through Paul. So so just for instance, notice chapter 12 and verse 12. Paul says the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.

Now, notice this. Paul doesn't say, you know, I performed these signs and wonders and works among you. He doesn't say that. He doesn't take credit. No, he says those signs and wonders were performed among you. Paul doesn't take personal credit because those things were performed by Jesus through Paul. Notice the dynamic at work again in verse 19. Paul says, have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ and all for your upbuilding, beloved. Notice what Paul doesn't say.

Paul doesn't say, I've been speaking to you and I've been teaching you. No, he doesn't say that. He says, we have been speaking in Christ. That is in unity with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, God's word has been spoken. But Paul recognizes fundamentally that this is something not that he is doing but that Jesus is doing. In and of himself, Paul couldn't do it, but Jesus through him by his resurrection power, he can and he does and he has. I often think to myself in looking at the Corinthian correspondence that one of the most remarkable things about Paul's ministry in this place is that he doesn't give up on the Corinthians.

You know, you try and put yourselves into Paul's shoes and imagine yourself into his situation. Dealing with the Corinthians must have been so discouraging, so discouraging. It's not simply that the believers at Corinth didn't very much appreciate Paul. No, no, no, it wasn't that. Many despised him. They despised him. Although they he brought them the gospel, they dismissed him as weak and ineffective. They turned to other teachers. They thought up all kinds of criticisms against him. They decided that Paul wasn't worth their time. And the sin crises at Corinth were just dreadful. I mean, it's dreadful.

Lawsuits among believers, mistreatment of the poor, gross sexual immorality, factions, rivalries, so much more. And you know, with all that going on, it would have been very understandable to me if Paul had looked on the situation and said, I'm done. I I've had it. But he doesn't. He he perseveres. He perseveres in grace, extending the gospel to the Corinthians, seeking to shepherd the Corinthians. And he perseveres also in strength, not compromising on the truth, not backing down on the call to repent. And Paul tells us here the secret to that perseverance. He makes it clear how this is actually possible.

Here it is. The resurrection power of Jesus Christ is flowing through his life and through his ministry, not despite his weakness but rather through his weakness. You know, as we reflect on this, we see the shape of the gospel shining through it. Even as Jesus submitted himself to weakness and faced death on the cross, the Lord raised him to life again in great power. And Paul's life and ministry as a servant of God is shaped by the cross and by the resurrection. Resurrection power even through weakness. Now, as we reflect on this, let me ask you, do you know anything of this in your own experience as you seek to serve the Lord Jesus Christ?

Do you know what it is to feel very very weak, to sense your frailty, to reach the end of yourself and to go beyond the end of yourself and to find that there is actually a power that comes from the spirit of God within, which is supernatural? A power which enables you to do that which is naturally impossible to you and which you figured would never happen. Do you know what it is to watch the battery drain as you serve, to hear the little engine whir and strain and to think I am nearing the end of my capacity?

Here I am nearly finished. I can't do this anymore. I can't persevere with these people. I can't witness in this context. I can't teach this Bible class anymore. I can't serve my small group anymore. I can't volunteer in this area one more day. But you know, the battery is the battery is dead. And then to find at that very point of weariness and of weakness, another power kicks in and a season of fruitfulness follows. You reach the end of yourself and then God does something supernatural. That's the shape of the Christian life and of Christian service.

That That's what it is to know the life of Jesus within us by the Holy Spirit. We find resurrection power to serve even in the midst of weakness. If it happens that today you are feeling weak in your service of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you feel weak serving him in the context of your family or among your colleagues at work, weaken your witness, weaken your attempts perhaps to teach the Bible in a context where the Lord's called you to do that, weaken your attempts to serve your small group, to encourage others in the faith, to serve in whatever area of ministry it is you serve, to look to Jesus for that resurrection power, to to call upon him, to give you perseverance, to do in and through you that which you simply cannot do on your own.

And And as we do that, he provides and he shows himself strong. And we discover that his life within us is the only strength we need.

Steve Hiller: Well, we have to pause right here, but we'll continue next time here on Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. Our message is called Christ in you. And if you ever miss a broadcast, come and listen online at encounterthetruth.org. Well, Encounter the Truth is a listener supported ministry. That's exactly what it sounds like. It is your giving, your generosity that allows us to continue to bring you Jonathan's teaching each day. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a book entitled Gentle and Lowly. It's written by Dane Ortlund.

And Jonathan, why did you pick this book?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, Steve, I picked it because I loved it and because I found it so personally helpful. And it's a book I want every Christian to read and I've been encouraging our friends and family to read it. It's It's a delightful book that really looks at the heart of God for sinners and sufferers as the subtitle says. And And And it means what it says. Dane Ortlund in this delightful study really looks at God's disposition toward us and the way in which he has acted toward us in Christ. And it it busts some myths. I think we can feel that God's disposition toward us is harsh, unyielding, distant.

And Dane shows us that through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has come to us in grace and mercy and kindness. And he loves us deeply. And And he's not looking to catch us out. He's looking to pour out his grace in our lives and we need to hear that. We need to hear it again and again. We need to be taught that. We need to be reminded of it. We need to believe it and we need to live it. And this beautifully written study is such a help in doing that very thing.

And I hope everyone listening will get hold of a copy, will read it, and will be helped by it as I have been personally.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you a copy of this book Gentle and Lowly is our way of saying thank you for your support this month. You can give online when you come to encounterthetruth.org or call 1 833 99 Truth. That's 1 833 998 7884 or encounterthetruth.org. You can also write us at Encounter the Truth, PO Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3M1. Or in the US at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Bretta, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.