You Are Our Proof!

I. Review
A. Paul planted the church in Corinth, but now infiltrators have stirred up opposition against Paul in the congregation, claiming that his presence and rhetorical skills were subpar, and suggesting that Paul was walking by the flesh and not a Spirit-empowered leader.
B. You see, Paul didn’t act like a flashy dynamo in his ministry, but was humble and meek. He did not seek dazzle people, or to act like he was better than everybody else. He didn’t manipulate people; he wasn’t controlling (2Cor 11:16–19; cf. 2Cor 1:24).
C. Most of the members of the Corinthian church had been impressed by the swagger and self-assurance of those who claimed that Paul was not a true apostle. Many in the congregation had been bamboozled by these newcomers.
D. After a visit failed to address the problem, Paul had written a severe letter to the Corinthian church, a letter which has been lost to us. after a while, he then received a good report that most of them were realizing that they were wrong to listen to those who were undermining Paul’s apostleship.
E. He then writes this epistle we call 2Corinthians, both to affirm them for their support of him and to urge them to complete their change of attitude.
F. In 2Corinthians he doesn’t engage his detractors. He knows that would be futile. Rather, he engages the congregation — hoping to persuade them to stop listening to his detractors.
II. 2Corinthians 10:7–8 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. 8 For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed.
A. 7 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we.
1. Look what is staring you in the face! You’re missing something which is right in front of you.
2. Here it is: If any of you are truly in Christ, then that proves that we are as well, for I was the one who brought Christ to you and you to Christ.
3. Paul claims that the faith of the Corinthians is proof of the authenticity of his apostleship.
4. You have confidence in the authenticity of your faith. That should lead you to have confidence in the authenticity of my apostleship. If your faith is “of Christ” then so is my apostleship!
5. You came to Christ through me! If I wasn’t in Christ then you wouldn’t be in Christ.
6. You see, in their struggle to assess charges against the authenticity of Paul’s apostleship, they have neglected a key piece of evidence: themselves as Christ’s people. This itself proves that he is Christ’s — and not someone who merely “walks according to the flesh.”
7. If they are Christ’s then the one who betrothed them to Christ must also be Christ’s!
8. You think I’m weak and powerless? Your existence as a Christian church proves otherwise!
9. 2Corinthians 3:2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation...to be known and read by all.
B. 8 For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed.
1. Paul here is defending himself against a criticism leveled against him that in writing his severe letter to them, Paul has taken his apostolic authority too seriously.
2. He is not ashamed of his use of authority to rebuke them and warn them so severely.
3. He knows that in writing his severe letter he was attempting to help them, not hurt them, to build them up, not destroy them.
4. Just as the Lord disciplines those whom He loves (Heb.12:6), so it is with him.
III. There are so many wonderful things here for us to contemplate.
A. We need to hear from God. We need His perspective, we need His guidance, we need to know about who He is, and be reminded of His tender compassion and lovingkindness. We need to hear the gospel story of how Jesus came to save sinners and welcome them into His embrace. 
1. God could speak directly to each person out of heaven, telling us what we need to know.
2. But in His infinite wisdom, God does not choose to communicate His truth this way.
3. Instead, He has chosen to give us His word through other people – “Holy men who were taught by the Holy Spirit.” (Children’s Catechism, #15)
4. Thus, God ordained for His word to be put in writing, and we have it in a book, the Bible: “inspired by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 2Tim.3:16-17
5. And if you know something of the history of the Bible, you know that there have been many satanic attempts through the ages to thwart the process of God’s word getting written and transmitted and translated and into the hands of the people who so desperately need it.
6. Satan knows that one key to squelching the progress of the gospel in the world and in the lives of believers is to keep God’s word from getting to its desired destination.
7. And this is exactly what was going on in this dispute between the Corinthian church and Paul.
8. Paul knows this; he sees this. He knows that he is the channel of God’s truth to the Corinthians.
9. And that is why Paul is so fully engaged in this battle. If they rebuff him, they rebuff the Lord.
10. As an apostle, Paul understands the role and strategic importance of an apostle.
B. But it might be good for us to talk a little about the nature of apostleship.
1. In v.8 Paul refers to “our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you.” He’s talking about his apostolic authority given him by the Lord Himself.
2. God gave authority to Paul and others in order to build up the church.
a. Ephesians 3:4–5 refers to “the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”
b. Luke 1:2-4 refers to “those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses & ministers of the word.”
c. In Romans 1:5 Paul refers to “Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.”
3. You see, we believe in human sin: deep, profound, deceitful sin.
a. But we also believe that God’s power is greater than our sin, and we believe that God is powerful enough to manage His apostles and keep them in line, just as He did with His prophets in the OT.
b. This guarantee is given only to prophets and apostles, not to ordinary believers.
4. This is because His apostles are the channels through which we receive the truth of Christ.
a. Notice I didn’t say they were the channel of His grace. The grace of God comes directly to us – the only mediator between God & man is His Son Jesus Christ.
b. But God’s word doesn’t come to us directly. It comes through this book, the second part of which (the NT) came to us through the apostles.
5. The struggle in 2Corinthians isn’t about Paul’s pride. In defending himself, Paul is defending God’s word.
a. He is the one who had been called by Christ to carry His word to the Corinthians.
b. And in attacking Paul, they were actually attacking God’s word.
c. In verses 3-6, Paul said this struggle was a matter of spiritual warfare, that he is fighting to destroy the strongholds of the “arguments & lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God.”
d. So, the personal attacks being leveled against Paul are actually “arguments & opinions raised against the knowledge of God.”
e. You know, they went after Jesus, and then when that didn’t work, they went after His apostles.
6. The authority of the apostles is not something invented by the apostles themselves. It comes right from Jesus.
a. He’s the One who chose them. He’s the One who trained them. He’s the One who said that He would build His church upon them (Matt.16:18; Eph.2:20; Rev.21:14).
b. He’s the One who gave them the keys of His Kingdom (Matt.16:19; Matt.18:18, cf. John 20:23).
c. He’s the One who said “Just as the Father sent Me, so I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
d. He’s the One who told them not to worry about what they would say because He would give them the words to speak, “for it is not you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Matt.10:19-20, Mark 13:11, see also Luke 12:12).
e. He is the One who told them, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:26
f. He is the One who said to them, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth...and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” – John 16:12–13
g. The apostles were Jesus’ representatives and ambassadors. He sent them to speak His word and act on His behalf.
7. But it’s not just this. Jesus made it clear that the apostles would write a NT.
a. That’s why the Spirit would need to bring to their remembrance all that He had said to them.
b. That’s why they needed to be guided into all the truth, even truth which they couldn’t bear at that time Jesus was with them.
8. You know, Jesus said a large amount of things to His disciples right before the crucifixion. And it’s sometimes hard to discern whether He was speaking primarily to His disciples or to all who would come to believe in Him. But there are good indications that much of what Jesus told them was directed to them in a way they were not directed to us.
a. John 15:26–27 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
b. Acts 5:32 “And WE are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
9. It wasn’t that the apostles were given as a rudder for the church so that they could keep on track during the lifetimes of the apostles. The church needed much more than that. The church needed a rudder to guide it through the whole church age.
10. In this we agree with our Catholic friends. Where we disagree with them is whether this same guarantee continues after the apostles with the leaders of the church who served later.
a. Catholics argue that apostleship basically continues through the history of the church, that each pope is a new apostle, with all the rights and powers thereof.
b. There’s plenty of evidence in the Bible that this is the case with the apostles. But where is the evidence that it continues?
c. But we believe that the apostles left a permanent rudder for the church, a rudder we call the NT.
d. The NT is the book of the apostles, every book either written by an apostle or under an apostle’s supervision.
11. So, the apostles are no longer with us in person. We don’t pray to them & they don’t speak to us.
a. However, the book they wrote is still very much with us, and it is our guide to keep us on track.
12. Now, our Catholic friends will point to all the wacky things Protestants do & believe, things supposedly based on the NT, to try to prove that the NT isn’t enough.
a. But just because someone circulates the answers to the exam questions doesn’t mean those answers are right! If everyone uses those answers, and they’re wrong, then everyone is wrong!
b. Not only this, but the NT makes it clear that things in the church are going to go awry.
(1) the letters to the seven churches
(2) the warnings of Paul in Acts 20:29ff., 1Tim4:1ff., etc.
(3) Things going awry doesn’t prove that the way things were originally set up was wrong.
C. When I became a Christian, I didn’t even know what an apostle was. Knowing about the apostles had absolutely nothing to do with me coming to Christ. That was all the work of the Lord in my heart.
1. But once I became a Christian and began to learn about the Christian faith, eventually I learned how significant the role of the apostles is in explaining and defending our faith.
2. It’s not who they are, it’s not how godly they were. It’s not that they were so extraordinary. They were just ordinary, uneducated men who walked with Christ and then were filled with His Spirit.
3. We don’t venerate them or pray to them. But we do trust their words because they were eyewitnesses of Christ and Jesus Himself promised that by the Spirit they would speak His words.
4. The Christianity of the apostles is the Christianity of Jesus.
5. And the Christianity of Paul is the Christianity of Jesus – whether we like it or not.
6. Have you heard of Red letter Christians? They’re Christians who say we must give special attention to the words of Jesus – written in red letters in many Bibles.
a. Well, people who pay a lot of attention to what Jesus says must therefore pay a lot of attention to what the apostles say, because Jesus endorsed them and sent them to speak His word.
b. Red letter Christians must also be black letter Christians.
7. Listen to how Paul challenged the Corinthian believers in 1Corinthians 14:36-38 “Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.”
8. Many are hesitant to attack Jesus today. Their ire is directed to His apostles instead. The apostles make an easier target. But if they successfully discredit the apostles, they discredit the NT and they discredit Jesus.
D. In every generation, humans construct intellectual arguments as defense mechanisms to protect themselves from the truth of Christ.
1. It is happening in our day as well. Many people have swallowed lies that have been spread about the Bible, lies designed to undermine the veracity & trustworthiness of God’s word.
2. We are in the midst of a full-on, pull-out-all-the-stops war against Jesus Christ and His word.
3. If you pay attention at all to politics, you’re familiar with the way one group can try to discredit someone or some group. They misconstrue, they twist the truth, they interview someone who they claim is an expert who is anything but impartial, they use guilt by association, they selectively report the things which make them look or the other side look bad, they lie. Both sides do it.
4. The same things happen with regard to Christianity. It can be very creative and very clever.
5. It can be very sophisticated, clothed in all kinds of scholarly garb.
6. And there is nothing wrong with scholarship. I will never criticize schooling or learning or academics. Some of the greatest & soundest Christian theologians have lots of degrees/education.
7. But don’t ever think that something you hear or read is from an objective, scholarly source.
8. The issue of God is something no one can be objective about.
E. It’s the same battle Paul was in. Satan really wants to keep people from God’s truth.
1. How does he do it in your life? And how are you fighting to make sure he doesn’t succeed?
2. Look at what is before your eyes! Look at what is staring you in the face.
3. As humans, we have such a capacity to deceive ourselves, to believe what we want to believe.
4. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” – Jer.17:9
5. We are so diligent to make sure we get the things we know we need: our medicine, our exercise, our food, our time with people, our make-up, our clothes, our personal hygiene.
6. But are we as diligent to make sure we get the word of God, which we need even more?
7. Satan doesn’t care so much about those other things, but he cares very much about keeping us away from the word of God.
8. People fought long and hard to get this book in our hands. What are we going to do with it?
9. We know we need it. We know it’s good for us. what are we going to do with it?
10. It’s not an easy book. It’s not like eating candy. It’s more like preparing a meal. It takes effort.
11. It’s easy not to read it. It’s easy not to study it. It’s easy not to learn it. What are we going to do with the word of God?
12. Paul went to great lengths to fight for the souls of the Corinthians. Are we willing to fight for our own souls? Don’t think you can fight for the souls of others if you won’t fight for your own soul.
13. May the word of Christ dwell in us richly! (Col.3:16)