Sermon Starters -- "Hard Pressed, Not Crushed"

Title: "Not Dead Yet"
Location: McCrae Brook Wesleyan Church
Date: January 31, 2021

Introduction

• The ravages of COVID, the situation in the country, possibly Monty Python skits ("I'm not dead yet")
• Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:7-11, 14, 16-18
• Prayer

The situation of 2 Corinthians:

• Paul has been wrestling with the Corinthians for three years -- disunity and factionalism.
• In one corner, the wise guys who liked Pastor 2 (Apollos) better than Pastor 1 (Paul). 
• He walked on eggshells in 1 Corinthians. Lost it in a harsh letter. Didn't know if they would listen to him after that.
• Meanwhile, he runs into big troubles at Ephesus (1:8). He's just left when he writes 2 Corinthians.
• The tone changes at the end of 2 Corinthians -- chapters 10-13. It's like he finds out they're still not with him. Romans 15:23 reads pretty somber in this light.

I. We may face trouble from the world. 

• Paul in Acts 19 -- The success of the gospel leads to persecution. On this occasion, he gets out.
• A lot of Christians are worried about persecution right now. Obviously none of us want that.
• My tendency to think I'm sick... when I'm not.
• We are not being persecuted -- Having to wear a mask is not persecution. Having to meet online is not persecution. Losing tax exempt status is not persecution. Having to take pictures at a gay wedding is not persecution.
• The American church wants to be in power, and it interprets its loss of power as persecution.
• Paul is thankful for every day he escapes Roman persecution and still prays for the emperor (1 Tim. 2:2). Remember that the emperor of Romans 13 is the same one who will later behead him. Same is true of Peter in 1 Peter 2:13.
• If we can make the world a better place, I think we should. But our hope doesn't come from a world where everything goes our way.
• "We are hard-pressed, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed."

II. We may face trouble from other Christians.

• This is the big surprise. Paul is probably more troubled by the Corinthians than the Roman Empire.
• He got pounded by both "liberals" and "conservatives." I don't really like those terms. You don't really know what they mean until you figure out what people are "conserving" and what people are "liberating." In a college setting, who knows what the "liberal arts are." :-)

A. There were the "liberals" at Corinth.

• They were the ones that insisted on their freedom. "We should be able to go to pagan temples." "We're not under the Law." "This is a free religion." "A man can sleep with his father's wife." They claimed to know stuff. They thought they were more spiritual.
• This group would not listen to Paul. They mocked him. They were messing up the church he had founded.
• Paul cared for them. He does crack down on the guy sleeping with his step-mother, but his goal is redemptive. He wants to see the guy saved in the end. More importantly, he tries to show the "libertines" that Christianity is not about my freedoms or my rights. Serving God is freeing because I am surrendering to the way things are supposed to work.
• Illustration -- sliding on wet pavement. turn the wheel in the direction of the slide
• In fact, Christ calls us to give up our freedoms when they hurt others or might cause someone else to stumble. It's one thing to stand up for the rights of others, for their benefit. Christianity has nothing to do with standing up for my rights and freedoms.
• "We are perplexed, but not in despair."

B. There were the "conservatives" at Galatia.

• After Paul founded the churches at Galatia, Christian missionaries came and tried to correct Paul's teaching that they did not have to become Jews.
• They are insisting on following the Bible (as they interpreted it). Get circumcised. Follow the Law. Don't eat the wrong things. Don't touch the wrong things.  Don't eat with the wrong people.
• They really ticked him off. They were messing up the churches he founded. He doesn't consider them to be real Christians (although Luke may have--Acts 15:1).
• They no doubt felt the same, considered him a filthy liberal, a heretic. "He eats with the wrong people." "He teaches Jews not to keep the Law." "He encourages people to sin."
• This is the flavor of people that constantly is getting him in trouble with the Romans as he conducts his mission across the Mediterranean. Eventually, they will get him arrested in Jerusalem. 
• There are right and wrong answers. It wasn't clear at the time. Paul is in the New Testament. In hindsight, we know he was right. At the time, we have to endure our opposition. 
• "Pressed down, but not crushed"

III. We may face doubts from inside.

• Paul did--should I have sent that letter to the Corinthians? "Fights on the outside; fears on the inside" (2 Cor. 7:5). Paul's not usually someone to have self-doubts. But even a Paul can get to that point.
• Romans 15:23 -- Paul probably leaves the east with deeply mixed feelings. 

IV. A cruciform attitude

• One that looks at ourselves as living a life like Christ. We are crucified with Christ. We will rise with Christ.
• Read 2 Corinthians 4:7-11, 14, 16-18