All Promises Find Their Yes In Christ
Download MP3Let's open our hearts to receive the reading of God's word. Today's scripture is from second Corinthians verses 1 12 to 24 and 2 1 through 4. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of god and supremely so toward you. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand, and I hope you will fully understand. Just as you did partially understand us, that on the day of our lord Jesus, you will boast of us as we will boast of you.
Speaker 1:Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I facilitating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes, and no, no at the same time? As surely as god is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no.
Speaker 1:For the son of god, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Tim Timothy and I was not yes and no, but in him, it is always yes. For all the promises of god find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to god for his glory. And it is god who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But I call god to witness against me.
Speaker 1:It was to spare you that I refrain from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice.
Speaker 1:For I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. Let us give thanks to the word of god.
Joel Brooks:If you would pray with me. Father, we ask that you would bless the very reading of your word. And even now it begin penetrating our hearts. God, I pray you would break down any barriers we bring here. We do desperately need to hear from you.
Joel Brooks:We need life. So, God, in this moment, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Before I I begin this sermon, I feel like I I probably should update you as to some of the latest changes, about truth telling. They were passed this last week by my kids, and also the Johnson boys next door, in in which I I heard them having a conversation about what it means to tell the truth. And so my my youngest, Georgia, had she had said she was gonna do something. I can't remember what it was, but then she didn't do it. And so everybody was saying, you lied, you lied.
Joel Brooks:Georgia though, she pointed out, no, I didn't lie because I didn't promise anything. I I never I never promised. And so they couldn't decide how to proceed after this. You know, there there were counted and not, so they actually had an official council in which they they all gathered together, discussing promises versus just saying yes. And then more than that, what about pinky promises?
Joel Brooks:What about cross your heart promises? Do those carry more weight or not? After discussing this for much longer than you would actually think possible, they they came to terms and then Georgia made a promise and she immediately broke her word. And so everybody is screaming. They're screaming, you broke your word.
Joel Brooks:You broke your word. And she goes, I was just kidding. I I was just kidding, so promises don't count. And that threw everybody into confusion, so they had they had another council about what do you do if if somebody is just kidding or not. And so just I won't bore you with all the details.
Joel Brooks:I did take minutes. But here it is. Bottom line. All right. You now have 2 seconds to say that you were kidding after making a promise.
Joel Brooks:Otherwise, the promise sticks no matter what. Although there are different degrees of promises, the highest promise is this, not just cross my heart, but cross my heart, hope to die, stick a noodle in my eye is the most powerful promise. You're not allowed to kid with that promise. That one, you can't take back. So I just wanted to put that out there because we we needed to define our terms before we actually hit our text here, which is about telling the truth.
Joel Brooks:The this whole section here, Paul is trying to defend himself as to whether he lied or not. What this text is about. The the Corinthians, they've accused Paul of being a liar. And now he's saying, no. No.
Joel Brooks:No. I didn't lie about this. And I feel like I just have to say this. When I decided to preach through 2nd Corinthians, I was really, really excited about preaching through 2nd Corinthians because, when you get to chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, I mean, they are absolutely glorious. I wasn't too excited about this section here.
Joel Brooks:A matter of fact, I actually kind of dreaded teaching through this. I kept thinking, if I could just kinda get over this hump, then we get into really good stuff in the second Corinthians. And so that was kind of my mindset going into this. But I believe in expositional preaching. I believe that you let God set the topic, not we set the topic.
Joel Brooks:And I'm so thankful because in studying through this, God was so good to challenge me through his word in a word I would have never chosen to speak on. But this is the word we have before us, and I am thankful for this. The reason, I guess I should say, that did not really like this text is because if I were to be honest with you, I would say Paul seems to just be blowing smoke here. All right? It seems like he lied.
Joel Brooks:He got busted in the lie. And so he justifies himself by using some kind of theological smokescreen mumbo jumbo and then just kind of moves on by. That's what it kind of seems like when you first read it. Let me set the context for you. At the end of 1 Corinthians in chapter 16, Paul tells the Corinthian church, I'm going to come back to you.
Joel Brooks:He says, I'm going to travel through Macedonia. And when I'm done, I'm going to come back and I want to stay a while. I want to stay all winter with you guys. And he does preface that with, Lord willing, this will happen. However, there was, there was a change of plans.
Joel Brooks:While he was in Macedonia, Paul sent Timothy to visit the Corinthian church. And the Corinthian church had just gone haywire. There was all these, like, super apostles jumping up in the air and proclaiming all these false things, and and they were abandoning Paul's teaching. And so Paul realized, I I I can't wait. I've I've gotta hurry back.
Joel Brooks:And so he hurries back to Corinth before Macedonia just to do a little visit. And then he shows up there and, it's bad. It's ugly. He begins to fight with these super apostles and it, it just is an in your face argument fight. And Paul has to leave.
Joel Brooks:The church doesn't want him. So Paul has to, he goes away and as he is leaving, he says, all right, I'm going to leave for a little while basically to let things cool down, but then I'm coming back. And when I come back, I'm going to give it to you. And he goes back here. He goes to Macedonia.
Joel Brooks:While he's there, he thinks about it. He's praying about it. He's like, I'm not going to go to them. Instead, I think they'd be more responsive to a letter. And so he writes them a letter, which we don't have.
Joel Brooks:But it's a very harsh letter, and it's it's a rebuking letter. It said it filled them with sorrow to write it. And they actually responded pretty well to that. Not everybody, but they responded pretty well. And then word gets back to Paul.
Joel Brooks:They're responding pretty well. And so now he writes this letter, 2nd Corinthians. Although the church had responded somewhat well, there were still those in the church who were saying, you still can't trust Paul. You can't. I mean, look at him.
Joel Brooks:He says he says he's going to be here for a while, but he doesn't come. Then he then he changes his plans again. He's just speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Are you really gonna listen to a guy like that? That's what his accusers were doing.
Joel Brooks:Much like, you know, during, the political campaigns, political opponents will pick up on the slightest little thing and they'll just kinda hammer it in. You can't trust this guy. That's what's happening here to Paul. Now, the reason that I didn't really like this text at first glance is because Paul seems to answer his critics by doing, what's been done to me a number of times. And that's somebody tells you they're gonna do this.
Joel Brooks:They're they're they're gonna do something for you, and then they change their mind. And they say, I'm sorry, I'm not no longer going to do that, but the Spirit of God has led me over here. And the Spirit of God is like the ultimate trump card. I mean, you could throw down the spirit of God and like back away. Hey, nothing you could do about that spirit of God.
Joel Brooks:And so you have things like, you know, I know I signed up for the mission trip to go to Haiti. But bam, Spirit of God gave me a skiing trip. Yeah. And, I mean, it'll be quality time with my parents and spirits leave me there. Or I I know I signed up, you know, to help with children's ministry but get out the old card.
Joel Brooks:Bam. Spirit of God. The spirit of God put on the NFL game of the year, Sunday afternoon, right at this time, and I I've I've gotta watch that. And so the spirit of God seems to always be doing things like this. When I was a college minister, the spirit of God was personally responsible for every canceled RSVP I got for events.
Joel Brooks:It was always the spirit of God, so we didn't get along very well. So is, is this what God or what Paul is doing here? Because if it is, he's a jerk. There's no way around it. He's a jerk.
Joel Brooks:But I don't think this is what he's doing. He gives two reasons that the Corinthians should consider him to be trustworthy. I want us to look at both of these. We're actually gonna look at the second first. Look at chapter 2 verses 1 again.
Joel Brooks:For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I've caused pain? And I wrote as I did so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice. For I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
Joel Brooks:So Paul says this. I didn't come to visit you because I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't want to hurt you. He knew that with the opposition being as strong as it was, he would have to come in with guns blazing. He He would just have to bust some heads and he knew that there would be a lot of damage there and he thought, I don't want to do that.
Joel Brooks:Instead, I think I could diffuse the situation. Not by going, but by writing a letter. And he was right. It worked. By avoiding that confrontation, it worked.
Joel Brooks:And so he wrote that painful letter. And this is why Paul here, he says, I'm trustworthy. He says, because although my plans changed, my intentions, my purpose, my heart for you never changed. It didn't. Just the outworkings of that changed.
Joel Brooks:He says he wanted them to understand and experience the grace of God. He says that in verse 15, chapter 115. He says, because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you at first so that you might have a second experience of grace. So he wanted to come to them that they might experience grace. But then he realizes, if I come, they're not going to experience grace.
Joel Brooks:They're going to experience wrath. How can I get them to experience grace? I should probably write a letter and not come right now. And so the outworking of his intentions changed, but his heart was still the same. And and let me tell you, this is how Paul is different than than all the people who have, you know, said the spirit has led me here and and have burned us in the past.
Joel Brooks:This is how Paul is different than all those people. It's because when Paul says, God has led me to do something else, it was never for personal gain. It was never motivated out of self interest. He didn't back out of a service project in order to go skiing. He didn't, you know, back out of his sign up for a retreat because a better offer came his way.
Joel Brooks:He didn't get any better offer. Do you know what happened to Paul when he decided not to come, when he decided to stay in Macedonia? It certainly wasn't for better. It's what we looked at last week. He says he fell into despair.
Joel Brooks:He said when he stayed, he was brought as such a trial that he said he thought was the end of his life. He despaired even of his life and it was like the death sentence was hanging over him. So Paul's staying brought such pain, such suffering. It brought him to the lowest point he had ever experienced in his life. So Paul, he was looking at them.
Joel Brooks:He's like, I have 2 options. I can either come to you with guns blazing and I can make you suffer, or I can stay away and show you grace and I suffer. So that that's that's how Paul's choice is different. He he thought which of these options communicates grace? Which of these options communicates the gospel?
Joel Brooks:And so Paul takes on suffering so that they might take on grace. Let me ask you, is this how you make decisions or are your decisions based on self interest? What exactly are your guiding principles for making decisions? For Paul, it always came down to how can I best communicate the gospel? And if that means I suffer, I suffer.
Joel Brooks:If that means I do something I don't really wanna do, I do it. But that was his concern. How can I communicate the gospel? And listen, Paul Paul didn't have, Paul didn't have a specific word from the Lord telling him to do this, that this is what he was supposed to do. I know we always hope for that in certain situations, you know, that the light would shine down on the road we're supposed to take or we hear the audible voice of God or or usually that we would, you know, we would we treat our bible kinda like a Ouija board.
Joel Brooks:You know, we're like, god, we're alright. You know, we we read the word and we think, okay. This is how God is going to direct our life is through this word. That's just silly. Alright?
Joel Brooks:God doesn't speak to our situations like that. You don't, you know, go to Athens because you read the word Athens in the Bible. You know, I haven't seen anybody sell their car and ride a donkey because they read donkey in a car. You know, we but I mean, Roy, donkey in the Bible. We we tend to do what we want to do and then go to the Bible for justification.
Joel Brooks:We tend to do that. But Paul wouldn't do this. Paul understood that the Bible is not primarily about him. And you need to understand the Bible is not about you. The Bible is about God.
Joel Brooks:And so the Bible is not about you and your situation. It's about the God over every situation. And when you come to understand who God is and his character and his heart, then you get to act accordingly. Paul came to understand God. He's a God of grace.
Joel Brooks:He's a God who takes on suffering. How can I apply this here? And he acted accordingly. I used to kind of, you know, look for the little magic formula or something, you know, with God, want to hear God's voice. One time I I saw the number 243 a lot.
Joel Brooks:243. I just I saw it a ton of places, and now you will too. Okay? And now everywhere you go, I'm like, there's 243 again. I promise you you're going to.
Joel Brooks:And and I I just saw that everywhere, and so I thought, must be God speaking to me. There's only 3 places in scripture where you have a chapter 2 verse 43. And so, you know, I'm going through there, and you have 1st Kings 243, which is why have you not kept your oath? And I'm like, oh my gosh. Have I what oath did I take?
Joel Brooks:And I'm wracking my brain, you know. And then it's 1st Chronicles 243 is it gives the names of the sons of Hebron. I'm, like, am I supposed to name a child after this? You know, I'm I'm just not knowing what to do. And then Luke 243, Jesus staying behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing.
Joel Brooks:I'm just like scratching my brains. Like, so am I supposed to stay behind someplace? I don't know. And then, you know, it's like, Idiot. God doesn't speak that way.
Joel Brooks:You don't look in here to try to define exactly what you're supposed to do in a specific situation. You're you come to understand the God of every situation and his heart, and his character, and you act accordingly. Paul is gonna go on to give another argument for why he is trustworthy. This one's found in verse 17. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this?
Joel Brooks:Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes, and no, no at the same time? Surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. For the son of god, Jesus Christ, who we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him, it is always yes. Paul says that he never ever wavered in his commitment to preach the gospel. He always preached Jesus and nothing else.
Joel Brooks:He said that in his first letter to the Corinthians when he said, I determined to know nothing among you except for Jesus Christ and him crucified. He was like a broken record always preaching Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He never once wavered in that. And they knew this. And so why would they now think if Paul was always constant, always preaching the same thing, why would they now think he is changing his mind, changing his plans?
Joel Brooks:He doesn't do that. And then he moves on and his his argument gets a little more complex here. Verse verse 1920. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in him.
Joel Brooks:That is why through him, it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. Once again, I was a little annoyed at Paul for the tactic that I thought he was using here. This seeming theological smokescreen. You know, you hear preachers do this all the time. You ask them a message or a question about their message and you're like, well, you know, in the Greek, in like the Aries flew flax perfect tense, that actually means the opposite of what you think it means.
Joel Brooks:And, and you know, you just blow this theological smokescreen out there. One of the smokescreens that I I I guilty. I've used this before is, you know, you you have just some random verse that you quote out there. Mine was Genesis 11:3, which is come, let us make bricks and bake them in the sun thoroughly. Okay?
Joel Brooks:It it it applies to no situation whatsoever. But if ever I was in a debate with somebody and I was drowning, I'd say, Yeah, what about Genesis 11:3? And it would buy me just enough time to where I could think of something better. They said, like, come let us make bricks and bake them in the sun thoroughly. I'm like, yeah.
Joel Brooks:Yeah. You just you just think about that. And it sounds like Paul, you know, he's being confronted with the line. He's like, we find our every yes in Jesus. He's the amen.
Joel Brooks:You're like, what the heck does that have to do with you lying or not? That's what I first thought Paul's doing, but he's not. He's saying that he would never say yes and no when proclaiming Jesus because Jesus himself never wavers. Jesus is always yes. Always.
Joel Brooks:Always yes to the promises of God. And what Paul is doing here is alluding to the fact that people can look at God the same way that these Corinthians are looking at him. And which they're like, okay, god. You you've said some pretty big things. You've made some pretty big promises.
Joel Brooks:You've promised things like wealth and peace and inheritance and forgiveness and comfort and like all these things. And I'm looking around at my circumstances here, and and I think I might want to call your bluff. And Paul says, don't you ever think this ever because God says yes to every one of the things he has promised you. And his yes is his son, Jesus. God promised Abraham, for instance, that he would have more descendants than he could count, that all the nations on earth would be blessed through him.
Joel Brooks:You're just kind of wondering like, well, how in the world's gonna gonna fulfill that? And then we get Jesus. Jesus is Abraham's seed. All the nations of the earth are blessed through him. He does have more to send us an unique account because we all hear our family and everybody who believes in Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And and and and and and and and God promised David that he would have a kingdom that would never end and that he would put one of his descendants on the throne to reign forever. It's a pretty big promise that Israel struggled believing for a lot at the time. The psalmist in Psalm 89 reminds God of this promise by saying, you have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn to my servant David. I will establish your offspring forever, and I will build your throne for all generations.
Joel Brooks:And the psalmist wrote this when there was no kingdom and there was no king. They had all gone away. And so it's it's kinda like a question. God, are you gonna keep that promise? And God says, yes.
Joel Brooks:Here's Jesus. He is the son of David. And he will reign forever, and he is currently reigning in his throne in heaven. Jesus is the answer to that promise. Yes.
Joel Brooks:A matter of fact, Jesus is the affirmative. He is the yes to to all of the great questions that we have. Does God really love us? Yes. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is the yes. He's the amen to does god love us. Does god really forgive us? Yes. Ephesians 1:7.
Joel Brooks:In Christ Jesus, we have redemption through his blood. Will god meet our needs? Philippians 4 19. Yes. My god will supply every need of yours according to his riches in Christ Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Will God give you strength to get through a crisis? Yes. Philippians 4413. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God promises his children peace.
Joel Brooks:Will he keep his promise? The answer is a resounding yes. And the peace of god, of which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Matter of fact, that phrase in Christ or in Jesus or in him is the most common phrase you will find in the New Testament. It is used a 164 times in the new testament.
Joel Brooks:Almost most of them are in the epistles. You simply cannot understand the the new testament apart from that phrase in Jesus because it's in him we find our every answer to the promises of God. Yes. Yes. As a matter of fact, I want you to try something sometime.
Joel Brooks:I want you to go through the new testament. And every time you see the phrase in Jesus or in Christ or or even with Jesus, I want you to just say yes. It'll be a little awkward. Make sure you're probably alone. There's nobody else around you, but just say just say yes or amen when you come to that.
Joel Brooks:Because that's what Paul is saying is in Jesus Christ, Jesus is the yes to God's promises. And so you're gonna read things like Ephesians 17. In him or in Jesus, we have redemption through his blood. I want you to read it as this. Yes.
Joel Brooks:We have redemption through his blood. Yes. We do. Or Philippians 4 19, my god will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Say this, my god will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory.
Joel Brooks:Amen. Yes. Let it be. Romans 838, for I'm sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Yes. Or in Christ Jesus. It it could get it could get darn right comical, actually. This is how Ephesians 2 would read if you substitute amen for every time you get in Jesus or, you know, in Christ. He would read this.
Joel Brooks:But god, being rich in his mercy, because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive. Amen. By grace, you have been saved and raised up. Amen. And seated.
Joel Brooks:Amen. And the heavenly places. Amen. So that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of grace and kindness towards us, amen. Yes.
Joel Brooks:Yes. Yes. Yes. How do we know it's yes? Because of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:All of those things are true. He's the yes to all the promises. And then Paul says that since Jesus is God's yes, we in turn need to say yes to God through Jesus. Look again at verse 20. For all the promises of God find their yes in him.
Joel Brooks:That is why it is through him that we utter our amen, and that is our yes or our let it be to God for his glory. So our response to Jesus being the yes, the affirmative to every one of God's promises, is to for us to have a hearty amen. Amen. Which raises the question, have you said amen or yes to all the things that God has promised you in Christ Jesus? This happens through prayer.
Joel Brooks:This happens when we pray and we say, god, you said this. And yes. Yes. I claim that. I believe that in Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:I believe I'm forgiven. I believe there's hope. I believe you give me joy. I believe all these things. Yes.
Joel Brooks:Yes. Yes. We do that in prayer. And we let these promises of god wash over us. For those of you who are new to redeemer, you're gonna realize a lot of our quirks.
Joel Brooks:We're we're kind of an awkward bunch. One of the reasons we're awkward is, besides like our super creaky floors and faucets that are always running and, we have a lot of things. You're not going to come and just sit when you're here. All right? One of the things we're gonna do is I'm gonna make you guys participate in the end of the message, by getting you to stand up and to simply declare the promises of God.
Joel Brooks:Now all at once, that would be what Paul's correcting in 1st Corinthians. But but I want us to know orderly. You know, stand up as god puts a promise in your heart that you have read from scripture. I want you to get up and then just publicly declare that so that we as God's people can say amen. It's okay if you say amen out loud too, by the way.
Joel Brooks:Say it in your heart, but say amen. So is is the worship team y'all go ahead and come
