Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
This fall, we're studying the book of Second
Corinthians. Second Corinthians is a heartfelt
and practical book calling us back to the life
of the cross. We, like the Corinthians, so often
pursue glory, admire eloquence, shun suffering,
hide hurt, and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel
of Jesus tells us that resurrection comes after
a cross. that comfort comes after being crushed,
that the way up is the way down, that the way
to glory is through suffering, that his strength
is made perfect in our weakness. We'd love to
meet you and we hope you'll consider coming and
joining with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m.
in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find
us online at secondcitychurch .org and on Facebook,
Instagram, and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this
sermon. God bless. Let me pray again for us.
Lord God, we're thankful for your word. God,
I pray that it would be alive for us again this
morning, that we would be alive to you, that
we would be attentive to you, that we would be
eager to learn from you and to give our lives
over more and more to following you, the true
God. We pray this in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
All right. Probably most all of you, though maybe
especially a couple of you, heard of the great
heist that happened last month in October in
Paris. It was the stuff of movies, just bringing
a truck lift up to one of the greatest museums
in the world. The Louvre, lifting it up as though
it's not a big deal to a window to smash it and
to grab $100 million worth of royal jewelry to
run off down the lift onto some motorbikes masked
and get away. Those readings, supposedly they've
all been caught, but the jewels have yet to be
recovered. It's a great story. It's just an introduction
actually to my other introduction. illustration.
Because I want to tell you about Mark Landis.
Maybe some of you have heard the name Mark Landis.
I imagine maybe there's a couple here. Maybe
some of you who are into art have heard of him.
The Louvre Heist displays maybe for the world
just how easy it is to be robbed. Mark Landis
shows us maybe how easy it is to be deceived,
to think you know what you're doing and to be
duped. So from the late 80s until 2010, Mark
Landis forged, immaculately forged famous pieces
of art and donated them to museums. Never taking
any money. Often going to the museum, calling
them up, using various different aliases. He
actually used a number of different priests as
aliases. Religious people are easy to do that
with, right? Hi, I'm Pastor Peter. I've got this
piece of art I want to give to you in my father's
name. Most of the art he gave away actually to
honor his parents, particularly his father who
actually did die when he was 17, which sent Mark
into a hospital for nearly 18 months. They thought
he was schizophrenic. They don't think that anymore.
They think he might be bipolar. He actually went
on to go study art at the University of Chicago.
So he has this sort of encyclopedic knowledge
of art history and an unbelievable skill. So
really, he would take these pieces of art and
he would take a magnifying glass of them and
study them so intently and copy them so perfectly
that he could bring them to these museums, suggest
that he donate it, actually allude to maybe giving
them more or maybe giving them some money from
the family endowment and get these guys to take
his art, his art that he had copied from somebody
else, and hang it up on their walls. Pretty remarkable.
In fact, one thing that I thought was so remarkable
as I was reading about him was that he did this
sort of spanning a bunch of different genres.
He forged modernist art. He forged the impressionist.
He forged religious art. You know icons and whatnot.
I mean just all across this and he got away with
it He supposed it supposedly I read a couple
different numbers but somewhere between 50 and
60 different museums throughout 20 different
states up until 2010 had Mark Landis paintings
that weren't his paintings remarkable One museum
director explained how Landis would imply that
he had even more to donate, and the director
admitted he knew right where to hit us, our soft
spot. What's the soft spot of museum directors?
Art and money. Who's an honest man, that director?
Deception. Deception that takes you off track.
It looks so appealing. It's exactly what you
want, but it's not the real thing. It's fake.
So, I've said, you know, today is the beginning
of Advent, the season where we remember the coming
of God, His first coming, look forward to His
second coming. And of course, we can think of
how many were taken off track as they waited
for the Lord. We could go walk through the long
history of the Old Testament as people longed
for the one who would crush the head of the serpent.
And yet they were taken off track again and again,
deceived in their waiting. The long waiting for
Messiah's coming, generation upon generation.
And the truth is actually, we could do this.
For those who have been waiting for the second
coming of Jesus, so many Christians have said,
I don't know, give me something else. Give me
something easier. Give me something more palatable.
Deceive me a little bit. I've waited so long.
It's actually kind of interesting. There's two
messiahs that are mentioned for us in Acts chapter
5. We know that there were lots of messiahs that
came claiming to be God at work. You know, Messiah
means anointed one, the anointed one of God who
would work. All kinds of different people coming
and saying, follow me. And in the long waiting
for Jesus, a lot of people followed false messiahs
and their holy and good desire for Eden to be
restored, for things to be made right and just
and good, when after other things were deceived.
It's a common story. So our passage this morning
is this long passage which Rebecca read very
well. I actually was reading it out loud to myself
a couple of times in preparation, which I often
do. To hear the word out loud oftentimes helps
me understand it. And to be honest, I found myself
trailing off. It was so long. Rebecca, thank
you for practicing that and doing so well. It's
a long passage, but I also want to suggest to
you that in some ways it's a rather simple passage.
It's not entirely too complex. Paul is continuing
on in this talk that he began in chapter 10 and
actually kind of talked about earlier in the
text. And I know we've been so confused the last
month or so jumping around here and there, but
he's talking against these false prophets, these
people that came in and they were acting and
they were talking. in a way that wasn't consistent
with the true Jesus, these false teachers. And
he comes in essentially here and he says, they're
deceiving you. They're deceiving you and don't
be led off. They're doing what Satan has always
been up to, harkening their minds back to the
garden story. They're taking you away from the
true place, which is your true peace. We have
real provision. protection in the Lord Himself.
So I want to suggest to you that there's two
main deceptions that are being talked about in
this passage, okay? Two main deceptions that
are being talked about in this chapter. And it
kind of breaks up, if you have your Bible open
actually to that passage, you kind of see...
If you have it open to the Pew Bible, you'll
see there's a break between verses 15 and 16,
and kind of the main points that I want to suggest
to you are actually right at that break. But
this chapter largely has to do with this deception.
And the first deception that I want to suggest
to you is what I'm going to call disguised delight.
If you get down to the last part, the last little
paragraph of that section, what you'll find is
that there's this disguise, right? It says even
Satan is disguised as an angel of light, that
they're disguised as something that is to be
desired, to be delighted in, but they're deceiving
you in that, okay? Listen with me again to verses
one and two. I love how Paul begins this chapter.
It feels very like straight, real talking kind
of. I wish you would bear with me in a little
foolishness. Do bear with me. For I feel divine
jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one
husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
Paul is stating from the beginning here, That
he's he's going to be a bit foolish in this chapter
and i hope you caught it in the reading of it
it feels a little. Defensive and and almost almost
like he's playing with them a little bit but
in a in a sad kind of way. He's going to play
the game that the false teachers are playing.
He's going to go along with them with these super
apostles who are talking themselves up. But what
he wants to say from the very beginning is that
this is a divine jealousy, that he's saying,
I am not going to get into this conversation
about this stuff along with these false apostles
for my own sake, but because you have given yourself
to the true husband, the true love. And they
are deceiving you. They're giving you this deception
that they are disguising themselves as something
delightful, some sort of an other love and don't
buy it. That's what he's saying, don't buy it.
What's happening is that they were finding other
sort of news, other things that tickled their
ears and hit their fancies a little bit more
than Jesus himself. And he is saying, Don't buy
into it. It's not the real thing. Don't be led
astray, as he says in verse 3, from a sincere
and a pure devotion to Christ. So how are they
doing this? How are they doing this? How are
they deceiving them with this sort of disguised,
delightful thing? First thing I want to suggest
to you is they're doing this in their proclamation,
okay? So verse 4, it says this, For if someone
comes and proclaims another Jesus, then the one
we proclaim, or if you receive a different spirit
from the one you received, or if you accept a
different gospel from the one you accepted, you
put up with it readily enough. He says, you're
buying into this, this other proclamation, and
it's deceiving you. You're being easily deceived.
Someone is proclaiming a different Jesus and
you're giving your attention to it. You're receiving
it as though it's something that ought to be
received. Now, keep in mind, it is not like these
other teachers are coming in and saying, let
me tell you about not Jesus Christ, but Jesus
Zubrod, Jesus Rowan. They're not doing that.
That would be too easy. It'd be like, well, we
heard about Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Now you're
telling me it's about Jesus. Red, that's what
Rowan means in case you're wondering. No, no,
no, no, no, no. They're talking about Jesus Christ,
but here's what these deceivers are doing. They're
talking about him in such a way, they're proclaiming
him in such a way that is just so easy and so
palatable and so nice to hear with those Corinthian
ears. I want us to sit in this for a little bit,
okay? So people come to a Messiah, which again,
keep in mind, what does Messiah means? It means
anointed one, right? Anointed one. People come
to the Messiah, this one who would come and save
them, anointed one from God that would save with
what they believe is their fundamental problem,
right? What do I need saving from? What's my
problem? Let's go to the Messiah with the problem.
So some in Jesus' day, some messiahs in Jesus'
day, we know this, this is actually part of what's
mentioned in Acts chapter five, led a whole crowd
of Jewish folk who were waiting for the Messiah,
desiring His coming. They led them out into the
wilderness. Why? Because the world had become
so corrupt. We need to get away from all this
corruption. The real, the main problem that we
have is all these people around us. And they
are just corrupting our good morals. And if we
could just be by ourselves, we would have it
fine. We just need us together who all agree
on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? I mean,
that's part of what the Messiahs were doing.
Truly, that's somewhat what the Messiahs were
doing. Some Messiahs thought that the primary
problem was a political problem. The primary
problem with the world was a political problem.
If we could just get rid of those others, I know
you all are probably thinking in our world, you're
probably thinking either, oh, is he talking about
Democrats or Republicans? I'm not. Talking about
the Romans, right? But our minds are probably
running there. But truly, that was what was happening,
right? So you had messiahs that thought our primary
problem is that we are occupied. We're occupied
by the Romans. And so the messiah would come
and the primary thing that he would do is get
rid of those. Romans, get rid of the occupiers.
That's the problem. The primary problem with
the world is a political problem. Okay. Now,
there were other messiahs. That thought that
the primary problem is a religious purity problem
That what we primarily need is a Messiah who's
not going to hang around with the riff -raff
Don't hang out with sinners. Don't especially
don't hang out with tax collectors Don't hang
out with people that drink too much, you know
Drink smoke and chew and go with the girls that
do that kind of stuff. Don't hang out with those
people And so some of the messiahs said, what
we need primarily is religious purity. That's
the fundamental problem, because there's not
religious purity. And so you have those kinds
of messiahs. I'm telling you, we know there are
messiahs that fit these descriptions. So of course,
what's Jesus' problem? Well, part of his problem
is that he hung out with people. that he wasn't
supposed to. The religious people didn't like
that. He wasn't exclusive enough. He wasn't pure
enough for them. Some of the problem was that
he wasn't out to get the Romans like they wanted
him to. Why was Jesus killed? For those kinds
of reasons. Anyway, the Corinthians, which was
a wealthy Roman port city, remember? This is
a great trading industrial place. It had all
these temples to other gods. Part of their biggest
problem that they would want is that they wanted
to be respected. This is a well -to -do place
with well -to -do people, educated folk. How
do I religiously live in this kind of setting
that I can still be respected and loved by those
who are about me? give me more of a prosperous
Jesus, please." That's what they desire. Let's
think about this a little bit, okay? I mean,
it is not hard to think that in our own day,
we have nationalist Jesus, right? But because
the primary problem is that we have all those
other people coming in here and telling us, like,
messing with our nation. So let's get Jesus to
stamp that. Or we can think of The great love
of modernist classically liberal idea is the
primacy of the individual. You do you. You think,
therefore you are. I think, therefore I am. So
it's the primacy of the individual. So our main
objective in our world is to individually express
who we believe we are. It's the primary thing.
So let's get Jesus to stamp that. You can think
about this all day. Let's get capitalist Jesus.
Let's get socialist Jesus. Well, whatever, you
know, we just want Jesus to stamp it. We have
the idea of what's our major problem and let's
get the Messiah, bam, on that. Different Jesuses.
And that is exactly what these teachers are doing.
That's exactly what these teachers are doing.
They're not proclaiming a Jesus with another
last name. They're saying, this is the Jesus
Christ, but they're not being faithful to who
Jesus really was as revealed in scripture. who
came primarily because the big problem is sin.
That's the big problem that has to be dealt with.
Why is Jesus called Jesus? Why is Joseph told
to name him that? Because he will save his people
from their... I don't know what Jesus would have
been called if he was to save them from the Romans
or save them from a lack of purity. But what
we have in the Gospels right from the beginning,
even His name, is because the main problem is
that Jesus is coming to deal with sin. They're
presenting a different Jesus. They're deceiving
and they're trying to make it more palatable,
more delightful. They're disguising Jesus. Now,
I'm not saying that some of the things that we
want to address are not real problems because
they are and they are an effect of sin, economic
systems and all these kinds of things. They're
an effect of being estranged from God. They're
an effect of rebellious hearts. But if you don't
get the root problem wrong, you don't see the
Messiah for who He is, and you get deceived.
What I'm suggesting is that the first deception
of a disguised delight is that they're simply
proclaiming a message that tickled the ears of
the Corinthian people. Another part of this Disguised
Delight was their style. I'm going to say style,
but that word's not in our passage. But verse
five, I love this. We're not going to take this
long in every section. I'm not going to walk
this slowly through all these 33 verses, but
verse five. Indeed, I consider that I am not
in the least inferior to these super apostles.
I always kind of love that because it's almost
like these guys are big deal. They got their
stuff going for them, right? And then verse six,
actually, he says this, even if I am unskilled
in speaking, I'm not so in knowledge indeed in
every way we have made this plain to you in all
things. So he's sort of admitting that these
guys have a style that's attractive. I mean,
you know, when he calls them super apostles,
it may be in jest, but it actually could be that
these people themselves thought these guys got
it going. They are very, very articulate. They
can speak in such a way that every single word
that they speak, everyone is just hanging on
it. What's he going to say next? The whole next
paragraph, 7 to 11. He speaks primarily of this
idea that he didn't receive any money from the
Corinthian Church. Actually, if you notice, what
he says is the Macedonian Church, who were what?
Poor and afflicted, right? Were the ones supporting
him in his ministry. He didn't receive anything
from the Corinthian Church. But why would he
go into this for a little while in the context
of this chapter? Well, it's because The money
that you were given when you were speaking corresponded
to your ability, to your eloquence, to how many
people you could gather. This isn't a hard idea
for you to get. I looked this up. An ex -president
If he is going to give a speech, receives anywhere
from $100 ,000 to $500 ,000 for one speech. By
contrast, I used to lead Reformed University
Fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University,
where I would often go preach to various churches
around the Commonwealth. I would preach on average
about 22 Sundays a week for various churches
and make anywhere from $100 to $300 a speech.
These super apostles, they were getting paid.
And Paul wasn't. They had style. People liked
them. They liked what they had to say. They had
sort of social cachet that invited the big bucks.
I mean, you can imagine in a world where professional
philosophers were accorded status by how much
they got paid. And Paul wasn't getting anything.
They kind of looked at Paul and thought, maybe
this thing that he's talking about isn't worth
anything. Maybe we should go a different direction.
Maybe because he refused to get paid, his teaching
was of low quality, or the message wasn't worth
much. Or if the gospel is free, then of what
value is it? Maybe he isn't an apostle. What
I'm suggesting is all this money talk in this
has to do with the question of style that these
false prophets had. And in that world, in that
time, and in that place, people were deceived.
They could easily give into the deception that
the person that makes the money is the one that
you ought to listen to. They're speaking the
truth. They wanted a palatable Jesus their neighbors
could respect. They wanted a Jesus who would
get a lot of money for being proclaimed. And
yet again, as we get to the end of that little
section, All it says is this is a disguised deception.
Don't buy into it. It's not the real thing. It's
false. Don't buy into the idea that you need
a G's that primarily comes to deal with your
nationalist problems or your expressive individualism
or your economic plight. Don't buy into that.
Don't buy into a style of presenting Jesus that
doesn't invite humility, the way of Jesus. Jesus
comes low and so must his people. Don't buy into
all the flash, Paul is saying, all the pomp and
circumstance. It's true, these are the kinds
of messiahs, I'm telling you, these are the kinds
of messiahs that were present in Jesus' own day.
And people saw them. and they missed Him. And
I'm inviting you, I'm telling you, continue on
in the faith. Don't be deceived. Grab on the
true Christ. Okay, the second deception here,
and this is sort of the second half of this chapter,
is that there's this other deception that was
at play. And I'm just going to call this one
the deception to spurn suffering. to spurn suffering.
And it's sort of related to the first one, making
Jesus a little palatable, but it's a little bit
different, okay? Spurning suffering. So this
second part of chapter 11 is one of the most
complete, I mean, there's a couple of these,
but it's one of the most complete lists of Paul's
suffering as he went about proclaiming Jesus
and planting churches and supporting the churches.
But I do want to read it to you again, because
it really is fairly remarkable. This is verse
24 to 28. So he says this, five times I received
the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes less one.
By the way, 40 was thought to kill somebody.
So they said, we can't do 40, we'll do 39. So
five times he received that. Three times I was
beaten with rods once I was stoned. Three times
I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift
at sea. on frequent journeys and danger from
rivers danger from robbers danger from my own
people danger from gentiles danger in the city
danger in the wilderness danger at sea danger
from false brothers toil and hardship through
many a sleepless night and hunger and thirst
often without food and cold and exposure and
apart from other things there is the daily pressure
on me of my anxiety for all the churches i mean
that's a lot That's a lot. But the point of him
sharing all of his suffering is not so that they
can go, wow, y 'all, look at Paul. Because I
kind of read it through and I'm like, dang, that's
amazing that he went through all that. But I
want to suggest to you that that's not why he's
saying that, okay? If you go back, go back to
the beginning of these verses. I'll read to you
actually verses 16 to 21 again also, okay? So
this is what this says, and I love again how
sort of human this feels. I repeat, let no one
think me foolish, but even if you do accept me
as a fool so that I too may boast a little. What
I'm saying with this boastful confidence, what
I'm saying with this boastful... full confidence,
I say not as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since
many boast according to the flesh, so too I will
boast. For you gladly bear with fools being wise
yourselves. For you bear it if someone makes
slaves of you or devours you or takes advantage
of you or puts on airs or strikes you in the
face. To my shame, I must say we were too weak
for that." He keeps saying this is a foolish
thing that he's about to do. He's sort of playing
into their game as it were, right? But here's
the thing. Their main game was their credentials.
The main game, if you'll remember back a little
ways about the whole letter, that these people
came, these false prophets came with a letter
of recommendation from others. Their main thing
was, look at my CV. Look at the jobs I've had.
Look at me. Right? That was what their main thing
was doing. And so he begins to play along with
this a little bit. And he does so first by saying
this, right? Verse 22, are they Hebrews? Because
that's on their CV. I'm a Hebrew, you ought to
listen to me about this guy. He says, check,
so am I. Are they Israelites? Yes, check, so
am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? Okay, so
am I. Are they servants of Christ? Then he says,
I'm a better one. Now he says, I'm speaking like
a madman because he knows he's going easy. He's
kind of going a little bit far. But what I want
to suggest to you is that he's entertaining this
foolish idea that you ought to listen to him
because of his credentials. And he says, this
is a deceptive thing to kind of just go, hey,
look at me. Look at what I've done. And he says,
The real test is actually, are you willing to
follow Christ? And what does it mean to follow
Christ, but to follow Him to the place of suffering?
Because most of us are deceived, an awful lot
of us are deceived, and the great test of faith
is, are you willing to continue on in the faith
when it means your life or some aspect of your
life that you cherish, that you hold tight to?
goes into the boasting because he wants to show
how foolish it is, but he also wants to lead
them into this question of, do you actually receive
Jesus? Because to receive Jesus means to receive
the one who goes to the cross, who invites you
to take up your cross and to follow him. I hope
you see what Paul is doing here. There's a deception
that's at play in these false teachers. And the
community is intrigued by this deception. They're
considering going along with it. They're considering
going along with a Jesus that's a little bit
more palatable to their ears and to their neighbors.
And they're intrigued by going along with a Jesus
that says, all you need is the stuff that puffs
you up. Don't go to the cross. Don't go to the
place of suffering. Just give your CV that makes
you look good. They were tempted to follow Jesus
until it meant something would cost them. Something
that cost them. And again, I just want to suggest
to you, this is another one of the great deceptions
that we live in still. We're deceived. I'm following
Jesus until He comes again, until He comes again,
His second Advent, because sometimes following
Jesus means it costs us something. Sometimes
it costs us job opportunities. Sometimes it costs
us relationships that we desire, friendships,
romantic life that we would like to pursue. Truthfully,
very few of you Probably none of you are likely
to be shipwrecked or receive the 40 lashes minus
one. But it's not a crazy thought to think that
quite a few of you may miss out on a job opportunity
because your Lord calls you to honesty. And often
honesty doesn't get you terribly far in business,
not as far as you may want to go. It's not likely
that you will have sleepless night upon sleepless
night as Paul did. But it's not unlikely that
your relationships will be affected, that you
might be invited into a life of celibacy to follow
Jesus faithfully in your life. That might be
part of the Lord's invitation to you. It might
be part of the cross that you bear. And those
are just some of the reasons, those are just
some of the things that we might be invited into
that we will say, you know what, this is too
heavy to bear. I think I will give up on this
Jesus thing. We want to spurn the suffering,
the cross bearing that we have to bear in order
to follow Jesus. Paul says he can boast of these
things though, if you caught at the end, because
they reveal his weakness. but God's strength.
I thought when I was studying this passage, how
strange it is that he ends the way he does. Look
at verses 30 in the end. If I must boast, I will
boast of the things that show my weakness. Erratus
was guarding the city of Damascus in order to
seize me, but I was let down in a basket through
a window in the wall and escaped his hands."
That's how the chapter ends. You're like, what's
this little story that you're sharing with us
here at the end, Paul? Well, he's sharing with
us this whole town is being guarded and I escaped.
And he says, here's the truth. And here's a test.
Maybe here's a test actually, just like giving
is a barometer for your faith that we talked
about last week a little bit, right? which is
a true barometer. But another barometer is, have
you seen that God's power is made perfect in
your weakness? Paul says, I knew that God was
with me because I was so utterly unable. There's
no way I was going to escape. This guy had the
whole place guarded. And I got out. Because God
can provide. His power is made perfect in our
weakness. So deception. Let me go back to Mark
Landis as a way of closing. So Mark Landis lives
in Mississippi. He's a free man. He was never
arrested. He deceived all of these museums. all
over the country 20 different states had had
his pieces hanging in there on their walls but
here's an interesting thing he he always gave
away his work he never received any money from
it and the people that he was dealing with this
is interesting the people he was giving these
pieces to were the experts They were the specialists
in these works of art and they would receive
them and they would examine them and they would
say, sure enough, this is a true piece. I can't
believe we're receiving this free gift. We'll
hang it up on our walls. Here's why I share this.
He was able to deceive and which is why he's
not in jail. He's living free right now down
in Mississippi. He was able to deceive the people
that thought they knew, right? The real experts
in their field. Brothers and sisters, I want
to encourage you, be on your guard. Hold fast
to the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
Cling to Jesus because if you rest on your laurels
with the faith, It will be so easy to hear the
tickling proclamations of another Jesus, to look
and see the style of somebody else and be led
astray. To consider, you know what, I'm not going
to have to suffer if I go with that Jesus instead
of that Jesus. I want the good, the health and
wealth and all that sort of stuff, life. Maybe
I should go there. If these museum curators,
if these experts in art can be deceived, believe
me, we can too. And Paul's word to us is hold
fast to Jesus. Continue in the faith until his
coming. May we do so, and may we do so together.
Let me pray. Lord, we're thankful for this text,
Gal, we're thankful for its warning, its Advent
warning, because Lord, the waiting is long. And
I pray that You'd give us Your Holy Spirit to
abide within us and to give us faith that we
might cling to Jesus, our rock and our salvation.
We pray this in His name. Amen. Thank you for
listening to Second City Sermons podcast. We
hope this sermon has encouraged you to worship
God and to celebrate the gospel of Jesus. Please
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for listening. God bless.