Rev. David Holwick S 2 Corinthians sermon series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 30, 1999
2 Corinthians 11:1-15
WHICH JESUS?
SERMON SUMMARY: Our grasp on who Jesus is, ends up defining our faith.
There have always been competing versions of Jesus available. God
wants our undivided faith.
I. How gullible are you?
Young Nathan Zohner urged people to sign a petition demanding
strict control or total elimination of the chemical
"dihydrogen monoxide."
He had good reasons for it, since:
1. It can cause excessive sweating and vomiting;
2. It is a major component in acid rain;
3. It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state;
4. It can kill you if accidentally inhaled;
5. It contributes to erosion;
6. It decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes;
7. It has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients.
The high school freshman asked fifty people if they supported
a ban of the chemical dihydrogen monoxide.
43 said yes, six were undecided, and only one knew that
the chemical is more commonly called "water."
Nathan was discouraged with what his little test indicated.
"I was appalled that my peers were so easily misled."
#4243
A. Spiritual deception is even more common.
1) The church in Corinth faced it time and again.
a) Paul is alluding to visitors who were trying to take
over the church.
b) No matter what they said, the church was sucking it up.
2) The modern church has the same attitude.
a) Reason why many are empty and dying out.
B. What you believe, matters.
1) The good news about Jesus is not negotiable.
a) We can't rearrange it to suit our fancies.
2) Don't be the kind of person who will believe anything.
II. Jealousy doesn't like competition.
A. Godly jealousy.
1) Paul, for Corinth.
2) God, for his people.
Exodus 34:14
------------
"Do not worship any other god, for the LORD,
whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."
Deuteronomy 4:24
----------------
"For the LORD your God is a consuming fire,
a jealous God."
3) God doesn't want to be our preference - he wants to be
our undivided attention.
B. Spiritual monogamy.
1) Presented as a pure virgin in marriage.
a) Metaphor for spiritual purity.
b) Thought is of purity of groom and bride.
2) God's ideal has slipped for modern marriage, and church.
C. Spiritual deception.
1) Eve in the garden.
a) Jewish legend - Satan gave her more than an apple.
1> Ties in with virgin and marriage theme.
b) More likely allusion - the Corinthians were into
"knowledge."
1> They wanted deeper insights, thought they had them.
2> Eve was tripped up by desire for knowledge.
2) False doctrine can be just as enticing.
Betty Eadie's "Embraced by the Light" (1992) purports to
tell her experiences after clinically dying.
Much Mormon and popular influence:
Jesus is separate from Father,
humans are not sinful by nature,
tragedy does not really exist in world.
Many Christians accept it uncritically.
Near Death Experience is a recent phenomenon and has
developed into a "religion of the resuscitated."
Most claim to have met ultimate reality face-to-face without
the assistance of any religious institution,
human mediation, or historical connection.
They were There; now they Know; and we should listen,
especially since the news they bring is so consoling.
It is a belief in an enjoyable life after death with no
fear of divine judgment.
It dispenses with traditional doctrines of sin and the
need for salvation.
Instead it asserts that one must simply grow in knowledge
and love, both vaguely defined.
She exhorts us to grow in knowledge while, on the other
hand, barring specific doctrinal affirmations about God,
such as there being a narrow road that leads to life
and a broad road leading to destruction.
This approach to human consciousness conforms to New Age
thinking.
However, some NDEs have led people to faith in Christ,
including some who have had visions of hell.
It is better to trust the eternal certainties offered by
the One who experienced death, burial, resurrection,
and ascension to the place of unmatched authority.
He alone has the last word on matters of life and death.
#542
III. Which Jesus are you married to?
A. Jesus isn't necessarily Jesus.
1) The real Jesus has been debated from the beginning.
2) Different views: miracle worker, hoaxer, Son of God.
3) Only the view of Jesus in the New Testament can save us.
B. The signs of a false gospel.
According to the general consensus of the New Testament,
a gospel is not a gospel when:
1) It is detached from the Jesus of history;
2) It gives little or no place to the cross of Jesus;
3) It exalts human achievement in place of the grace of God;
4) It adds other conditions to the one which God has declared
acceptable (even if those additions be good and
desirable in themselves); or
5) It treats righteousness and purity as something the truly
spiritual man has outstripped.
C. How to recognize the true gospel:
1) It maintains contact with the Jesus of history, affirming
that 'this same Jesus' who came in the flesh and died
is the vindicated and exalted Lord;
2) It embraces and proclaims 'the stumbling block of the cross';
3) It extends the grace of God to men for their acceptance
by faith;
4) It relies upon the power of the Spirit to make it effective
in those who hear it; and
5) It issues in a life of righteousness and purity which is
sustained and directed by the love of God."
Bruce, F. F., "When Is A Gospel Not A Gospel?"
#4689
D. The Corinthians easily put up with it.
1) Example of doctrinal laxness in American Baptist Churches.
Dr. Walter Wink to give the speech at National Ministries
luncheon at American Baptist Biennial Convention.
Some of what he believes:
1. God did not send Jesus to the cross.
2. Jesus did not die a substitutionary sacrificial death for
the forgiveness of our sins.
3. Jesus' death was not unique any more than those of Martin
Luther King Jr. or Ghandi.
9. God is not a being but is the soul or spirit of the
creation.
Some text from Wink's book:
"The God whom Jesus revealed as no longer vengeful, but
unconditionally loving, who needed no satisfaction by
blood --
this God of mercy was changed by the church into a
wrathful God whose demand for blood atonement leads to
God's requiring his own Son's death on behalf of us all
...Against such an image of God the revolt of atheism is
an act of pure religion!" (p. 88, 89)
#4690
IV. Appearances can be deceiving.
A. The appeal of the "super-apostles."
1) Paul not a trained speaker, but knowledgeable.
2) He was not free as in cheap, but free not to be a burden.
B. They are fakes.
1) Masquerading as apostles.
a) (yet they were in churches.)
2) Satan does same thing.
a) He doesn't have horns and a forked tail.
b) More likely to have "blue eyes and blue jeans."
C. Since Satan can look good, how do we recognize him?
1) Enslavement. 11:20
2) Exploitation.
3) Takes advantage.
4) Selfishness.
5) Abuse.
D. Paul's contrast.
1) He was willing to suffer for what he believed in.
2) He burned with concern for the churches.
V. Whom do you follow?
A. Supermarket of religions in modern America.
B. Bible says only Jesus can save.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#542 "To Heaven and Back?" Douglas Groothuis, Christianity Today
magazine, April 3, 1995, page 39.
#4243 "The Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide," (News and Comments),
Skeptical Inquirer magazine, January 1998, page 13.
#4689 "When Is A Gospel Not A Gospel?" F. F. Bruce, Bulletin of the John
Rylands Library, March 1963; reviewed in Bibliotheca Sacra,
July 1963, page 260.
#4690 "What's Wrong With Wink," John Eby, Internet: American Baptist Web
Discussion Ring, May 18, 1999.
These and 4,500 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://users.nac.net/wdh2000/illust.html
