Well, I'm I'm holding in my hand here a precious commodity, a
little piece of plastic, something that almost every 17
year old in Australia longs for, something that is earned with
time and with patience, a fair bit of work.
And this little plastic card which many of us have in our
possession offers a new kind of freedom.
It's our driver's licence and it brings with it some power,
brings with it certainly some responsibility and for a
teenager, maybe bragging rights. Have you got yours yet?
I've got mine and all of that sort of stuff that goes with it.
When I first received my driver's licence, I remember it
just feeling like it opened up a whole new realm of opportunities
and possibilities for me. But here's a question of I've
got to thinking about this. How would I go if I had to take
my driving test again today, after nearly 30 odd years of
driving familiarity and certain habits, certain shortcuts that
I've probably been taking and of relatively driving unchecked,
would I pass? I wonder how I'd fare under
examination having to sit that test again.
It gets me thinking about other types of exams and assessments
and tests that we have. School exams, some of you have
just completed those, maybe university exams have just
wrapped up for you. Think about health exams and
check UPS that we can have. Think about audits and things
financially that examine how we're going with our budgets or
with our expenditure and those sorts of things.
And for the most part, many of those aren't fun, but they
certainly are necessary in many respects in our lives because
examinations reveal what's real, provide a good little status
quo, a check up on some things in our lives.
And that's exactly what Paul does here in chapter 13 to
conclude our book here at the end of Second Corinthians, he
closes what's been a very personal letter, a very
passionate letter, an often times painful letter that he has
addressed to the church in Corinth here now with this
single command that we see in verse 5.
And he says examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith,
test yourselves. Do you not realise that Jesus
Christ is in you? Unless, of course, he says you
fail the test. And the Corinthians from
chapters 10 through 12, he's been addressing this.
They've been testing Paul. They've been questioning his
credentials, challenging his merits as an apostle, doubting
his authority, challenging his motives.
And now Paul turns the tables on them for us as we read.
He says, OK, you've been you've been testing me now.
Now it's your turn about some self examination.
How about you guys turn the focus off me for a moment and
reflect on yourselves. And so for us tonight, as with
them as we read, it's it's exam time, not a time necessarily for
us to be embarrassed, but rather to ensure to check that we're on
the right track. Not to, to shame, but to, to
strengthen where we're at in our walk with the Lord and our, our
progress in our faith, and not to necessarily expose failure,
but to confirm faith in our lives.
Again, the context, as we've been seeing all the way through,
is that the church in Corinth was a church that Paul loved
deeply, that he had a strong connection with.
And he was concerned having spent 18 months there.
We read in Acts chapter 18. It was the longest time that
again, he'd spent in any city in, in founding a church.
He'd taught, he'd discipled them, he'd loved them
powerfully. And he was, in a sense, their
first pastor. He called of them himself their
spiritual father. And then when he left, a great
orator, A fellow called Apollos had come in and taken Paul's
place, and it was a great teacher and and preacher of
God's word. And so imagine being a part of
that congregation in Corinth church that had been founded by
Paul, sitting under Paul's teaching and then under Apollos,
mighty in the Scriptures, the Bible says of Apollos.
You'd think that that would make a strong church, right?
But they were really messy. As we've discovered, church in
Corinth had a lot of problems. And we've been kind of like the
the brother or the sister looking on, as you know, the
parent has berated the fellow sibling and we're going, oh, OK,
there's some lessons I need to learn and take out of that.
It's been a pretty significant. They were divided as a church.
They were siding with one teacher over another and saying
I'm of Paul and others were saying I'm of Apollos and some
were saying I'm of Peter and still some were saying, well, I,
I I see that and I raise that and I'm of Jesus.
And they were dividing. There was disunity amongst
themselves following their favourite preachers.
They, we discovered, tolerated sexual immorality in the church
across a number of spectrums that even had one fellow we
discovered in One Corinthians who was sleeping with his his
stepmother, it probably looks like.
And Paul says this is a relationship that not even the
pagans would celebrate. And you're not only tolerating
it, but you're celebrating it in your midst.
They abuse spiritual gifts. We discovered they were even
getting drunk as part of their communion gatherings and they
misunderstood what the resurrection was all about.
And now they had turned against Paul, as we've been dealing with
in the last few chapters here and entertaining these false
self appointed super apostles who claimed this heightened
sense of spirituality and they were buying into that.
So Paul writes this final chapter here for us as a kind of
final warning and final appeal to the church in Corinth and to
you and I. He says, I'm coming again soon.
I'm going to come and I'll, I'll see you and I'll visit in
person. And when I do, I'm, I'm going to
deal with these issues that I'm writing and whatever still needs
correcting. We'll see that in verses one and
two. But he warns and says, before
that day, I urge you, let, let me come in a different way.
Don't wait for me. Examine yourselves.
Deal with it now so that when I'm I'm present with you, it can
be a different kind of of gathering in person.
So let's consider self examination spiritually speaking
in our lives. And what that means is we
consider the example of the Corinthians and I want to kind
of Orient our thoughts around three things.
The purpose of examination tonight is to confirm what is
real in our lives. And then we'll see the power of
this kind of examination and that is that it is able to
correct what is wrong that it's not too put us down, but rather
to build us up. That's that's Paul's heart in
writing these things to edify. And then the product of that
examination is to cultivate, to encourage what is right and to
see unity and harmony in the body of believers and in our
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's have a look at the first, the purpose of examination to
confirm what is real, and let's go through from verse one to
six. This will be the third time He
says I'm coming to you by the mouth of two or three witnesses.
Every word should be established.
I've told you before and foretell as if I were present
the second time. And now being absent, I write to
those who have sinned before and to all the rest, that if I come
again, I will not spare, since you seek a proof of Christ
speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you.
For though he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by the
power of God. We also will weaken him, but we
shall live with him by the power of God toward you.
Now our focus, these two verses 5 and 6.
Examine yourselves as to whether you're in the faith.
Test yourselves. Do not know yourselves that
Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified.
But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.
So the purpose of examination, as we consider, is to confirm
what is real, what is genuine, to prove that Paul's command is
not designed here to make them doubt, but rather to make them
sure. This isn't one of those tests
that sometimes a teacher can throw out to a class that's
almost designed to, to show students that they don't know as
much as perhaps they thought and that now they really need to be
urgent about their study. But the whole point of this
language here of Paul is to make them sure certain of their
faith, of their walk with the Lord.
The word examine in the Greek means here to test for
genuineness. Consider and think of it like
testing metal to see if it's pure gold.
And the word test that he uses means to prove something through
experience that it should come out in the usage of it as being
genuine and authentic. So Paul's call here for
examination is not an academic thing, but a very practical call
here in their lives. So in other words, what he's
saying, don't just profess Christ, practise.
Christ may be real in the day to day in in your living.
May it be evident in the way that you conduct yourselves.
Don't just say that you believe. Let's have this faith be alive
in you. So we asked the piercing
question, do you not realise that Jesus Christ is in you and
that's really the ultimate test as we consider this idea of self
examination is Christ in you? Is Christ in me?
Is there evidence of Christ shaping your life, of Him
shaping my life, of this being lived out in the day to day, in
the decisions that I make, in the words that I speak, in the
thoughts that I have, are they reflective of Christ in me?
Would that be evident as a means of examination of testing, of
proving my faith, your faith in Jesus Christ?
A modern illustration might fit. When we purchase a vehicle, we
don't just admire the paint work, but that's perhaps a part
of it. We don't walk around the vehicle
and and look at the tyres and go wow, they're pretty impressive
though that may be a part of it. We don't just consider the
fabric on the inside, but we typically will ask for the keys
and seek to take the vehicle, to test it, to prove it, to drive
it, to see it in action before making such a purchase, to see
how it runs on the road. And in the same way, what Paul
is asking of them and of you and I tonight is that faith ought to
be tested in real life. It's not just words, it's not
just thoughts, but it flows on out in actions and in deeds, not
in theory, not in isolation, but in the pressures of life, in the
traffic of temptation, in the detours of disappointment.
And this is all the way being evident in Paul's writing as the
challenges come about him being a an apostle of Jesus Christ.
And and the proof that he has provided has always been in the
pressure, in the suffering, in the trials, in the tribulation.
He says now it's time for you guys to do some examination, to
do some testing. So this is the purpose of the
examination Paul is referring to here.
If your faith is real, he says of them and he says of you and I
tonight it will be evident in the everyday.
It will be apparent. So as we think about this and
seek to apply it to ourselves, you know what?
Examine not just what you know about the Bible, about Jesus,
about God, but what you show. Do I see, do others see Christ's
character in me, in my reactions, in my choices, in my
thoughts, in the way that I conduct myself, my character?
Is there a growing love in me for God's Word, a desire for me
to open it and to read it and, and to seek wisdom and knowledge
from him when making decisions? Do I see God's people as a a
wonderful blessing in my life? That yes.
Oh, we might rub one another up the wrong way and we can get
irritated, but there's a a greater connection and bond and
a unity that we share and have in Jesus Christ that supersedes
that, that goes beyond that. Do I grieve over sin in my life
or do I just simply seek to manage it or to kind of cover
over it? So examination is what Paul
calls here. The purpose is not about looking
for perfection in our lives, but for direction.
Are we progressing in that sanctification, in that work
that the Holy Spirit is doing? In other words, is your life, is
my life moving toward Christ or moving away from Christ?
Are you, am I, are we becoming more like him, or as each day
passes, less and less like him? Paul says to them and to you and
I Unless, of course, you fail the test.
Now that's a pretty sobering statement, isn't it, when you
consider what we've been talking about and you know, there were
people in the Corinthian church, as I suspect that there are in
any churches and maybe just some in ours as well, who are busy
with religious activity, but spiritually empty and of this
exact situation. Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 7
verse 21 to 23, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will
enter the Kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me, Lord,
didn't we prophecy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in
your name? Didn't we do mighty works in
your name? And I will say I never knew you
depart from me. I think that to be the most
tragic words that anyone could hear.
Not you failed, but I never knew you never knew you depart from
me. So Paul's challenge here is in
fact one of mercy. Wouldn't you rather be
challenged with that now than to find out it's all too late?
He says Take the test now while there's time.
Examine yourself. Test yourself.
And so the purpose of examination is to confirm what
is real power of such examination is that it corrects
what is wrong in US. And this is Paul's heart and
what we need to heed from this in verse 7 through to 10.
Now I pray to God that you do no evil, do no wrong, not that we
should appear approved, but that you should do what is
honourable, do good, though we may seem disqualified, for we
can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth we are
glad. Verse 9 when we are weak and you
are strong, and this also we pray that you may be made
complete fool. Therefore I write these things
being absent, unless being present, I should use sharpness
according to the authority which the Lord has given me.
Why purpose for edification and not for destruction.
Paul's heart here understand in in this declaration of you guys,
you need to examine yourselves. It's not harsh, but it's trying
to humiliate the Corinthians to get them to understand what
they've been doing and where they're at and to effect change.
His goal then is restoration and not rejection.
Verse 7, he prays, we pray to God that you may not do wrong,
that you may do what is right. In verse 10, he reminds them
that there's authority that he possesses God given, and that
authority is for building up, edifying, and not for tearing
down. In other words, understand my
heart here. My purpose in saying these
things is that I don't want to break you.
I don't want to destroy you, but I want to build you up.
I want to see you rightly living with the Lord.
And that's the power of examination, not to condemn, but
to correct. Think of a captain of a ship
before a long voyage about to embark.
It doesn't just assume that the course is right and correct.
They'll check the compass, the coordinate, the coordinates,
they'll study the charts, they'll test the instruments,
make sure that everything is taken care of before such a
journey. Why?
Because they know that that one small miscalculation now could
mean disaster later. Just as we trust when boarding
an aeroplane that the pilot has done such sort of things before
taking us on the journey, we trust that they've gone through
all of the protocol, all of the processes to get us to our
destination and to where we're going.
Well, in the same fashion, consider this self examination
as spiritual navigation. It allows then for the
Corinthians and for any of us tonight for this, for a mid
course correction. The Corinthians have begun their
journey in faith. They're walking with the Lord
and, and now Paul says you, you need to check yourselves.
You need to examine, you need to stop and and arrest the course
of direction that you're going, spiritually speaking, because
there's destruction ahead unless there's a change, unless you've
correct the course that you're going.
You need to realign with Christ in your in your journey.
So we, we need this, don't we? We need to constantly just
evaluate and to check and to to analyse because sin in our
lives. Haven't you found this?
It rarely announces itself, you know, it doesn't knock on the
door and say, you know, tomorrow you can expect such and such and
so and so by the way of temptation and you'll probably
succumb and fall into it. But now it creeps in quietly in
our lives through through compromise, through comparison
of others, through neglect of our spiritual disciplines and
our focus on the things of the Lord.
And and maybe maybe tonight we're sitting here and and maybe
we've grown comfortable with attitudes that once convicted
us. Maybe we've become critics of
others and defenders of ourselves.
Maybe we've replaced passion with performance.
You know, we do church, but but the fire has faded in our walk
with the Lord. So Paul says to them, as he
might say to you and I tonight, deal with it now, deal with it
now. Let God's truth realign you.
You know when I was a student? I wasn't excited about exams.
I don't think I'm alone in that. But you know, every so often a
teacher would hand back a marked test or assessment and say, now
I've corrected and I've shown where the errors were.
But here's what I want you to do.
I want you to consider it and go over it carefully.
I want you to see where you went wrong and I want you to learn
from it. And that's where the real
learning happened. And maybe you can relate and you
can connect. I could identify, I could see
in, in their marking, in their corrections, find out what is
correct and why it was correct. And I could learn it then I
could practise it. I could see where I went wrong
and then I could test it because I, I knew what the truth was.
And in readiness for the next time I could, I could know that.
OK, when that next test comes along, I'm confident now of the
knowledge I've practised, I've learnt it, I've been corrected
now. Well, God does the same through
his Spirit, through his word, as we read, he exposes not to shame
us, but to shape us. You know, I, I see now God,
haven't you found that you've been reading the Bible and you
go, thank you Lord for showing me that man.
I see what I was doing and, and now I see in your word and I've
read it and I understand it. I see what I was doing wrong and
I see it needs changing. Forgive me.
God, help me, God guide me, Holy Spirit in this and, and here's
how correction can happen now and, and then thank you God for
your mercy in revealing this to me.
Now help me in correcting this. Help me in navigating through
this. I don't want to break your heart
again in this way. So guide me, Holy Spirit, bless
me and and lead me. These are things that we pray
and that we go through. So every conviction then in our
lives is an invitation to correction, to stay the course
to move towards the Lord. Hebrews chapter 12 reminds us
the Lord disciplines those whom he loves.
And so if you're being challenged by the Spirit today
in any way, don't see that as rejection, but as as God working
on your relationship with him. That's God saying, you know, I
love you too much to leave you as you are.
Let's examine this and let's correct it and let's work and
move together so that thirdly and lastly, the product of
examination to cultivate what is right exists in our lives.
Paul concludes our journey through 1st and 2nd Corinthians
here with these words. Finally, brethren, farewell,
become complete, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in
peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the Saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all. Amen.
Doesn't Paul close this letter beautifully?
Just read those words. After all the the correction,
the confrontation that's come through the rebuke that's been
there. He ends with this, this grace
and warmth, particularly verse 11.
We've read it, but there's there's 5 short commands that he
supplies to them in verse 11. And they what those commands do,
they describe what, what healthy examined faith looks like.
And, and this is the product of examination.
And this is what is to be cultivated in their myths, in
our myths and in our lives. He says rejoice in other words,
lift your eyes from the problem, the circumstances, situation and
and lift them to the person of Jesus Christ and joy then is not
the absence of struggle in our lives, but the presence of
Christ in the midst of those to be able to enjoy his presence
with us. He says be made complete.
In other words, grow on towards maturity.
Don't settle for spiritual mediocrity or or celebrate past
victories, but always be pressing on and and moving on
ahead. Be made complete.
Thirdly, he says be comforted, in other words, support one
another, walk together through trials.
Fourthly, be of one mind. And in this he speaks of unity
and it's not about uniformity that everybody is to be the
same, but it's a shared purpose around the gospel.
And then live in peace. Fifthly, in other words, where
it is a thing that you can do, do your part to make peace,
because where peace reigns, God's presence remains.
Now in verse 12, there's somewhat of an illustration of
this in his words. In Roman culture, people only
called family members, brothers or sisters, didn't they?
The early church began greeting one another in this way, even it
says with a holy kiss. And this is now what he says,
greet one another with a holy kiss.
And what that was was a, a declaration that they were one
family, brothers and sisters in the Lord.
And it was a a powerful witness as a consequence to a divided
world. Now in our culture and our
custom, that's why we shake hands.
That's why we we hug. That's why we fist bump maybe.
And then Paul seals it all with one of the most beautiful
benedictions in Scripture. And verse 14, he says the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, love of God, fellowship of the Holy
Spirit, be with you all. That's such a wonderful summary
of the Christian life there. The grace of Christ which saves
us, the love of the Father that surrounds us, and the fellowship
of the Spirit that sustains us. You know, you and I, we can't
live the examined life alone. We need the full ministry of the
triune God at work in US. And that's what Paul leaves them
with and you and I with and that's the product of the
examine life, cultivating what is right through the power of
God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as we
finish this book. And what a journey it's been.
But specifically tonight, as we think of this idea of
examination, spiritually speaking, when I passed my
drivers less all those drivers test all those years ago got my
licence. It wasn't because I was perfect.
You know, I made some mistakes in that test.
But you know, it was because having gone through the course
of practising, I'd learned to listen to the instructor, to
correct my mistakes, to keep my eyes on the road, to examine the
mirrors, to do all of those things.
And, and that's the essence of this passage that we've just
finished with tonight. Paul's not calling the
Corinthians. Paul's not calling you and I to
perfection. He's calling for direction.
He's saying, don't wait for my next visit to sort things out.
Don't wait for judgement day. Examine yourself now.
Make sure you're in Christ and Christ is in you.
And so we can ask questions of ourselves tonight.
We can ask, you know, have have I been playing church or am I
pursuing Christ? Am I content in what I know of
him or do I actually know him personally?
Is it head knowledge only? Can I spout off Bible facts and
figures and things, or is there something deeper going on?
There's a relationship, a connection with the God that I
know stuff about, but do I know Him intimately, genuinely,
authentically? Is your faith alive?
Is it still growing? Is it active in love?
Is your faith in Jesus able to be tested in the everyday
situations, in the workplace, in the home, in your marriage, in
your relationships with your brother, with your sister?
How does your faith in Christ hold up under pressure?
And so today, tonight ask, am I in the faith?
Are we in the faith again, Not just about believing facts of
Jesus or of the Bible, but am I in him?
Am I committed? Am I trusting in him?
We think of analogy that might help.
Consider the ark of Noah as it was being built.
You know, we know in the Bible that it was built out of
something called Gopher wood. You know, you can believe that
the ark is it's made out of Gopher wood.
Strong. Yes, I think it's sea worthy.
Look, it's it's a wonderful thing.
I think it would do the job. But the question is, are you in
it? Are you in the ark when the rain
come and the floods? It's the same with Jesus.
Are you in him? And is he in you?
You know, as we examine, maybe in thinking about this
ourselves, examine your public life.
Are you dishonest, thieving, swearing, drunk, unclean,
biblically speaking? And if so, you know something's
not right there. And we've all bumped into people
who profess to be Christians with their mouth, but when you
look at their lives, you think this.
The math ain't nothing. If that's you tonight, repent,
cry out. Oh God, be merciful to a Sinner
like me. Help me, correct me in our
private lives. Do you pray?
Do you search the scriptures? Do you think of God?
Or do you live as if a stranger to Him?
You know, if if you're right with God, you would say things
like, you know, I couldn't possibly live without prayer,
couldn't possibly live without opening my Bible.
You know, I love his word. I love his people.
I love his house. Finally tonight, can you say
Jesus Christ is in me and I am in him, even though at times,
yes, maybe your, your heart might feel dark, but he's there
and you know it. You've, you've accepted him and
Jesus Christ lives in you. And in that then we can rejoice
because there is grace that is offered to us.
Because here's the good news in this, in thinking about testing
and examinations, really, this is an open book exam and the
answer is a person. The answer is Jesus.
There's an old Scottish pastor who said for every look at
yourself, look 10 times to Christ.
So maybe tonight there's been a self examination.
As we've been talking, you've been thinking through and
perhaps some things have hit home and you've gone, oh man,
you know, here's what we need to do.
Look to Christ. He is the author and finisher of
our faith. He has begun a good work in you,
in me, in US. And the Bible says that He will
be faithful to finish it and to complete it to the very end.
He's your strength and weakness. We've been learning about that
through Corinthians. He's the restorer of brokenness.
If at times you felt disqualified, through
examinations, through self assessment, then here's what you
need to do. Come now to Him, because His
grace awaits to seek Him, to pursue Him.
You know Jesus is both the standard.
Yes, and He is our Saviour. He is the lover of your soul,
and when you have Him, you have passed from death to life.