hello everyone this is your teacher liar Lopes and uh I have been teaching you the introduction to the New Testament and uh today we're going to be um furthering uh studying uh in this case The Second Epistle of Corinthians or to the Corinthians and uh this is going to be a little bit easier for all of us why because we already have all the previous context we have the historical context of the city of the Church of the circumstances that were involved with the church Church itself in the city of Corinth and uh the second
uh epistle or the second letter to Corinthians it's kind of a a continuation of the relationship uh with the Corinth this letter were written after after a personal and ministerial crisis in Corinth as a continuation of Paul's correspondence with the church itself uh some very interesting thing uh in this letter uh that and shows how the Apostle Paul or how the Apostle Paul if you may were very sensible men of God he starts the letter with uh a word of consolation yeah that's that's that's a word a consolation and uh a consolation in the face
of the suffering and an explanation of his recent experiences yeah a consolation we will find this in the chapter one on the first chapter from verse number one number one to verse number seven we will see a consolation the person of consolation consolation and com Comfort okay Paul describes the father of our Lord Jesus Christ as the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us the purpose of consolation and comfort chapter 1 verse 4 to 5ifth he shows the roof of this consolation the more we suffer the more God Comforts us the fruits
of this consolation verse number four the more he Comforts us the more we can Comfort others the pattern it show he shows a pattern of consolation and comfort in the chapter 1st verse 6-7 it's very unique Paul offers his own experiences as an example of this tremendous principle because the consolation of the Saints he establishes as a principle that we must care for and cherish perish not only within but with other people and here we come to to the point that we we need to understand the motivation and the purpose of the letter Paul as
I mentioned Paul starts with the word of consolation and he shares uh this consolation after his own suffering uh with everything with everyone and and then he brings an explanation of his own experiences but there's a motivation within this letter was written with the aim of a strengthening his relationship with the church in Corinth remember in the church or within the body of the church uh in the first letter he had addresses some groups inside of the church and now he wants to strength his relationship and his leadership within the church or upon this church
re and one of his goal is to restore his Apostolic Authority and defending his ministry against attack act from offerings we will see this in 2 Corinthians chapter 1st verse 23 chapter 2 verse number four chapter 7 number two you will see he Time After Time touching or bringing some word just to uh defend or make sure that his apostleship is uh in in place and that the people understand what he is uh about for the church and uh Paul uh he shows us that on the second Corinthians he works out uh some main themes
okay he works out some main themes consolation as we we mentioned and we need to understand this that when we talk about consolation we are not talking about uh just coming alongside of a person and uh uh have a little uh sensibility with the person no no no uh consolation it's a it's something deeper it's some something that showed us that we must carry on the others and as I mentioned before uh the consolation Paul shows us the the person of consolation the purpose of consolation and the pattern of this consolation as much as we
suffer as much as God will console us and as much as we received we will be able to help other people okay not in a shallow way but in a deeper way Paul shares his experiences of Affliction and dive and divine Comfort he will we will learn in the second Corinthians we will learn in Corinthians and in another of his other of his letters that he teach a lot and he encourage the Brotherhood to understand that the Affliction is not terminal the Affliction is just a kind of a trampling to a Divine Comfort emphasizing God's
grace in difficult times so the main themes of second Corinthians is Ministry of the New Covenant yes he emphasizes the privilege uh and the responsibility of serving as a minister or a leader of the New Covenant that God makes to mankind so to serve as a minister as a leader as a facilitator of the New Covenant revealing the glory of God in Jesus Christ in in the chapter number three uh of second Corinthians we will see that very very clear how Paul uh would go to explain and share that idea with us okay and uh
he teach us and he taught the people back then about the unwritten grace of God the Pharisees written letters of recommendations and the apostles living letters of recommendations so one was a physical letter and the other one was a a life worth living as a open letter to anyone to see and read and be impact in this chapter number three as a Ministry of this New Covenant he unveil the glory of God Paul contrasts the law of Moses with the gospel of grace showing the superiority of the latter over the former of the later of
over the former so he he shows us that the the later movement of God that brought Grace to everyone was very much powerful and transformational than the former one the law of Moses he brings a kind of a contrast so we can understand that better so in in this chapter three he he just kind of a draw what I just said the law of Moses the law of Moses it was ACC companion by a fading Glory fading Glory it was temporary it led to death it functioned as a veil restricting God's glory it prevented Christ
likeness in the lives of unsaved Jews and the Gentiles but look at here what he what he teach us the gospel of grace it is a companion by and unfading Glory the glory with stand stand the glory permeated our entire life it is eternal the glory is eternal it leads to life not to death it functions as a mirror reflecting God's glory it produces Christ likeness in the lives of Saved Jews and the Gentiles not only the Jews but the Jews and the Gentiles Gentiles so we produce that Christlike in other words it's transformational the
grace of God is transformational it produces boldness boldness so this ministry of the New Covenant become one of the main themes in second Corinthians okay I just want you to know that uh you have uh available to you the this whole presentation okay so don't don't be afraid of okay and uh I'm just uh doing something different here uh but I'm explaining and exposing the whole content of what you have and I'm just trying to give you some more insites about the second uh Corinthians okay all right the second main theme is a Reconciliation and
Restoration in the book of uh 2 Corinthians the letter of second Corinthians Paul encourages reconciliation among among Believers and exorts them to live in unity and love for one another yeah what a courageous man in the face of so many adversaries he has the authority he Embraces the authority that God gave it to him and he were not compromised he were not afraid and he were not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the chapter number 5th of his second letter from verse 16th to 20th we will see this very very clearly about the
uh reconciliation and restoration God's special Ministry he has reconciled all Sinners and this has accomplished by the death of Christ on the cross God reconcile all Sinners okay how he did it how he accomplished that when Jesus Christ di at the cross with the act with the the power of the Cross oh mankind oh creature were reconciled with God okay Jesus Christ at the cross is the very very door to any mankind to find reconciliation to God now when when God looks to the man that understands that God does not look straight to the man
because if he if God looks straight to the man what he will see he will see a sinner he will see uh uh a person who has been stray away from his uh walks of life with God but now because of the sacrifice of the Cross and at the cross Jesus is there God now looks to the all humankind through the cross of Jesus Christ because the sacrifice of Jesus Christ when he looks makes a kind of a door for mankind to reconcile with God itself and it's nothing about us was nothing about Paul was
nothing about th those people but was about God's in initiative to come and rescue man he has he keeps saying he has regenerated all repenting Sinners each new believer receives a new nature what do you mean by that Paul if we were with Paul in a meeting we can we could ask him Paul tell me about what what do you mean by that man you're going crazy with this whole thing no no no no relax remember in the Old Testament we lost we lost the nature of God the nature of God became blur because of
sin that was committed by our first Fathers but now but now because of the the grace of God manifested at the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at the cross you and me and our brothers back then we were regenerated that means we were created new we were made a new creature why because of the repentance of our Sinners that's why everyone who repents from their Sinners and confess Jesus will forgive and he will give a new life a new nature he will restore the original nature of God within you me and within us so this is
one of the main themes in second Corinthians and this is one of the main themes of our Christianity yeah our special Ministry the task we have been given the ministry of reconciliation yes we have have that chapter 5 from 11 to13 and you will check it out of verse number 21 you will see that God because we were reconciled with him he gave us the ministry of the reconciliation okay the title God looks upon us as his Earthly ambassadors do you know that because of it now look God looks at us and with a Earthly
title as a ambassadors you and me we are we have become ambassadors of God of God's grace in this lost world and you know our days we know how our society is completely lost so this is a another main theme and and a third main theme that we find that we'll find in second Corinthians there are so many themes but I just brought in uh a few the third theme that is very important is a generosity and contribution yeah he encourages the Corinthians to give generously to the need to the needy Saints to the need
of others demonstrating practical love and communion in the body of Christ wow yeah he encourages he insist he persist he taught the brothers that it is very important for us to give generously yeah and Paul he he uses that to encourage our brothers and sisters in the chapter number eight of the 2 Corinthians we will see that okay the macedonians believe Believers in Macedonia they uh they surrender their will to God as a savior and then they they sacrifice their wealth to the Saints to bless to help and uh uh why they did that because
their lives were changed completely changed Godly giving yeah the instruction to be a god givers and and uh give not without knowing but knowingly we give knowingly Paul says financial giving is related to the other spiritual gifts many people don't understand that many people in our days they think that give to the church give to the causes of the church it's G giv to the pastor hey I'm not going to be disputing what other people does wrong okay but I'm looking to the word of God and to the principle that is well established and curved
that we must observe okay so Paul says financial giving is related to the to to the other spiritual Giver giving okay gifts I mean is related to the other spiritual gifts there's no separation oh why we need to talk about money why we need to give money why we need to give our wealth to help other people the word of God tells us that where our heart is or where our wealth is it there is our heart so where is our heart our heart is on things or we can control the things that we have
if we control the things that we have so we have no problem to give to help others to give to make the kingdom advance in the obscurity of this Darkness uh that we are living in and uh we must give willingly we must give realistically we must give confidentially look and read chapter 8 up to 10th you will learn a lot you will be having a tools to help others to understand the importance I I always have a saying I want to share this with you the others can I can't because some people they can
do whatever they want to do and everyone can do whatever they want to do if they want to live mistakenly if they want to live a life in a wrongly way that's not my problem I can I have to try as much possible as much as I can and when I can't anymore I really need the assurance that God is helping me that the holy spirit is helping me to live to please him and to show the way to other people okay so Paul he teachs us about generosity we don't have to be afraid of
being generous people we don't have to be afraid of what other people say matter of fact we should not we should not compare ourselves in our relationship with God to others okay all right there's something interesting within the the the book okay uh other than what I I have said uh you can read on the slides that you have there but there's a structure to the letter the second Corinthians greetings and Thanksgiving begins with a greeting and expresses gratitude to God in the midst of trial once again the Apostle Paul is a champion of living
in trials and tribulations he is a champion how you can not give in you cannot surrender yourself even though if you are going through many trials and tribulations chapter 1st from verse number 12 up to chapter 7 verse number 16 he shares that he has been through many tribulations also why because he has to defend his Apostle apostleship he has to defend his Apostolic Ministry Paul defends his Apostolic Ministry and shares his struggles and triumphs in serving God yeah that's what he does PA defends his Apostolic Ministry and shares his struggles and triumphs in serving
God another point of the structure of the book that we find is that generosity and contribution we already spoke about but that not only is part of the main themes but that also is part of the structure of the the book addresses the collection for Saints in Jerusalem and encourages the Corinthians to give generously for a cause and another part of the structure of the book is the authority and warnings he conf confronts false Apostles and warns against the listen he confronts and he warns against their malign influence in the church as I mentioned before
being in Ministry for a while we all understand what the Apostle Paul is saying not only we we have the the spiritual warfare but we have the natural Warfare we have to have understanding we have to have uh wisdom we have to have sensibility in the spirit to deal with the spirits that indwell in people's lives trying to manipulate trying to deviate people and deviate uh the authority of God upon people's life upon his people to uh bring a malign influence to the church and to other people's lives I always say hey you should be
very careful whom you will allow to speak to your mind you have to be very sensible to understand who will have authority to speak to you and to your life about the things of God and about the things of this world and finally but not you know finally because it's irrelevant no we need to understand that it's not because the letter this is the second letter is less important has nothing to do with it okay the first letter he started a consideration he start Paul start working in something second letter he works his relationship with
the Brotherhood and also he defends his apostleship he rebukes uh the the the Fanatics within the body and uh he tried to rebuild morale uh not only with but the morale of the congregation of the body of Christ uh in that location in that place but also we need to understand that happens there and once again apologize myself for mentioning again what I'm going to what I'm about to say because I I have been in Ministry for uh 39 years and and 40 years now at the beginning of next year I'm going to be 40
years uh being ordained as pastor and also as a Ministry 40 years and I have seen so many and so much but those letters or these letters they are so contemporary and so relevant so present so so much here in our very own eyes the themes of second Corinthians such as consolation and affliction Affliction I mean uh Ministry of the New Covenant and Reconciliation remain relevant to and for the life of the church today day as it was back then almost 2,000 years ago yeah and uh the relevance of the themes in this letter it's
something that amazes me it's something that really caught my attention and I want to charge you I want to encourage you my beloved to dive into the reading and studying of these letters because they will bring a health to your life to your family and everything you do and not only that because Paul teach us that everything we learn even though if we are passing through so many tribulations it's not terminal is under contrary it's a kind of a trampling it's a kind of a setup of God to bring us to another level in order
to help other people in order to bring the ministry of the grace of God to other people wherever we go I challenge you believers to persevere in faith to commit to Ministry and to live in unity and love for one another even in the midst of difficult opportunities and I know and I will will take advantage of this time some of you are going through so much some of you right now are going through so much and then that you can say wow I don't know if I'm going to survive I don't know if I'm
how much more I can stand hey the same God that brought you up to here is the same one who will guide and lead you to there God bless you see you next time time
