A Church Without Walls

God is saying…why aren’t they predicting the beginning from the end? Aren’t they gods? Where is their wise counsel…if they are gods, they should be able to guide you. But their works are nothing…they are only made of metal…they are as empty as the wind. And this is what the people turned to in times of trouble. An empty…useless…metal idol. In contrast…God tells the people (and they will read this in captivity in Babylon) that His Servant…The Massiah…will come… And He will offer something these idols could never offer…hope!

Now to put this in perspective…Paul is addressing sin in the church…the Bible is clear that we are all sinners…we have all fallen short of the glory of God. Even Solomon said at the dedication of the temple: “If they sin against You (God), for there is no one who does not sin.” (2 Chronicles 6:36 ESV) There is no one who does not sin…John tells us that if we say we do not sin we are liars. That presents a problem…especially for those under the Law…because the Law is there to not only point out their sin… But to remind the sinner that they are under Gods judgment and condemnation for their sin. So, Paul encourages the people that in Jesus we have the grace of God…our sins are forgiven in Christ. That there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

What Isaiah is shown here is absolutely amazing. The one from the east he refers to is a king named Cyrus…who we will learn more about as we move through the next few chapters. Isaiah writes as if this has already taken place…but it is yet about 150 years in the future. This is called “prophetic first tense,” which is to write about a future event as if it has already occurred. Isaih is shown this…which is some 100 to 150 years before Cyrus is even born.

Don’t miss the key thing Paul writes here… That we are all letters of recommendation written for all to see. A letter of recommendation is a letter someone has written on your behalf… Telling a prospective employer for instance…who has never met you…about your character…it tells them about who you are. We are that letter of recommendation for Jesus…our lives tell others about the character of Jesus… What is written on our hearts tells those who have never met Jesus what He is like. In other words, we are all walking, talking, breathing, advertisements for Jesus.

This is what Paul wanted to avoid…the confrontation that would lead to an argument, that would leave people with their feelings hurt. So, he writes this letter…but as we will discover when we get to chapter ten…they even had an issue with him writing the letter…look up on the screen: For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” (2 Corinthians 10:10 ESV) Man! They were a rough crowd in the church at Corinth…I always looked at Corinth as the New Jersey of Asia Minor.

Tonight, we are still in Isaiah, but from chapters 40 to 66 it almost reads like another book. So much so…that many critics have said that Isaiah did not write these last chapters. I’m not going to spend a lot of time defending the fact that he did indeed write these chapters… But I want to give you just a little taste of why I…and many others believe that he did. First…when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found…among the scrolls was a complete copy of the book of Isaiah. This copy is 1,000 years older than the oldest copy we had…and it was an exact copy of the book that we have written by the prophet Isaiah. But the real proof that Isaiah wrote it comes from Jesus…Jesus quotes Isaiah 40:3…in Matthew’s gospel… (Matthew 3:3) Referring to John the Baptist and says: “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah.”

Paul had gone to Corinth on his second missionary journey…and taught there 18 months. When he left…he wrote to them from Ephesus that he would return…but he did not. So, they were angry with Paul…and he tries to clear things up in this letter. He gives his reason for not coming when he said he would. He faced a severe trial in Ephesus…we do not know the details of what happened… But he could be referring to a number of things that happened to him. It isn’t important what happened…what’s important is how it affected him. Paul and Timothy were so utterly burdened, that word means pressed, or weighted down…as in being under tremendous pressure. To the point that was beyond their strength to endure, and they despaired of life itself. Whatever they faced…it was so heavy…that they thought they would not make it through.

You should know that this is a flashback of sorts…what happens in chapters 38-39 happened sometime before chapters 36-37. The invasion of the Assyrians is pending…and king Hezekiah is on his death bed. We don’t know exactly what was wrong with him, but we are given a clue in verse 21 when he is told to put a poultice of figs on the boil. The boil indicates an ulcer possibly produced by a plague. So, Assyria is threatening…and so is sickness…Hezekiah is facing two overwhelming trials in his life… It seems sometimes…like we get kicked when we are down…I often think of Job…with each knock on his door…the news gets worse. We can experience more than one trial at a time…and Hezekiah certainly knows that feeling. But he is more concerned with the illness at this point because it will take his life much faster than the Assyrians. He must have asked Isaiah to inquire of the Lord what the outcome of this sickness would be… And he gets the worse news he can get…get your house in order…because you’re not going to make it!

Paul isn’t boasting about himself…he is boasting…or as some translations say…rejoicing…that as Jesus is his witness…his conscience is clear. And what his conscience is clear about is the fact that he is not a hypocrite. The issue Paul is addressing is that he had said in his first letter that he was coming back to see them. He said: “I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia.” (1 Corinthians 16:5 ESV) But that didn’t happen…his plans changed…and what he is saying here is that it wasn’t him that changed his plans…God changed his plans. There were people in the church in Corinth who took his first letter to heart and prayed that the Holy Spirit would help them change what needed to be changed in their lives. And there were some who were offended by his letter and wanted to debate his authority to say what he said. It is the later group that accuse him of saying one thing but meaning another. Paul however knows the truth…God had other plans for him. He points out to them that if they are doubting his motives…he has only been a witness for Jesus to the world by the way he had conducted himself. His testimony is that he has acted with simplicity and godly sincerity. Think about that for a minute…can we say the same thing about how we behave in the world. Because we live in this world…the world where we work, where we live, where we play… Do you join in the locker-room talk at work? Do you laugh at jokes you aren’t supposed to be laughing at? Is your walk the same at home as it is in public? What do you read, listen to, or watch at home that you would want others to know about. When you are out with friends do you remain set apart for the Lord?