Is it This and That, or Always This

VIDEO LINK

​​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ February 16 2025)
Sermon Title – Is it This and That, or Always This
Text – 11 Corinthians 1:15-23
Rev Cliff Jones

 

I want you to picture drawing a large circle around you in white chalk.  Put into that circle the people who know you, beginning with the postal worker behind counter who takes your package, and the contractor who re-models your bathroom or paints your house, the person who regularly cuts your hair.  Move on to include those you hold most dear: the people you write Valentine’s cards to, the people you go out to dinner with, that special friend you call when you get a refund check from the IRS, your family.  These are the people who interact with you, who know you. Now, allow me to ask them a direct question about you:  “This person in the center of the circle - that’s you - What kind of person is she, is he?”  We’re talking about you.
 
They won’t answer describing what you look like.  Instead, they will talk about the kind of person you are.  So, what kind of person are you?  It’s a question of character, isn’t it?  And, we care what these people in our circle think about us, whether we admit it or not.  I can tell by the way you are dressed you value what they think of you, because you are dressed in the general fashion of the day.  I don’t see anyone here with wild, big checks pants with huge bell bottom at the hem.  And at the family Christmas gathering, we’ll even wear the ugly Christmas sweater cousin Betty gave us.  What the people in our circle think about us matters.
 
It matters to us; it mattered to the apostle Paul, who found himself in a sticky situation dealing with his character.  He said he would do one thing, and then he did another.  You ever been there?  In our text today, character looms large, particularly around the aspect of integrity.  Let’s read.
 
v. 15 - “Because I was confident of this, I….”
Paul is referring to what just had said.  He is confident that the Corinthians Christians, have trusted and respected him and his motives.    
 
v. 16 - “I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea.”
Paul planned on visiting them on his way north through Greece to reach Macedonia, and on his way back, and then on to Judea.  However, his plans changed.  He did not visit them.  He had good reason not to, but the Corinthians accused him of going back on his word.  Maybe he couldn’t be trusted anymore.  He said one thing but did another.
 
v. 17 - "Was I fickle when I intended to do this?  Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?”
Now you and I may think that changing plans is not a big deal.  When that happens we call up and postpone the card game, the golf game, coffee, dinner … but something else is going on here.  Read on farther in this letter and you pick up the important detail that after Paul left the city after first sharing the gospel there, other Christian preachers came to town.
 
Their view of Christianity was quite different from Paul’s; so different that Paul knew it was damaging and wrong.  But, these Christian preachers captivated crowds by their speaking; they were eloquent.  They spun intellectual ideas that sounded so nice; and besides all that, they just looked so good.  In comparison, Paul seemed, well, less.  We hear some of this in chapter 10, 11:
For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”  “I do not think I am in the least inferior to those super-apostles’.” I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge.”  (II Corinthians 10:10; 11:5, 6)
 
Paul realizes the danger.  If they can discount Paul, then they can discount the gospel he taught to the Corinthian Christians.  The message and the messenger are tied up together.  Criticize the messenger and then it’s easier to criticize his message.
 
So, how can Paul compete with them?  How can he rescue the true gospel message?  What will he say here to convince the converts in Corinth that his change of plans doesn’t indicate a lack of sincerity, that he is a man of integrity, that his word and his actions are the same, that he can be trusted?  And, what do we learn about our own character and integrity?
 
v. 18 - “But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.”
Paul is reminding them that when he first came there, his gospel message was consistent. What the gospel promised, Jesus delivered.
 
v. 19 - 21 - “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been ‘Yes.’ For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.  And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”   What God promises through Jesus Christ comes to completion.  They are ‘yes’.  They are fulfilled.
 
Then, Paul mentions a few of these promises:  He has given us salvation in Jesus Christ; He will not let us go.  Like a king who inscribes an edict, then folds it and seals it and stamps it with his signet ring of authority, so that no one dare open it, we are his securely and forever.  Furthermore, God has given us the Spirit of Jesus inside us, which is just the deposit, just a taste of what life will be like in the fullness of the Spirit in eternity,
 
v. 22 - “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.  He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
Paul can get carried away talking about the magnificence and wonder of God but don’t let that distract you from his point:  the Word that Paul shared with them in sharing the gospel has been proven to be true.  What God has promised, God has fulfilled.  There is integrity to his Word.  On the one hand, there is integrity to the Word Paul has brought them. Now, what about Paul’s actions?  Turn back to verse 19 and to two specific words:
 
“For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy….”
 
Those two words, ‘by us.’  Paul is reminding them of what they saw from Paul when he first was with them sharing the gospel.  They saw his love for them.  They saw he did whatever he could so that they would know Jesus Christ is truly Lord.  He even took a job to provide for himself, rather than ask them to support him, so that it would clear he was not doing this for the money. His action matched his word.  They saw it.  They knew it, and Paul is reminding them that his word and deed were consistent.  They could continue to trust his character.
 
The people in your chalk circle are asking; can you hear them?  Are you someone they can trust? Does your word match your deed?  Are you a person of integrity?  What does your life up to this moment testify?
 
It’s not always easy living a life of integrity.  Sometimes it’ down-right hard.  So, here’s an idea I heard from a neuropsychologist:  when confronted with a choice, ask yourself how you will feel about the decision you make 30 minutes later.  Take away the impulse to make a snap choice fast and ask first, “How will I feel about what I choose in 30 minutes.”  For instance, you want to leave and not finish what you said you would.  How will you feel about that decision 30 minutes from now?  Or, you feel the heat rising up into your face.  You want to lash out.  How will you feel 30 minutes from now?  You promised one thing but something else has come up that you’d rather do.  How will you feel 30 minutes from now?  You can take advantage of someone monetarily.  How will you feel 30 minutes from now?  Let this 30 minute rule be a guide.
 
At this point, you may be asking yourself, why be consistent when it’s not always easy?  Why does it matter if we’re people of integrity?  It matters for so many reasons.  Here’s one:  if we say we follow Jesus, then it matters that we act like Jesus.  People see Jesus through us.  Your neighbors know you’re a Christian.  They see you pull out of your driveway on Sunday mornings.  They know where you go.  You’ve already spoken.  Are your actions consistent with your Christian identity?  Why should anyone consider following Jesus if we say we’re Christian, but don’t live like it?  Our integrity literally brings glory to Jesus Christ.  Here’s another reason:
 
Wisdom from the Bible says:  (Proverbs 28:18, The Message)
      Walk straight (the RSV says walk in integrity) —live well and be saved;
       a devious life is a doomed life.
And, wisdom from the Psalms says: (Psalm 41:12)
      (God), You uphold me because of my integrity
 
What do these words of wisdom say to you?  I think they say simply that God knows the best way for us to live.  When we choose God’s way, we choose the wise way to live.  That includes matching what we say with what we do.
 
 
Jesus said, “Whoever hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise person who built the house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Mt. 7:24, 25)  Wise is the person whose life foundation is Jesus, who hears his word and does it.  Here’s another reason.
 
Romans 5:3, 4
            Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character
            produces hope….
 
Paul is speaking about physical suffering.  Paul suffered and today around the world Christians are suffering for their faith.  But, there are other hardships as well.  When it’s hard to be consistent, when it’s hard to do we have promised, when our first reaction is to duck and run - and, yet, we don’t, God is at work in you, producing endurance, and endurance character, increasingly the character of Jesus formed in us.  It doesn’t come easily; it doesn’t magically happen.  Character grows through the struggle.  Who do you want to be?  No matter your age, how do you want to be remembered?  Are you willing to be consistent in the little things?
 
I left Home Depot with a utility knife I had put in my pocket, because I had too many others things to carry up to the check-out counter and I forgot to pay for it.  Should I care if I go back or not?  It’s inconvenient to go back, with all this stuff I’m carrying?  What would you do?  Character is formed in the crucible of hard choices.
 
We (1) reflect God’s glory when we live according to his ways.  We (2) are blessed when we do.  Our character (3) of integrity is formed by consistently doing what is right:  doing who we say we are, and here’s another…
 
There will be a handful of times in your life when someone you care about deeply is thinking of doing something that will come back to harm them:  maybe it’s a career choice that will throw the career/family balance off center; maybe it’s investing is a scheme that promises a 12% a year return.  Or maybe they are afraid to make a choice because what they are considering is new.  You know this is the time to speak up.  You have to say something, but you won’t have facts and figures to buttress your argument.  All you’ll have is you.  And all the other person will have is you.  The life you’ve lived up to that point will either cause them to consider carefully what you are advising, or disregard your words.  They will only have your life to go on.  What kind of life have you lived?
 
In cleaning out my old computer, I came across a letter I wrote to one of my adult children 9 years ago.  I wrote this:
 
“(The corporation you work for) can give you so many benefits and you have been smart to take advantage of them.  You have also taken advantage of things that you can get away with… little things that no one would check on or probably care about, and many other have taken advantage, too, so you are not alone.  In fact, it just seems the smart thing to do.  But, it is not and here is why I say it….”
 
then I go on to spell out why living a life of integrity matters.  To summarize it, I said:
 
“When there is someone who has real integrity, he or she stands out; it gets noticed.”
“What we do once becomes what we do a second time, and a third which becomes a habit (for good or for bad).”
“We reap what we sow.  God will not allow his principles to be ignored without consequence.”
 
Did my letter make a difference?  Hmm, I do know that four years later he took a job at a company with a president whom he then discovered did not act with integrity.  He said one thing and did another.  He was not honest in his dealings.  After a year, my son left.  He saw the mis-match between what the president said and did.  I think he saved himself heartache and perhaps worse by leaving when he did, and maybe, maybe what I wrote was part of that decision. Integrity matters.
 
What will you choose to do, today, tomorrow and the next?  How you will feel 30 minutes later? Choose, with God’s good help, to be a person, like Paul, of integrity.