The Loud Minority
Lessons From 2 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Last week we examined 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 wherein Paul makes clear that “Your Focus Determines Your Reality.”
That what we put into ourselves spiritually is what comes out spiritually, therefore we need to guard our hearts and minds in with Christ Jesus and God’s word.
Remember, the majority of those in the Corinthian church had repented and/or agreed with Paul’s previous letter to them.
But “The Loud Minority” simply had refused and in our text today we see Paul’s frustration with them.
So with that in mind let’s first look at the focus of this section.
Paul’s Perceived Procrastination
Paul’s Perceived Procrastination
Paul’s Wavering In Visiting?
Paul’s Wavering In Visiting?
It would appear that Paul’s spiritual enemies there in Corinth within the church were attempting to stir up the congregation by proclaiming Paul was procrastinating or hesitating in coming to see them.
Remember in the previous letter Paul ended that letter by mentioning his plan to come visit them.
1 Corinthians 16:5–7 (ESV)
5 I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, 6 and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.
Paul now is righting that it was the case that he had wanted to come to visit them.
2 Corinthians 1:15–16 (ESV)
15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.
Paul then makes the point that he, like all Christians should “mean what they say and say what they mean.”
2 Corinthians 1:17–19 (ESV)
17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes.
2 Corinthians 1:20–22 (ESV)
20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
Paul did not say “yes” they were coming while at the same time meaning “no” they would not.
He was not saying “one thing and meaning another” as Paul had ever single intention of coming and spending the winter with them after traveling through Macedonia.
The truth is Paul did what he said he would do when he wrote to them in the previous letter about visiting them.
1 Corinthians 16:5–7 (ESV)
5 I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, 6 and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.
The very thing Paul said that could keep him from coming did indeed keep him from coming.
2 Corinthians 1:23–2:1 (ESV)
23 But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. 1 For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you.
2 For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? 3 And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. 4 For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
Paul is clear and even “swears that God is his witness” that he had every intention to come but the reason he did not come was he felt it was the “wrong time” so quickly after the letter had been written.
Now keeping in mind what we know of Paul we can safely say he made this choice to delay after much prayer and advice from God (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). Therefore, as Paul implies the Lord did not permit him to come for the benefit of both the church there in Corinth and Paul himself.
Summary
Summary
…
The Weak In The Faith
The Weak In The Faith
The Squeaky Wheel.
The Squeaky Wheel.
As our current society is proving the “loud minority”, if they are loud enough, can get their way by simply being the most annoying.
The old saying is true a lot of the times, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” or those that are the loudest often are the ones that get all the attention.
Unfortunately this is not always limited to those outside the church.
I know of an eldership that oversaw 300 plus and yet made the significant part of their decision making was based on not upsetting the eight unhappy weak in the faith members.
By the way this is not limited to elderships, I see it all the time in the Lord’s church wherein sometimes just a handful of the loudest people end up making all the decisions because everyone else in the congregation is too afraid or unwilling to not give the “squeaky wheel the grease.”
This was…
Paul’s Dilemma.
Paul’s Dilemma.
If he came he was going to have to come with the rod of correction against the loud minority for not submitting to God’s will as they should.
1 For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. 2 For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?
Contrary to popular belief no preacher “wants or enjoys” having to bring the fire and brimstone sermons that this loud minority needed to hear.
Jeremiah 20:9 (ESV)
9 If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”
If Paul came he would “also” have to bring the rod of correction against quit minority for not putting a end to the foolishness of the loud minority.
By the way the church at Corinth has a habit of allowing sin to continue by trying to ignore it.
1 Corinthians 5:1–2 (ESV)
1 It is actually reported that there is [fornication] among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
The hardest thing for a congregation to do sometimes is tell the “squeaky wheels” of the congregation who are not spiritually helping the congregation to step back, quite down, and let the faithful work.
We only have a certain amount of finite time to get God’s expected work done in this life and we need to take advantage of every opportunity.
4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.
Summary
Summary
The loud minority, who have the loudest squeaky wheel, are not the most faithful nor hardest working for the Lord.
Let the strong in the faith not those that weak in the faith be the ones who are the loudest and the church will always spiritually thrive.
Conclusion
Conclusion
I wish I could tell you whether or not Paul ever made it back to Corinth.
I hope Paul’s trip was inevitable and that the church had corrected those things necessary so Paul’s joy could be filled with the churches love for him and ministry with him in the Lord.
However, we are not told if this happened or not but what is certain is that for any congregation to thrive spiritually it must not just have a majority of those that “know the truth and are active in the truth” but are stopping anyone or any group that would hinder the truth and the work of the truth.
With that said, as Paul did so we can do with prayer and wisdom, allow time for things to work themselves out where it is prudent but one must be vigilant in keeping an eye out for stagnation or leavened infiltration.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.