Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20010603.htm

2 CORINTHIANS: OVERCOMING WHEN GOD'S SERVANT FACES RESISTANCE
Part II: Spiritual Preparation For Effective Teaching
(2 Corinthians 1:12-22)
  1. Introduction
    1. Whether the setting is the home as a parent teaches his children, or at work teaching coworkers or in the Church Sunday School class, Vacation Bible School endeavor or a Child Evangelism Fellowship five-day club, when it comes to the realm of teaching Biblical truths, the teach may wonder how to be effective so that his hearers will actually be discipled.
    2. Paul presents the dynamics of effective spiritual preparation to teach as supernatural since the dynamics of getting God's truth from the Word through the teacher in an effective way must be divinely controlled!
  2. Spiritual Preparation For Effective Teaching, 2 Corinthians 1:12-22.
    1. Paul revealed how we can prepare to communicate God's Word effectively in 2 Cor. 1:12-13, 18-20:
      1. The Christian teacher must be experientially holy 1 :12a. He must be (a) justified by faith and (b) have his post-salvation sins confessed to be useful to God, 1 John 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:16 with 2:21, 22.
      2. The Christian teacher must be sincere in how he delivers his message, not pretending an earthly-powered delivery that is not from his real heart itself, 2 Corinthians 1:12b.
      3. The Christian teacher must depend upon God's grace rather than on man's wisdom and human enabling to be effective, 2 Corinthians 1:12c. Other passages detail what this means as follows:
        1. He must use the spiritual gifting given him by God to communicate powerfully, 1 Tim. 4:14, 16. (He needs to know what area of delivery this includes [knowledge, application or exhortation, etc.] and stay with that area of enabling to be effective!)
        2. He must lean on God's leading in his life as opposed to his or other human ideas of what he should say, out of what passage, and where he should so serve, etc.
        3. He must depend on what the Bible says for defining what is truth as opposed to using experience he or others have had for such a definition, Deuteronomy 13:1-4.
    2. When this format is followed, the resulting assured consequences arise to make the teacher effective:
      1. The believers who are right with God will understand what God is telling them to teach, 2 Cor. 1:13.
      2. The hearers will accept what they hear as the truth if they are disposed to accept it, 2 Cor. 1:18-19.
      3. Those who are right with God will respond with "Amen" or expressing their consent to what the speaker has told them, 2 Corinthians 1:20. Compare also 1 John 4:5-6.
    3. Paul revealed why this format of teaching God's truths works in 2 Corinthians 1:21b-22:
      1. When the hearers and speaker were justified by God, they were "anointed" and "sealed" by the Holy Spirit to signify God's ownership of them both, 2 Corinthians 1:21b-22a.
      2. Since God owns both parties, He is working to prepare them both for heaven's glory, 2 Cor. 1:22b.
      3. As such, both speaker and hearers are under the controlled discipleship of God so that He accomplishes just what He intends to accomplish in both, making the discipling process effective in every way!
Lesson: The matter of communicating truth effectively in the spiritual realm is a work of God, not a work dependent on mortal man! As such, it demands a miracle every time effective communication is supposed to work!

Application: (1) If we are trying to teach God's truths and are failing to make proper spiritual preparations as described in this lesson, we can not hope to be effective in the discipling process. (2) If we are seeking to communicate God's truth correctly, we are GUARANTEED success in those in whom God is working. (3) Though 2 Corinthians 1 does not mention this, God disciplines those listeners who reject a God-ordained delivery (cf. Revelation 3:14b "true and faithful witness" in the context clarified by Jeremiah 42:5). Hence, if we are RIGHT with God as a TEACHER, and are OBEYING God in our methods, geographical location and means of delivery, all we need concern ourselves with is following the Lord's leading throughout the delivery process. The rest is God's business!