This portion of Scripture has three teaching sections and an encounter with Jesus’ family. The primary teaching is commonly referred to as the Parable of the Sower, but I prefer The Parable of the Soils. Jesus taught this parable to the crowd that was following Him from town to town. Later, His disciples asked Him to further explain the meaning of this parable. Jesus explained it citing that the disciples had “been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God.” After these two teaching sections, Jesus shared an additional parable highlighting the need to share the truths that they learned with others. The last part of our passage recounts how Jesus’ mother and half-brothers came to see Him, but Jesus did not stop His teaching to see them. This demonstrated how that Jesus’ priority was first and foremost His teaching ministry. According to other gospel accounts (cf. Mark 3:21; John 7:5), Jesus’ siblings—the children of Mary and Joseph—never supported Jesus’ ministry before His death and resurrection.
As followers of Christ, we are often referred to as “People of Faith.” How do we know that the faith we say we have is genuine? Faith is insufficient if it is faith in the wrong thing. Someone can be truly sincere in their faith and yet still be sincerely wrong. So again, how do we know that our faith is genuine? In our text today, we will first see a demonstration of genuine faith in Christ and then we will take a few minutes to consider some of the implications of this event in regard to our personal lives and the ministry-life of this church. It is important for us to embrace the truths taught here in these verses so that we will know how to communicate to the lost and dying world that there is good news—Jesus provides a way of salvation if you will only repent and believe!
Many of Jesus’ followers were first disciples of John the Baptist. John played a unique role in the pronouncement of the coming Messiah—the Christ. John had been preaching that the kingdom of heaven was coming soon, but even he did not fully understand what that would look like. Having been thrown into prison by Herod the tetrarch (Luke 3:19-20), John was unable to go to Jesus himself. When he heard all that was happening through the ministry of Jesus, John sent some of his disciples to Jesus to confirm that He was truly the promised Messiah. We should remember that John was the one who proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” when he saw Jesus approaching him to be baptized in the Jordan River (John 1:29). But just like any other sinful man, John was having some doubts about this because Jesus’ ministry was not what he (or anybody else) expected. John the Baptist needed confirmation from Jesus to help alleviate any doubts he might have about the ministry of the Messiah.
Jesus, having just given His ministry manifesto in Luke 6 in the Sermon on the Plain, is now demonstrating His love and power to those who were beginning to follow Him. In this passage, there are two miraculous healings that take place—first was the servant of a Roman centurion and second was the only son of a widow. In each instance, Jesus demonstrated His authority thereby confirming His authority to teach as He did in Luke 6, but the motivation to perform these miracles seems to be two-fold—the first miracle happened because of the faith of the centurion and the second because of Jesus’ compassion for the plight of the widow. We learn a lot here about Jesus’ character in this passage.
As we take a few minutes this morning to consider the sacrificial death of Jesus upon the cross, I want us to consider how each group/individual responded to Jesus in that moment—on that day when He was crucified. I think we might be surprised to see how things really haven’t changed—almost two-thousand years have come and gone and people are still responding to Jesus in the same way! We’ll be considering most all the characters that are part of the crucifixion narrative in the gospels of Luke and John this morning. There are a bunch of them, but we’ll do our best to identify them, see their part in the chain of events and then note how they responded to Jesus (and how that correlates with the way people today respond to Him too).
“No one leaves a legacy by accident. You must live life on purpose and come up with a plan to protect your legacy and make sure the baton is passed to the next generation” (ramseysolutions.com). What changes do you need to make in your life that will help ensure that you will leave the kind of lasting legacy that brings honor to the Lord? I believe that these things were in the mind of the Apostle Paul as he was writing this second letter to the Corinthians. These people were a portion of his legacy—and they would be leaving a legacy to those who would come after them—so Paul is doing all that he can to impact their lives for the glory of God.
As we look at this next to last section of 2 Corinthians, we considering Paul’s Ministry Impact. Paul has been defending the validity of his ministry among the Corinthians in these final chapters of his letter. In today’s passage, we will try to see the product of his labors, but with every point we will make, we will see that the process is not yet finished. The ministry is still a work in progress.
Over the past two weeks, we’ve been able to learn first-hand about some of the hardships that Paul experienced during his life and ministry. In an ironic twist, Paul validates his ministry among the Corinthians by boasting of all his hardships and weaknesses. As we move into our study of chapter 12, Paul lets us know that he’s not finished boasting… not quite yet. He has one more experience that he wants to share with his brothers and sisters in Corinth—an experience that was so spectacular that none would readily believe it! So, to keep Paul from becoming conceited, God gave Paul a thorn in the flesh. Today, we want to explore how God used this thorn in the flesh for His honor and His glory!
Memoirs provide a historical account of a person’s life. They are written from personal perspective—first-hand knowledge—and are often autobiographical. This last half of 2 Corinthians 11 definitely feels like Paul’s personal memoirs—from his pedigree, to his agony, from his exploits, to his anxieties—Paul gives us a window into his life in these verses. It is my goal this morning to become more deeply aware of who Paul was, what he went through for the cause of Christ, and how he viewed himself throughout all of it. Hopefully, we will be able to identify with some of these things and be able to see how that God wants to use our story, our background, our struggles and our fears for His honor and His glory!
There were issues surfacing in the church at Corinth that greatly concerned Paul. Because he saw himself as a spiritual father/mentor to them, he was compelled to deal with the situations in a way that would honor God and bring about the desired results—to advance the true, unadulterated gospel of faith in Jesus Christ alone.