Bible Passage: 2 Corinthians 2:5-11
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: September 14, 2025

Bulletin – September 14, 2025

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Two things certainly jump out at us from our Gospel lesson today.  First of all, there is the great concern for what is lost.  Secondly, there is the great joy when the lost thing has been found.  These things certainly overwhelm us when we consider that each of us was that lost thing!  Jesus sought each one of us with the earnestness of the shepherd seeking his lost sheep and the woman seeking her lost coin!  The angels of heaven rejoiced and celebrated when we were safely on the Shepherd’s shoulders!

This love and mercy that we have been shown is not without affect in our lives.  It changes us.  It reshapes and remolds us in the image of our seeking Shepherd.  We become people who are concerned about the lost, who seek the lost, who rejoice when there is repentance and a return to the Shepherd’s flock.

We have an example of that in our text this morning.  It took place in the Christian congregation in the Greek city of Corinth.  There was an occasion in Corinth when there was  wandering, and seeking, and finding, and rejoicing.  It is story that highlights for us this truth:  The Lost and Found Rejoice when the Lost are Found.

As you listened to the reading of our text this morning, maybe you sensed there must be a “back story” to this.  There is.  What was going on?  In his first letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul had to deal with a situation that had come up.  It was a situation that involved sexual immorality in Corinth.  Paul describes it this way in 1 Corinthians 5:  It is actually [or widely]  reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and it is a kind of sexual immorality that not even the Gentiles practice:  A man has his father’s wife!  And you are proud! (v. 1-2)  So a man was having relations with his step-mother!  And this was NOT some “dirty little secret.”  It was well-known in the congregation!  Not only that, the congregation was proud of it!  Maybe they were proud of how open-minded and tolerant and “non-judgmental” they were!

Paul had written to them about how they needed to deal with that situation.  They needed to tell this man the truth.  They needed to take that final act of love for someone who wants to say, “I am a Christian,” yet will not repent and turn from sin.  Paul says they needed to turn the man over to Satan (1 Corinthians 5:5).  He said, Remove the wicked man from among yourselves. 1 Corinthians 5:13)  They needed to tell that man he was on his way to hell unless he repents.  You say, “That’s so mean!”  No, my friends!  This is love!  They were to care enough about the soul of this sheep who had wandered away to tell him God’s honest truth!   Paul says they were to take this action so that this man might be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:5)

Fast forward.  The Corinthians did what Paul advised!  They loved the man enough to tell him he had placed himself on the outside of the Kingdom of God by his impenitence.  And lo and behold, it worked!  The man was contrite!  The man repented of his sin!  Now, in our text, Paul advises,  Forgive and comfort him…Reaffirm your love for him! (v. 7-8)  This man was lost and was found!  They needed to tell him AGAIN and AGAIN that Jesus has forgiven his sin, and they have, too!  They need to reaffirm that he is a beloved brother in Christ!  They need to tell him that the angels in heaven are singing because he is back!

That can be hard to do, can’t it?  It can be difficult to forgive and comfort and reaffirm love for someone when we know the messy, ugly details of what they have done.  Maybe we have even been directly hurt by their sin.  I can imagine that man in Corinth coming back to church.  He sits down in the pew.   Another person is about to sit down in the pew and then notices who is sitting there.   “Ooo, yuck!  Gross man!  I’m not sitting next to HIM!”  They quickly move the next pew.  It can be easier to harbor in our hearts the thought, “What is HE doing here?!”  Rather than going up to that lost-and-found brother and saying, “I am so happy to see you here!”

When we have a hard time forgiving and comforting and reaffirming love for a repentant brother or sister, then we are the ones who need to repent.  We have forgotten the great search-and-rescue mission that was conducted for us.  The Son of God, who from eternity was wrapped in unapproachable light, left heaven to come looking for us.  He wrapped himself not in light, but in skin and flesh and tissue and became one of us.  Jesus did not look at humanity and say, “Oooo, yuck!  Gross man!  Gross woman!  I’m not sitting next to them!”  Remember the way Jesus was described in our Gospel lesson.  This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. (Luke 15:2)  God sat down and ate with yucky sinners!  But he did more than that.  He was nailed to a cross for us.  To forgive us.  And now he has found you.  He found you with the Gospel.  Someone baptized you.  Someone preached Jesus to you.  Jesus found you.  He forgives you.  He comforts you.  He affirms and reaffirms his love for you!   And now, those who were lost and found by Jesus rejoice when others who are lost are found!

And let us remember who wants us to withhold forgiveness and mercilessly “shun” the offender.  Satan does.  Paul talks at the end of our text about Satan taking advantage of us and his schemes (v. 11).  Think of what happens when Christians don’t forgive each other.  Church members won’t work and worship with each other.  In our homes, we leverage guilt to manipulate a spouse or sibling who has sinned.  A congregation member or family member is overwhelmed by excessive sorrow (v. 7)   Peace and harmony are disrupted.  This is Satan’s scheme.

Our homes, our congregations are to be places of forgiveness, full and free, just as we have received it from Jesus!  They are to be places where the lost and found rejoice when the lost are found!  God grant it, for Jesus’ sake!

Amen.