 Good morning everyone. We have to be back for coming to the close of the semester. Just a few more weeks to go. Hope you're all doing well. And keeping up with all your assignments and the end of semester work. We'll begin. So I'm going to be willing to open up some prayer. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you under the name of Jesus. We thank you for this day. We thank you for the class we are about to have. We bless Miss Smitha in the name of Jesus. And God, I give all my classmates and dear hands as our mamma is teaching us how this do. Open our mind and heart and listen to it and understand the truth of your words, Jesus, which is the way to life, which is something that we have to hold on, and we have to stick together in our heart. Jesus, let every words that is inspired by the Holy Spirit help us to pressure it in our hearts. Jesus, not just listening to it, but pressure it in our hearts so that in our walk of life, we will prioritize your worry, prioritize your kingdom, and we will live for your glory, Jesus. We give you all the glory and honor in Jesus. May my pray. So, when you're able to watch those videos that I posted, like the second Philippines, number one and two, and then the end of first Philippines as well, we will just put it ourselves going. It's like we know we're able to watch it. Also, if you're having trouble finding it, it's one of those last videos. If you haven't yet watched it, it's especially that, I mean, both of those recordings because the first one is the end of first Philippines kind of concludes everything that we were talking about in first Philippines. And the second video is an introduction to what we are doing, what we've continued to do since last year in second Philippines. It's important to have that context provided so that as we're looking at the rest of the episode, you're able to understand what Paul is talking about, why he's mentioning certain things. So I encourage you to just try and go back and watch those two videos. Also, is there any questions or assignments or anything? Have you all started working on the final assignment? Are you all having any challenges? Okay, I did see something when he mailed me and I responded with his emails. If you have any questions, yes. If not, you can unmute and speak. And if I pronounce your name wrong, please correct me. Good morning, ma'am. Well, this is my data assignment. It's not clear to me. The final assignment, is it? It's not clear, ma'am. So I tried to read it again, but it's not clear to me. Okay. I need more light. Okay. Sorry, I'm not able to hear you very clearly. Just one moment. Sorry, could you repeat that? So you said the final assignment is not very clear. Are you able to hear me? If you had, could you just repeat your question because I wasn't able to hear very clearly. Was it the final assignment you said was not clear? My voice is not clear here. I can't hear you clearly. Okay, okay. I was just asking, you said the final assignment question was not very clear. Is that correct? Okay, okay. We'll just go over that question. He said we should take one for topic and explain and relate it to other aspects. I don't know, maybe we are going to take all the topics from the 1st Corinthians or from the 2nd Corinthians. So that is the problem I am having. Yes. So you can pick a topic either from 1st Corinthians or 2nd Corinthians, so one of those books. So for example, if you choose the topic of unity in 1st Corinthians, so where Paul is addressing the issue of division in the church, then you look at everything that he talks about with regard to unity. You look at that specific theme of unity, where all does he mention it in 1st Corinthians. So look at all of the different, read through the whole book and pick up all the different places where unity is the theme that he is talking about. And then kind of summarize that. So say 1st Corinthians in verse 5. I am just giving you an example. I am not giving you the right references, sorry. So say 5 to verse 12, Paul talks about unity here. And then again in chapter 3, he talks about unity. And then in chapter 7, he talks about unity. So you mention all of those and what does he say about unity in each of those instances. And then we look at also, so I've asked you to look at what was the context. So there was division in the church, right? So what was the division over and how is Paul addressing that division through this when he's talking about unity. Then look at the original language meaning when he is talking about unity, what does that word actually mean in Greek? Is it the same way we understand unity in the English language? Then look at what kinds of words does he mean specifically when he's talking about unity? Is he talking about fellowship? Is he talking about communion? Is he talking about looking at one another the way Christ views us? What kinds of things does he talk about when he's talking about unity? And then you look at also in the rest of scripture outside of 1st Corinthians, what does the rest of scripture say about unity? Now for that last part, I've said you can do some research online. So search online and look at where all their references to unity in the rest of scripture and bring that into your final, so your final summary should be this is 1st Corinthians teaching on unity and bring in also what the rest of scripture kind of says about unity. So your summary should be this is kind of the overall teaching on unity in scripture. But your focus mostly will be on 1st Corinthians. You're just adding in the rest of scripture to give it a more complete kind of picture. I hope that's clear. Any questions? That's clear. Anybody else had any questions? Any challenges? So it is a good amount of work this paper so start working on it as soon as possible so that as you have, if you have questions then I can also be of some assistance to you as we're working on it. Okay, let's go into a quick we'll just look at some of what we covered. Okay. Brother Lubega has asked is there any word limit? I haven't given you a word limit for this paper because it may depend on your topic that you've chosen. So I'm leaving that open but I do, so my main I've mentioned some of the main things that I'm looking at in this paper when I'm reading you. So it is just at the end there I want to see that you've done your own work so you should have read through 1st Corinthians or 2nd Corinthians and done that research. I don't want to just have something copied and pasted from outside sources and then the second thing is how you've presented that if you checked your grammar, checked spelling all of those things, submitting one time submitting your assignment on time and accuracy. So answering the question thoroughly. So I've given you all the steps for the assignment that you're looking at it in the whole of that book and then in scripture as well. So I want that is most important that you've done that thoroughly. If you've not done that, that's when then that will lead to some deduction in your final score. So that I've not mentioned a word limit. I'm more concerned about you doing the research thoroughly. So you won't get more marks if you do a long paper or less if you do a short paper. It's more about have you answered it fully, answer the question. So we don't get signed with any other questions. We will welcome. So if you'll have any other questions, please feel free to email me and of course don't even maybe someone else from the class may have been answering questions. So feel free to do that. So we look at a quick recap of what we did last week. So from chapter three, we started at chapter three last week. So in chapters one and two, Paul kind of talks a little bit about his travels, what he had been doing after he wrote the first letter to the Corinthians. He talks a little bit about his second missionary journey and he talks about wanting to have visited the Corinthians and he actually does visit the Corinthians and why I'm mentioning this is because we will go back to that in today's class. So he does visit the Corinthians church because there are some issues that have come up and he wants to go there in person and address it. But during that time when he visits them, that visit turns out to be quite an unhappy one. And so he had originally planned to go back to Corinth and visit the church, but instead of going back, he sent a status with a letter to the church kind of to explain some of the things that he had brought up with them and why he had brought them up. And so the first two chapters are mostly talking about that, about the issue that was addressed about why he didn't visit them when he said he would visit them on his way back from Macedonia and just some of that, some of the challenges or the misunderstandings that had arisen from all of that about his change of plans of visiting and some people who wondered whether his word could be trusted. So those are some of the things he talks about in chapters one and two. In chapter three he kind of goes into this support of who he is as an apostle, as someone who planted this church and took the gospel to the Corinthians. Now some of this is in support of what he's talked about in chapters one and two. So in one and two people were questioning whether his word can be trusted. He had brought up some he had confronted them with certain issues and that had brought up had brought up this kind of misunderstanding of what their relationship was a little bit not fully reconciled to one another. So he's supporting who he is as their leader. He's writing to just remind them of his heart for them as someone who planted this church and he's also writing because there were certain other people who were trying to come into the church and take over and kind of say that they were better leaders or superior to Paul and so he's supporting himself taking into consideration both these situations the situation with the church as well as opponents that are coming in and questioning his authority within the church and kind of trying to draw some people in the church away with them. So that's what we look at in chapter three is talking about his role in bringing this glorious new covenant that God had entrusted that covenant to him and he had brought it to the Corinthian church and it focuses a lot on the glory of this new covenant and what a powerful covenant it is in comparison to the old covenant that was given through Moses. In chapter four he talks about more on the gospel how he as a minister of God has carried the gospel to them how he has suffered as part of that role of being an apostle so not only has he taken this glorious gospel but it has also required sacrifice it has required a lot of suffering as well and so in seeing that suffering he's encouraging the Corinthian church to know that his work was with genuine love for them and full commitment to Christ to see Christ honored so those are the two things we looked at last week of throughout their ministry their focus is on the church the church being benefited and Christ being glorified so with that we come to chapter 5 we continue from chapter 5 verse 16 onwards we stop at verse 15 from 16 onwards if someone can read for us chapter 16 I mean chapter 5 verse 16 I mean chapter 5 verse 16 and it goes to verse 21 chapter 5 verses 16 till the end of chapter 2 I can convince chapter 5 verses 16 so from now on we record from now on from a human point of view though we have known Christ from a human point of view we know no one in this world therefore if anyone is in Christ he's a new creature the old things have passed away the whole new things have come awakening bright brings a new life but all these things are from God who reconciled us to him through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to him not counting people's sins against them and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation so we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making us up through us we plead with you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God he made Christ who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that in him we would become the righteousness of God that is we would be acceptable to him place in a right relationship with him by his gracious loving kind so here we see in chapter 5 that first section Paul was talking about how we are living for an eternal purpose so we don't we are not concerned about what is happening in an earthly realm how we have been judged in an earthly realm what we are concerned about is what Christ will say when we stand before women so we live our lives on earth very focused on that judgment that will happen when we stand before Christ and then he goes into this second section of the chapter and here he says it is the love of Christ, verse 14 it is the love of Christ that compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died and he died for all that those who lived should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again so basically here he is saying this is what pushes us to do everything that we are doing it is Christ's love that was displayed in his death on the cross and so because he died he set an example that he should be willing to die for his sake and we should no longer live for ourselves but live for him and so this is the new life that we live in Christ we live a life where everything about the way we look at the world, the way we look at why we are living, what is our purpose what are our goals, everything is transformed in this new life we look at eternity the perspective with which we look at life here on earth is from this eternal perspective and the reason we live is for the purposes of Christ and so verses 16 to 21 is taken in that context so from now on the NKJV says therefore from now on so based on this new life that we have in Christ because we are in Christ we no longer live according to the flesh we no longer regard people we no longer view people view you specifically as a church in the way we would have viewed you before we knew Christ we have a new perspective and we view you through the eyes of Christ with Christ's goals for you with Christ's purposes for you and everything we do is from that perspective and from that heart, that love that Christ has for you why he is saying this is to continue to continue to affirm that everything that he did everything that he said, the correction the review that he gave them was coming from this place from a true genuine heart for Christ and for the church for Christ and for the church so a few things here that he talks about is because of Christ's death burial and resurrection how he looks at people and how he relates to God both those things have changed so he says in verse 17 or verse 16 even though we knew Christ according to flesh yet now we know him thus no longer we know Christ himself in a new way we have a spiritual revelation about who Christ is that we didn't have before we were saved so before we were saved we knew Christ in our flesh basically without a full spiritual revelation of who Christ is and then in verse 17 if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation old things have passed away and all things have become new so the way we live life the way we view what we are doing everything is transformed in Christ we have this experience of being born again in the spirit we come alive to the things of God and we made people who are completely new as Roman 6 talks about that old sinful nature has taken away and we are living a new life in the spirit so all this is to say that Paul and Titus and those who are serving the church are doing everything in the spirit they are doing things with this heart of purity with a true compassion for the people and as he said before he knows that he will stand before Christ at the end and so if he is doing something with impure motives or with the wrong wrong motivation wrong thought towards the church then Christ himself will judge him at the end and then from verse 18 onwards they start to talk about this ministry of reconciliation that has been given to him and to all of us as believers, as people who are sent on behalf of Christ to the world now while he is talking about this again he is calling the people to be reconciled to him and to be reconciled to Christ because if Paul is a representative of Christ Christ has sent Paul as an ambassador if the people are not reconciled to Christ's ambassador they can't be reconciled to Christ so Christ has given Paul this message of reconciliation and that message is from Christ himself if they are unwilling to accept it then they are in a sense unwilling to accept Christ himself that is the role of an ambassador we see even when Jesus is sending out the disciples, he says if people reject you, they are actually not rejecting you they are rejecting me then he sends out the disciples with the message of the kingdom and so this is what Paul is saying as well that he is calling them through reconciliation to Christ but to be reconciled to Christ also be reconciled to him and he will continue to talk about that in the next chapter so he says now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation so Jesus himself has brought us back to relationship with the Father to right standing before the Father and so that ministry of reconciliation to call people back to relationship with the Father has been given to us and then in verse 19 that God was in Christ reconciling the world and has helped himself so that is that ministry that they have that God himself was reconciling people to himself through Christ and not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation so through Christ for our sins to be removed for our sins not to be counted against us that was the message that they took to the church in verse 20 now then we as ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us we implore you on Christ behalf be reconciled to God so what is an ambassador does anyone want to answer who is an ambassador or what is the role of an ambassador sorry just think like people say I am a pastor so Jefina shared that word ambassador represents something that is a big or a great responsibility or great role to play a position that is given to someone anyone else what is your understanding of our role as ambassadors representatives yeah representatives so going on behalf of someone so we are being sent to stand as that person would stand before before other people so I will just add a little more so ambassador is a very it is like a government position so it is a diplomatic position where a ruler or someone in authority sends somebody to go on their behalf and to share a message with certain other people and that message that that person shares has the authority of the person who has sent them and should be received with that same amount of care you would give the person in authority you receive it from the ambassador now typically especially in the Old Testament the prophet was seen as this person who had a message from God and was the representative of God to the people in more diplomatic terms and a lot of how it is used in the Old Testament is where when the prophet was speaking God was like a ruler like a ruling king had taken over a smaller a smaller country say and that country had a smaller king so the ruling king coming to the smaller king sending an ambassador to share a message with the king who is serving him so there is a lot of authority and position as an ambassador you are representing someone who is very important and powerful the message you have is very important and is feared by the subordinate because that person will be affected mightily by what is being shared by that message that is being shared in the Old Testament where we see words of rebuke, exhortation, correction calling people back and then giving them consequences just imagine that coming from a ruling king and you are a subordinate king you know that that ruling king has power over you and he has sent this message of warning to you it is something to be really feared and something to be really taken with a lot of gravity so this is that is the kind of language that Paul is using when he is talking about being an ambassador he is coming from the ruler the one true god he is the spokesperson for that that god for Christ who is seated on the throne before whom all angels, all authorities all powers in heaven and on earth power before and he is standing there speaking a message from that ruler so just the gravity of that message should be understood and so he is saying we are pleading on behalf of god why should this god plead with us he is all powerful, all mighty there is absolutely no reason he should come to us with that kind of humility but but Paul and Christ himself come with humility to us and Paul presents that message of we are pleading with you, we are imploring you we are begging you we are calling you back to Christ to be reconciled to god because when you come to Christ you are coming back to god himself so just to understand the humility the kindness of god towards us when we recognize both his power but we recognize that gentleness or the mercy that he has when he is calling us back to himself and then verse 21 he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of god in him so we understand here what exactly it was that reconciled us to god Jesus himself was god in the flesh, was sinless but he became sin he carried the sin of the world on himself to the extent that he represented sin for someone was absolutely pure and holy and without sin to be equated with sin is something that is so contrary to what we can imagine and what god is himself but in doing this it was so that we could have that state that Jesus himself was in we would be that righteousness of god not that we would be made righteous but we would be god's righteousness itself and there's a quote here from Spurgeon says what a grand expression he makes us righteous through the righteousness of Jesus may not only makes us righteous but righteousness may that is not all he makes us the righteousness of god that is higher than the righteousness of Adam in the garden it is more divinely perfect than angelic perfection so yeah just for us to understand we have been made righteousness because of what Jesus did for us so what does it mean to be made god's righteousness to be blameless to be blameless anything else to be made god's righteousness to be in right standing with god yes thank you so I just want to say that when we say we call the righteousness I think as Rosalind said it gives that right standing to God it is a verse that says now we stand boldly calling him a bow fatter we can go to the throne so that's the privilege that the righteousness of God has given us even though we serve it and sometimes we are simple and it's the blood of Jesus that covers us and I think that's basically what that as Paul says about reconciliation here we can go to the throne that comes to me right yeah so the privilege of being made righteous is to be able to stand before God God's righteousness is perfect right it's the perfect will of God it's the perfect purposes of God all that God desires for the way the world should be the way things should be is where there is perfect goodness there is perfect there is no evil there is no sin there is no darkness there is no sickness there is no disease there is no death and that is the righteousness of God where we become that perfect will of God what we were truly meant to be in God's eyes when he created us and that is because of what Christ has done for us so just as Christ is before the Father is what we are before the Father just imagine that so Christ was sinless and sent to the earth to become sin for us so that we could be as Christ is before the Father to be those children of God to be perfect blameless to be holy to be fully an expression of who God is and so with that Paul goes into the next part of his letter let's see how much of this we can read before we go for a break so chapter 6 let's just read verses 1 and 2 we'll look at that and then we'll come back and look at the rest of the chapters someone can read chapter 1 and 2 chapter 6 we then as workers together with him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain for he says in an acceptable time I have heard you and in the day of salvation I have helped you behold now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation so here in chapter 6 we see another so in chapter 5 Paul says we have ambassadors and now he says we have co-workers so this work that we are doing imagine that we have now been raised to the level of working side by side with this God who is all powerful this almighty God so in this place of authority that we have we want you not to take for granted this grace you've received so verse chapter 5 beautifully describes what that grace is for the church to be made ripe with God and so don't throw this away as worthless or don't let it be something you receive but that has no effect on you instead let it have its full effect on the way you live on the way you respond to that grace so this is saying through the church but it's a message also for us that when we receive this grace how do we respond to it now in 1st Corinthians 1510 Paul talks about the grace he received he says by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace toward me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all than the rest of the apostles yet not I but the grace of God which was with me so Paul is talking about how he worked he worked so hard because he knew the grace he had received not only to be saved by Christ but to be saved as someone who was persecuting the church before that so he worked harder than the rest of the apostles because he felt that the grace he received was greater because of what he had been doing before he met Christ so similarly to recognize that we have received such great grace and so our response to that grace should be equally should reflect what we have received our gratitude towards what we have received the kind of sacrifice that we make the commitment that we make to Christ the things we are willing to do for Christ so we see that in Paul's life the suffering that he went through the ways in which he did much more than the rest of the apostles going around the world with the gospel in terms of facing persecution in terms of working to support himself in ministry all of those things were sacrifices that he made because he recognized the grace he had received so just an encouragement for us as well in our walk with the Lord how are we making how are we acknowledging God's grace that he has given us and then in our ministries how are we making the same kinds of sacrifices that we see Christ for us how are we reflecting that in our ministries so in this verse 2 I think we can come back and look at that we look at Isaiah 14 9 if someone can be there for us when we come back we will take a break