This week we begin a new quarter in which we follow our previous study of First Corinthians by exploring the book of Second Corinthians.   This letter from Paul to the church in Corinth is likely the 4th one he wrote to them, two others having been lost to the church at large.   It focuses on Paul’s personal anguish due to his sufferings for the Gospel, and in particular his need to defend his apostleship against severe critics in the Corinthian church itself.    This week’s handout gives an outline of the letter and can be useful in following the flow of Paul’s thought throughout the rest of our study.    You may want to return here to trace where we are in that flow.   In addition the slides for this week compile a number of memorable and oft-quoted passages from the letter that are easily overlooked by looking only at the outline.

The slides are at this link:

Week 1 Slides

The handout is at this link:

Handout Week 1

The Spring quarter begins on March 6. In a continuation of the Winter quarter class on I Corinthians, we now turn attention to the last letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, known as II Corinthians. A description of the class is given below:

Comfort for a Suffering Church
Selected Studies in II Corinthians
Instructor: Dr. John Dishman

The Apostle Paul founded the ancient church in the city of Corinth. Yet despite this he constantly found himself at odds with how the Corinthians were living out their new Christian faith. Divisions in the church, sexual immorality, idolatry, disorder in worship—all these were prevalent in the church as the leaders and members tended to bring the practices of the first century Roman culture into their fellowship. In dealing with these issues Paul wrote four letters to the church, two of which have been preserved. The second of these letters is what we know as I Corinthians, which we studied in the Winter Quarter. The last of these letters that was preserved is our II Corinthians, that we will study in the Spring Quarter. This letter begins with the famous passage from the Apostle on God’s comfort in the midst of despair—a topic that Paul knew first hand from his sufferings on behalf of his Savior. It goes on to deal with the intrusion into the Corinthian church of certain self-characterized “super-apostles” that criticized Paul and attempted to lead the Corinthians away from “sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” As Paul defends his own ministry against those preaching a false gospel, he writes some of the most memorable passages of inspired Scripture in the New Testament. In so doing he helps all who suffer understand how the God of all comfort provides that comfort through the love of Christ. As in the previous quarter the classes will combine lectures and group discussion with modest homework assignments to aid class members in focusing on the key topics of the epistle.

This week we conclude our study of selected chapters of I Corinthians. We consider the glorious promise of our own bodily resurrection, based on the resurrection of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul describes this in the concluding verses of Chapter 15.

The slides for Week 11 are at this link:

Week 11 Slides

The handout for Week 11 is at this link:

Handout Week 11

I greatly appreciate Pastor David’s substituting for me last weekend during our family emergency. We will conclude our study of Chapter 15 and the letter itself next Sunday: Week 11.

The slides for Week 10 are at this link:

Week 10 Slides

The handout for Week 10 is at this link:

Handout Week 10

Week 9 focused on the famous “love chapter” of First Corinthians. In Week 10 we will briefly consider in Chapter 14 the application of Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts found in Chapters 12 & 13 before moving on to the zenith of the letter in Chapter 15: the Resurrection. We will continue to meet in the sanctuary while the CE building undergoes repair from the recent flooding.

The slides for Week 9 are at this link:

Week 9 Slides

The handout for Week 9 is at this link:

Handout Week 9

Even though we talked about the gift of “prophecy” last Sunday, this wasn’t meant to be an actual prophecy about the “broken church”, that is, the flooding of the Christian Education Building due to a broken pipe from the ice storm! Nevertheless, we will continue to meet in the sanctuary until further notice while the CE building is under clean-up and repair.

In Week 8 we began the study of Chapters 12 through 14 regarding spiritual gifts. In Week 9 we will consider Chapter 13 from whence the title of the course gets its name: the famous “Love Chapter” of I Corinthians.

The slides for Week 8 are at this link:

Week 8 Slides

The handout for Week 8 is at this link:

Handout Week 8

In Week 7 we considered I Corinthians Chapters 8 - 10 where Paul takes up the question of offering food to idols. This consideration led him to discuss liberty of conscience, the “weaker brother”, and finally to issue the statement: “flee idolatry!”

There will be no class on January 30 as we hear the Sneeds discuss their missionary work in the Middle East. Week 8 will resume on February 6 where we will begin our study of spiritual gifts in Chapters 12 - 14.

The slides for Week 7 are at this link:

Week 7 Slides

The handout for Week 7 is at this link:

Handout Week 7

NOTE: Because of the flood in the Christian Education Building, all classes will now be held in the sanctuary until further notice.

We completed our study of marriage, divorce and remarriage and now will go on to questions of idolatry and Christian liberty as we consider Chapters 8-10 as a unit.

In 1992 the PCA adopted a report on divorce and remarriage. The report is very useful in understanding the historical and recent views of Chapter 7. It can be downloaded here.

[Note: in Firefox you may have to turn off the Adobe plugin to get this link to work. It should come up in a separate Adobe Reader window.]

The slides for Week 6 are at this link:

Week 6 Slides

The handout for Week 6 is at this link:

Handout Week 6

In Week 5 we began our study of sexuality, marriage and divorce in Chapters 6 & 7 of I Corinthians. Class discussion was so vigorous on this topic that the originally prepared material got truncated. As a result we will continue to dig into Chapter 7 in Week 6. In preparation class members are urged to read the entirety of Chapter 7 in a single sitting to get the big picture of what Paul is telling the Corinthians and us on this vital topic.

On slide 13 of the attached slide package for this week there is an excerpt from a sermon on this topic by Dr. Timothy Keller. The excerpt, which runs about 5 minutes in length, can be found on this link. Please use the back button on your browser to come back to this page and then click on this link when you get to slide 13. You can then reclick the link below to return to the slide set.

The slides for Week 5 are at this link:

Week 5 Slides

The handout for this week are at this link:

Handout Week 5

We didn’t quite finish the prepared slides for Week 4.  The full original set is posted below along with the handout for this week.  We will finish our consideration of Chapter 6 in the next class and begin a study of that challenging Chapter 7 on marriage and divorce and singleness.

The slides for this week are at this link:

Week 4 Slides

The handout for this week are at this link:

Week 4 Handout