(Notes from sermon preached at Life Ministry prayer meeting on 09/10/2012)
How a minister who knows he is unable to produce results
handles ministry (2 Cor.3- 4:1-6)
The apostles are our example of ministry in every way. We are
called not only to the gospel they first preached but also to the attitude with
which they preached it.
In 2nd Corinthians, Paul is enjoying the kind of
results that all of us dream of in our work of ministry. Everyone could see
that the Corinthians were genuine converts whom God had clearly done His work in their hearts. To Paul, they were like his letter of
recommendation (3:2).
Paul is not just encouraged but deeply humbled by the
Corinthians’ flourishing faith. He reminds them while also reminding himself,
how these great evidences of conversion come about.
What exactly had happened in the Corinthians to turn them
from enjoying sin and avoiding Christ to becoming such recommendable
Christians? Paul explains what happens for someone to be genuinely converted:
(i) God turns their hearts from stone to flesh. (2 Cor. 3:3.)
This is exactly what the prophets had prophesied for God’s new covenant
with His chosen people. (Ezek. 11:19, Ezek. 36:26, Jer. 32:39) Paul says that
we are ministers of this new covenant (2 Cor. 3:6)
(ii) God writes his law in their hearts (2 Cor. 3:3. Elsewhere
in Ezek. 11:20, Heb. 10:16, Rom. 6:17 etc)
(iii) God removes the veil that hinders men from seeing Him,
the veil that is still hindering many Jews from seeing that salvation is only
in Christ (3:14-16, See Rom. 10:1-4)
(iv) God Himself
shines a light in their dark hearts to give them the knowledge of Christ. (4:6)
Another interesting illustration he uses is that to those in
whom God does these great works, those who are being saved, the aroma of Christ
is life while the same aroma is death to those who are perishing. (2:15-16.
Elsewhere
in Chap. 4:3, 1 Cor. 1:18, 2 Thess. 2:10)
Who is sufficient for these things? Twice in the
passage, the apostle reminds us all of his own insufficiency to do these things in 2:16-17, and 3:5-6.
Only God, the Person of the Holy Spirit, does these things,
accomplishing the New Covenant as He chooses, and not us. Paul repeats this
severally in chapter 3:
…written not with ink but with the Spirit
of the living God (verse 3)
…the
letter kills but the Spirit gives life (verse 6)
…will
not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? (verse 8)
…we
all… are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to
another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (verse 18)
What then is our part?
Since this New Covenant is all God’s merciful glorious work,
it is only by God’s mercy that we (just like Paul) are sent to preach it. (Chap.
4:1)How therefore should we handle our proclamation of this great work?
If God has decided to have us as ministers (translated ‘servants’)1
of the New Covenant, how should we, the messengers, preach this Good News of
salvation?
Shouldn’t we be careful to preach exactly the kind of gospel
that God uses to do this redeeming internal work on hearers who are dead in
sin? The answer is a resounding YES! We must help men see that they are
responsible sinners and tell them to trust in Christ’s death for sin and His
resurrection. Only this is genuine repentance. We must be willing to let the Spirit do his
work at His own time and will, and not at the end of our gospel presentation,
as we may desire.
What should be our attitude as those who, by God’s mercy, have
God’s ministry? Paul explains;
- As men of sincerity, knowing that we are actually speaking in the sight of God and we are commissioned by Him to do so (2:17)
- With a presentable conscious before the Holy Spirit, being faithful and patient because we know conversion is not merely words of the lips but an internal work done only by the Spirit when His Gospel is received, which will be evident in the person’s fruit, as it was in the Corinthians’ case. (Chap. 3)
- With honesty and reverence, without tampering with the Gospel of God (Rom. 1:1, 2 Cor. 4:2)
- Having hope that those who reject the gospel do so because we know that their hearts are still of stone, the veil is still over their faces, and the light has not been shone in their hearts that they may know that the Gospel is true.
Christ’s glory is seen best in the gospel. Chapter 4:4 tells
us that this is ‘the gospel of the glory of Christ’. His glory is seen best in
what He did on the cross and not what he can do in our present circumstances. Take
care not to miss the gospel’s significance.
1: Minister.
Greek: diakonos that could mean one who run on
errands; an attendant, that is, (generally) a waiter (at table or
in other menial duties); specifically a Christian teacher and pastor
(technically a deacon or deaconess): - deacon, minister, servant.
(Source: Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionary)
