New Covenant Glory

Weekly Reader: Sami Risen

2 Corinthians 3:7–18 (ESV)

Introduction

Thank You for Appreciation Gifts. First of all, so that I don’t forget, I wanted to say thank you for all the gifts of appreciation last month. It was really a treat to get so many different cards and notes, gifts and goodies from you all and we truly felt appreciated. So Thank you for that...

Thank you so much Sami for reading our text for this morning.

So how are we doing on the four challenges that I put forth at the beginning of this series? Do you remember these or have you lost track of them? The sign up sheets filled up quickly for reading and volunteering with the kids and we have had some great participation in the Table Talk groups so far…but how about that first one?

Tension

If you are like most people you were faithfully after it back in September when I was putting it in front of you each week but by now you have faded off some in it. Maybe you started to think “What’s the point? I mean I am going to listen to someone read it on Sunday and then Dan is going to spend forever telling us what it all means so why don’t I just save myself some time and cut out the middle man...”

The reason is that this [lift up Bible] is not an ordinary book…and the sooner you realize that the sooner you will begin growing in your faith like you say you want to. It’s so funny to me to hear so many people say, “I really want to grow in my faith so I will be compelled to read my Bible more” when it reality it is reading your Bible that causes you grow in your faith.

Because this may look like a typical book. It may sit on a shelf just like any other book but it is not like any other Novel, Encyclopedia, Auto Manual or random textbook we might have on our shelves. Well....it is for some people.

There are University professors with all kinds of letters before and after their names who could tell you more information about this book than most of us would ever know this side of heaven…but the sad part is…they won’t even be there in heaven! Because they know all about the words, languages and sentence structures contained with in it’s pages but they have never met the God who wrote it.

Remember what Paul wrote in his first letter to the Church in Corinth?

1 Corinthians 8:1–3 (ESV) 1 ...we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

We do not read this book in hopes of banking some more head knowledge. There is a physical aspect to reading it but for those who love God, he supernaturally meets us in the pages. I can personally attest to the power behind this experience but with the same certainty I can say that...it isn’t always easy, but nothing worth while is.

It is not that God is hiding himself from us, He is just inviting us to invest more than a passing glance His way. That might work for many of the other tasks that we hurry through in our busy lives but it doesn’t work for a relationship with God. God wants us to meet together with Him in deeply spiritual and supernatural ways not in the way that we encounter the rest of the natural physical world.

And this chapter was a tougher one, so we are going to get after the blessings that comes with the extra effort of engaging in this chapter together. My hope is that you will find more there to apply to your life then you did at first glance.

So open up your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 which is on page 965 in the Bibles in the chairs. Let’s pray and we will dive into this text together.

Truth

So the first thing that you had to notice, but may not have thought much about, is that that we have moved from 1 Corinthians to 2 Corinthians. This is not chapter 2 of the same letter, this is an entirely different letter that Paul has written to the same Church but at a later time.

In between these letters, the movement we call Christianity has grown, which is a wonderful thing, but whenever there is a movement of God, there will be those who try and hitch their wagon to that movement for their own selfish gains. This was a common practice in Paul’s day as we find him speaking against these people in most of his letters.

Paul describes his ministry in chapter 2 like this:

2 Corinthians 2:15–16a (ESV)

For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.”

Have you ever walked into a crowded store and someone is wearing such strong perfume that you are just stopped in your tracks. You try not to react too obviously but you are like, ‘Wow, I didn’t ask for that but there it is.” You know what I am talking about?

And depending on how much you like that particular fragrance you are either compelled to find out what it is called and where they got it or you are compelled to leave the area as quick as possible while holding your nose in a way that doesn’t look like you are holding your nose.

This is the kind of thing that Paul is talking about. They were sharing the message of the Gospel to everyone but it is not received the same way by everyone. Some were excited about it and asked to know more and others were repulsed by it and even offended to the point of threatening or attacking Paul and his team.

Because the Gospel is offensive to those who are perishing, or dying because it stinks like death. But to those who have found new Life in Jesus it is sweet and we just want more. The same fragrance goes out, but it receives different responses.

In recent years we are seeing these different responses becoming more and more apparent. Not long ago people expected Christians to be faithful to the Gospel and to teach what the Bible teaches. They personally might not believe it. They might not really like it. But they expected it from us and gave us room to live according to our Biblically held principles.

But they aren’t even trying to hide the fact that they are holding their noses today. The same teachings are being judged as “intolerant hate speech” not only in the court of public opinion but in some cases in the court of law. Because these same principles that we experience as a sweet empowering fragrance of truth are a repulsive stench to them.

Worse than that, because these messages are no longer a way to “win friends and influence people” many Church leaders are pulling back on the hard truths of Scripture for softer more socially acceptable messages. Messages that ignore our primary problem of sin, death and hell and instead become focused on the more popular issues of the day. They just sell better right now.

And Church members who don’t know any better just follow after these Church leaders because they are highly educated individuals that are saying things that resonate with them because it is what the world around them is also saying. And these leaders have framed papers with their names embossed on them from these prestigious denominations and seminaries so who are we to question them with our simple faith in Jesus

Even though we are talking about 2000 years later, this is not far from what Paul was dealing with in his day. As Solomon’s great wisdom declared, “There is nothing new under the Sun.”

Paul described these wayward Church leaders like this:

2 Corinthians 2:17 (ESV)

17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

This brings us to our first theme for the week. That...

The New Covenant recognizes only Spirit-given credentials (2 Corinthians 3:1-6)

Let’s look at how this is shown here at the beginning of chapter 3, and feel free to hear sarcasm in Paul’s tone because it is dripping with it. Paul says to the Church in Corinth...

2 Corinthians 3:1–6 (ESV)

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?

Do we need to be reintroduced? You know us! We were the first to bring the Gospel to you and are you now questioning us because someone else came in with fancy papers and eloquent speech? Why are you questioning us when your changed lives are our spiritual credentials!

2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

If they were looking for letters of recommendation, he didn’t have one, but he shouldn’t need one because their very lives serve as evidence of their Spiritual credentials in Christ. He could simply point to their Spirit-changed lives as his credentials.

And that was always Paul’s focus, especially for the Church here in Corinth, because their culture was so bent toward Greek reasoning and arguments he took a whole different approach with them. Back at the beginning of 1 Corinthians he said:

1 Corinthians 2:4–5 (ESV)

4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

And apparently this was something noticable, because later in chapter 10 Paul writes:

2 Corinthians 10:10–11 (ESV)

10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” 11 Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present.

In other words, letters are a good place to “Talk the Talk” when you are aren’t there, but when you show up the time for talking is over. It is now a time for action. To walk in the power of the Spirit so that others can see that you are not just full of hot air.

These false teachers were comparing themselves to each other and then boasting as if their fancy words made them something special. Especially in matters of faith, natural words only matter if they are describing a supernatural reality. Without that, you got nothing. About these same guys Paul says..

2 Corinthians 10:17–18 (ESV)

17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

It is only the credentials given by God that matters, the rest can be just empty words.

Secondly...

The New Covenant is about unfading glory (2 Corinthians 3:7-11)

This part of the text is where a Study Bible of some kind would be a great help because Paul is referencing something that most of them would have quickly understood, but it takes us today a little longer to get there. Let me read it again and then we will unpack it a little at a time.

2 Corinthians 3:7–11 (ESV)

7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?

Hopefully the mention of Moses and letters carved on stone brought to your mind the story of the 10 commandments. If so, then you are on the right track.

Most people know about how Moses went up the mountain of the Lord and received the 10 Commandments and then brought them down to find the rest of God’s people worshiping a golden calf. Then in righteous indignation he broke the 10 commandments, physically breaking the law of God in reflection of the Israelites doing the same thing before him. So he went down and dealt with their rebellion and then had to go back to God to get a fresh set of the rules to bring down to the people again.

That is the abbreviated version, of course, but what Paul is specifically referring to here is how when Moses returned with the tablets the second time his face was physically shining. Because he had been in God’s presence it had changed him so that he carried in his countenance a glow that was freaking everyone out. So Moses put a veil over his face so that the people would feel free to talk with him.

That is the story that Paul is referring back to here, and you may have gotten that part, but the more tricky part is what is the deal with him calling the 10 commandments “the ministry of death”? That doesn’t sound like a good thing and we thought that the 10 commandments were a good thing.

Well they are a good and glorious thing, but the truth is that the Old Covenant Law, represented by the 10 commandments really just brought us death. Before Moses went up the mountain, humanity already stood dead in our trespasses and sins but we just didn’t really understand how that worked. The law showed us. The law showed us the many ways that we are broken because it showed us exactly what it would take to be right with God…but it was powerless to make it happen.

I still love how one pastor who recently battled cancer explains it. In his office he keeps this print out of the brain scan that showed the tumor that was in his head to remind him of the Old Covenant Law. Because that scan is like the law in that it can show you the problem, but it can do nothing to fix it. It was helpful in that it showed him that something had to be done or he would die…but it had no power to do anything to fix the problem. That is how the “ministry of death” worked. It is helpful as it shows us the reason that we will die, our sin and rebellion, but it offers no help to fix that problem…but the New Covenant does.

Years after Moses, God gave Jeremiah a vision of a coming “new covenant.” God said through Jeremiah,

Jeremiah 31:33 (ESV)

33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

We are not talking about an external, natural response to written laws, but God Spiritually writing His law on our hearts, changing us from the inside out. And then similarly, God spoke through Ezekiel and said:

Ezekiel 11:19 (ESV)

19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,

This new covenant was instituted at Jesus’ death and resurrection. Remember the words of Jesus at the Last supper?

1 Corinthians 11:25b (ESV)

... “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

The Old Covenant was glorious in that God gave it to us to show us our biggest problem of sin and death, but it is far surpassed by the New Covenant because in it we find the answer for our biggest problem.

2 Corinthians 3:9-11

9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

This leads us to our final theme for the week, a focus on how will we be changed by the glory of this New Covenant.

The New Covenant transforms us gradually into Jesus’ forever glory (2 Corinthians 3:12-18)

2 Corinthians 3:12–18 (ESV)

12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted,

because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

In contrast to the Old Covenant where Moses had to place a veil over his face to shield God’s people from the glory of God, Paul boldly radiates the New Covenant glory of Jesus because it brings life not death. Those who are still under the Old Covenant have knowledge that leads only to their death, but the ministry of the Spirit needs no veil because it brings new life to those who once knew only death.

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

It happens gradually, but when we encounter the Spirit of Jesus through the power of the gospel then we begin to become like him and everything changes from the inside out. It is no longer about a written set of rules that is imposed from the outside in, but it is a Spiritual transformation that happens from the inside out.

We start to grow in new affections so that we no longer desire those things that were hurting, harming and enslaving us but we instead desire righteousness, or “right-with-God-ness”. Only this internal and incremental work of the Spirit can walk us into this kind of freedom.

So we have Paul saying in

Romans 8:1–2 (ESV)

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

This is reflective of Jesus’ own words in John 8 where He says:

John 8:31–32 (ESV)

...“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Gospel Application

Because that is the true mark of a follower of Jesus. That is the spiritual credentials of a disciple. It isn’t about how many words in the book you have read or how well you understand it…especially the first time through. It is about an inner drive to be with the one who loved us enough to send his Son to fix our problem of pain, sin and death. And then wrote us a love letter to tell us all about it. There is a sweet aroma in that for us.

But that is not the same for those of us who are perishing. Later in on in Chapter 4 Paul says:

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 (ESV)

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

It is my prayer that no one leaves this place today in this condition. Blinded to the sweetness of the Gospel and the clarity that it brings. If you think that might be you then I invite you to come see me after the service. I will hang out up here for a few moments and I would love to have the opportunity to stinks like Jesus to you in hopes that you too can find the sweet aroma of his grace.

Landing

The Old Covenant is glorious, but it only shows us the problem. The New Covenant, the Gospel, far surpasses the Old in that it fixes that problem and invites us to live a life that is growing in the forever glory of Jesus Christ.