Ministers Of A New Covenant Part 2
Lessons From 2 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Today we find ourselves looking at our next chapter and passage for our lesson from 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 wherein Paul continues his discussion of what it means to be an actual “Minister Of A New Covenant.”
Remember, Paul has those in the church at Corinth who were still discounting his apostleship.
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 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.
It is in this context that Paul reminds them that he, like the other apostles, were chosen by God to be ministers of God’s new covenant with mankind.
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.
Paul, being a minister of this new covenant which is better than the old covenant as we discussed last week from chapter 3 then says in our text in 2 Corinthians 4:1-6…
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 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. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Paul reminds the church in Corinth of the great blessing of being a minister of the new covenant by being with…
Ministers And Mercy
Ministers And Mercy
We All Need Mercy.
We All Need Mercy.
Paul, having taken the opportunity to point out that “he and his fellow faithful” are all “ministers of a new covenant” not ministers of the old covenant.
This was a good thing because the old had faded, brought death, and restricted God’s glory but the new shines light the light at God’s creation, brings life, and magnifies God’s glory.
As the apostle points out, he like the rest of us, needed God’s mercy to have the opportunity to be ministers or servants of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:1 (ESV)
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God…
There are none who can escape this reality, not Paul who did everything in “all good conscience” nor you or I.
Romans 3:9–10 (ESV)
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one”
Romans 3:23 (ESV)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
When we obey the gospel we are made ministers of our Lord and Savior.
We are ministers/servants of the most high God, just like Tychicus.
21 So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything.
We are ministers/servants of the most high God, just like Epaphroditus.
Philippians 2:25 (ESV)
25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need
We are ministers/servants of the most high God, just like Epaphras.
7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
Summary
Summary
The point is we are blessed as Christians, one’s who have been adopted into the family of God, to have received God’s mercy and should be honored to be his ministers.
There is no greater opportunity than to serve the most high God and tell others of his salvation.
17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”
However, Paul’s point in verse one is not to focus on the blessing of the mercy we have received to become ministers of Christ but on the motivation it produces with in the minister who has received this mercy.
Those that are motivated as “ministers of the new covenant”…
Do Not Lose Heart
Do Not Lose Heart
Weakened But Not Lost.
Weakened But Not Lost.
The apostle Paul is not suggesting that those that are servants of God and therefore his ministers never find occasion wherein their faith is weakened or shaken by this old sinful world.
Some of the most faithful this world has seen have found themselves weakened or shaken from time to tim.
Abraham wherein his son’s birth was concerned.
17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
Elijah flees Jezebel and want’s to give up and die.
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
Job as he cried out in pain and anger.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?
Jeremiah found himself from time to time contemplating in frustration…
Jeremiah 20:9 (ESV)
9 If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name…”
As you can see some of the very most faithful, in the case of Elijah so faithful he was taken before death, had their moments of weakness wherein their faith was shaken for a moment.
The apostle isn’t saying his faith was never shaken, Paul is saying that when one contemplates receiving God’s mercy and is made a minister of Christ they will never “lose heart.”
The apostle describes this idea more fully in Galatians 6:9.
Galatians 6:9 (ESV)
9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
There is an enormous difference between having our faith shaken for a moment and losing heart i.e., giving up.
I think Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, demonstrates this best in the latter half of the passage we read of Jeremiah 20:9.
Jeremiah 20:9 (ESV)
9 If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
Summary
Summary
Like the apostle Paul whenever we find our faith challenged we “do not lose heart” because we have received the greatest gift of all God’s mercy in allowing his Son to be our sin sacrifice.
And those of us who have tasted of that heavenly gift and are serving our most high God most not lose heart or give up because the we know what awaits us.
But how does being reminded of God’s mercy and our salvation help us never to lose heart?
It helps us by motivating us to…
Renounce Ungodliness
Renounce Ungodliness
God’s Grace Trains Us.
God’s Grace Trains Us.
Grace that saves trains the child of God in how to act in this old sinful world now that they have been born again and raised a new creation.
Titus 2:11–13 (ESV)
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ
Grace trains us to live a life faithful to God.
Jesus’ perfect life as our sin offering (Grace) demonstrates to us who have been saved how to be faithful.
Again, “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions.”
Yes, God’s grace trains us but…
God’s Mercy Reminds Us.
God’s Mercy Reminds Us.
Notice again what Paul writes.
2 Corinthians 4:1–2 (ESV)
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
God’s mercy on us should be, to the minister of the new covenant, a constant reminder that we…
Renounce disgraceful and underhanded ways leaving all that would hinder us from righteousness.
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
God’s mercy on us should be, to the minister of the new covenant, a constant reminder that we…
Refuse to practice cunning or act deceitfully.
163 I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.
God’s mercy on us should be, to the minister of the new covenant, a constant reminder that we…
Refuse to tamper with God’s word or distort God’s word.
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Summary
Summary
If, as ministers of the new covenant, we are constantly being trained by God’s grace and reminded by God’s mercy of renouncing unrighteousness and living righteousness we will “not lose heart” brothers and sisters.
Conclusion
Conclusion
It should be considered by every reconciled Christian an honor to be a minister or servant of the most high God.
As Sinclair Ferguson once stated concerning those that have come to receive God’s mercy and grace, “Knowing God is your single greatest privilege as a Christian.”
Being “ministers of this new covenant” means we have and are…
Drawing closer to God, knowing our God more and more each day, and learning great joy in Christ with each passing moment.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.