Enduring Faithfulness

Introduction

Sometimes there can be a large gap between the WHY and the HOW.

Last week we talked about living out your ministry.

Ministry = Jesus + People

Everyone does ministry

Find your ministry:

How has the Spirit gifted you?

Where has the Lord placed you?

Our motivation for ministry is:

Fear of God

Love of Christ

Because of all this we should live as a changed agent of reconciliation in the spaces God has placed you.

If last week expressed WHY we should live as a changed agent, this week we will explore the HOW we can live as changed agents of reconciliation.

Background: Paul is (reluctantly) justifying his ministry to the Corinthians because they assume the difficulties they’ve heard Paul walked through were evidences of God’s displeasure instead of His authentication or favor.

Have you ever made that assumption? Either in your own life or as you see someone else?

If things aren’t going as planned, God must be angry with you.

It seems to be one thing after another, so God must be upset with them.

Job.

Difficult circumstances in your life are not always a sign of God’s displeasure or punishment but it IS always a reminder of your need for God.

In 5:11-21, Paul explained why he was engaged in ministry, and how in 6:1-13 Paul will explain to the Corinthians HOW he has been engaged in ministry.

He’s doing this so the Corinthians will once again accept his ministry among them .

In so doing, Paul has helped us to see WHY we should be engaged in ministry in the spaces God has placed us. And now we will see HOW we can be engaged in ministry - an enduring faithfulness in ministry - wherever God has placed you.

Based on his role as an ambassador of Christ with the ministry of reconciliation, Paul gives the Corinthians an urgent appeal and and open invitation

2 Corinthians 6:1–2 “1 Working together with him, (see 5:20) then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

Because we have the ministry of reconciliation, there is:

An Urgent Appeal

2 Corinthians 5:20 ESV

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

“in vain” = into emptiness

Paul is not saying that they will lose the grace of God (lose their salvation) but if they have heard the gospel but never received it such that it is evidenced by a changed life, then they received the grace of God in vain

“He receives grace into a vacuum … who does not work with it, who does not give it his heart, and who, through sloth, makes that grace ineffectual, by not doing all that he can to express it in good works.”

— Anselm

James 2:14–17 ESV

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Don’t waste God’s grace!

Work out what God has worked in.

An Open Invitation

2 For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Paul quotes Isaiah 49:8 when God is speaking to Isaiah about the return of the exiles.

Paul connects it to this day and says that “today is the day of salvation”

Just as the day of return for the exiles was a day of salvation, how much more is TODAY the day of salvation if you have not received Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:20 ESV

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

To be an ambassador of Christ means to:

Embody the message of reconciliation. (3)

2 Corinthians 6:3–4 “3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,

“put no obstacle” = Stumbling block

Better illustration in Indiana this time of year = potholes

Paul lives in a way that does not discredit his witness or turn others away from the gospel.

Ways to be a stumbling block:

Hypocrisy

Abuse of Christian freedom

1 Corinthians 8:9–13 ESV

9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

Teaching untruth about God

Matthew 16:23 ESV

23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance (stumbling block) to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

we live our lives in a way that our character will not cause questions.

(granted you won’t please everyone)

1 Corinthians 9:19–20 ESV

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.

The reason Paul lives this way is so that no fault may be found with our ministry,

Not that Paul would look good or that no fault may be found in him. Rather, Paul was concerned with the integrity of the ministry

Ministry = Jesus + People

*Is there anything you are doing (or not doing) that would make it difficult for others to listen to you talk about Jesus or about becoming more like Jesus?

What potholes in your life need to be filled in so you don’t make a wreck of someone’s faith?

Faithfully endure difficulties. (4-5)

2 Corinthians 6:4–5 “4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;”

By great endurance seems to be the title for the next section

endurance is singular to the rest in plural and introduced by “in”

Some of us experience different hardships than others

I’d rather be an ambassador to a South Pacific country than Eastern Siberia!

ILLUST - I was offered to submit my resume to a Missionary Church in Hawaii

Would likely not have been easy

Paul lists many hardships and difficulties that he faced that I will never face.

He is expressing to the Corinthians that the faithful endurance of these difficulties actually verifies his ministry because he didn’t give up when things got difficult.

2 Corinthians (7) Paul’s Commendation as a Minister of God (6:1–10)

Paul’s service for God brings much hardship. He has not landed a soft assignment as Christ’s ambassador. A ministry of reconciliation requires that one must go to those who are unreconciled and impenitent, to claim those claimed by Satan, to march boldly into the dens of vice, ignorance, and deviltry. It is dangerous work, as Christ’s crucifixion reveals. The demonic powers do not lie down weakly in submission when the gospel is preached. But they rise up and lash out viciously in a desperate attempt to prevent it from taking hold.

2 Corinthians (7) Paul’s Commendation as a Minister of God (6:1–10)

A list of nine hardships follow that may be grouped into three sets of three under the categories of general suffering, suffering endured at the hands of others, and suffering endured by way of self-discipline

*How much are you willing to endure for the cause of Jesus?

How much are you willing to put up with for people to be reconciled?

Grow spiritually. (6-7a)

Paul shifts here from what is being done to him to what he is doing for the sake of the ministry

2 Corinthians 6:6–7 “6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;”

For us to represent Christ, we need to live and act like Christ.

2 Corinthians (7) Paul’s Commendation as a Minister of God (6:1–10)

The Spirit fosters these virtues, and “they are evidence of his indwelling presence.”869 Walking in the Spirit is the foremost requirement for effective ministry that will not be discredited before God and is a mandatory credential of ministerial character. It insures that ministry will be carried out in purity

The evidence of true ministry is the presence of the Spirit

Engage in spiritual warfare. (7b)

2 Corinthians 6:7 “7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;”

As an ambassador of Christ you can expect spritual warfare. Did Jesus ever face spiritual warfare?

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 6

a reference to the spiritual weapons God provides (see

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 ESV

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Ephesians 6:14–17 “14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,”

View life spiritually. (8-10)

2 Corinthians 6:8–10 “8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.”

seven pairs of antitheses all starting with hos

first half is how things seem and the second half of how things really are spiritually

2 Corinthians 5:16 ESV

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

imposters and yet are true

unknown and yet well known

dying and behold, we live

punished and yet not killed

sorrowful yet always rejoicing

poor, yet making many rich

having nothing, yet possessing everything.

Conclusion

If you are unsure as to why you are an ambassador for Christ, go listen to last week’s message.

How do you plan to live out your life as an ambassador?

Can you with confidence “justify” your ministry with evidence of an enduring faithfulness?

If not, why not?

If not, what will you change this week to live as an ambassador for Christ?