The Spirit's Glorious Ministry

ME

What is glorious? Nowaday, we often define glorious as something almost otherworldly. SO breathtaking, so indescribable, and so majestic. As you might remember from two weeks ago, I had to privilege of going to Alaska and I would say the Mendelen Glacier is somewhat glorious. But do you know what’s more glorious? Several years ago on a brother’s bachelor trip I went to Iceland and I saw the glaciers there, even closer, that’s more glorious. We went one day to so many waterfall called fosses and one is more breathtaking, more glorious than the next, some coming down high above the mountains, and others we go behind them and although I chickened out, the brothers who actually stood next to it told me how powerful the raging water was as it tumbles down with roars. And still something can be glorious like a beautiful sunset resting just at the right time across the shoreline of Bloodvein. But the Bible describes God as glorious, more glorious in fact than all he created. Than glaciers, and sunsets and fosses.

WE

The one question I want to pose this morning is if indeed our God is the superlative of glorious, why do his people, his church and often shine so dimly as a reflection of his glory?

GOD

We’ve been talking about two gifts two weeks ago about the very gospel we are saved from and proclaim to others, and the life letter of transformed lives. And we alluded to the fact that Paul is a minister of the new covenant, which is from the life-giving Spirit. We ended off declaring the problem with the old covenant can point to our sin but it can’t stop us from sinning. Something, someone more needs to intervene. All of this belongs to the larger context of Paul in trying to defend his apostleship to the church of Corinth needs to establish how he is different from his opponents, whom we will meet in the next message again. We also talked about the difficulty of dividing a letter for the sake of time and length, and a preacher has to decide breadth over depth or the other way around. So you can see as we look at verse 7 onwards very similar themes which was established in the last message appears before. So do we learn anything new if this is but a continuation of the overall theme of Paul being the minister of a new covenant? Well yes, because Paul uses an illusion to a relatively familiar Old Testament episode in Moses’ life to illustrate his point. So let’s begin in verse 7:

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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? 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.

The first to note is verse 6 in relation to verse 7, since the letter kills, the ministry it produces is a ministry of death. Paul seems to be rather dramatic calling it a ministry of death, right? But it is a ministry of death because as we said last week, the old covenant says to the church of Corinth and by extension to us we are sinful but leaves us there, unchanged, helpless, not ignorant because we know we are in clear violation of God’s law. But at the time the old covenant was established, it was God’s law whom he himself carved with his fingers on two stone tablets which Moses was asked to then proclaim to the Israelites at the time. Only if we backtrack and remember, there were two times where Moses did that. We are talking about the second time. If you remember, the first time is less than flattering. Moses went up to the mountain of God to retrieve the ten commandments, and the Israelites left with Aaron waited and waited. And when their patience wear thin or presumed he may have died, they demanded Aaron do something and out of panic, fear for his life, and stupidity, Aaron fashioned a Golden Calf and claim this is their God who brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness. God alerted Moses that you better get down there because the people have just committed idolatry of the vilest kind, and God is about to destroy them. Moses interceded on the people’s behalf to not kill them, to appease God’s anger. Moses went down the mountain, saw that indeed the Israelites had been worshipping a golden calf and is own brother Aaron the Priest went along with it, giving even the ridiculous, and rather irresponsible excuse they threw the materials into the fire and poof, a golden calf appeared. In his anger, Moses threw the tablets of testimony on the ground. It’s a pretty disturbing scene after where Moses forced all those who worshipped the idol to drink from the melted powdered remains of the calf, and slaughter a large contingent of rebellious Israelites. God threatened to withdraw his presence and Moses was so disillusioned he said to the effect of “I quit” if God you aren’t going to take care of this. So God promised to continue to be their God and continue the Exodus journey and rescue plan. Hang on there, we are going somewhere with this loose recollection of .

Moses became bolder and ask the see God face to face, only to be warned any man who see God’s glory will not live, but you can see his back, under God’s protection. Which brings us to chapter 34, when God asked Moses to cut two NEW tablets from the rock so he can write his laws again. This is where we pick up and need to read the actual scripture:

English Standard Version Chapter 34

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

34 Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

I. GOD REVEALS HIS SURPASSING GLORY THROUGH HIS MINISTRY OF THE NEW COVENANT.

It is from this backdrop of Moses experiencing God’s glory which helps us understand where Paul is going. Few things we have already established: a) God said to Moses you can’t see him face to face, or he won’t live. b) From this new passage, we see in fact this is true because just being in God’s presence upon the mountain has already transferred God’s glory onto Moses’ skin, and it causes fear to those around. c) v. 34 says Moses removes his veil when he spoke to God, and v. 35 puts the veil back on for the sake of the people of Israel.

Now we go from the detour back to verse 7 in 2 Corinthians and understand why the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory. Just an aside, the word glory appears no less than 8 times in these first 4 verses, so we know it is an important. Glory means the majestic, splendor, radiance, and transcending, perfect nature and character of God conveyed to humanity as superlative brightness. This is what Paul is describing and illustrating. Only it doesn’t end there, because the verse says “which was being brought to an end,” a very tricky Greek word which has various meanings like abolish, void, end, but in the case of glory the word might be better translated as fade away, which is more understandable then being brought to an end which sounds somewhat more generalized. NIV uses the word transitory all of which all indicates power as it was the glory of Moses’ exposure to the presence of God, there is something far greater. A number of scholars believe this is a Rabbinic comparison from the lesser to the greater, and the greater is verse 8, the ministry of the Spirit is even more glorious! Before explaining how so, Paul uses another comparison, calling the ministry through the old covenant a ministry of condemnation, which is apt because the law tells people they are guilty has glory (because it was given by the God of glory, it is sacred), but something more is glorious, the ministry of righteousness. So if we were to draw a diagram, and under column 1 we have some glory, and underneath we write ministry of death and ministry of condemnation, and they can both be summarized as the old covenant, our second column, column 2 we have more glory, and underneath we can write down ministry of the Spirit, and underneath it the ministry of righteousness, all of which can be summarized as the new covenant. You can see then Paul is quite determined to say qualitatively the new covenant is far superior in glory then the old one. Notice Paul would never say the old covenant is without ANY glory, because it was very must an instrument of God, and a covenant is a relationship between in this case, God and his people. But something far better now has been made possible so God’s relationship with his people is that much more closer, that much more free. Why would Paul know this? Because he has seen firsthand the glorious One on Damascus road. He belonged to the former covenant, where he judged others and condemn them by it and by which he himself was condemned. But Paul now experiences a new covenant of which he preaches the good news of Jesus Christ who not only saves us from our sin but sends his Spirit to be among us, a permanent glory.

What does that mean to us? It means all of us who are brought to relationship with God under the new covenant need not to worry whether we are sentenced and condemned still in our sin. Yes we’ve been sentenced, but we’ve been pardoned. We’ve been condemned but we don’t stay condemned, because we have been forgiven. We have been forgiven because Christ was forsaken and sentenced to death on the cross, and condemned in our sin. The instruments of the old covenant, which we were not a part of, thanks to the saving work of Jesus Christ. We belong the the new covenant of the ministry of the Spirit, where God himself is alive in us and where Christ’s righteousness, his perfect relationship with the Father we can have through Jesus His son. If God is present in Moses encounter on Mount Zion, God is even more evident, more greater in presence and revelation of His attributes in Paul, and by extension all who receive his gospel. In the Old Covenant, God is the holy other, but in the New Covenant, through the Spirit, God is accessible. How often though, and I include myself in that, with this proximity to God, do I still stay distant from Him? Not acknowledging his presence in every aspect in my life, from the morning I wake up, to when I sleep at night. How much of God and his presence do I recognize in my ministry at MCBC, and as I minister to my family, my wife, my friends, my neighbours, those who live in my same condo, even on the same floor. Do they even know I am a blessed recipient of the glorious ministry of the Spirit? Do they see it in the words I say, the way I behave? Or do I live for second best, being distant from God, having been purchased under the new covenant, still behave as if I belong to the old one, seeing God as the great punisher, scary, distant, cold. Which God do you experience?

II. GOD GIVES US BOLDNESS AS OPPOSE TO BLINDNESS FOR THE VEILED.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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. 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.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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.

We now come to a further illustration from . Paul begins by saying since we have such a hope, we being himself, the church of Corinth, and any believer of Jesus, having a hope in the New Covenant, a new relationship with God through the forging by the Holy Spirit, this causes Paul to be bold. We have seen Paul being bold in 1 Corinthians, and the painful letter. As we learned in previous messages, though Paul doesn’t appear bold in person, but his letters and when it comes to proclaiming the gospel, Paul is no nonsense, and plainly declares the gospel, unashamed and unfazed by persecution and plainly offers it for all who want to hear. He contrasts his boldness to Moses, who still needed a veil to mediate between God to the Israelites. In this case, ESV uses the same term of “the outcome of what was being brought to an end” and you would think NIV would use the word “transitory” again, but instead it uses the words “the end which was passing away” which seems to coincide with the ESV explanation more. Unlike the fading glory in verse 7 and 11, Paul uses the same Greek word in another sense, which speaks to the abolition of the old covenant, rendering it ineffective and inoperative. Why? Because with the New Covenant, the purpose of the Old Covenant is obsolete. Yet this did not bring about the Israelites, not in the spiritual sense, but past and present believers of Judaism to recognize the Spirit living covenant, because their minds were hardened. In other words, whether in Moses days up until this very day, the reason the new covenant is rejected like the old covenant ultimately comes down to disobedience and unbelief. This Paul describes as liken to a veil which is preventing them from seeing the truth remains unlifted. That is, they are blinded from the truth, even though the Jews were the heirs to the promise of God, their unbelief which ultimately turn to their persecution and ultimately execution of the Messiah they longed for ironically is the only one who can give them access because He is the Messiah. This speaks to the uniqueness and one and only mediator Christ is. No one else can give Jews or Gentiles, you and me, access to the Father except through the blood of Jesus. This blindness and hardened heart is so pervasive that even when Christ says in to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus in effect all of the Old Covenant speaks and points to him, beginning with Moses, which is to say the Torah or the Book of the Law, they can’t find God in it. The only way for them and us to find God is through Christ, believing and receiving Jesus Christ and what he has done for us, that he is Lord and Saviour, then every word in Moses spills out revewaling Jesus on every page.

Brothers and sisters, friends, is our heart and mind veiled from seeing Jesus on every page of scripture, beginning with Moses, or the Law, from Genesis to Deuteronomy? I pray God would lift our spiritual blindness and allow us to turn away from disobedience and being at odds with God, but to embrace him by turning towards his glorious face in Jesus Christ.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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.

III. GOD UNVEILS US TO ONE DAY BE FULLY LIKE HIS IMAGE.

Paul declares boldly in Trinitarian terminology the Lord in verse 16 to whom we turned towards in none other than the Spirit of the living God. Yet at the same time this Lord can be none other than Jesus Christ, because it is through his redemptive work on the cross by which one turns and are unveiled. This is the profound mystery of our Lord God, who is Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit, all working together in the plan of redemption towards our freedom from the law of sin and death. Now we come full circle to the message two weeks ago and what we spoke of at the beginning of the message, that is, the ministry of death, the letter which kills, the ministry of condemnation would have always kept us in captivity in an endless cycle of works-righteousenss in order to gain God’s favour through our own ways and own means, only to stumble in our attempt and realize the law’s requirement is so much steeper it is unattainable. Then we are trapped, to either give up in our faith journey, to rebel against this unjust system, or accept our fate as prisoners within the trappings of the law. But the Spirit offers a New Covenant by the way of Jesus which breaks us free from the bondage of sin, my chains are gone, I’ve been set free, as the Christian song goes. And if we were just to be set free from condemnation and death, this would already be profound good news. Yet God is not done with us yet, and refuses to leave us only freed. Freed from is great, but freed for is so much more glorious. Here I must once again speak of our modern Evangelical imbalance when we talk about the good news. We often equate good news or the gospel to salvation and atonement, and while true this is a very important part of it, it is not all of it.

I liken this to a prisoner who has been set free and yet remain wearing his prisoner clothes, have chains bounded to his feet. The only difference is place, he is out of jail but still trapped in the culture and structure of his old days and old ways. Is this person truly free? Is not freedom that not only are his shackles removed, he is given a new clean set of clothes, but he is also going to do something with the rest of his life based on the newfound freedom? This is what freed for means. How now do we live this new reality so that our freedom is not in vain?

A disciples is not just someone who regularly remind themselves I have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus who bore my sins and died on the cross for me, but also how do I demonstrate this new life by living a different way of community, a different way of loving those around me, by sharing my story of freedom so others can turn and experience the freedom themselves.

English Standard Version Chapter 31

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 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. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Paul beautifully sums it up with the promise we all, everyone one of us, irrespective of whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, male and female, using the image one last time of an unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, we can experience what Moses couldn’t, to behold God face to face, to reflect his glory in our lives fully, and such proximity in and with God begins to change us in our inner most being, our character, our thoughts, our choices, our behaviors and actions until one day we become the image bearer of Jesus Christ we were meant to be. In other words, our sanctification is what our freedom has bought us, not so that others can see how good our gracious or loving a person I have become, but how good and gracious and loving my God is through my reflection of his image in my every day life!

YOU

Brothers and sisters, you were bought for a price to be free, not free to indulge in more sin and entertainment and self-loving and absorption, though we are never immune to that as long as we are living in our consumeristic, materialistic and narcissistic culture and society. But how are we different, in order to reveal God’s glory through our life?

WE

My prayer to us is that we may shine with the glory of Christ by the power of the Spirit in our lives and seize the freedom to live in such a way when people encounter this church, this community, they would see God’s glory radiantly displayed in our love and good works. Amen.