The glory of the Gospel

Introduction

• Yesterday we talked about pursuing the glory of God as the chief motivation in missions.   We need to understand the big picture and God’s ultimate desire and dream.   This morning, we focused on the glory of God’s servant - you and me.  Can we be great in God’s kingdom?  
• Tonight I want to talk about the glory of God’s message.   How do we proclaim God’s glory?   Tomorrow we will talk about the glory of God’s work in the world
• Ps 19:1 - The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.   All of creation speaks of God’s greatness. 
• Ro 1:19-20 “since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
• Unfortunately I would not be able to say that all of the things I have said in Russian or in Tagalog have been “plain” or “clearly understood”.   If I supposed to compete with creation in declaring God’s glory, then I should have given up long ago!
• Or do we as human beings, fallible as we are, with heavy accents and bad grammar - do we have a message about God’s glory that the stars and the flowers and the trees cannot tell?   Is there something unique about our way of displaying God’s glory?
• I believe we do.   Our theme verse talks about it.   It is called the gospel.
  Text: 2 Cor 3:4-19

Moses' ministry was unquestionably glorious.  

• A great leader, one who led his people out of slavery and helped to establish them as a people with their own identity and covenant with God.
• Twice he spent 40 days and 40 nights in God's presence
• Amazing intercessory influence – God listened to him and changed his actions on the basis of his prayers.
• He saw God's glory in a way that no one ever had before - Ex. 33:17-23.    When he talked with God face to face, his face would shine.
• Great spokesman for God.   The greatest prophet of the OT.   
• And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. (Dt 34:10-12)
• His most important contribution - the Law.   Their identity and relationship with God as a people was grounded on this law.  And it was Moses who gave them the Law.

Paul's ministry was more glorious

• But Paul was convinced that his ministry was more glorious than the ministry of Moses.  (2 Cor 3:7-8)
• His ministry reflected God’s glory more effectively than Moses did.    Not a small claim.   He didn’t hear too many Jews cheering when they heard that statement.
• Was this self-promotion?  Blowing his own horn? 
• No, because it is not grounded in his own competency or superior personal characteristics. (2Co 3:5).  He is not claiming that he was more committed or more spiritual or more gifted than Moses.
• He simply means that the ministry that God had entrusted to him is more glorious than the ministry that God entrusted to Moses.  And he did not feel worthy of this ministry.   He recognized that he had received this ministry only by God’s mercy and grace.
• When he uses the word “ministry”, what is he talking about? 
• Not Paul’s ministry.  Never talks about “my ministry” or “our ministry” in 2 Corinthians (2Co 3:3, 6:3 are not exceptions in the Greek.)
• Not how big his church is or how many students in his seminary.   Not how many miracles he performed, what positions he has held or how many degrees after his name.
• He is really talking about his message more than about the messenger.  We see that when we look at 2 Cor 5:18-20.   In vs. 18 - “Gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”  And in vs. 19 “He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” The ministry of reconciliation is intimately connected with the message of reconciliation. In vs.20, Paul describes this ministry in other words:  “God’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”
• the ministry = the proclamation of the Gospel
• His ministry was glorious, not because of who Paul was, but because of who He was representing and because of the message that he was proclaiming on God’s behalf.
• Reasons why

Definitely more glorious!

• Paul’s belief and hope
• that through his proclamation of the Gospel, people would see the glory of God (2 Cor 3:16).
• hope in the sense that this was not obvious to everyone.  Most people didn’t see his ministry as glorious.  Paul was despised and kicked out of town more than most.  But his hope was that one day the whole world would recognize the glory of God in the gospel
• nevertheless there was evidence of the glory even now - the people that had been changed through his preaching - 2 Cor 3:3
• We are not apostles like Paul. Most of us are not  preachers.  But we have the same Gospel.   We also know it, study it and tell others about it.  We are also Christ’s ambassadors.  If Paul’s ministry of preaching the Gospel was glorious and great, more glorious and greater than the ministry of Moses, than so is ours!  This glory is not something that only describes Paul’s ministry and experience, but ours as well. 

Paul’s response to this belief and hope

• A life changing encounter.  When he realized that in this simple message, he was actually see God’s glory, his life was never the same again!
• Great courage and confidence in his ministry (2Co 3:12)
• Nothing of which to be ashamed.  
• He was an ambassador of the King of Glory!
• Nothing to hide.  He didn’t need a veil to hide the fact that the glory was fading.
• Tremendous reason to believe that people would be radically changed by the preaching of the Gospel.   How could people avoid being impacted by something so glorious!
• It is not our eloquence or intelligence or education that transforms people.  It is the Gospel.
• Tremendous sense of wonder (2 Cor 3:7-11)
• Paul was overwhelmed with the glory he saw in the Gospel
• “for what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory” - quite a statement for a Jew!
• He got to see God’s glory as he handles and preaches the Gospel.  2 Cor 3:18.
• It was as if he was being given the same opportunity as Moses to see God’s glory - but this time God wasn’t even hiding him in the cleft of the rock and only showing him his back.
• The Greek word here has the idea of beholding something in a mirror.  We are looking at the Gospel, and in the Gospel we see glory, God’s glory reflected.
• Personal transformation (2 Cor 3:18)
• When we interact with the glory of God in such an intimate way, not only the people to whom we preach are changed. 
• Paul noticed that he himself was being transformed the longer he served as a minister of the Gospel.
• He couldn’t help but be changed as he dealt with something so glorious.  The longer he meditated and taught on the Gospel, the more that glory became infused into his very being, so that he became not only a preacher but a living embodiment of the glorious Gospel.  
• And it kept getting better and better
• “with ever-increasing glory” “lit. from glory unto glory”. 
• ESV - from one degree of glory to another.   
• From the very start to the very end, it was glorious.   Not just once he became famous as an apostle, but from the very first day of preaching in Damascus.
• And it never got old.  He never got tired of the Gospel.  He never dreamed of the day when he could leave the job of preaching the Gospel to others and retire to a comfortable life in Jerusalem or Tarsus to become a venerated Jewish rabbi.   No, the Gospel was always new and exciting - glorious is the word he would have used.   Ever-increasing glory.

Do we see this glory?

• Do we see what Paul saw in the Gospel?  Do we see it as reflecting the very glory of God?
• Unfortunately, believers often lose that sense of wonder in regards to the Gospel.
• it becomes old hat and ordinary, too simple, even unappealing
• the Gospel is for new believers, but mature ones like ourselves go on to deeper truths
• sharing the Gospel with unbelievers is something that novices do, those without a lot of experience and theological education
• Missionaries fall into the same trap.   We can so easily get all wrapped up with feeding the poor, or running hospitals, or training leaders in the church or building church buildings that we forget to talk about the Gospel.   We want to show God’s love, and communicate His truth, but are we showing His glory in its brightest light?
• There are many good mission projects out there. The world is a needy place, and God has given us so much that we can share with our world.  But whatever you believe God is calling you to do in missions, one thing is sure.  We cannot trump the Gospel.   The Gospel must be heart and center of what we do in missions, if we want to be proclaiming God’s glory to the nations.
• You see, it is the Gospel that transforms people.  Not acts of Christian charity, as important as they are.  Not exemplary lives and great Christian families.   Unless people hear the Gospel, all they see is just a nice person, a nice family, a nice group of people.   Now proclaiming the Gospel without acts of charity, without personal righteousness and without the examples of families that love each other also doesn’t work.   Those things open the door, prepare the way for God to show His glory through the Gospel.
• But it is the Gospel that most clearly displays God’s glory.  It is this message that we can look right into the face of God.   This is what we can do that no mountains, no trees, no flowers, no oceans can ever communicate - God’s grace in the Gospel message.
• Response
• Do you see the glory in the Gospel?
• If not, there could be several different reasons:
• You have not been looking at the Gospel recently.  Like people who live in Calgary who never bother to look at the Rockies.  Too busy to appreciate the view.   We need to stop and consider the beauty that is all around us.
• Sin has blinded your eyes.   You don’t see the glory in the Gospel because you are not experiencing the grace of God in your life.  You are so wrapped up with your own problems that you can’t see that God is standing right there wanting to offer you forgiveness and healing.  Our sin and selfishness has blinded our eyes.  We need to repent and ask God to open our eyes
• You may not understand the Gospel.  You may never have accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour.   You don’t see the glory, in fact you have no idea what I am talking about.   But this Gospel is for you too.   God sent His Son to die for your sins.  You too can experience what Paul experienced. 
• I am going to pray for you.
• After the service, I or your pastor would love to talk to you about the Gospel.   Just come up to one of us and say, “We need to talk”.