Sermon Tone Analysis

!! 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|Bible:2co 5:18]] - “Gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

And in [[vs.

19|Bible:2Co 5:19]] “He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

The ministry of reconciliation is intimately connected with the message of reconciliation.

In [[vs.20|bible:2co

5:20]], 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

|   | Moses’ ministry | Paul’s ministry |

| Visible result | Stone tablets (2Co 3:7) | Changed human hearts (2Co 3:3) |

| Theme | Death,  condemnation (2Co 3:7, 9) | Life,  righteousness (2Co 3:6, 9) |

| Glory | Transitory (2Co 3:7,11,13) | Permanent and increasing (2Co 3:11, 18) |

| Typical response | Hardened minds & closed hearts (2Co 3:14-15)  | Open, free hearts (2Co 3:16-17) |

*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.