Sightofgodsufficient

In the Sight of God: A Look At Second Corinthians

Sufficient

2 Corinthians 3:1-18

Introducing the Message

God wants to use us in the ministry of the new covenant. We are tempted to have high expectations concerning the type of person God uses. Paul demonstrates for us what the servant of the Christian ministry is:

First, the servant of Christian ministry is a person. God does not employ superhuman individuals to carry the Christian message throughout the world. He uses real people.

Second, the servant of Christian ministry is a person who struggles. God doesn't use perfect people, for there are no such persons to be found in this world. God also doesn't use people who give in to the demands of this world, thus feeling within himself no sense of struggle against sin. God uses people who struggle to live out the gospel in their lives.

Third, the servant of Christian ministry is a person who cares about others. Serving God can never fully be separated from serving people. The gospel is about changing people's lives. The servant of this ministry must be deeply concerned about the lives of those around him or her.

Fourth, the servant of the Christian ministry is dedicated to it. This means that the servant will do whatever is necessary to further the gospel. This also means that he will not compromise the goal of the ministry by overextending himself and rendering his service ineffective.

Fifth, the servant of the Christian ministry is sincere in his service. This is what he wants to be doing with his life because he firmly believes its truth and is convinced of its power to bring new life.

Each of us should be encouraged by the fact that these five attributes should be true of every Christian, which means that God can use each of us to serve in the ministry of the new covenant. In fact, there are no other qualifications for the servant of the Christian ministry. This means that there are some things being suggested by some in the Christian world as being essential to Christian ministry that are not all that essential.

In a consumer-driven world, marketing is the means by which men peddle their products. It must be packaged properly, and it must be packaged attractively. It must be promoted with catchy, attention-getting, easy-to-remember bits of data. It also must be endorsed by someone "important," celebrities or by the expert with the right credentials.

Some have decided that the proclamation of the gospel must be accomplished with these thoroughly worldly principles. Christian marketing is at an all-time high. Men are racing to the publishers to sell their ingenious ideas for evangelism and church growth. In the midst of all the commercials and advertisements, we must wonder what is really essential to effective Christian ministry. What's really essential to fulfilling our commission?

It's with this question that we approach the third chapter of Second Corinthians.

Encountering the Text

Paul, having discussed the beauty of participating in the Christian victory campaign being led by Christ, will now defend the authenticity and authority of his apostolic ministry, and therein revealing those things that are and are not essential to authentic Christian ministry. He writes:

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared 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.

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses' face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory! Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory; for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory!

Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:1-18, NRSV).

The Corinthian Christians seem to have been easily swayed by any visiting preacher, which meant that Paul was forced defend the authenticity and authority of his apostolic ministry. Apparently, some of the visiting evangelists carried letters with them to make the Corinthians aware of their credentials so that they could stack these up against the less-than-qualified Paul, discrediting his apostleship and authority. It would also seem, though somewhat inconclusively, that some of these evangelists had something of a Jewish background. More than likely, their letters carried the endorsement of some well-known religious leader or perhaps noted that the evangelist had been a student of a certain teacher. Whatever the case, Paul didn't feel as if these letters conveyed much of anything about the authenticity and authority of their ministries.

In Paul's case, while he didn't carry letters to prove his apostleship, he did perform works of the Spirit among them and even passed on to them gifts of Spirit. Which would be more convincing, the letters of the evangelists or the workings of the Spirit? Also, the fact that Paul brought the life-changing message of the Spirit, the gospel, to the Corinthians is evidence of the authenticity of his ministry—his letters were written on human hearts.

The problem with the traveling evangelists was their emphasis on things of a physical nature; they were caught up in old ways of thinking. They were glorying in fleshly credentials. Yet, Paul suggests that "the ministry of the Spirit" would "have even more glory" than the "ministry of death." The visiting evangelists maintained the wrong emphasis in their ministry. It is comparable to reading the old covenant without any thought of the Christ to whom it points; it is misused. Their ministry was about them, which is a misuse of new covenant ministry.

Paul's, however, was all about exalting Christ so that when Christ's glory was beheld transformation to Christlikeness would begin to take place. It's in this sense that Paul's sufficiency was from God. The work of the Spirit was to reveal the gospel of Christ, which is the only way mankind will be able to see (know) God.

Connecting With the Text

What "letters" do we perceive ourselves as needing to be fit for service in the Christian ministry? What credentials are we sometimes guilty of inventing for the servant of the ministry of the new covenant? I can think of a few.

Some have said, "I just don't have the ability to share the gospel." Others have said, "I don't know enough to teach the gospel to others." Still others have said, "I haven't been a Christian long enough to be able to share the gospel with others." There are also others, men especially, who won't participate in this ministry until they have the right title—elder, deacon or preacher.

In the wider Christian culture, there are even more credentials for servants of the gospel. Some believe the letters "Ph. D." or "D. Min." or "M. Div." make one a servant of the gospel. Others forget those letters, but suggest that you have to go to the right schools or through the right training program—OBS or Fishers of Men or We Care.

Finally, there are those who think that you must have right gimmick to effectively share the gospel or the right marketing or the latest, greatest thing to sweep the brotherhood or the evangelical world. I looked through an online catalog of ministry resources and found several gimmick-based programs we could use to reinvent the wheel of church growth. We could become the Purpose-Driven Church, the Externally Focused Church, the Aqua Church, a Contagious Church, The Connecting Church, the Church of Irresistible Influence, The Emotionally-Healthy Church, a Breakout Church, a Friendship First Church, or a Perfectly Imperfect church. All we have to do is purchase their materials and we'll find the next Great Awakening beginning in our church.

Are these "letters" really essential to doing Christian ministry? If only Paul had one of these nifty, nicely packaged, and marketable programs to sale to the Corinthian church, then he could've fixed everything that was wrong with them in a matter of forty days or so. If only the apostles had had powerful video presentations or Powerpoint illustrations, maybe they would've converted many more people to Christ. Of course, you already see the absurdity of those things. Those things—from our ideas about ability, talent, training and titles to programs and gimmicks—are not essential to Christian ministry.

What things are essential to Christian ministry? There are three things that are essential to Christian ministry: God, Christ and the Spirit. These are all we need for effective Christian ministry. Paul writes, "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit" (vv. 5-6). Likewise, for those of us who are participating in the ministry of new covenant in 2005, we must find our sufficiency in God.

How did God make Paul, and the other apostles competent to be ministers of the new covenant? How does He accomplish this in us? The answer is the same basic answer in both situations: the Spirit. In this text alone, the Spirit is described in a two ways: the Spirit of the living God and the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit is connected to both God and Christ. God makes us sufficient for Christian ministry through the Spirit.

How does He accomplish this through the Spirit? For Paul and the other apostles, He accomplished this in some powerful ways. He led them to an understanding of the gospel, the message of the salvation made available by Christ's sacrifice, so that they could communicate it to the world in which they lived. He did it through direct revelation. He also provided them with powerful manifestations of the Spirit, prophecies and tongues, which would serve to confirm the word they preached. In essence, though, God gave them the gospel through the Spirit.

The work that was accomplished by the Spirit and through the apostles is available to us today. As for prophecies and tongues, they have passed away, being imperfect for the task at hand. But we have their words by which we can adequately communicate the gospel to the world in which we live. We have bee given the gospel. In essence, we, as they did so well, can hold up the Christ for all to see. No matter how you look at it, our sufficiency is from God through the Spirit.

What is the litmus test for effective Christian ministry? It's not the success of programs or the building of buildings or even the increase in attendance, though these things may, and often do come as a result. It's not about such physical indicators; it's about spiritual ones. The only litmus test for authentic Christian ministry is transformation. These other things are nothing more than hindrances to real Christian ministry. Paul writes, "Now the Lord is the Spirt, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 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" (vv. 17-18). By allowing the Spirit to take the fore in our ministry, we can simply raise up Christ for all to see—having been set free from physical hindrances—so that we all can be changed into the image of Christ. This is authentic and effective Christian ministry.

Concluding Question

How will we approach our God-given ministry of lifting up Christ for a lost world to see? Will we be caught up in "letters" that often kill Christian ministry, or will we be caught up in "the Spirit that gives life"? Will we find our sufficiency in human achievement and human capability and human ingenuity? Or will we find our sufficiency in God through the Spirit of the Lord?