Proclaiming Christ without Losing Heart

0:52If you didn't know the Stars were playing for the Stanley Cup, you probably also don't know who Anton Houdobin is. He is the journeyman goaltender for the Dallas Stars. He's actually played for five different teams over his 11-year career in the NHL. Before this postseason, he had only played 40 minutes of playoff hockey in his entire 11-year career. But a couple of weeks ago, Ben Bishop, the starting goalie for the Stars, went down with an injury, and so Hudobin was thrust into that number one spot. And until I jinxed him by writing the sermon introduction, He was red hot, doing awesome. And then we lost three games in a row after I wrote this sermon introduction.

1:37But they won last night in double overtime. Go stars. Where are my Dallas people? We, the persecuted minority, here in the greater Houston suburbs. I am sure over the past 11 years that Hoodobin was tempted to lose heart at various times. 80-plus games a year, sitting on the bench, backing up the starting goalie for various teams, all of the work that it requires to be a professional athlete, just had to be tempted to lose heart. But he didn't. And because he didn't, he had the opportunity to lead the stars to a Western Conference Championship and back to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 20 years.

2:21Well, friends, as we've seen in 2 Corinthians, Paul and his team faced a great deal of adversity. That adversity came from unbelieving Jews and Gentiles when they went and proclaimed the gospel. But it also came from professing Christians in the churches that they planted. And it would have been very easy for Paul and his team to lose heart, to get discouraged, to give up. But they didn't either. And today we're going to have the opportunity to learn from their perseverance and their faith in the midst of those trying circumstances.

2:55What we're going to learn today is that since we've been called to minister, We must not lose heart as we faithfully proclaim Christ. Let's jump into the text here in verse 1. You see, it starts with the word therefore, and anytime a paragraph begins with therefore, the author is drawing conclusions based on what he or she wrote previously. And so, what is Paul arguing in the previous section? He's arguing that the old covenant had glory, a glory that was so wonderful that when Moses received the law from God, his shining face was so bright that it had to be veiled, that people could not even look at it.

3:41But what Paul was saying is that in comparison to the glory of the new covenant, the old covenant seems to have no glory at all. And that's because ultimately the old covenant was a ministry of condemnation, a ministry of death, while the new covenant is a ministry of the spirit and righteousness. You see, the old covenant could command. It could tell us what we had to do, but it couldn't give us any power to actually live out those commands.

4:14The new covenant, however, is very different because it's a ministry of the spirit. It's a ministry of freedom that brings freedom from the ministry of condemnation and death that was the old covenant. And that's because it's based on the good. News of Jesus Christ, his sinless and obedient life, his death in our place on the cross for our sins, and his resurrection from the dead. And so, here in verse 1, Paul is saying that him and his companions, they have, what does it say, this ministry, this ministry of the Spirit and righteousness. And by implication, what he's saying is that these false teachers who have come into Corinth behind him, they have that ministry.

5:05What is that ministry? That ministry is the ministry of the old covenant, the ministry of condemnation and death. So no matter what they were teaching, no matter what they were saying, that ministry was not going to lead to righteousness and life. As we talked about last week, apart from the Spirit, we are unable to keep God's law completely and consistently. But if we're hoping to be justified by our obedience to God's law, we have to keep it perfectly.

5:38Take a look at James 2, verse 10. For whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point, has become guilty of all of it. So that ministry, the old covenant, doesn't lead to righteousness and life. It leads to condemnation and death because of our inability to keep God's law. Law. So these false teachers have that ministry, but Paul and his companions, they have this ministry, this ministry of the new covenant. And they have it, look at verse 1 again, they have it by the mercy of God.

6:18Now remember, Paul's experience of God's mercy was unforgettable. It was life-transforming. His entire life was flipped upside down when Jesus appeared to him. And I want you to look at Acts chapter 9 on the screen, where Luke recounts this story. Now, as Paul went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord?

6:52And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. The men who are traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

7:21This whole passage in 2 Corinthians 4, you have to view it through the lens of Paul's own experience of God's mercy. His experience of being blind, blinded by the glory of Christ, and then receiving his sight through the mercy of Jesus, that's just implied throughout this whole passage. Apart from God's mercy, Paul is still a Jewish Pharisee. He's still persecuting the church. He's still living under that ministry of condemnation and death, and he's still proclaiming that ministry of condemnation and death. And friends, the same is true for you and me.

8:04Apart from God's mercy in our lives, we are still in that same spot. We are still under the ministry of condemnation and death. We don't have this ministry, this ministry of righteousness and life through the new covenant. We have that ministry, the ministry of condemnation and death. We're still living for sin. We're still living for self. But thanks be to God, because He has revealed Himself to us and He's poured out His mercy on us. So, as a result, look at the conclusion at the end of verse 1. As a result, we do not lose heart.

8:43Now, that must have been a major temptation for Paul and for His team. Wherever they went, they encountered opposition. There was always a large contingent of Jewish people who opposed him, who Rejected his ministry and his message because why? Remember a couple weeks ago, 2 Corinthians 3, that ministry of life and righteousness, it has the aroma of death. And so they rejected him. And then you've got the false teachers who have come into Corinth. And they're questioning everything about Paul, his motives, his message, his ministry, and he's dealing with that.

9:23And then perhaps most discouraging of all, he's dealing with professing believers in the church at Corinth who have lost confidence and lost trust in him. No doubt that was a very hard time for him, probably one of the lowest points in Paul's entire ministry. But in spite of all that, Paul writes, we do not lose heart. Doesn't it almost, you get the sense that he's just kind of preaching to himself here? He's preaching to his teammates, his companions. Therefore, we do not lose heart.

10:00The famous preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones once said that we spend way too much time listening to ourselves and not nearly enough time preaching to ourselves. And I think there's some sense in which Paul is preaching the truth to himself and to his team. He's saying, Look, we have a lot of reasons to lose heart, a lot of reasons to be discouraged, a lot of reason maybe to sink into depression, but instead, we are going to not lose heart. Things are not great at the moment. But God has given us this ministry by his mercy. So there's no reason to lose heart. There's no reason to get discouraged. There's no reason to give up.

10:42So, friends, are you losing heart today? Are you in a place where you've lost heart when it comes to your family, your friends, people that you go to school with or that you work with? Have you lost heart? If you feel that way, the first thing you need to remember is that you're not alone. For nearly every Christian, when we think about people in our lives, the ones we work with, our family, whoever it is, we're tempted to get very discouraged. We're tempted to lose heart and give up because here we are living the Christian life before them. Here we are explaining once again the message of the gospel, and yet there's no life change. There's no acknowledgement that this is the truth.

11:28I want to remind you that God has called you, and he has made you a minister of the new covenant. You are exactly where you are at this point in your life because God put you there. If he wanted a different leader, a different spouse, a different mom, a different dad, a different boss, a different manager, he would have put that person. In your place. But he didn't. He put you there. And he has given you this ministry, this ministry of the new covenant generally, but also this particular ministry that you have in our church, in our community, wherever it is. He's given that to you. So don't lose heart.

12:23Live with faith and hope that God has placed you exactly where he wanted you for a reason. So Paul says, we are not going to lose heart. What are they going to do? They're going to go on living with integrity and above reproach, just like they always have. Let's pick up in verse 2. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

13:05Paul's opponents in Corinth conducted themselves in disgraceful, underhanded ways. And the way he defines that in the passage is: they practiced cunning and they tampered with God's word. So, this phrase practiced cunning in the Greek, it refers to trickiness or craftiness, it has to do with their motives. And you see, the motives of these false teachers, they came to Corinth and they appeared to have the Corinthians' best interests in mind. They appeared to love them and care for them and want what was best for their souls. But in reality, they had these ulterior motives, and at least one of those motives was financial gain. They wanted their money.

13:54So, how are they going to get that? They were going to get that through tampering with God's Word. That phrase refers to twisting scripture to make it say either what you want it to say or to say what you think other people want it to say. Because you see, they didn't just crave their money, they also wanted their approval. They wanted them to like them and to help them get famous and to help their message spread.

14:23So, in contrast to that, Paul says that he and his companions openly stated the truth to the Corinthians. They openly stated it. They had no ulterior motives. They weren't hungry for money. They weren't hungry for power or fame. They were, as we talked about a few weeks ago, sincere ministers of the gospel. They came preaching the truth. They ministered at their own expense. They weren't using the Corinthians to build up their bank accounts or their platforms.

14:56Paul knew this. He had a clear conscience. Before God. And so he writes, We would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. He's basically telling the Corinthians: Look, judge for yourselves. Take everything that the false teachers are saying about us and weigh it in light of how we've actually lived our lives among you. We've never taken anything from you, we've never lied to you. And remember, for Paul, this last phrase is so important. They're doing everything in the sight of God.

15:35His biggest concern was not what the Corinthians thought about him. Don't get me wrong, he was concerned. He obviously cared, but that was not his biggest concern. Paul's biggest concern is that God knows everything. He knows all of our motives, all of our attitudes, all of our intentions, everything that we hold inside that we don't share. He knows all of that. And so take a look at what Hebrews 13 says. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

16:20See, the author who's writing to the Hebrews, he's telling the church to obey and to submit. There's things in this verse for church members to do, but look at what it says about the leaders. We will have to give an account. So, for me as a pastor, I want your respect. I want your trust. But more than that, at the end of my life, I want to hear from God: well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. My biggest concern is what God thinks of me and how I live my life and what I say and how I conduct myself.

16:58So, friends, we're all tempted at times to tamper with God's word. We're all faced with situations where it would be easier to kind of make God's Word say something that it doesn't say, either so we can feel better about our lives or so that other people will not be disappointed or frustrated or angry with us. We're all tempted to tamper with God's Word. But we have to remember that we have received this ministry. God has entrusted us with this ministry, with His good news. And so, we have to, like Paul, renounce disgraceful and underhanded ways and continue openly stating the truth, even if it doesn't always produce the results that we would hope and want to see.

17:50Verse 3. And even if our gospel is veiled, It is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. What's interesting here is that to some extent, Paul is conceding the point to his opponents. His opponents have essentially said, Paul, We're coming in here and we're just backing up the Mosaic law. We're saying if you want to be saved, you've got to do what the law says, and so you better get to work. But you come in here, and you're talking about if we believe in this Jewish rabbi, his righteousness through his life is going to be credited to us through faith. That doesn't make any sense.

18:49That's veiled. And to some extent, Paul is conceding the point. He's saying, you're right. You're right. Our message is veiled. People don't always understand or receive it. And why is that? He says right here, it's because the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. Now, I love the ESV. I think it's a great translation. We happily use it here at New Life. But I really don't believe that God of this world is the best translation of this particular Greek text. The word translated world is the Greek word. Word I own. It's where we get the word eon from, and it doesn't refer so much to a world, like a physical place, it refers to an age, like an epic or an eon.

19:42See, that's an important distinction because God is the God of this world. He created this world and everything in it, he declared it to be very good. He is never going to junk this world and start over. He's going to renew all things when Christ returns. God is the God of this world. Satan, however, is the God of this age. He is the one who has been rebelling against God from eternity past, and he's the one that, starting with Adam and Eve, has been tempting us to do the same. He is the God of this age who is reigning over this world and over sinners in that sense until Christ returns.

20:25This is relevant because in this age, Satan is hard at work blinding the minds of unbelievers, those who are perishing in their own sin and rebellion against God. It should remind us of Ephesians chapter 6. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. According to Paul, what those spiritual forces of evil are doing is they're keeping people from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

21:12Look at Colossians chapter 1 on the screen. This is the whole debate that's going on in the Corinthian church. He, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

22:07Friends, this is the whole debate that's going on in the Corinthian church. This is the whole debate that's going on in many churches in that century and in our day today. It is not as though before Paul became a Christian, he didn't know who Jesus was. He knew who Jesus was. Jesus' fame had spread throughout that entire region. It's just that. He thought Jesus was a heretical rabbi who was leading his fellow Jews astray. And many other people in that region thought that Jesus was a faithful rabbi, he was a good teacher who had good things to say.

22:45But what Paul is saying here, what Satan is doing is he's blinding the minds of the unbelievers to the truth that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. That he's not just a good rabbi, he is the Son of God. He is eternal. He is the promised Messiah. And so, if we add this to what we learned last week, what we find is that unbelievers have hardened minds and veiled hearts, and an enemy, Satan, who is actively at work preventing them from seeing who Jesus really is, not just a good teacher, but Lord and Savior.

23:34And so, church, what this means is that we are not going to save our family members and friends through more effort alone. God uses means to bring people to faith, and the ordinary means that He uses is our faithful proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But since the minds of unbelievers are hardened, And their hearts are veiled, and their enemy, Satan, is blinding them from seeing Jesus for who he really is. We can't just try harder as if our efforts alone are going to save anyone. That will not work. We have to ask God to do for our family members and friends what he did for Paul. God has to reveal himself to them. He has to break through the darkness of their hearts and minds with the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ. And so we do need to continue to be faithful to proclaim the gospel, to share our faith with our friends and family. But as we do that, we've got to beg God to open their eyes to see what only He can help them see. All of our arguments, all of our methods, our lifestyle, it cannot remove the blinders. Only God can remove the blinders.

25:00Verse 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When Paul and his team came to Corinth, They did not come to try to win a large following for themselves. What did they come to do? They came to win a large following for Jesus Christ, who is the image of God.

25:44And what I want you to see here in verse 5 is that Paul says, We are not proclaiming ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. He is the Messiah, He is the Savior, but He's more than that. He is also Lord. Jesus is the answer to the problem of our sin, but He's also the answer to the problems of our daily lives as well. See, false teachers often present themselves as the solution to our problems. If you want to know the secret to a better, more fulfilling life, you have to come to them because they have the answers, they have the solutions, they have the products that can save you from what you fear.

26:35Your problems might be financial or relational, they might be related to work, but whatever it is, the solution is that particular teacher's book or conference or program for success. False teachers are almost always preaching themselves, and that should serve as a warning not just to Christians. Pastors, not just to Christian leaders, but to all of us who are Christians. Because you see, the temptation for all of us, especially in the West, especially in America, is to begin to view ourselves as professionals.

27:16A few years ago, John Piper wrote a book called Brothers, We Are Not Professionals. Look what he said: Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and the heart of the Christian ministry. Let's look at that again. Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and the heart of the Christian ministry. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness, there is no professional tenderheartedness, there is no professional panting after God.

27:57The world sets the agenda of the professional man, God sets the agenda of the spiritual man. The strong wine of Jesus Christ explodes the wineskins of professionalism. I just love that picture. The strong wine of Jesus Christ explodes the wineskins of professionalism. Paul and his team did not view themselves as professionals who were coming in to offer themselves and their solutions. And their answers, they came proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord. And they were doing it, as the text says, as servants.

28:44Look what Jesus said in Mark 10. And Jesus called them to him and said, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

29:21Through their preaching, the false teachers effectively made the Corinthians their servants. The way they viewed the Corinthians is they existed to fund their ministries, to boost their platforms, to stroke their egos. That's why they existed. They didn't exist to serve the Corinthians. The Corinthians existed to serve them. Paul says, when we came to you, we didn't have that perspective at all. We came as servants. We came to lay down our lives. And that shouldn't surprise us because they're following Jesus, the one who laid down his life as a servant. So if Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, then Paul and his team were going to do the same thing.

30:07And friends, whether we're talking about them or us, verse 6 gives us the reason that we lay our lives down. In verse 6, we're taken back to creation, back to Genesis 1, and you have this picture of God's creation in utter darkness. And he speaks, and the light breaks through the darkness. And go back to Paul's conversion experience. He is in spiritual darkness on the road to Damascus, and Jesus knocks him down, blinds him with his glory. The light of the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ breaks through the darkness of Paul's heart. And friends, that's what happened to all of us. Whether it happened for you at age 5 or age 18 or age 50, for every one of us, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ has broken through all of the spiritual darkness in our hearts and our minds. So we are servants because now we are in the light. We've been set free by the mercy of God. And we want other people to enjoy the freedom by experiencing the mercy of God that we have experienced. Take a look at 1 Peter.

31:22He says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people. For his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. If you aren't following Christ, what God reveals to us in His Word is that you are still walking in darkness.

32:07The question is, why haven't you received Christ? I've talked to a lot of people over the years, family members, friends, about that question. And oftentimes, their answer is Christians or Christian pastors. They say they can't trust Christians or Christian pastors, and so they can't trust Christianity. I understand that because many Christians and many Christian pastors have proven themselves untrustworthy. However, I would commend to your conscience in the sight of God the members of our church. And I commend to your conscience the members of our church, not because we are a perfect people, we're not. We sin against God, we sin against each other, we sin against. Other people. But we believe that Jesus Christ is the one that he claimed to be, the perfect, sinless Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us so that we could be reconciled to God through faith in him.

33:16Our desire is to live holy lives of integrity before God and before others. And when we fail to do that by sinning against him, or sinning against each other, or sinning against people outside the church, we walk in the light by acknowledging our sin, by confessing it, and by seeking to turn away from that sin. And so, if you're one of those people that you say, I can't become a Christian because I'm so turned off by Christians and by Christian leaders, I want to remind you, we're not proclaiming ourselves, we're proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord.

33:57We are not perfect, but neither are you. And that's why we all need a Savior. Jesus is the Savior that we need. So I pray that you will receive him by faith today. For every Christian here, it is true that God has shone in our hearts. We are no longer walking in darkness. We're now walking in light. And although light has come into the world through the person and worship, Of Jesus Christ, millions of people all around the world are still walking in darkness. Tens of thousands of people in our own community are still walking in darkness.

34:41So let me remind you of our calling in Matthew 5. Jesus says, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand. And it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

35:11See, church, we are the light of the world, and we are called to let that light shine before others. But initially, what almost always happens is that when people see the light in us, they want to praise us. They say, you're such a good person, you're such a moral person, I could never be like you. Initially, they praise us, but like Paul, we're not here to preach ourselves. And so when that happens, we have the opportunity to help them give glory to God who is in heaven by saying, Any good that you see in me is because of the work of Jesus in my life. He broke through the darkness. He brought me into his light. We can point to him. That's all I want to ask you: do people in your life Know that you're a Christian.

36:03And if they know that you're a Christian, do they know what you believe? Because I think so many of us take it for granted that people in our lives know that we're Christians. Or we take for granted that they know that we believe in the sinless life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So I want to encourage you to let your light shine before others, but then to take advantage of those opportunities to tell them that you are a believer, that you're following Christ, and that your whole hope for forgiveness and salvation rests in Him and His perfect work alone.

36:42Do not get discouraged if your opportunities for evangelism seem few and far between. Do not get discouraged if you experience rejection. We've been called to be ministers of this new covenant. So let's not lose heart as we faithfully proclaim Christ. Let's pray. Father, sometimes when we read. Passages like this one, where we're reminded of all that's stacked up against us in our gospel proclamation. Hardened minds and veiled hearts, and Satan, this powerful spiritual being who's blinding the minds of unbelievers, we can get discouraged.

37:56We can even get to a place where we take the position: what's the point? What's the point? God's going to save who He's going to save. I can't change anybody's mind. I can't change anybody's heart. So, Lord, I pray that through Paul's example and through His teaching, that we would resolve to be faithful in our proclamation of the gospel, believing that you can and will use us to call people out of darkness and into light. I pray for those family members and those friends that we're maybe even thinking about right now, that we are so discouraged about.

38:44Father, would you save them? Would you save them this year? We pray that when we get to the holiday season, we can look back and we can say, We asked. God to do a great thing, and he answered. Forgive us for praying small prayers. Forgive us for praying unspecific prayers. God, save our families, save our friends. And God, we pray that you would do it soon. Use us, fill us with your spirit. Make us the faithful ministers that you have called us to be.

39:28In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.