Second Corinthians 4:1-18 [NLTse]
Therefore, since God in His mercy has given us this new way, we never give up. 2 We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the Word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this.
3 If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. 4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, Who is the exact likeness of God.
5 You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, Who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. 12 So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.
13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” 14 We know that God, Who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to Himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
Sermon – “God’s New Way”
How many of you have been reading through the Bible with me since the beginning of the year? [Let people respond.] How many of you have been trying but have missed some days or gotten behind? [Let people respond.] I want to encourage you to keep on trying. Don’t let missing a day, or a couple of days, or even being weeks behind discourage you. Start fresh tomorrow morning, or whenever it is that you read and pray and spend that precious one-on-one time with the Lord.
We’ve read through the Gospel of John, the Book of Acts, Paul’s Letter To the Romans, Paul’s First Letter To the Corinthians, and now we are in the middle of his Second Letter To the Corinthians, this past week reading from 1 Corinthians 15 to 2 Corinthians 6.
2 Corinthians shows us the trouble Paul had impacting the Corinthian fellowship. Even though he was the one who started the church – being the first one to teach those living in Corinth about Jesus, and helping those who believed to begin living Jesus’ Way – Paul was not able to stay in Corinth very long that first mission trip, and so he wasn’t able to help disciple and grow the new believers there. Part of the reason for Paul’s not being able to stay very long seems to have been related to Paul’s injuries and poor health after being almost stoned to death in Thessalonica while striving to plant a church there. (The same Thessalonica that 1 & 2 Thessalonians is written to.) After Paul left Corinth, a very gifted preacher and evangelist named Apollos came to the city, preaching to and teaching the new church. The Christians in Corinth had come to faith through Paul’s ministry, but he had been weak and not at all well during his time ministering among them. But Apollos was commanding and authoritative, and he impressed them, and some among the church started discounting Paul’s teachings in favor of what Apollos had brought and taught.
So, we see in the beginning of 2 Corinthians Paul’s argument for their full attention and their full submission to his authority as an apostle. He didn’t need a letter of recommendation from other churches or from the other apostles – like Apollos did and others who weren’t apostles. No, the Corinthian church was Paul’s letter of recommendation. Their faith, hope, and love, and their lives following in Jesus’ Way, was all the recommendation anyone should have needed to have been assured of Paul’s calling and credentials.
In our reading from chapter 4 this morning, Paul makes clear that all the world has been blinded to the light of the gospel by the devil himself. That is, that Satan is spiritually preventing people from believing that Jesus is God and that, although He was killed, that God raised Him from the dead. Of course, Paul goes on to say that God the Father has opened the eyes of some. God is stronger than the devil and has overwhelmed the devil’s power so that some have come to believe in Jesus. And Paul speaks of this as ‘God shining His light into their hearts’.
Notice that Paul is making clear that this is all a completely spiritual phenomenon. Look at verses 7 and 8: The Corinthians did not come to believe in Jesus because of anything special in Paul or Apollos. They believed because God the Father shone His light into their hearts: Almighty God broke the devil’s chains that had been spiritually locking up the Corinthians’ minds. And now, set free, they were able to understand the truth of the gospel and put their trust in the Lord.
Does anybody know what this is? It is the world being in such a place that it can’t see the full reflection of the sun on the moon. During a full moon the Earth is in a place where we can see fully the sun’s radiance reflected on the entirety of moon’s sunward-facing surface. The phases of the moon reveal the fact that during any given month the moon slowly – night by night – moves to where we, here on the Earth, can only see smaller and smaller portions of the sun’s reflection on it, until it reaches “new moon” phase (so it’s called) where none of the sun’s reflection can be seen. And then the opposite begins to happen as, night by night, the moon keeps moving so that we, here on the Earth, can see more and more of the sun’s reflection upon it, until it’s back to full moon phase.
There’s nothing in the moon that generates light, and yet, at full moon it shines so brightly, reflecting the sun’s radiance, that you can walk around and be about your business in the middle of the night by its light, almost as though it were daytime. It’s not the moon’s work; it’s merely the moon fully reflecting the sun. Paul is saying, it’s not his and Apollos’ power at work in the Corinthians: its God’s work through them.
In verses 8-10 Paul talks about all the hardships and persecutions he’s had to face for Christ’s sake, but notice how he speaks of them – not as a weakness, but – as a badge of authenticity and honor! Paul’s trials parallel the Lord Jesus’ Own trials. And it was the same power that raised Jesus from the dead that had been working in Paul to help him face and overcome with faith, joy, and hope all that had been set against him.
And here Paul reminds the Corinthians (I’m at verse 12, where he says, “So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you,” and verse 15, where he says, “All of this – that is, his hardships – is for your benefit”), he reminds them that it was the manner in which he faced his injuries and wounds, and the infirmities and troubles that resulted from them, that drew them – by God’s grace – to trust in Christ. The Corinthians saw Paul trusting in Jesus although Jesus had allowed Paul to be almost killed. The Corinthians saw Paul hope in Jesus’ promises of life and a reward after this life even though Jesus had allowed Paul to go through such suffering, hardship, and pain. The Corinthians saw Paul loving Jesus Christ and saw him believing that Jesus Christ loved him, too, even in midst of all his difficulties, problems, and misery. Paul reminds them that that – his attitude in the face of hardship and suffering – that that is what had drawn them to put their trust and hope in Jesus Christ themselves, and to love Jesus, too.
And Paul ends, in our reading, telling the Corinthians that he continues to face his trials and the aches and pains of his bruised and broken body, by not looking at the troubles he can see around him now, but by fixing his gaze on that which cannot be seen – the presence of God with and within him, the power of the Holy Spirit that assures him of success in everything Christ calls him to, and the promises the Lord has made him (and us all) of grace and peace here and now, and new life – perfection! – in the new Heaven and the new Earth in the resurrection to come.
Let me close by highlighting three things for us all.
First, this new life we have and share in Christ is a spiritual phenomenon. Our enemies are not people – flesh and blood – they are powers – demons and devils – mostly invisible to most people. And the Word of God and prayer are our most basic weapons in standing and fighting against them. You must be reading the Bible daily, and you must not give up reading the Bible even when you’ve missed a couple days or even weeks. You must pray. Join us at these Prayer Meetings to ask God to stand with us and for us and his area- and worldwide-church against these unseen powers and forces that are so intent and determined to tear down and destroy you and your families and everything you love and everything that is good.
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Because it is all a spiritual phenomenon, our obedience to all that God commands results in our life and the lives of those around us being transformed by God’s power. We obey Him and serve and love those around us because God uses our words and actions in the spiritual realm to bind up devils and demons and to set captives free.
It’s all a spiritual phenomenon. We can only live it fully and successfully by living it God’s Way.
Second: God has chosen you. If you believe that Jesus Christ is God, and that, although He died, that He overcame death because He is stronger than death, then God has picked you to be the recipient of His grace, because you can’t believe these things on your own, not unless Almighty God Himself has lit-up your heart. God the Father has set you free from Satan’s bondage so that you can draw close to Him through the cross of Jesus Christ, and so that you can live Jesus’ Way – loving and serving Jesus and loving and serving those around you – empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so. God Himself has chosen you to live this new life!
And lastly: You and I were created and made new in Christ to be full moons. The power is not ours. We are “clay vessels”: Fragile, weak (oftentimes), and easily hurt and broken. Even so, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has chosen to do His work here on the earth through us, His beloved, chosen people. It is our calling, yours and mine, to not focus on the troubles we can see or hear or feel around us now, but, rather, to fix our attentions on those things that cannot be seen: God with us, Jesus in us, the Holy Spirit upon us; counting each and every one of the Bible’s promises, trustworthy and true; and living surrendered and submitted to Jesus in every area of our lives, not by the power of our human nature, but because the Lord has chosen to place His Own divine nature within us, by His grace, so that our lives might fully and brightly reflect the Son. (God’s Son, that is, Jesus Christ.)
Will you pray with me?
Abba, Father, God Most High: Remind and empower us to be strong in Your Spirit and by Your Spirit. Grant us the comfort and full assurance of Your choosing us to be Your Own through Christ. And help us to fully surrender to Your Holy Spirit, living by Your Word, so that Your Son, Jesus, might be more and more famous, trusted, and followed on account of our fully reflecting His glory. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen?