Mission Ready
By Josh Petras on October 6, 2024
2 Corinthians 4:1-6
AUDIO
Mission Ready
By Josh Petras on October 6, 2024
2 Corinthians 4:1-6
Amen. Well, I invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to the Book of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and I'll get us a little bit of a running start before we dive into our passage. I am so thankful for the opportunity to preach the week after such a big announcement since we announced we are looking to plant in Long Beach in February. I'm thankful because of the people that have said they're coming, even some of you in the last week have said we're excited. We can't wait. So grateful to preach at this upcoming church and to partner with Pastor Bruce in shepherding and leading this church. I'm so encouraged by Pastor Bobby and the other elders that they would, instead of sort of keeping the best for themselves in Kingdom building, they have sent some of our best people to be part of this. I think that is so encouraging. I think it's commendable. I think it honors Jesus, and we could all thank the Lord for their desire to do that as we preach this morning. We are one hundred and nineteen days away from our target date. Things are going to happen fast. It's going to be happening soon. And this is an important season in the time of our church. There is work to be done with Long Beach. We do need to find a location like I said. Please pray for that. We do need finances to be raised. We would love if you partnered with us in that. We do need to figure out who is actually coming to this, because there are some who are leaving to go serve there for a great work to be done, and there are some are going to stay here and continue the much-needed work here in Huntington Beach. Now we're thankful, because we know the Lord will build his church. We know that Jesus will save all those who turn to him in repentance. But during this season where we're still one church preparing to become two, I want us to think about preparing well. How will I serve well in this upcoming season? How in February, what does it look like for me to serve the king faithfully, and how do I prepare for that?
It was Benjamin Franklin who said, “A failure to prepare is preparing to fail,” and we want to make sure we're ready for the season ahead. Last time I preached, we looked at Colossians chapter 1, and we talked about how every single Christian paid or not is in the ministry. So, you are part of serving if you're a Christian, that's the Lord's desire. Ephesians 4 says that “the elders equipped the saints,” that's the believers, “for the work of the ministry to build one another up in the faith Jesus. When he called his first disciples, he said, “I will make you fishers of men,” which means, part of what? Evangelism. It means to follow Jesus is to be engaged in the work of bringing others to follow Jesus. That's just normal Christianity. Ephesians 2:10, “There are good works he has prepared for you to walk in that you would do them.” That is that you would be about serving. And in Long Beach alone, we've got some work that needs to be done. We need disciplers. We need people to evangelize. We need people to meet new people and follow up with people. Who's going to teach children, student ministry, college ministry? Who's going to take people through exploring the gospel or through Partners? We need fellowship group leaders, prayer meeting leaders, Connect ministry, all sorts of needs in Long Beach. And you already know all the needs, all the people that are serving here in Huntington Beach. And so, the question I want to ask is, what is your ministry going to look like come February? What is your service going to be like? And how do you prepare to do it? Well, so, I want to help us this morning. I want to look at a passage that I think will help us all be better, more useful servants of the king in this new season. That passage we'll find in 2 Corinthians 4. So, if you're not there already, let's turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, because I want to commend to you the example of Paul. I want us to listen to Paul's heart towards ministry as an example for us to follow, whether we're trying to evangelize our neighbors or impact our fellowship group, whatever way we're serving. I want us to see Paul's examples, if you would. Let's go to 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. I invite you to stand for the reading of God's Word. We will hear it in 2 Corinthians 4:1-6. Paul writes,
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 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. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled 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. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 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.
This is the Word of God. You may be seated. As we begin looking at this passage, we can ask the question, is it fair for us to consider Paul a model here? Is it right for us to use this passage as an example for us? Or were these things that were just particular to Paul? And to answer that, I'll give you a little bit of background. It would take us a lot of time to investigate the complicated relationship between Paul and these believers at Corinth. There's a lot going on there but let me give you a sort of summarized history in Acts 18. You understand that Paul planted this church, and he plants it in the most beautiful way. It says he spent eighteen months there, a year and a half, just preaching the Word of God, so day in, day out, explaining the Word to these people. Many are coming to faith in Christ. He leaves, continues on his missionary journeys, and he begins to hear about issues within the church of idolatry and of immorality. And so, he writes them a letter, and then he writes them a second letter. That second letter is in our Bibles; we call it 1 Corinthians, and we see in 1 Corinthians, Paul has some concerns about the church that he's addressing. He has many concerns about them, but he's confident that they're going to walk in obedience. At some point, Paul shows up in Corinth to personally minister to them.
Well before he had come, there were some men that had crept into the church men, who called themselves super apostles, and they said, you can no longer trust Paul's teaching. And let us tell you why. Because Paul, though he talks tough in his letters, I mean, look how weak he is as a public speaker. Look how feeble he is when he speaks. His presence is nothing all that great. He's not from God. In fact, look at how much he's suffering. You probably can't trust him. Look at all that he's going through. God's not blessing his ministry. And so, Paul shows up, sort of aware of this. Well, apparently somebody sort of spoke out against Paul, criticized him publicly, and nobody came to his aid. So, he leaves grieved, writes them a letter to basically inform them of what they've done wrong, calling them to repent. And now he's writing them another letter. So, 2 Corinthians, what we're reading in front of us, is actually sort of Paul's fourth correspondence with this church. And I give you all that background because it helps us understand what Paul is doing. Paul is defending his apostleship. He's trying to in this letter, explain to them you can trust me, and the reason you can trust me is look at how I do ministry, and look at how I prioritize ministry. The way I think about serving the Lord should be proof to you that I actually am a servant of the Lord, that you should trust not these so-called super apostles. Now I find that helpful, because if Paul is saying, this is what faithful service looks like, then for us who want to be useful to the Master, we can emulate Paul as well. We could follow him in whatever ministry we're involved in. Now, obviously, as I think about this passage, I have Long Beach a little bit on the mind, you could probably guess. And one of the questions I've been asked regularly is, well, how do I prepare for this? What can I do? What do you need in order to start this church in Long Beach? In one sense, the answer that has been, I'm not really sure yet, because we still need to figure out, well, who's actually coming with us. We need to find out, kind of the logistics of where we're going to meet on Sunday. But if you're asking the question, how can I serve? Well, in Long Beach, the answer to that that I would give you now is these four things we're going to look at for Paul here in 2 Corinthians 4. I would say, own these priorities of Paul. Own the same kind of thinking towards serving that Paul has; that is an excellent way that'll make you useful wherever you serve, including here at Huntington Beach. Like the things we're going to look at today in this passage, I think would apply to ministry at every level, so certainly at the pastoral level or the fellowship group level. But also, if you're serving in Kinsman or Student ministry or College ministry, it's going to help you serve well in your fellowship group. It's going to help you think rightly about witnessing at work, or ministering to your neighbors, wherever , these four things will help you be a more useful servant, however the Lord uses you, however you're trying to get the Word out, whether you're explaining the Word, whether you're one of the people televising the Word right now to get it online, or whether you're helping us sing the Word. These four things will help us serve the king well, and that's what I want to help you do this morning.
Now, a quick word of caution as we do that, there is, as I consider this passage, a little bit of a risk that this sermon might not apply to you. And that's not a good thing. Here's what I mean by that. There is a chance that you might listen to these four things, but they don't relate to you at all, because you're not currently engaged in serving. At the beginning, when I talked about the Lord called us to help build others up, or the Lord called us to help reach others for the sake of Christ, if you're not currently actively doing this – I'm not talking about new people, I'm not talking about people that are maybe you're here and you're trying to figure out what Christianity is all about, which I think this passage will help you this morning. If I'm not talking about that, I'm saying if you've been going to church, or this church for years, but you don't have any spiritual responsibilities, no one's growing and no one's being reached, you're just kind of coming and going. This passage might not apply to you, and I would say that's not a good thing. I'd say best case scenario, this should be a reminder, man, I need to be engaged in the things the Lord has called me to. I need to be engaged in things that would mean simple obedience to Jesus’ command, to be part of the Great Commission, and this is the time to do that, because there's going to be people that go and we need people to do, and there's going to be holes left behind, and we need people to step up. My hope is for all of us, this will help us be more faithful servants in the season ahead.
So, let's jump into it. How do I serve? Well, no matter where I'm serving, what ministry, what location, how can I honor the King of my ministry? Four things to do.
Number one: “Stay humble.” Number one, that we see exemplified by Paul, stay humble. Paul writes, 2 Corinthians 4:1, “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.” Now we see here that Paul says, “having this ministry.” And if you're wanting to understand the Bible, the first question you should ask is, what does he mean by this ministry? What is this ministry that he's talking about? And we see there the word “Therefore,” which tells us whatever this ministry is Paul, had previously been talking about in the section ahead. So, we take our eyes, we look up at 2 Corinthians 3 to figure out what is this ministry that Paul is describing. We see in 2 Corinthians 3:5, he says, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God who made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant.” Okay, so whatever this ministry is, Paul is saying, it's a new ministry. It's of the New Covenant. He goes on. He says, “Ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” So, he's a minister, he's a servant of the New Covenant, that's not of the letter but of the spirit, and not of the letter which would kill, but of the Spirit that gives life. Okay, let's dive in a little more. We'll tie this all together. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 3:7. He says, “Now, if the ministry of death,” that's the one that kills. “Now, if the ministry of death, carved in letters of stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, if that's being brought to an end, it has glory.” Okay, let's stop again. This ministry of death, he says that they were “carved in letters on stone.” And he's talking about Moses, carved in letters of stone. Moses, what scene from the Bible does that sound like? And because you love God's Word, you're like, that sounds a lot like the ten Commandments. And you're like, yes, that is the right answer there. He's saying that Moses' ministry was a ministry of death. It was “of the letter” and not of “the Spirit.” It has, it says glory. But look at verse 2 Corinthians 3:8. “But if that's brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory. For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.” Here's what Paul is saying when he's talking about having this ministry. He understands that he has a ministry that's better than Moses’.
Now, that's a big thing to say. That would have been a big thing for Paul to say, who grew up reading the Torah, reading the law, reading Moses. Moses is like the GOAT of the Old Testament. He's the man they would have loved, Moses. And for Paul to say, I'm in a better position, that's quite a statement. But here's what he's explaining that ministry of Moses was a ministry of death. Why? It's funny. We just preached about this in the book of Galatians at the Press the other night, that the ten Commandments were great. They explained to God's redeemed people, here's how you obey. They revealed God's character. But here was the problem, nobody, looking at the commands of God should look at that and say, okay, cool, I got this. I could obey all those commands perfectly all the time. Now, the ten Commandments do not reveal, okay? Here are the steps of how you can get saved. We should look at those. The response is, woe is me. I'm undone. I see God's expectations. I see how God wants me to obey perfectly. There's no way I could do that. This only would condemn me. What Paul is saying is, nowhere this brought condemnation.
Now, Paul gets to preach something that Moses never got to preach. He gets to preach, not a law to earn your way, but he gets to preach Christ, who brings righteousness. So now he gets to preach something that's better, that's superior, that has a greater glory, because now people can know how they can be saved. Paul understands something. Friends, he gets to do something that Moses never got to do. Preach the ultimate Prophet, preach the ultimate sacrificial lamb, preach Christ risen from the dead on behalf of sinners. Friends, you and I, believe it or not, have a better opportunity to serve than some of our Bible heroes did. Like, we love Noah, and Noah was a preacher of righteousness who preached about coming wrath, but he did not get to preach about the Lamb of God taking wrath for us. You and I like, we love David, who's a man after God's own heart. And he understood that God had a plan for his line, that there would be a greater Son, but we now know who that is. His name is Jesus. We get to preach a better message.
Think about Elijah and Elisha, if you're reading through Kings right now. Those dudes are studs, but they never got to preach the forgiveness of sin to all nations. Through Christ, we get to. Paul understood the position he was in. He understood the magnitude of his opportunity, and he also understood why he got to do it. Look again at 2 Corinthians 4:1. We have this ministry, this greater ministry, by the mercy of God. He had it by the mercy of God. Literally, you can translate that, having been mercied by God. The point is this. Paul understands the position he's in. He understands he did not deserve it. He's only getting to preach this gospel because God has been gracious to him, All service that any of God's servants are involved in, any opportunities we have, any responsibilities we get to care on behalf of the master we've deserved. All of them are by grace. Paul is aware of this fact.
Turn, if you would, to your left, go to 1 Corinthians, the very end of 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. I want you to see that Paul is regularly aware of the fact that he does not deserve the ministry he has. He is so fixed on his mind, the reality that he has been saved from his sin, that he knows I don't deserve to do what I get to do. So, in chapter 15, this is the famous passage where he wants to talk about the gospel of first importance. 1 Corinthians 15:3, “I deliver to you as a first importance, which I also received. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” And then he begins talking about these appearances. He appears to Peter, then to five hundred and one of his brothers. And then what does it say? Look at 1 Corinthians 15:8. He says that “Jesus appeared last of all as the one untimely born, he appeared also to me, for I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Oh, I know my testimony. I deserve nothing, but now I get to serve.” In fact, 1 Corinthians 4, he calls himself just “a slave of Christ and a steward of God's message.” He's just holding onto it and trying to deliver it faithfully. He is nobody special at all.
I want you to turn to Luke 17, because I want you to see that the attitude that Paul has is the attitude that Jesus expects from all of his servants. We should have this mindset, according to Christ, that we do not deserve the opportunities we get to serve the master, whether we're sharing the gospel at work or at school, with our neighborhood, whether we're trying to build up people in a fellowship group, serving the parking lot or serving on stage, we deserve none of it. All of it is by grace. Look at verse Luke 17:7. Jesus says in Luke 17, verse 7, “ Will any of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he is coming from the field, come at once and recline at table?” He says, if you were a sort of estate owner and you've got servants that live on your estate, when they're done working in the field for the day, do you say, come and have a seat and dine with me? And it's a rhetorical question. You know what a rhetorical question is, right? It's good. You have to answer. Perfect. I just wanted to test you on that one. He said, he asked rhetorically, the answer is no, because the servant's jobs aren't done. When the field work is done, they've got more work to do. So, he says, “Will he not,” the master of the estate, “say to him, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward, you will eat and drink. Right? That's totally what a master of an estate would be expected to say. Luke 17:9, “Does he,” the master, “thank the servant, because all he did was commanded? The answer, again, rhetorically, is no, the guy's just doing his job. This is why the master pays for his living expenses. Luke 17:10, listen to the words of our Lord. “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say we are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty.” Well, that's good for us to hear that any time we serve the King, any sacrifice that we give, we are just doing our duty. We've just done what the Lord has commanded us. We are unworthy servants.
Let's turn, if we would, back to 2 Corinthians. Service for the king is something we never deserve. And not only do we not deserve it when we're serving in times of ease, man, the ministry is so fruitful. But even when we're serving in difficulty, serving in suffering, even when serving is hard, it's still undeserved. Goodness, mercy that God shows us, gives us this opportunity. You know, one of the themes we don't have time to get into today, in 2 Corinthians is a weakness. Paul serves regularly when he's weak, and he actually says, well, that's the way actually for the way, actually, for the Lord to magnify himself. He uses weak people, not strong people, to communicate his message. In 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, he says, “We have this treasure.” That's another way he's talking about the ministry “in jars of clay” to show that the surpassing power belongs to God, not to us. How does he describe himself? He says, “We're afflicted,” we're perplexed, we're persecuted, we're caring about death. We suffer. But even in suffering for Christ, Paul considers it a mercy. It's God's mercy that he lets him serve the King in this way. Oh friend, any sort of position you have for Christ, whether you're teaching littles across the way, you're being faithful in your fellowship group, you're serving in some of the needs around campus, or even you getting mocked at your job for standing firm for Christ. All of that is God's mercy that he lets you do that, and we need to remember that so that we stay humble. I have never deserved any opportunity I have gotten, nothing I've ever done. Have I been entitled to? All of it is by grace. Friends, you need to remember that, because when we don't, things go sideways. If you start thinking I deserve something and then don't get that opportunity, you think you deserve what happens? You end up bitter or jealous or super critical of whatever decisions are being made. And then what happens if you think I deserve this? And then you get that opportunity, what you can regularly then become is prideful, and we don't want to be prideful while we're trying to start a new church and be faithful at this church, because pride is not just a sin. Pride is something that God promises to be opposed to, and if you don't want God to be against you while you're serving the King, well, friends, you need to make humility your best friend, and be humble and realize I deserve no opportunities I've ever served in, perhaps even this morning. You've recognized ways that you've expressed pride, ways that you've complained or been critical or harsh with others because they sort of overlooked you. If that's the case, I would encourage you to repent of that sin and confess it; go to someone and apologize. You know why? Because confession is a practice of humility, and while God is opposed to the proud, he gives grace to the humble, and we need his grace to help us. If I want to be useful to the Master, I need to stay humble.
Let's keep moving on. Number two here. Number two: We need to “Speak truth plainly.” If we want to be useful servants of the King, we need to speak truth plainly. 2 Corinthians 4:2, Paul says, “We have renounced.” We have rejected “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.” He says, we have renounced. We refuse to participate in what he calls disgraceful, underhanded ways. What does that mean? Well, the word there “underhanded” is the Greek word Kryptos. We kind of hear the word cryptic. It means hidden. It has the idea of we're not putting all our cards on the table. We've got ulterior motives in the back of our minds for why we're doing what we're doing. We're not telling everyone why we do what it is we do, and disgraceful means shameful is the idea. One translation calls it “the hidden things of shame.” We don't do the hidden things of shame. We don't either live in hypocrisy or behind the scenes. We're walking in a darkness that we're rejecting outwardly, and we don't have these false motives to take advantage of people. Right? Well, what are these hidden things of shame that Paul specifically has in mind? Well, that's what these phrases in verse 2 here tell us. These “hidden things of shame” include practicing cunning and tampering with God's Word. What is practice cunning? Cunning? There is the word for deception. It's actually the same word in the Greek that will be used in chapter 11, when Paul says that “the serpent deceived Eve,” it's ministering in a way that you're deceiving people. You don't want them to know their intentions, or you're purposely hiding the truth from them, or you're just lying. You're speaking false truths, or half-truths. Paul's saying we don't want to deceive people. That's not what we're doing, and we're not going to tamper with God's Word. That means to falsify, to corrupt, to change. We're going to speak the truth plainly. One Bible, one version, translates this “to adulterate.” We're not going to hide the word or mess with it. We're going to speak it clearly, again, the open statement of the truth. Here's Paul's point here. He's saying here, here's how you could trust what we've been doing. We just speak the Word of God openly, and we speak it openly to all, commending ourselves to every man's conscience, we're saying you can trust us. So, we speak the Word, friends. This is important to us because it's not hard to draw a crowd in our day and age. If you want to draw a crowd, in our day and age, all you have to do is just preach to people, teach to people. If you want to make friends, just tell people what they want to hear. And that's not some sort of social experiment that we figured that out, that's promised in the Bible. 2 Timothy 43 says the time will come when people will “not endorse their own teaching, but having itching ears, they will gather for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” So, if we want to build a big crowd, all we have to do is teach things like, you know you're a morally good person. Any defect you have is probably some diagnosis we can figure out later and tell you why. It's not actually your fault that you're that way. You know, whatever you dream, whatever your passions are, hey, in fact, whatever you want to do, whatever you think is good, that's probably the best compass for your life, right there. Just go and do those things, be an easy way to gather people. Many people have done it. But what does he say the second half of the verse, “We commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God we serve.” In the sight of God, it's God who will evaluate our ministry. People say numbers don't lie. Numbers lie all the time. Lots of numbers don't mean the message is good. God is the one who will render that verdict one day, and we want to in our proclamation of truth, either is someone preaching up here or someone talking at a coffee shop with the Bible on the table. We want it to be clear. We want to preach, teach, explain, persuade with the Bible, as it says.
Now, why would someone be tempted to do otherwise? I think there are real legitimate temptations to corrupt or change the message. I'll give you three little Gs to say. Here's what those temptations would be. Think those temptations would be “growth”. I think those temptations would be “gain”. I think those temptations would be “glory”. Growth, gain, and glory. I think churches are tempted to mute the message or change the message for the sake of growth. We want more people to come, so let's say less offensive things, and let's not teach the Bible, because people will be bothered by that. I think gain would be a lot of what we see in these sort of Prosperity Gospel churches. I'll change the message so people will come and give lots of cash so I could take advantage of people. Both of those are legitimate temptations we see today. I think the third one would apply both on the corporate level, like church gathering and in your own personal interactions, talk to people about the truth, and that's glory. I think most of us change the truth because we just want people to like us. So, we'll say something that's not true, or we'll kind of cover our mouths over some of the Bible's truth because we just want a good reputation. Because friends, if you teach the Bible's message, you will meet resistance with the world around us today. Let me just give you a few topics. Right? If you teach the Bible plainly, the open statement of the truth, you're going to talk about the existence of God, that there's only one God, and therefore all other religions are false, and that God is the Creator of all things. People will not like the Bible's teaching on sexuality, gender, man's purpose, marriage, the sinfulness of man, the promise of forgiveness, and the wrath of God. And, by the way, if you're wondering how I picked those topics, those are just topics found in Genesis 1, 2, and 3. So, if they're not going to like those chapters, you're probably not going to like the other 1,10086 chapters, either. So, we're in trouble if we're going to speak the truth plainly.
Church family, would you commit to praying for this new church in Long Beach, about this issue specifically? If you would go ahead and turn over your handouts for a second, I want you to see that this week we're doing what we did last week with our fellowship groups. So, they're going to be prayer nights. Fellowship groups are going to meet in here. We have our regular prayer night on Monday night, and then we have our fellowship groups Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Today with childcare for our normal groups on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. And we're going to be praying specifically, not just for America like last week, but for this new church in Long Beach. I've got a feeling that churches that have swerved from the truth didn't start off by saying we plan one day to swerve from the truth. That's not in the beginning. I think we'd be naive to think we'd be above this temptation. In fact, I think the reason the New Testament so regularly warns us about this is so that we wouldn't be caught up in it. So, one way you could just pray for us as this new church is be praying that we would stay faithful to God's Word. And the same way we could pray for boldness for us, as well, because it's not just the guy on stage that sometimes swerves. We can mute or muddy the message when we're uncomfortable in personal conversations, whether it's to evangelize or to encourage a fellow brother to stop walking in sin. May we all be useful to master by speaking truth plainly.
How else can we serve the King? Well, number three, number three: “know your audience.” Know your audience, understand who the people are that you're serving. He says, in 2 Corinthians 4:3, “And even if our gospel is veiled,” well, we talk about the gospel message being veiled. It's a little bit of a reference to chapter 3. It's also interesting. He says in verse 2, “We speak the message plainly,” right, the open statement of the truth, but just because you speak the message clearly doesn't mean people get it. I mean, you know this, right? Some of you have sat down and you've, like, drawn a chart on a napkin with somebody. Look, here's the gospel, here's the cross. We're sinners. Our sin goes to him, his righteous go to us. Believe in faith, none of our works, right? And then you'll talk to the same person a week later and they'll say, like, I just don't think I could be a good enough person to get saved. Get saved. And you're like, no, did you remember my nice napkin I drew this message for you? And he says, oh, how is it veiled? How do they not see it? I'll tell you why they don't see it. How do they not understand it? Says, if our gospel is veiled, is “veiled to those who are perishing.” Tells us that the non-Christian is perishing. They're spiritually dead. They have no spiritual pulse, no ability to comprehend the things of God. And so, therefore, verse 4 says, 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.” It says, the god of this age has blinded their minds. The god of this age is a reference to Satan. Now, Satan is not a god. He's not a mini god. He's not a lesser god. He's a created being. Satan does not reign and do whatever he wants. He's on a leash. His days are numbered. His judgment is coming and will be final and forever. But in the meantime, he exercises some authority over Earth. Here he's called the god of this world, Ephesians 2, he's called “the prince of the power of the air.” Jesus himself, in John 12, calls him the ruler of this world. This word here “world,” don't think the physical. You know, the ground in the skies. A better translation might be the word “age”; he's the god of this era. Right? And if you look around, right, what is happening in this time, what marks our culture? Is it submission to God and love for his things? No, it's submission and love for the things that Satan wants. What has Satan always wanted from humanity?
Go back to Genesis 3. Satan wants humanity to not trust God. He wants them to live for their own glory, and not for God's glory. Seems like that's how things are going these days, and he has blinded them, so he has some sort of influence over them. Jesus affirms this in Matthew 13, when he's talking about the parable of the soils. Some of you are familiar with this. The Sower goes out to throw seeds. And it's a depiction of how people respond to the gospel. Some of the seed falls on the road and is eaten up by the birds. Jesus says, that's like the person who hears the gospel and rejects it, and Satan comes and takes it away. So, there's some blinding influence that Satan has, also being that he has influence over many of the resources of this world constantly use them to distract and causing people to distrust God's Word.
Let's go back to our question, though, our point here, let's think about this verse in totality. Paul, in these verses, is describing non-Christians as dead and blind, as spiritually dead and spiritually blind, spiritual debt, spiritually dead again, means that they have no ability to do anything godly towards God. But let's go back to Mark 8. Let's hold our spot here, because I want to help us see what spiritual blindness looks like. So, let's take a look Mark chapter 8. And I want us to see an example of blindness. And this is so important, because if we're going to win people to Jesus, we need to understand who these people are that we're trying to convince to turn to Christ. Mark chapter 8 is maybe one of the lesser known miracles of Jesus. Everybody knows that he's fed five thousand in this chapter, it's another scene where he feeds four thousand, and it's like the exact same scene. So, in Mark 8:2, he says, “I have compassion on the crowd.” You know, I don't want to send them away. Let's feed them here. And the disciples say, well, we don't have enough bread. And if I'm the disciple, if I'm with the disciples, I'm going guys. Haven't we seen this scene before? Are we sure that we want to tell Jesus we don't have enough bread? Because that didn't end necessarily well for us last time. But they do. They only have seven loaves of bread, and what do we find? Verse 8. It says, “They all ate.” Were satisfied. “They took up broken pieces left, over seven baskets full, and there were about four thousand people there, and he sent them away. So, there we go. Jesus feeds four thousand people with leftover, creating bread out of nothing, and then he sends his disciples. They go on a journey. What happens? Verse 11 says, “The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.” So, Jesus just said four thousand, after he said five thousand, and the Pharisees say, hey, give us a sign so that we really know you're from heaven. Like, what do you call what just happened? Right? They're not seeing it. And so, Jesus says to his disciples, now they get in a boat. They're going across the water. He says in verse 14, or let's look at verse 3, says, “Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, watch out, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. Now, it's kind of sad and kind of funny, right? Because they get in the boat, and also somebody, all of a sudden, somebody goes, man, we only got one loaf for thirteen dudes here. This is not going to get the job done. We're in trouble. And Jesus says, Beware the leaven of the Pharisees. And they go, leaven, oh no. He knows we didn't bring enough bread. We are busted. That's what they're talking about in the boat. They don't have an automatic bread machine with them in the boat forever. Just bread whenever you want. No issue here. But what is the leaven of the Pharisees? Well, he tells them this verse, verse 17, he says, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive,” or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see, and having ears, do you not hear? Do you not remember?
See? We see that spiritual blindness is not the inability to see. People can read the Bible. They can understand the facts of the Bible. People could see God's glory. Right? The heavens declare the glory of the Lord. But spiritual blindness is the inability and the unwillingness to believe in faith what God has communicated. It's the inability and the unwillingness to joyfully submit to the truth that God has communicated. Friends, that's where people are around us. They are spiritually blind. Let's head back to 2 Corinthians. But as you do, I would just ask you this question, how do you think and talk about non-Christians? How do you think and talk about non-Christians? Because some of us can just be very harsh. We will get so angry and so frustrated. I can't believe they're doing this. They will say the meanest things about them. Friends, non-Christians are evil, but they're not merely evil, and they're not stupid. That's not a polite or gracious way to talk about them. They are blind. They cannot see, and in the same way, it would be very strange if you got frustrated that the blind person walking down our hallways kept running into the wall. It would be very strange if you were frustrated with spiritually blind people and not compassionate towards them. This is their need. They do not know what they're doing. Their eyes are not open to the truth. They have no desire nor ability to joyfully submit to the truth of Christ.
And so, if we want to keep offending them, whether here in Huntington Beach or go to Long Beach and do it, the easiest way to do that is have some sort of moral superiority. If only they were smart like I was and had the upbringing I have. Look, if you just listen to these podcasts, let me text them to you now; that will solve all of this for you. That's not going to do anything.
Now, here's what we need to do if we want to be useful: Stay humble, speak truth plainly, know your audience. And number four: We need to “Preach Christ.” We need to preach Christ. We're back in 2, Corinthians 4, and Paul says in verse 5, “For what we proclaim is not ourselves.” We don't proclaim ourselves. If we proclaimed us, we probably could have drawn a crowd if we said, hey, look how smart we are. Look how great we are. Probably gathered people. But the reason they rejected it is we didn't proclaim ourselves. We preached Christ, Jesus Christ as Lord with us as your servants, for Jesus' sake. And then verse 6, he says, “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.” Now we see here, he's talking about glory, verse 4, and he talks about glory again in verse 6 and even another one. Look at 2 Corinthians 3:18, right above there, he says, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord.” So, we see glory mentioned three times, and in two of them, it's about seeing the glory of the Lord, seeing the glory of the gospel, seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What does it mean, to see? What does it mean just to see Jesus? Plenty of people saw Jesus and they crucified him.
Now, seeing is to understand to agree with the weight and beauty and supremacy of who Jesus is. To see Christ is to behold him, to be stunned by glory. That's what Paul's talking about here. Those who comprehend and with joy say, yes, God is glorious. God is good. And what we notice in this passage is Paul says that both salvation and maturity come by seeing glory. So, look at this. Look at verse 6. He says, “For Love for God, who said, let light shine out of darkness.” When did God say that? That's Genesis 1, right? That was in creation. Well, he says, just like how in creation, God said, let light shine. so in salvation, a sort of second act of creation where God creates out of nothing. He said, let there be light so that you would see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What it means to be saved friends is that you understand and treasure the glory of God. I mean, think about this, when you became a Christian, did you become a Christian because you're like, you know what those rules make sense? I should start doing those. You know what that morality makes sense? I should start participating that. No, you understood your sin. You understood who God was, and you are overwhelmed that this God would accept you by faith, and your heart didn't just agree with it. Intellectually, you treasured him and said, I willingly, happily give all my life over to him because you beheld the glory of God. The same thing happens in sanctification. Look at 2 Corinthians 3:18, again. We all, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image. So, becoming more like Jesus, becoming more godly, comes with growing in our affections and understanding of his greatness. If you've been a Christian a long time, you understand that's true. There's been relationship between your maturity and the depth of your understanding of how good God is.
So, let's think this back to a practical level. We want to minister to people in Long Beach. We want to minister to people here. We need to help them see God's glory. We need to help them with the eyes of faith that behold the glory of God. That's how they're going to get saved. That's how they're going to grow. And how do we do that then? You ready? We do that by preaching Christ. We explain Jesus, we introduce them to Jesus. Like when I think about Long Beach, I think, what are we bringing there? Are we bringing resources? A can-do attitude, a program, a morality. Hey, look, this worked for me. This worked for you. Here are twelve easy steps to do it, friends. There's plenty of self-improvement programs that will do that all around the county. None of them save anybody. No. What we're bringing is Christ. We want to help them see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It says here in verse 4 that Jesus Christ is the image of God, and again, 6, we see God's glory in the face of Christ. What does that mean?
Let's end our time in the Gospel. John, go to John chapter 1. John 1. This is going to help us in our ministry. This is going to help us not just to give people steps or principles. Look. There are actions to take, there are things to do and not do, but we want people to see Jesus. Here's why, because Jesus is God. He's the second person of the Trinity. He's God the Son, and he is god of very gods. It says in verse 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. He's the Creator of all things. But back there we read he was the image of God, and in Hebrews 1, it says he's the exact representation of his nature. What does this mean, seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? So, I think verse 18 helps us here. It says, “No one has ever seen God.”
Now think about that. To see in our biblical language here is to know, to understand. He's saying no one has truly understood God. Think about what that says about us. We in our own faculties. Yes, we can learn something about God by looking at creation, even like the common morality that is in every culture, like we can learn something about God, but no one has truly understood the depths of all who God is. But then it says, but the only God speaking of Jesus, who's at the father's side, he has made him known. He has explained him. Someone comes to you and says, what is God like? And you're like, well, he's spirit and he's eternal and he's powerful. You're no, no, but what's he like? Like, what's his character like? What's what are his priorities? What's he's about? You know, the answer is, for us as Christians, here's what God is like. You ready? God is like Jesus. That's what God is like. And when we look at Jesus, we understand who God is. We sing, God is good all the time, all the time, God is good. How do I know that God is good? How do I know that God is loving? How do I know that God forgives, that he keeps his promises? How do I know that God actually cares for me? Ready? You see it? You see his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. I want to spend with us just the next few minutes, the next ten minutes, at most. I want to look at the Gospel of John right here and just see what the character of Jesus shows us about God, because we see his sweetness and his goodness and the satisfaction we can have in Christ. And we need to see this because we do not want to just bring principles or a path to Long Beach. We want them to see a person. We want them to behold Christ.
So let me give you some verses. I would encourage you, you don't need to even write these down. If you want them. I’ve got a handout over here for the cipher. I can give it to you right after the service. No stenographers, you don't need to hand this to a judge later. Just listen to this and think about and meditate on the goodness of Jesus. So, what do we know about Jesus? We already know he's Eternal God, that he has always been, that everything was created by him. But this eternal God took on humanity. So, John 1:14 says that “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” that Jesus took on a human nature. He experienced life in a fallen world. He experienced fatigue, hunger, he got tired, He thirsted. He experienced physical pain, emotional betrayal. Emotional pain, betrayal. He cried at Lazarus funeral. He lost a friend. He experienced, it says, in Hebrews 4, temptation in every single way as we are tempted, though he didn't sin. And so now I go to God with my life troubles, and I go to God with the problems I have in this world, and I go to God. Do you understand anything about what I'm going through? And the answer is yes. It says Hebrews four that he sympathizes with us because he experienced life the way we have. And we know God understands us because we see his glory, his goodness, his character in the face of Jesus Christ. How do I know that God is committed to my sins being paid for? How do I know that God's going to accept anything to pay for my sin? Why? Because I see it in the person, name of Jesus Christ. John 1:29 might be on the next page for your Bible. Says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus says, I did not come to be served, to serve and to give my life as a payment for sins to those who repent and turn to me.” He says, he lays down his life for the sheep. He willingly gives himself a sacrifice to pay for your sin and my sin. How do we know God cares about taking care of our sin problem? We know it because we see his commitment in the face of Jesus Christ.
Go to John chapter 4. Go to John chapter 4. We're going to see this again. But how do I know that God is kind? What's his character like? How do I know he actually cares about me? Oh, friends, you know it because you've seen his character in Jesus. I love in chapter seven, he talks to this woman who he knows is a sort of serial adulterer, the Samaritan woman. “A woman came from Samaria to draw water. He said to her, give me a drink.” The Samaritan woman, verse 9, said to him, “how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” See, I'm a dog in you, Jews’ eyes, no man has ever spoken to me. Why are you speaking to me? Oh, friends, because Jesus is so unimagining, gracious, gracious. He describes himself as gentle and humble in heart. The prophets say that a broken or a bruised reed, he will not break a smoldering wick. He will not extinguish that candle that's about to go out. That person has no heat to offer, their life just broken. He doesn't just put them out. He doesn't just break that twig. Oh, he's gracious and kind with people. You see this with the disciples, right? We saw that in Mark chapter 8. Notice how patient Jesus is. Then, notice in Matthew 20 that when the disciples come to him, it says, some of them doubted. He doesn't rebuke them. When Thomas says, I won't believe He doesn't say, what’s wrong with you, Thomas, he shows, gives evidence he is so kind. He feels compassion for lepers, weeps for Lazarus, washes the disciples’ feet and stands firm when they all scatter. How do we know that God is loving towards us? How do we know that he's gentle with us? Because we see it in the person of Jesus. Think about the some of these offers of who Jesus welcomes. Flip one page over to John 4:29, John 4 verse 29. Listen to what the woman at the well said, the Samaritan woman, the serial adulterer. “Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Sometimes we just miss this in our Bible reading. Right? Come see a man who told me all that I ever did. How can I know that God, who knows all that I've ever done and will judge all that I've ever done, will forgive me if I come to him, because we see both his knowledge and forgiveness in the face of Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus will say in John 6, “All who come to me, I will, in no way cast out.” And so, we see the goodness and greatness of the Lord in Christ.
Let me just give you some of the promises. One here in John 4:13, he tells this woman, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never thirst again.” Will God offer me satisfaction? Yes, because that's what Christ offers. He promises to come again. John 14, he promised us this. We're his friends. John 15, he promised us in John 11, that he is the resurrection and the life. And Jesus promises to forgive our sins, so we could trust God will do all those things for us. How do I know that God will answer my prayers? We'll look at the prayers that Jesus answers. When a blind man says, “Have mercy on me, Son of David,” when a struggling father says, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” When a thief on the cross says, “remember me when you come into your kingdom,” he answers those prayers. Because Jesus answers those prayers, we see his glory in the face of Christ. How do we know that God is for us? Now think of all that Jesus is doing for you. Now, he protects you, he feeds you, he puts people in your life to mature you. And Hebrews 7 says he prays for you all the time. Oh, friends, we know God is for us because we see his goodness in the face of Christ. This is what we're bringing to Long Beach. This is what we bring to our neighbors and coworkers. This is what we want to bring to children or students or wherever we're serving. We want them to see Christ. We want them not just to obey, but opaque. Obey Christ, not just to repent, but repent towards Christ. May we proclaim him, teach him, and may people, as we speak openly, the immeasurable worth of God in the face of Jesus, may God open their eyes, so they joyfully submit. I give all my life over to this Savior. Let's pray to that end. As we close our time this morning. And as you do have your head bowed as we sing this final song, I would encourage you that to have this song be an act of worship, as we sing about the person of Christ, but I ask that you would also, in your own heart, make this a sort of prayer for the city of Long Beach and for people that you're currently ministering to, that these people would come and see the glory and beauty of Christ and come to worship God because they've been compelled by what they've seen in Jesus.
Lord, we're so thankful for this passage this morning. We're thankful for Paul, the example that he sets. God, we do pray that you would help us to be humble, that we would never be in the business of thinking we've deserved any good thing we have. Lord, I pray that you help us to speak the truth with boldness and clarity and with love and compassion for people. Lord, we're so thankful for your Son, Jesus. We're so thankful that in him we see you, and that in him we are compelled to worship you. I pray Lord, that as we open up the words, and we open up our mouths, and we teach others that they would see your son and that eyes would be opened and that they would commit their life to following you. Pray these things in your Son's name. Amen. Amen.
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