TELLING IT PLAINLY
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 8, 2020 under 2020 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; November 8, 2020 from 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
Theme: The command of God to let the gospel shine forth is what motivates us to tell it plainly.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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That preacher was the apostle Paul. He has grown to be a great hero to me. I love his passionate and confident devotion to the life-changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I find much of that passion and confidence expressed in 2 Corinthians. And so, I love to read and study this letter. I hope that some of his passion and confidence will rub off on me.
In 2 Corinthians 4, we find Paul’s zeal and passion expressed in practical experience. In verses 1-6—speaking for himself and his co-laborers in the gospel—he wrote these words:
Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:1-6).
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Do you know what the first words of God are—as they are recorded for us in the Bible? They are the words that He spoke after we’re told that He had created the heavens and the earth. We’re told that “darkness was on the face of the deep”; and in Genesis 1:3, God said, “Let there be light …” That is the first command of the Bible. Right from out of the midst of darkness—“Let there be light.” It shows us that it’s not the will of our heavenly Father that darkness prevail upon His creation. He graciously commands the light to shine.
That ancient command is a key part of understanding this morning’s passage. It’s a key part, in fact, of Paul’s motivation for preaching the gospel. In verse 6, Paul wrote that “it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
In great mercy—after our first parents Adam and Eve fell in sin, and after spiritual darkness prevailed over this earth—God did something wonderful for humankind. He ordered the spiritual light to shine. It’s a greater, brighter, and far more eternal light than even the light that He ordained at the beginning of creation. It is the light the knowledge of Himself—shining forth in the face of His Son Jesus and illuminating sinful hearts—bringing fallen humanity back into reconciliation with Himself. As John 1:4-5 says about Jesus;
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:4-5)—
or as we can better translate it, the darkness did not ‘overcome’ it. The gospel tells us the story of what Jesus did for us. And the fact that God Himself has commanded that gospel to shine forth in this dark world was what motivated Paul to declare it—and to declare it clearly and plainly.
Look back to what Paul had told us in Chapter 3. He said that God had made him and the other apostles to be sufficient as ministers of the gospel of the new covenant in Christ. The old covenant was that covenant of law that was given through Moses. When Moses declared it, he wore a veil over his face to hide the fading glory of that old covenant. That old covenant was, as Paul said, “passing away”; but the new covenant in Christ has come with far greater glory.
In verses 12-18, Paul wrote;
Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:12-18).
And so; since God has declared the gospel of the new covenant, and since He has caused it to shine forth in the face of Jesus Christ, and since He has removed the ‘veil’ from it so that it is not obscured, then Paul was greatly motivated it to proclaim it as plainly as he could. He himself had been transformed by Jesus. And so, he used “great boldness of speech”; so that others may gaze clearly upon the unveiled face of Jesus, and—believing on Him—also be transformed by Him.
And that brings us to our passage this morning, where Paul put this zeal into practical terms. He was clearly expressing his own motivation in this passage. But the Holy Spirit preserved these words for us today; so that we too will be motivated, with “great boldness of speech”, to proclaim the life-changing power of the gospel in our time.
God has commanded the light to shine. And the command of God to let the gospel shine forth is what motivates us to boldly tell it as plainly and clearly as we can.
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Now; Paul sets the example for us. In this passage, we can see several principles of speaking this glorious message plainly and clearly.
Paul began in verse 1 by saying, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy …” He highlights how he and his co-laborers were recipients of God’s mercy. And this shows us that, when it comes to sharing this gospel with others, we too should be …
1. SPEAKING AS RECIPIENTS OF GOD’S MERCY.
How might Paul have been a recipient of mercy? Certainly, it was in the fact that God had forgiven his sins. Paul had been marvelously transformed by the gospel of Jesus. As he once wrote in his first letter to his ministry partner Timothy;
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life (1 Timothy 1:12-16).
Twice Paul speaks in those words of how he had received mercy from God. His story of salvation became a pattern for how great God’s mercy can be to anyone who trusts His Son for the mercy of salvation. But Paul also mentioned that a part of that mercy was that he got to then go forth and proclaim the very gospel that had saved him. Ir was a great privilege to him that God had put him into the ministry—unworthy sinner though he had been. And this too might be what Paul meant in saying that he and the others had ‘received mercy’. In 1 Corinthians 15, he wrote of all those other apostles who had testified that they had seen the resurrected Lord Jesus;
Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (1 Corinthians 15:8-10).
Dear believing brothers and sisters; do you have a sense of the greatness of the mercy of God to you through Jesus? Does it overwhelm you with gratitude that you heard the gospel and believed and are saved? Does it thrill you that you’ve been shown the mercy of bearing to others that same message that saved you? If so, you’ll be motivated to share it with plainness and clarity.
What’s more, you’ll be motivated to be …
2. KEEPING AT IT EARNESTLY AND FAITHFULLY.
To share that message clearly to a fallen world—to hold forth the light of the gospel plainly in the darkness—is not an easy thing. The opposition can be fierce—especially when you declare that gospel in a faithful way. People don’t like being told that they are sinners and that they need a Savior. They don’t like being told that their sin is such an offense to God’s holiness that God’s Son had to die on the cross in their place. The enemy of our souls doesn’t like it either. All the forces of hell will fight against the manifestation of that light. But as Paul wrote in verse 1; “since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.” The love of God that shined this great light on Paul was what compelled Paul to keep on proclaiming clearly it to others!
As we go on to read the passage that follows after this one—in verses 7-15—we find that the challenges were hard. But it was love for the souls of others that compelled Paul to bear up and to keep on proclaiming. He wrote;
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God (vv. 7-15).
That’s why he could repeat it in verse 16; “Therefore we do not lose heart …” Once we too have experienced the life-transforming power of the gospel—once we, like Paul, grasp that God has ordained this great light to shine on this earth in the face of Jesus—we too will be motivated to share it clearly … and to not lose heart.
Because God has ordained that the gospel of Jesus shine forth in this world clearly, we will also be …
3. SETTING ASIDE ALL TRICKS OF PERSUASION.
In verse 2, Paul says of himself and his fellow preachers, “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully …”
The ‘hidden things of shame’ characterized the false teachers who had been peddling false doctrines to the Corinthians. They had been presenting themselves as ‘fully qualified apostles’—more qualified, in fact, than Paul. But they hid their deceitful doctrines behind philosophical jargon and impressive hard-to-understand words; so that they sounded more profound than they really were, and that their doctrines sounded more flattering to human ears. If people knew what those false teachers had really believed and how they really lived, they would have rejected them. But in keeping with the bright shining light of the gospel as God has sent it forth, Paul and his co-preachers ‘renounced the hidden things of shame’. They refused to walk in ‘craftiness’ or to handle God’s word ‘deceitfully’. As he wrote previously, at the end of Chapter 2; “For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God”—or as we might translate that, “marketing the word of God”; that is, changing it, or leaving parts of it out, so as to take away its convicting power—“but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.”
When Paul and his co-workers first came to the Corinthians, they were extremely careful not to use fancy, philosophical, worldly-impressive words. They spoke the gospel as simply and plainly as they possibly could—even to the point of making themselves seem ‘unimpressive’. Back in 1 Corinthians 2, Paul wrote;
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).
And dear fellow believers; if we understand that God has commanded the light of the gospel to shine on the face of Jesus, and if it was by a clear and unambiguous declaration of that gospel that we ourselves believed and were saved, then we’ll strive to do the same for others. We’ll never obscure the gospel with fancy talk or try to manipulate people with tricks of persuasion. We’ll renounce all that sort of thing and—with as much clarity as possible—strive hard to proclaim nothing but the plain truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And what’s more, we’ll be …
4. PROCLAIMING IT WITH CONFIDENT SINCERITY.
Paul went on to say, in verse 2, “… but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
Paul was always careful to live in such a way as to back-up the message that he proclaimed. He didn’t ‘undo’ what he said by living in a careless manner. But as these words clearly show us, he sought—most of all—to commend himself to the consciences of men, in the sight of God, by making the truth ‘manifest’. The power of the gospel is such that it was the clarity of his preaching—backed up by his life of moral integrity—that did the most to commended Paul’s message as true. This was very much like what he wrote to the Thessalonian believers in 1 Thessalonians 2. Paul wrote;
But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness—God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us (1 Thessalonians 2:4-8).
Let’s make sure that we commend ourselves to all who hear us—not only with the clarity with which we declare the gospel, but also with the faithful manner in which we live it!
Now; even with all of this, we will still have to proclaim the clear message …
5. KNOWING THAT NOT ALL WILL UNDERSTAND IT.
We can proclaim the gospel message with as much clarity as we possibly can—proclaiming it faithfully and sincerely and with a holy life—and yet, still, it will remain incomprehensible to some. But that will not be because of us or because of the message. As Paul went on to write in verses 3-4, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
Now; there’s something important that you need to notice about this. Paul was not saying that certain people do not believe because the devil has placed a veil over their minds. Rather, we’re being told that the devil has placed a veil over their minds because they do not believe. In other words, Paul was saying that because they will not believe, the devil—who is the god of this world—has blinded their eyes so that the light of the gospel of Jesus might not shine on them.
There’s a great mystery to this. But with respect to those who will not believe, God has blinded their eyes so they cannot believe; and He somehow uses the devil by allowing him to effect that blindness. Many of the people of Jesus’ day would not believe on Him—even when Jesus was standing right before them and proving Himself to them. In John 12:39-40, John the apostle wrote;
Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:
“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,
Lest they should see with their eyes,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them” (John 12:39-40).
This explains to us why some simply will not believe—no matter how clearly we proclaim the light of the gospel to them. But let’s not let that stop us from proclaiming it clearly anyway. Everyone who truly wants to understand the gospel can have the light of the gospel shine upon them—and they can believe.
With that in mind, it’s vital that we make sure we proclaim the gospel clearly by …
6. PUTTING THE FOCUS UPON JESUS.
As Paul put it in verse 5, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.”
Some of the false teachers were making themselves the center of focus. It was all about them. Paul and his co-workers, however, were so impacted by the transforming power of the gospel, and were so motivated by the fact that God had declared that it was to shine forth, that they did not preach themselves. They preached Christ. If they spoke of themselves at all, it was only as the bondservants of those to whom they preached for Jesus’ sake. Paul and his other co-preachers such as Apollos didn’t elevate themselves in order to be respected. Instead, as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 3:5;
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers [that is, just common table-servants] through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? (1 Corinthians 3:5).
Table servers don’t bring attention to themselves. They just serve the people at the table by bringing out the food for the sake of the chef—so that the chef gets the glory. Let’s never obscure the message by pointing to ourselves. Let’s make it clear by keeping the focus on Jesus Christ—and Him crucified.
And finally, let’s do all that we can to present the gospel clearly …
7. TRUSTING THAT GOD WANTS IT TO BE KNOWN.
As it says in verse 6, “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
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Our God is a God who shines the light on the darkness. From the very beginning, He declared, “Let their be light.” And now, with the same power and authority that He exercised as Creator, He has commanded that the light of the gospel shine upon human hearts; so that His glory may be known through the face of Jesus Christ His Son.
Let’s make sure, then, that we live this gospel confidently and faithfully—and, most of all, tell it plainly!
EA
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