Sermon: God-Ordained Ministry

If you take a copy of God's word this morning, and we're going to turn open to the book of 2 Corinthians as we continue our way through that book. If you want to grab a pew Bible, you can do that. It's right in front of you. It's page 964 in the pew Bible. 964 this morning, looking at 2 Corinthians 1:12 through chapter 2:4.

Chapter 1:12 through chapter 2:4.

Let's pray, and let's ask for God's blessing upon the reading and preaching of the word before we hear.

Our Father, we are thankful that you are not silent, that in the midst of a fallen world, that we know where truth is, that we know what it is, because this word is breathed out by you. We pray this morning that as we sit in this place amidst all of the different trials and afflictions and sufferings and sins and aggravations that fill up this room, that we would find that your word this morning is a true balm to us, a true encouragement, and you would speak to us each as we

have need. And we pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen. This morning, 2 Corinthians 1:12 through chapter 2:4. This is the holy, inerrant, sufficient word of God. "For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand, and

I hope you will fully understand, just as you did partially understand us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us, and we will boast of you. Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this?

Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say 'Yes, yes' and 'No, no' at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been 'Yes' and 'No.' For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not 'Yes' and 'No,' but in him it is always 'Yes.' For all the promises of God find their 'Yes' in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our 'Amen' to God, for his glory.

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But I call God to witness against me, it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you, for if I cause you

pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have me rejoice. For I felt sure of all of you that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you." Though the grass withers and the flower

fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Those we are closest to in relationship are often the greatest source of happiness in this life. And conversely, the opposite is true. Those that we are closest to in relationship are often the greatest source of hurt in this life. You think upon your own life, and you think back and picture in your mind some of the greatest moments of encouragement. It may have been sitting with a group of friends and just laughing all night, or maybe it is with family around the Christmas dinner table,

or it is with a brother or sister in Christ that you're kneeling with and you spent an extended time in prayer for one another with. And if you do the opposite, it almost is the same. It's that person that was a friend. It's that person that's a family member. It's that person that is a brother or sister in Christ that was one of the most painful things in life.

The sight of glory, they go hand in hand. To love much is to be hurt much, and it's worth it for the glory of God and for the good of your own soul. So Paul, like his Savior, lived this reality. He loved much, and so he was open to being hurt much. It's part of life, but here we see that it's a lot of the life of ministry. And we can't go over everything in this text, but we're going to work our way through it in this way. This text gives us four marks of God-ordained ministry.

Four marks of God-ordained ministry. Our first point this morning, God-ordained ministry includes hurt. It includes hurt. It seems antithetical, but it isn't. Ministry and hurt go hand in hand, and Paul, in our text, experiences it. The church that he has labored for in Corinth, the church that he has labored with in Corinth, that he has given all of his heart to, that he has loved, has erupted in great criticism and great

slander of the Apostle Paul. And the pains that he's experiencing at their hands are not slight. These are grievous pains that they are causing him. They are critiquing him in every kind of way it seems possible. They are critiquing him for his truthfulness, his integrity, his calling as an apostle, the message that he preached. They are questioning his very character. His entire person is under attack. Why? Because he had changed his travel plans and had not

visited them as he told them he was going to.

Criticism, attack, hurt is part of ministering to hurting people.

That's ministry. It isn't strange. You may feel like, "Oh, I was ministering to this person," and it's not strange. I know a pastor who, because he forgot an announcement in the morning worship service, was physically threatened in front of his wife and his children because it was assumed he was selfish and forgetful because he forgot to make the announcement. Another pastor that I know that he was at a church function, and they were having a little fall festival, and it was in a rural

church, and he didn't know how to shuck corn as they did And so a whole contingent of the church said, "This man is not a humble man. He's not like us," and eventually cast him out of the church. It started with shuck corn. Jonathan Edwards, the great 18th century American preacher, was criticized by his congregation for being too extravagant because during the day, the

tradition was to wear powdered wigs, and he dared to have two powdered wigs that he owned. Paul changed his plans. He didn't visit them, and so everything about him was being questioned. We find the plan in 1 Corinthians 16:5. He had promised the Corinthians that after coming from Macedonia, they would be his next stop, and he went on a couple of verses later to say this, "For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you if the

Lord permits." But Paul changed his plans. And thus Paul made a quick visit to Corinth in which he, as he says in chapter 2, verse 1 of our text, made a, quote, "painful visit to you." He was clearly opposed while there by these super apostles and the people that they had influenced, a portion of the congregation, if not the entire congregation, and so he didn't stay. He came into the church in Corinth, he quickly rebuked them, and

he quickly left.

That's not what he had told them he would do. He says in verse 23 of our text that this is what prevented him from, quote, "coming again to Corinth." That visit had been so very hurtful for him, maybe embarrassing for him, that he chose to write them instead. And so he sent a letter via the hands of Titus. And that letter, the letter that we don't have, the original 2 Corinthians, it was sent by Titus and appears to have turned the tide with some of the congregation,

but not all of the congregation. There is a host of them, along with the super apostles, that are still critiquing him and throwing accusations at him. And thus Paul sent this letter, what we call 2 Corinthians, 3 Corinthians, or 4 Corinthians, depending on what you believe. He sends this letter rather than visiting as planned, and he details that in verse 15 and 16. All of this is viewed by the Corinthian church as vacillation.

He seems to be fickle, this Paul, and so they accuse him in verse 12 of making decisions according to earthly wisdom. Here's the accusation they're especially throwing at him. Paul, you claim as an apostle to represent God, the God who is unchanging, the God who is unchanging that makes promises. But you, an apostle, change your promises, so therefore you can't be a representative of this God.

The criticisms, they're pointed, they're hurtful, and so Paul is responding. I want to stop here, though, and say this to us in the room, is that you'll notice when you go through the epistles that Paul does not always respond to criticisms. He's not defensive all over the place. Second Corinthians is by far where he is the most defensive. There are times that it's needed to defend yourself, but not all the time. Paul has done such an assessment here.

He does so and makes a defense in detail with energy in this situation because the accusers are undermining the gospel that he preached by undermining Paul. And so Paul, for the sake of Christ, not for the sake of Paul, but for the sake of Christ, is defending himself. The gospel and the ministry of the gospel that they have received was at stake. You have to do these calculations. Don't be quick all the time to defend yourself.

You and I have to be on guard against that because it's one of the easiest ways for that root of bitterness to grow up in your heart and just sprout and take over. There are a lot of offenses that you and I are just to look past, many that we're just to wave off. I had a young husband come to me probably 10 or 15 years ago for counseling. He came in and he said, "Pastor," he said, "How often should I be correcting my wife?"

And I said, "A lot less than you think."

How often should you be defending yourself? A lot less than you think. But there are times, and Paul has found one of these times. He doesn't let go of this because wolves are attacking the sheep, and a faithful pastor beats them off. In attacking Paul, they were attacking the gospel, and thus they were attacking the sheep. And those in positions of authority not only need to have a calming voice for the sheep, they need to have a strong rebuking voice for the wolves.

And so Paul exercises it. Yet he's done so with patience. He's done so with care. He wrote a letter so that it was not so severe as it would be if he was with them in person. He's giving them time. He's giving them distance. He's giving them opportunity to repent, to stop it. And by doing so, he's following the lead of his Christ. It's Christ, 2 Peter 3, Peter says of this, "God is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should

perish, but that all should reach repentance." Why is it that Christ has not yet returned the second time? It's because he's being patient. He's being patient so that there's time for repentance. He's a good, great shepherd, and he lacks severity with his sheep.

And so his under-shepherds ministering in his name are to lack severity. Jesus is a gentle savior. "I am gentle and lowly in heart," he says. And so Paul here is being gentle and lowly with them. He's not being severe. You think from a worldly perspective, though, he has every reason to be harsh. He has every reason to be bitter with these Corinthians, even severe. He pastored them. He preached them. He suffered for them.

He led many of them, if not most of them, to saving faith. And now that he was in Asia, and as we saw a couple of weeks ago, he was burdened beyond his strength. He said he even despaired of life itself. He's in such dire circumstances, and in the midst of that affliction, they're hurling insults and criticism at him.

And all he did was love and serve them. When you minister to others, dear Christians, there are wonderful blessings,

but there are also great pains.

Think people you have led to faith or people that you have spent more time in prayer for than they will know this side of glory, someone that you have counseled through hard circumstances. Maybe you've helped to lead them out of an adulterous relationship, or how to navigate a wayward child, or how to enter into this or that friendship that is fractured. Or you spent weeks and they don't realize how much sleep you lost agonizing,

flipping back and forth on your bed, trying to figure out what is it that I should say to them to help awaken them to this or to encourage them or to support them. And then that person, for a small trifle, becomes your enemy, slanders, gossips, accuses, even offers hatred, sometimes leaving your friendship, your company, your church, your family. It's part of ministry in this world. Our Lord walked with the disciples for three years, pouring into them,

and in the moment of his greatest affliction, they all abandoned him.

But as Christ didn't harden himself to sinners, notice Paul does not harden himself to these Corinthians. He doesn't become bitter. He doesn't return insult to them. Rather, he keeps loving them. Our second point, God-ordained ministry requires loving

as we have been loved. Paul says in verse four, "For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears." His rebuking letter that he sent to them, he didn't sit down and start warming his hands together, excited at the vitriol he was about ready to put on paper with his quill pen. That wasn't what he was doing. As Calvin points out, pious pastors weep within themselves before making others

weep. From his own pain, his own tears, his own anguish, he wrote, he says, quote, "Not to cause you pain," not seeking to return injury for injury. Rather, he says, quote, "To let you know the abundant love that I have for you." They've accused Paul of being weak, and listen, he's weak. He's made that very clear. But he's also incredibly strong in Christ.

There's no greater strength in the world than continuing to show love and to be able to love those that truly hate you. What did Jesus say? You are to love your enemies. It's only the Christian that can truly do this because of what we've received.

It's not so strange because it's the heart of the gospel that Paul preached to them. For God so loved the world, He loved His own to the end. Who are those that He loved? Those who were opposed to Him, those who hated Him, those who rebelled against Him, those who slandered Him and blasphemed Him, those who cursed Him, those who mocked Him.

It's the beauty of the gospel. God loves sinners to the point of self-sacrifice of His own Son. He doesn't love you because you're lovable.

He loves sinners.

You know why He loves sinners? It's because He's love.

So those who minister in His name, me, you, us, are to minister as Christians in love, even to those who do not return it in kind, maybe especially to those who do not return it in kind.

So how do you survive amidst the false accusations and the insults and the bitterness, and even the hatred of those who you seek to minister to as a Christian engaged in ministry? How do you do that? Well, third point, God-ordained ministry endures with inward-looking and forward-looking

commitment. Paul endures by inward-looking. That is, he says he's keeping a clean conscience. A clean conscience is one of your best friends as you do ministry. He says here in verse 12, "For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely toward you." He states it categorically, look, I have a clean

conscience. He uses two words there to describe his ministry, simplicity and sincerity. We minister to you with simplicity. There was frankness in how we communicated to you. It was direct. It was without qualification. But not only that, he says it was with sincerity. That is, it was purely, it was honestly. We weren't trying to hide things or keep things from you. It was truthfully. There's nothing underhanded here. There's no deception.

Paul's not a man operating according to the flesh as they accuse him. No. He says he's not operating according to earthly wisdom, but as he says in verse 12, but by the grace of God, his conscience is clear.

Now, people use that idea of conscience, and often it becomes a little escape route for pursuing my own selfish motives and vindicating myself. And a lot of people have done a lot of pain to people by saying, "Well, look, I'm just doing what my conscience tells me to do. I've done this because I heard an inner voice that's telling me I should do this, or I've done that, or I didn't do this." That's not conscience. That's not what Paul's talking about. That's some inner voice.

I don't know what that is. The conscience is informed by the Word. It's dominated by the Word. And Paul is saying, look, our conscience is clear because it's been dictated by the Word as we proclaimed the Word to you. How do you withstand the insults of others to whom you minister or have ministered and not grow angry or bitter or return hate for hate? Well, one way is surely to maintain a clear conscience. Our conscience is one of the most precious of possessions.

You're to keep it like a bride keeps her wedding dress for that special day. You want nothing to stain it, nothing to infringe upon it, nothing even to make it a little discolored. No, you want to keep it clear as much as it is possible by the work of Christ within me. As much as possible, I want it to be clean and clear so that on that special day when he returns upon the clouds, my conscience is clean, safeguarded.

The more you minister, the more a clear conscience matters.

And you're going to need it. David Powlison gave an illustration years ago that has always been helpful to me. He said that when you minister to people, it's like standing next to a puddle, and eventually, you're going to get splashed. Meaning that if you are loving enough to draw near to people to minister to them, as most of you do, if you're close enough to that person, whatever that puddle is that they're standing in, whatever it is, that sin that they're

wrestling with, eventually you're going to get splashed with that. So if they're an angry person, eventually you're going to get that anger. If they're a gossip, if they're a slanderer, eventually you're going to get that gossip. You're going to get that slander. It's just part of ministry among God's people. Well, what's the balm in such circumstances? Well, one is having a clean conscience before the Lord. Paul had it,

but he doesn't simply endure with inward-looking, but also forward-looking commitment. Paul keeps the end in view. He says this in verse 14, "On the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us as we will boast of you." That is because they received the Gospel message that he declared, he's confident that they, along with him, when Christ returns upon the clouds with the angels and the archangels, that in the end, they will be standing there together.

He's saying, "Look, our boast will be you, and you will be boasting us." He's saying on that last day, all of that slander and all of these accusations and all of these disagreements that they are lobbing at Paul, they cease. There's an expiration date, but even better, they not just cease, but these people that are accusing him, instead of accusing him on that day, will be boasting in him.

So incredibly hopeful. It's such a good reminder. It's such a balm. So much of what we get worked up about concerning one another, it just fades in the light of the glory of Christ.

All misunderstandings on that day, all friction, all pain disappears. The brother or sister in Christ who hurts me now or hurt me last week or hurt me last year or hurt me last decade,

they'll boast in me, and I'll boast in them.

Suffering's real, but it has an expiration date.

Finally, God-ordained ministry rests on Christ, who is our yes and our bond. It rests on Christ, who is our yes and our bond. Paul was committed to looking like his Savior as he proclaimed his Savior. Where there's spiritual vitality, there's honesty. And here, Paul makes it clear with two emphases. He grounds his own trustworthiness in Christ, and then he shows that the same Christ has bound him to the very people accusing him.

That they aren't separate arguments, it's the same argument just from different lenses. He's saying, "I gave you this Gospel, and you've received this Gospel. Both of these things are true, and Christ is true, and this same Christ has bound us to one another."

Whether or not he actually said it, it's said that the famous 19th century Presbyterian, Robert Murray McCheyne, once said, "The most necessary thing for my people is my own personal holiness."

By his people, he meant his congregation. What he meant is this, if I'm proclaiming the Gospel, if I'm proclaiming this as truth, it needs to come through a vehicle that has been radically altered and shaped by that truth. It matters. And Paul makes this argument about himself in verse 19 and following. That they're accusing him of vacillating, of being fickle, of saying yes, yes, and saying no, no, at the same time. But he says in verse 19, "The Son of God, Jesus

Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes." Well, what does Paul mean? Donald Robinson summarized it well when he said this, he said, "Jesus himself is the end. There's nothing revealed to us in the purposes of God which does not have fulfillment in Jesus Christ." That is, all that the Old Testament believers looked forward to, according to the promises of God, is fulfilled in Christ.

So whether you take the Passover or you take the Exodus or you take the mercy seat or you take the tabernacle or you take the temple or you take the promise of prophets and priests and kings, or whether you think of the manna that fell from the sky or the water that flowed from the rock, whatever it is that was a promise of God, it finds its fulfillment in Christ, the Son of God who became flesh. But it's not just those promises.

It goes all the way back to Eden and the creation promises that were radically altered and some absolutely obliterated in the Fall. Jesus is the second Adam. He's the firstborn from the dead. He is the firstfruits of the resurrection, and he is now the God-man, fully man, who reigns glorified above, the first of those in glory.

As Robinson said, "The end has therefore come in Jesus Christ. There's nothing whatever of all God's purposes of salvation which has not been fulfilled in him." So here's Paul's argument. Because Christ is the yes of God, he's the amen of God. That's why you say amen at the end of prayers. Do you know this? It means verily, truly, yes, I believe that. You say the name of Jesus, and yes, everything in him, yes, I agree.

Everything we've just prayed, in Christ, yes. He's the yes of God, the very amen of God, and as everything is fulfilled in Christ, every single promise is realized in Christ. As Christ is true, so Paul is saying those who are in Christ must be true. They are to be truth-tellers. And so to accuse Paul of being untruthful is to accuse the very heart of the minister's calling and the Christian's life and his very service as the ambassador of this king, of the kingdom, this king

who is the way, the truth, and the life. And so Paul's argument is this, "You Corinthians, you received this Christ from me, who is the yes and the amen of God. You received him as truth. Do you think that I, as an apostle, as a declarer of this truth, would then not want to be shaped and live by this truth?"

There's a story about Benjamin Franklin, who was a noted deist. I don't know if it's true or not, but he was good friends with George Whitefield, the great 18th century evangelist of the Great Awakening. Benjamin Franklin, though he was no Christian, would go and he would listen to George Whitefield preach. Someone asked him, "Why do you listen to Whitefield preach when you don't believe what he says?" And Franklin replied, "I don't believe him,

but he does. There's an authenticity about him.

He's proclaiming truth as a person affected by that truth."

And so Paul's argument is, "You received this Gospel from me." He isn't simply arguing, trust me. He's saying, as one commentator said, "Trust God. His promises have been fulfilled in Christ, and our faithfulness in dealing with you has been assured by our preaching Christ to you. I'm going to be boasting in you. You're going to be boasting in me. You know why? Because we belong to the same Christ, the Christ that I preached to you."

So Christ is the yes. It's the very promise of God, including Paul now shows them the promise that binds God's people together forever. Christ's faithfulness stands behind Paul's words, and it stands behind Paul's union with these Corinthian. Verses 21 and 22, "It is God," he says, "who established us with you in Christ." He gives a three-fold testament that God has anointed us. He's put a seal on us. He's given us his Spirit in our hearts

as a guarantee. He's anointed us. God made us his people. He put his seal on us. We belong to him. He owns us, sealed with his Spirit. It has the idea of permanence, of something that is irrevocable, not for a moment but for eternity. In fact, he says that he has given his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee, and that word guarantee has the idea of deposit. It has an idea of down payment that brings in the full measure.

It's guaranteed.

Or another way of saying it is the Spirit ties together the first and the second advents of our Lord. Our Lord came into the world, and he lived and he died, and he was buried and resurrected. And what did he say? He said, "I must go to the Father so that I can send the helper." And what does the Spirit do? If you'll allow me to say it this way, he is a bridge between the first and the second coming of Christ. He's a guarantee that these are not two separate

things. It's one thing in two different acts of the King and the kingdom coming into the world, and he is that deposit. He is that bridge. You have it. I have it. He's returning, and we're going to be together forever.

How could they attack Paul in such a hateful manner, causing him such pain when they're united with him by the Spirit forever?

That's his

little push towards them.

In fact, this is why Paul says he didn't visit them, verse 23. He calls God as his witness. He didn't visit them so that he says he might not cause them more pain. He's united with them forever. He's moved with love for them. Verse one of chapter two, "For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you." He's given them opportunity, distance, time to repent. "Not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant

love that I have for you."

My friends, God-ordained ministry is what we are called to, whether you're a pastor or an elder or a deacon or a layperson. When we have been called to Christ, we've been called to the mission of Christ,

which means that we have to dare to love,

which means that we have to dare to be hurt.

That's how it works.

I'll tell you, every wound that Paul bore was worth it. In glory, when you get there, you will not have a single regret for the pains that you have endured for the sake of the name of Christ. Not one regret.

The friend who wounds, the church member who accuses, the family member who returns hatred for love, if they're in Christ, you're bound together with them forever, whether they feel it or know it or not, and they're worth loving now.

And on that day, your sorrows will turn to rejoicing,

your wounds will be healed in Christ, and your peace shall be absolutely complete. Why? Because he's promised it, and he's the very yes and the amen of God, and everything that he has promised is fulfilled in him, and you're in him.

He will not leave you. He will not forsake you. He who is all in all, the very yes and amen of God. Let's pray.

Father,

we thank you for your abundant mercy in Christ our Lord, that you're a God who fulfills all of your promises in him. I pray for those that sit here this morning wounded for the sake of your Son and for the bride of Christ, that you would wrap your everlasting arms around them, that they would know comfort in the midst of affliction. We pray, O Lord, that you would give us the strength to endure on and not to retreat, but to press in in love,

and to do so for the glory of a Savior who loved us when we were unlovable and continues to love us. And we pray all this in the strong name of that Christ and Savior of men, the Lord Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, your yes and your amen.