Sunday, June 30, 2024 AM

The Pastor’s Call to Preach Christ and Mark the Tenth Anniversary

Confess today here that you are alone God, that you are good, that you keep your promises, that you have shown all of your goodness and all of your faithfulness to your Word and sending forth your Son Jesus Christ who has in his ascended glory sent forth the Holy Spirit that we may be in fellowship with you as the Father, Son, and Spirit.

God in whose image we are made, to whose name we are accountable, for whose glory we live. Heavenly Father, you know our needs, you know how weak we are, you know what we have been taught, and you know what we still need to learn, you know what comes next, you know what has come behind, and you hold us fast, and you have assured us of your great love.

We pray here today that as we worship you, that you would affirm to us once again your goodness and your glory, that you would direct us in a way that would be pleasing to you, that would be magnifying concerning your name in this world.

Lord, we give you thanks. We give you the glory. We pray all these things in the name of Christ. Amen. Well, sorry for the typo on the screen. That's me. I want to preach a message to you this morning from 2 Corinthians 3, and it's a message that's been brewing for quite a long time.

I have been reflecting as of late about how many blessings the Lord gives, blessing upon blessing. There's that passage in Hebrews that says that those who are elders would like to serve in their ministry of oversight and shepherding with joy, and being your pastor is something I count as a joy.

And I think we know that we can all give glory to Christ for that. We can all praise God for His grace that is evident among us. And I want to talk about where we've been and where we're going as your pastor now for, well, 10 years tomorrow is when we drove our two little minivans from Tennessee back home to Oklahoma.

My first sermon that I preached as an intern at Southwoods Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee was on a Sunday night during a storm. And I preached from Numbers 25 about Phineas spearing two idolaters, immoral people, the wrath of God.

And it was storming outside, and lightning was flashing and coming through the stained glass window in the back. Flat, thin, metal roof, so the thunder was feedbacking through the sound system and overwhelming everything.

And despite all the special effects, when I was done preaching and I had studied the stuffing out of the passage as part of an assignment for seminary, when it was all said and done, I met with the pastor afterwards for my post-sermon review.

He's such a kind and gracious man. I think of him every day. And he commented on the things that he thought were done well, and then he finished our little talk by saying, but you failed to preach Christ.

He said the opportunity was there, but you failed to preach Christ. So from that point on, I have tried to preach Christ. He's my Savior. Saves me every day, saves me in every way you imagine. As the king, he makes arrangements for us in ways that are sometimes surprising and sometimes feel unwelcome, but in the end, you see what he was up to.

Thomas Watson said that providence is a Hebrew word best read backwards, and so we look backwards and we see how it is that God made arrangements for all the blessings. And so I want to preach to you from 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 1 through 6.

The Corinthians as Paul’s Letter of Recommendation

2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 1 through 6, because I think this is a clarifying passage about what the aim is and what the point is, what we're doing here, where we've been, and where we're going, and I think it gives glory and honor to whom it is due.

So I invite you to stand with me and let's read the Word of God together, 2 Corinthians 3, verses 1 through 6. Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

And we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.

But the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Paul is...oh, he's working hard. He's reaching hard for the church in Corinth. He spent 18 months there planting the church.

What an amazing opportunity, a preaching of the gospel in not just a port city, but a two-port city. People from all manner of backgrounds and languages gathering there in Corinth. How needful the gospel was to be preached there, where all manner of debauchery was going on.

What an awful, pagan, grand city was Corinth. How proud they were of their sexual abominations, yet even some things they considered too far and patted themselves on the back for drawing the line somewhere.

One of the main concerns that Paul has had with the Corinthian church is that they're so eagerly welcoming other people who would say that they would shepherd, that they would bring the authority of Christ to them.

They willingly accept other versions of the gospel, or they would willingly accept words from Christ, but they weren't words from Christ. If Paul is reaching for the church and saying, don't you remember when I spent time with you, when I preached the word to you?

These other people coming with the name of apostle and with all kinds of grandeur, they come to you with letters, with credentials, with recommendations that you eagerly receive. Oh, so-and-so recommends this person.

Wow, they must be really important. Oh, this place over there. Oh, I have a cousin over there. They recommended this person, so they're welcome to say what they have to say. Paul's saying, what do I have to do?

What do I have to do so that you will listen to my shepherding, my protection, my investment into you? He's explaining why he's not there, why he wants to be there, but he's not there right now. He's trying to get there.

God has him busy elsewhere. Jesus has him assigned elsewhere. And he's been preaching the gospel. He's been in Troas. He's been in Macedonia, chapter two says, and he's not complaining. I know this is working out according to the plan.

And so he says at the end of chapter two, now, thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ. This word triumph is a technical term envisioning the victorious parade of the Roman Emperor come back from battle, conquering the enemies, and riding in this triumph at the head of the parade.

And all manner of incense is being offered up in celebration of the victory, and behind him is a trail of slaves. Some of the slaves have been taken from their homeland to be brought and executed publicly, and so that those people would be shamed, and the victory over the Roman enemies would be complete.

Others are being paraded along, having been taken from where they once were, but they are being legally adopted by the Roman Emperor as his sons, who will rule in these areas in his name. So Paul, who is often calling himself the prisoner of Christ, is here being led along by the victorious Jesus Christ, who has triumphed over death, hell, and the grave, and he has ascended to the right hand of the Father, and he is leading in triumph.

And Paul is like, I am in the parade, and I am chained to Christ. I'm one of the sons. He says, and through us, he diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. The incense is just filling the streets among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, two types of folks in the parade.

To the one, we are the aroma of death leading to death. The incense is the last thing you smell before you die. So it's a condemnation. But to the other, the aroma of life leading to life. Yes, this is the scent of victory.

Such is the gospel. A stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those who are being saved is the sweet smell of liberty and forgiveness and eternal life. And Paul says, who is the vision for these things?

Paul is not the one in the chariot. He's not the one leading the victorious parade. He's just one of the prisoners. He's just one of the slaves. He's the bond slave of Jesus Christ. He is the prisoner of Jesus Christ.

He's just being pulled along, and he's saying, how am I, I'm not sufficient for this. But he says in verse 17, we are not, for we are not as so many, peddling, peddling the Word of God. But as of sincerity, as from the, as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.

I'm not, I'm not saying, hey, buy my wine half-off, but I've watered it down three-fourths. That's not what I'm doing here. He says, I'm just, I'm preaching the gospel in a way that would be pleasing to God.

This is all I'm doing. And now he realizes he's been talking about himself. So he says, do we begin again to commend ourselves? This is what I'm doing. He's saying, do we really need, as so many others, do we need letters of recommendation?

Do we have to have credentials for you to accept us? He says, no, you are the letter of recommendation. He says to the Corinthian church, you are our epistle written in our hearts. But it's not something simply private.

It's not something that is invisible because you are known and read by all men. Known and read by all men. Clearly, evidently, visibly, you are an epistle of Christ. How is this letter written? The letter is obviously a metaphor, but it speaks to what God has been doing in the relationship between Paul and the Corinthian church, how God has been at work changing things in the relationship there.

But how is it written? Ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh that is of the heart. So, what has Paul been trying to do?

He's been trying to write Christ onto the hearts of the Corinthian saints. Who's sufficient for those things? Paul's not sufficient for these things. This has to be the work of the Holy Spirit. This has to be the grace of God, obviously.

But he's saying, I don't need a letter of recommendation. I don't need an epistle from you to recommend me back to you. You are the epistle. You are my credentials. You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men.

Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ. Christ being written upon you by the Spirit of the living God. In the Old Covenant, the Old Covenant was essentially, not exhaustively, but essentially represented by the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, and it was written upon tablets of stone.

And the tablets of stone had the ten words, but all of the Ten Commandments written down on them, and then they were put into the Ark of the Covenant. And God, at times, would say, place the Covenant into the Ark of the Covenant, or He would say, place the testimony into the Ark of the Testimony.

And that's where it would stay. But now, Paul is saying, you have Christ, who is the Covenant, written, not on tablets of stone, but on the heart, and he indwells you. He's written upon you. This is a satisfying fulfillment of the Old Covenant.

When Jesus sat with his disciples, reclined with his disciples, and he shared with them the bread and the cup, he said, this is the new covenant. The satisfying fulfillment of the Old Covenant is found in Christ, himself as the sacrifice, giving himself up for us, in our place, for our sake.

He himself was the Passover Lamb. Read the accounts of the Passover Supper in the Gospels, and read the instructions about how to celebrate the Passover in the Old Testament. The number one glaring omission between what was instructed in Exodus and what was done in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John was that there was not one mention of a lamb being eaten by the disciples in Christ.

But there was the lamb, wasn't there? The lamb was there. He was there. The one in whom the Father is completely satisfied, the one in whom we must be completely satisfied. And so we have something different going on in the New Covenant.

This is not something where the ministry is one of which we have to keep on writing on tablets of stone or writing down in a physical form. This is what we ought to be about. This is what we ought to be about.

This is what we ought to be about. Here's what we got to do. Here's what we got to do. Here's what we got to do. No. But Christ being written upon us, written upon our hearts so that Christ becomes all the more manifest in us.

So it's been my desire and I have a sign, a piece of paper to remind myself in my office that I am to preach Christ from all the scriptures until he is formed in all of his people. I don't know much about marketing.

I don't know a lot about church growth strategies. I keep on finding out about stuff as controversy after controversy arises about every three months. So I guess we're in our 30th controversy now in American evangelical life.

Oh, there's something else. But we don't need to have everything written out and figured out if we have Jesus Christ. Is he being written on us? Is he being written upon our lives? Is he becoming more and more manifest in us?

That's the question. That's the question. That's my desire. Verses four through six. And we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.

Letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Today is a day of reflection, but let us reflect upon the sufficiency that has come. The sufficiency is not of ourselves. It is of God who makes us sufficient.

It is God who supplies. He has given us His Son. How will He not also with Him freely give us all things, as He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose?

And so what is it that we need? What is it that will carry us through? What has been a blessing thus far and what will continue to bless us in the future? What is our Ebenezer? What is our stone of help?

That in Christ's supremacy, we have our sufficiency. That as we turn our attention again and again and again without apology from the various controversies that could swallow up our attention, from the various setbacks and challenges that could greatly discourage, as we turn our attention again and again without apology to Jesus Christ at the right hand, who is our everyday Savior, in every way Savior, to say, this is our hope, that He reigns and He saves, He transforms, He unifies, He supplies.

This is our Christ. This is our Savior. And to think that as we read through the New Testament, letter after letter, being written to the Corinthians, the letter to the Corinthians, or the letter to the Ephesians, the letter to the Thessalonians, time and again we see these letters, and then the seven letters to the churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, a letter to the church in Smyrna, a letter to the church in Pergamon.

To think that as Christ is building His church, assuring us that the gates of Hades will never prevail against it, that He is making letters of the churches, not just that letters were sent to the churches, but He's making letters of His churches, and that we are a part of this letter of Sunnyside, that we're all a part of it.

As we turn our attention to Christ, as we encourage one another in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that as people come to know who we are, that they will read Christ brighter, they will read Christ clearer, they will read Christ greater in our lives, that this will be the defining mark of who we are as the letter of Jesus Christ written by the Spirit to the glory of God, and this our Heavenly Father provides.

So, I appreciate the opportunity tonight to reflect on the many blessings that God offers, but it's a celebration of what He's done. You know, I can't take credit for any of it, and it is an opportunity to rejoice and to reflect.

Our communion is in the goodness of our Savior, the goodness of our Heavenly Father, the goodness of the Holy Spirit. Let us remember and reflect upon that today as we celebrate our communion together.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your love and Your patience for us. Who is sufficient for these things? We do not deserve to be called a letter of Christ, and we do not deserve to be involved in this glorious, everlasting work from which You will derive fame to Your name again and again throughout all of eternity.

We have no merits to come before You in this, but we thank You that You have brought us anyway. You have gone out into the highways and the byways, and You have brought us in and clothed us in the righteousness of Christ that we would rejoice in this good news.

We give You the thanks. We give You the glory in Jesus' name. Amen.