A Word in Season: Servants for Jesus’ Sake (2 Corinthians 4:5)

What Preachers Must Proclaim in a World Opposed by Satan

What should preachers preach? In answering that question it may be helpful to remember the context in which they preach. That's described for us in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 as one in which there is a powerful opponent doing all that he can to prevent the gospel of the glory of Christ shining upon men.

Satan, who is described in that passage as the god of this age, is blinding those who do not believe. And he is doing so to prevent the glory of the gospel of Christ shining on them. He is doing all that he can to prevent them seeing Christ with the eyes of the understanding.

Preaching Christ Jesus the Lord, Not Ourselves

And it is that Christ whom the preachers who follow in the apostolic footsteps are making known. The apostle Paul emphasises this. We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake.

And we do that because we are contending against this enemy. We are not trying to commend ourselves to men's applause but to the consciences of men in the sight of God. And with that in mind we are not proclaiming ourselves.

We are not making known ourselves. We are not producing our own notions and opinions. We are not preaching out of our own imaginations or wishes. We are not preaching for our own ends in order that we might win the applause of men and women.

That we might gain a great reputation for ourselves or wealth or any other kind of prosperity or pleasure. The preacher of the gospel is a preacher of Christ Jesus the Lord. He seeks to forget himself and to have the people forget that he is there in order that Christ Jesus the Lord and sometimes when the apostle uses that full range of names and titles it's a way of communicating the excellent fullness of everything that the Lord Jesus Christ is and all that he has accomplished.

It is the Christ, the Messiah of God. It is Jesus, the incarnate Son. It is the Lord, the God of heaven who was drawn near to bless us. It is Christ Jesus the Lord in all his saving fullness as the Son of God come among us in the flesh, the saviour of sinners whom Paul and others like him make known.

Servants for Jesus' Sake

In that respect, the apostle himself, his immediate companions and all those who are like him they are your bond servants, your bond slaves for Jesus' sake. It is Christ who is the great point and purpose of all truly apostolic preaching.

Apostolic whether in the man himself or in the spirit of the apostolic gospel. It is Christ who is the focal point of everything that the preacher is making known and that is in opposition to himself.

It is not his own whims and wishes that a preacher serves. It is not his own reputation or pleasure that the preacher seeks. But neither is it the whims and wishes of the congregation and their pleasure and approval.

He is their servant for the sake of Jesus Christ. He is a minister of God who is sent to bring to bear upon them that message which is life and light to the soul that is in darkness. Satan stands against him.

Satan is doing all he can to prevent the light of the gospel shining in the hearts of men and women. And one of the ways that he might do that is to divert or distract the preacher from his main course and his principal object.

If he can simply make himself in some way, the preacher himself, the terminus, the end point of his message. If he can get him to play to the crowd, to try and build up his own reputation, to feather his own nest or whatever it might be, then he has accomplished his end.

Pleading for Faithful Ministers Who Make Known Christ

But because of those pressures, because of that battle and because of what is at stake, the apostolic minister, the one who is following in the footsteps of a servant of Christ like Jesus, like the Apostle Paul, for we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your bond slaves for Jesus' sake.

That's who we're proclaiming. That's what Satan is contending against. And that is what you need to be pleading that your ministers would do faithfully, making known Christ Jesus, the Lord, and not themselves.