March 2, 2025 • 30 mins
In this episode, from a chapel service held on Friday 21 February 2025, Archie Poulos, Lecturer in the Ministry Department and Director of the Centre for Ministry Development, speaks on 2 Corinthians 4 and Paul's defence of his ministry.
He reminds us that even though there may be a gulf between our expectations of God and the reality of our lives, God is still at work, and therefore we should not lose heart.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, that seeks
to glorify God through biblically sound, thought-provoking, and challenging talks and interviews.
In this episode, from a chapel service held on Friday the 21st of February 2025.
Archie Poulos, Lecturer in the Ministry Department and Director of the Centre for
(00:33):
Ministry Development speaks on 2 Corinthians 4 and Paul's defence of his ministry.
He reminds us that even though there may be a gulf between our expectations of God and the reality of our lives. We hope you enjoy the episode.
(01:01):
Preaching on Friday morning is normally the, uh, province of the Principal.
And as you can see, I'm not the principle, but I'm very thankful to Mark for letting me, uh, uh, preach this morning.
And the passage we're going to be looking at is 2 Corinthians 4, the passage that Gloria just read to us.
And as we launch into our new year.
I want you to imagine what it is that you hope and expect that God will do in and through you.
(01:31):
The decisions and the sacrifices that you've made are no small thing in being here.
For some of you, the financial costs are great.
For others of you, the dislocations from family, uh, from being ripped away from your culture have been huge.
And I know that for some others of you, the relational stresses, uh, have gone on within your family as you've told
(01:55):
your family you're coming here and they have unfulfilled expectations and dreams and they weigh heavily on you.
But you've made these choices, I assume, because your heart's desire Is to see the Lord
God glorified in every corner of our planet and every soul that walks on this earth.
(02:16):
And you want to play your part in what God is doing.
And here at Moore College, I assume you've come because you want to be as effective as possible.
Uh, all of you have been given great gifts of God.
I look around here and I'm just amazed at the, uh, great gifts that God has given you.
And what you want to do, I assume, is not abuse the resources, the abilities, the talents that God has given you.
(02:40):
You don't want to bury those talents.
And so we sit here today desiring to be mightily used by God, used by God so that all might hear of our savior and submit to his rule.
Maybe it's not so grand as Billy Graham, but you want to be the best that you can be.
(03:01):
But on what basis are you going to measure your success?
And what things will shape how you do your ministry today and tomorrow and in the years to come?
And what is it that will energize you to keep on going and to keep on growing?
Now there are helpful answers that you can give to each of those questions.
(03:24):
You can say, I'm going to keep going because I'm in good spirits.
I'm going to keep going because of the feedback from those people that I shepherd and from fellow shepherds.
I'm going to keep going.
I'm doing well.
I'm successful because the outputs are going well, or sometimes I just keep going because I am fed by the precious word of God.
(03:45):
And these things are really helpful, but a time will come when we realize there is a gulf between our experience of ministry.
And what we thought God would do through us.
In our passage today, that was just read from 2 Corinthians 4, points us to the majestic and
weighty reality that integrates both our human failure and the divine sovereign purposes of God.
(04:11):
Because there is a gulf between what we desire to accomplish and what we actually achieve.
And there is a gulf between what we achieve and what we know that God has planned for everything.
And so that gulf can often lead to internal sadness, to grief, to frustration, uncertainty about whether we're actually doing what we should be doing.
(04:35):
And sometimes externally for searching for new devices and techniques that might bridge
those gulfs that exist between what we desire, what we achieve and what God's plan is.
And so our question this morning is how do we live today and for the rest of our lives that God gives
us when our heart's desire to win the world for Christ looks anything but like it's materializing.
(05:02):
It's surprising then that this gulf is written large in the life of the Apostle Paul.
And especially in today's passage, it's surprising because Paul began life as a successful Jewish leader.
He'd risen in prestige beyond his own age.
And on the Damascus road, he saw the risen Lord.
(05:22):
The Lord appeared specifically to him.
He spoke directly to Paul and he explicitly commissioned Paul as the apostle to the nations and the nations would hear and listen.
Paul was caught up into the third heaven.
Whatever that means, uh, he claims to have the mind of Christ and he can point to the transformation
(05:47):
of the Corinthians in as his letters of commendation written by nothing less than God's Holy Spirit.
And so here is the apostle commissioned by God.
to such a great task, empowered by the Lord for his service, and having been powerfully used by God.
Wouldn't that be the fulfillment of your heart's desire?
(06:09):
But even in the opening paragraph of this letter, as we saw earlier this week, We see how difficult and how different it was for the Apostle.
Hear the intensity and the personal anguish in his description of what's going on for him.
Chapter 1, verse 8.
(06:30):
We don't want you to be misinformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.
We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure.
So we despaired of life itself.
(06:50):
Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.
How does Paul put together These two seemingly irreconcilable realities for himself, for on the one hand, he is
the agent of God, God working through him powerfully, so powerful that the veil of unbelief and blindness can be
(07:17):
ripped away from the Corinthians who are being transformed into the Lord's image, image with increasing glory.
That's on the one hand.
And on the other hand.
And so Paul asks the question, who is equal to this task?
(07:40):
And chapter four is Paul's defense of his apostolic ministry.
How despite looking outwardly weak, his ministry is God empowered.
And I hope that resonates with you as well.
How do you put these two truths together?
How can Paul put them together?
And it matters actually that they be reconciled because God is sovereign.
(08:03):
He will most certainly bring about his purposes.
Nothing is going to stop that happening, but why is it so difficult at times?
For those that God chooses to work through.
We heard it, you know, when we read of Job a moment ago, when Eliphaz comes and gives that
terrible piece of advice, God always cares for, always does what is right for those that are his.
(08:23):
And so you must be doing something wrong because you're in turmoil.
How do you put these ideas together?
Well hear the way then, that the great apostle describes his state.
I'm going to read to you verses 8 to 12, and again, hear the blood, the sweat, and the tears in the
intensity of his words, because it's easy to miss the pain that lies behind these short, simple words.
(08:49):
Verse 8.
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed.
Perplexed, but not in despair.
Persecuted, but not abandoned.
Struck down, but not destroyed.
We always carry around in our bodies the death of Jesus, so the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body.
(09:15):
For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus sake.
So that his life might also be revealed in our mortal bodies.
So then death's at work in us, but life is at work in you.
Feel that intensity?
Hard pressed is the apostle.
(09:35):
Not just hard pressed, but hard pressed on every side, he says, and perplexed.
We think that Paul is on top of every situation.
He understood everything that was going on.
Everything was explained to him.
No, I'm perplexed, he says, struck down.
For him, not just struck down metaphorically, because when you're on the ground, when you're being beaten,
(09:58):
that is when you're most susceptible to aggression, given over to death, the common theme in this chapter.
When he looked ahead, he saw not a bright, rosy future.
But a lonely, mortal demise.
That's the reality of life for Paul.
(10:19):
But notice, in each of these intense pain, there is pairs where God meets his deepest needs.
Sure, he is hard pressed, but he's not crushed.
He is perplexed, but he's not in despair.
He's persecuted, but he's not abandoned.
(10:41):
He's struck down, but he's not destroyed.
In the midst of all the pain, God gifts and empowers Paul so that he might persevere.
Faithful perseverance is the gift of God to his people in this world.
(11:01):
And so Paul concludes in verse 16, Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we're being renewed day by day.
The external environment is truly terrible.
You can't sugarcoat that.
But God is at work re energizing the apostle, re energizing him, surprisingly, in and through all of this turmoil.
(11:27):
Now I tried to think of an illustration that would capture this for us, but Paul gives us one in verse 7.
We have this treasure in jars of clay.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, you know about them, and you probably know the story.
In 1947, there were the Bedouin shepherds who were tending their goats at the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.
(11:49):
One of them dropped a rock into a cave, and he heard a shattering sound, so they went into the cave, and they found jars containing scrolls.
They didn't know what the scrolls were, so the Bedouins took them, they raced
off to sell the scrolls, and they sold the first three for a total of 28.
(12:10):
That's 390 in today's money.
The scrolls are, of course, priceless.
It's actually suspected that just one little fragment of Genesis from one of the, of one of the scrolls sold for 40 million dollars in 2013.
But you see, it's not the jars that are valuable, it's the contents that are so very, very precious.
(12:31):
And that is what Paul is saying.
I've got an even better illustration than the Apostle Paul, though.
It's the Lord Jesus.
Jesus, a man, A man just like every other man.
In chapter 5 of this letter, Paul says he once regarded Jesus from a worldly point of view.
(12:55):
Maybe he had been in the crowds around Jesus?
Jesus had observed him and thought of him as a man, but then on the cross, not just an unspectacular man, but a man under the curse of God.
But now he does not view Jesus that way.
(13:16):
Now he knows him as the son of God, the ruler of the universe.
The only hope for mankind, who loved Paul and gave himself for him.
Outwardly, he saw Jesus as completely unimpressive, but inside, holding such infinite, unspeakable value.
(13:39):
Brothers and sisters, that is what captured the apostle.
Externally, Paul is being ripped apart, but inwardly, he's being renewed daily by God.
And you see no indication of that reality just by looking on the externals.
And you and me too are in exactly the same situation, internal and external.
(14:01):
Within this body of mine, I have to keep giving myself to more and more medical
appointments so that I feel the ministry opportunities I have are being crushed.
That's what life is like, and life seems to be getting more and more busy, more and more
complex, and my capacity for dealing with complexity seems to be getting less and less.
(14:22):
And over the years there are all those repeated blows of gospel opposition and you'd think
that after years it'd make it easier, but no, it seems to be making it harder and harder.
Outwardly it seems so difficult, yet
within the confines of this skin, God is present by his Holy Spirit, powerfully at work in every one of
(14:47):
us, shaping us to be more like Jesus and preparing us for the day when we're going to see him face to face.
That's what the Christian life is like, God powerfully at work, but it doesn't feel like it so often.
So what do you do?
What does Paul do?
(15:08):
If this is the common experience of Christians, what do we do?
Our chapter, verses 1, verse 16, we don't lose heart, says Paul.
Verse 1, therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry.
We don't lose heart and then verse 16, therefore we don't lose heart though.
(15:32):
Outwardly.
We're wasting away inwardly We're being renewed day by day for we moderns We think that the heart is the where the emotions
are but in biblical anthropology the heart is more It's the organ that motivates and directs the rest of your being.
It's what drives you to action.
And it's easy to read verse one and verse 16 and say, Oh yeah, of course that's the case.
(15:55):
You don't lose heart.
As if it's easy not to lose heart and we're in no danger of losing heart.
But Paul has to declare twice in this chapter that he does not lose heart.
And so it is a very real possibility for both him and us to lose heart.
And it comes in all sorts of different guises, this loss of heart.
For some of you, it'll be feeling blue, or even depression, so that getting up and getting through the day takes so much effort.
(16:24):
For some of us, losing heart is resignation.
This is just the way it is, I'll roll with the punches and I'll do my job.
For some of us, losing heart is avoidance.
Of any ministry that's messy, painful, or aggrimantism, icky.
Uh, maybe it's seeking the self soothing things that make us feel better.
(16:48):
And of course, a soothing that usually is unhelpful or immoral.
But God is at work in our mortal bodies.
And there is no greater or more powerful working than that.
So Paul says don't lose heart.
So what does not losing heart look like?
Well, it's not about beating yourself up or trying harder.
(17:09):
Paul gives us in this chapter two insights into not losing heart.
The first is how to behave.
Paul's thinking particularly about ministry and especially convincing people, uh, that they need to submit to the Lordship of Jesus.
Verses 1 and 2.
Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we don't lose heart.
(17:30):
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways.
We don't use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.
On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly.
We commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
Have you ever felt the urge to lose heart and to not set the for, uh, set forth the truth plainly?
(17:53):
I have, and I am so good at it that I've even justified it.
I want people to surrender to Jesus.
I want them so much to do that I've embellished the Word of God in the name of them being converted.
In my first year on MTS, I recall meeting with a Greek man who declared that the Bible was a fiction.
(18:16):
And so what we did was we discussed the way that Jesus had fulfilled all of these prophecies that were written centuries before.
So they cannot be the construction of a man in one point of time because they're centuries old.
And so I used Isaiah 7, Isaiah 35, But what I did was I used them to say more than they actually said.
(18:40):
And I justified my overreach, because I wanted to get him over the line.
Is there anything that is more powerful than setting forth the truth plainly, and allowing God by his Spirit to do the work?
You see, it is so easy to lose heart and think, I've got to add something to what God has said.
(19:00):
And after weeks of meeting with this man, he didn't become a Christian, and that was heartbreaking for me.
But do not lose heart, my soul, because, verse 3, Even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing.
The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they can't see the
(19:22):
light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who's the image of God.
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants, for Jesus sake.
It was not necessarily my failure that caused this man not to turn to Jesus.
God is at work.
(19:44):
My task is to set forth the truth plainly.
So the first consequence of not losing heart is setting the truth plainly before people.
The second aspect of not losing heart you find at the end of the chapter, verse 16.
Therefore, we don't lose heart, though outwardly we're wasting away, inwardly we're being renewed day by day.
(20:08):
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes, not on what's seen, but on what's unseen, since what is seen is temporary, and what's seen is eternal.
Pain, in the moment, always shortens your time perspective.
(20:30):
If I snap a bone in my arm, All I can think about is the pain of the moment.
I don't care about tomorrow.
I don't care about next week.
When my wife was going through that excruciating pain of childbirth, it didn't help
one little bit when I said, Don't worry, tomorrow we'll be holding a baby in our arms.
Because the pain of the moment just sets your horizons, doesn't it?
(20:54):
And the mechanism, though, for not losing heart.
It's not that time deadens pain, rather it's because of perspective, a longer term perspective that shows
you the weightiness, the importance, the magnificence of what the future holds over our present experience.
(21:14):
And so as Paul looks to the end, as he looks to the eschaton, he sees it holds an eternal weight of glory.
That word glory, grandeur, gravity.
Massiveness, the thing that despite even your best efforts, you just cannot take your eyes off.
Nothing can compare to its magnificence.
(21:35):
And that weightiness, though you can't add to it, though you can't add to the glory,
Paul actually adds extra words for emphasis, emphasis, weight, a weight of glory.
That is the weight of weightiness.
While glory is so massive, it is a weight of glory as well, and it's eternal.
(21:55):
And so with that vision, with that view that he has here, with that perspective.
The very real and painful trials and difficulties that Paul has described, he can now call
light, as opposed to the weight of glory, and momentary, as opposed to the eternal glory.
(22:16):
All that he is going through is a mere feather, in the midst of being hard pressed, perplexed, and persecuted.
Paul puts it all in perspective when he compares it to what will be revealed.
And so do not lose heart.
Paul fixes his eyes not on what's seen, but on what's unseen.
(22:41):
And so as we finish, Paul has shown us how to live where things aren't as we want nor as they should be.
But there is one more crucial thread that runs through this chapter and it gives us an answer to a question, a question I think that we all have.
Yes, life is painful, but God is at work, so behave honorably, set your sights on what will be, but the question still is, why is it so hard?
(23:11):
Especially if God is good, especially if God is sovereign, especially if God has called
people to work alongside him in what he is doing, why does he make it so painful?
And listen to the answer, I'm sure you know it.
But sometimes it gets lost in the pain of the moment with the broken, uh, broken arm or giving birth to a child.
(23:34):
Listen to the answer.
Why the anguish?
Verse seven, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the all surpassing power is from God.
And not from us, verse 11, for we who are alive are always being given over to
(23:58):
death for Jesus sake, so that his life might be revealed in our mortal bodies.
And verse 15, all this is for your benefit.
So the grace that's reaching more and more people.
May cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God this difficulty These light and momentary troubles are good for the
(24:23):
Apostle and a benefit to those he has been Commissioned to proclaim it to that is the way God has set it up Let's think about
that for a moment for the proclaimers benefit weakness is an antidote to focusing on yourself and your abilities if you focus
on your abilities and your successes You cannot help but feel the weight, the value, the impressiveness of your results.
(24:53):
And that can damage your faith and reshape your hearth, heart.
But it gets even more insidious than that.
Because success today makes tomorrow more difficult for you.
Because I have to be even more successful next time around.
We need to remember that the all surpassing power is from God, and not from us.
(25:16):
Benefit to the proclaimer.
But secondly, benefit to the hearers.
Why are Bishop Polycarp's words, his words as he stood before the massive Roman power and proclaimed
the King Jesus, who is King even over Caesar, why are his words repeated down through the centuries?
(25:38):
It is not his oratory powers, nor his bravery, but because his words testify to the transforming work of God in the weakness of this aged, frail body.
And so his words bless us, not because they draw us to Polycarp, but to Polycarp's God.
(26:03):
So brothers and sisters, You carry in you the magnificent ongoing work of God.
He's given you and me the privilege to believe and so to speak.
And to be shepherds of his flock,
to do that with care and diligence, will bring persecution and perplexity.
(26:30):
And at times we will cry out, who is equal to such a task?
And in that moment, it's easy to grasp for wrong actions and wrong thinking, to fill that gulf between desire and reality.
Please don't grasp for those.
Do not lose heart.
Rather, set forth the truth plainly.
(26:53):
Do not lose heart.
Do not just judge by external evaluations.
But fix your eyes not on what's seen.
But what's unseen?
Because what is seen is temporary.
What is unseen is what is eternal.
(27:17):
Thank you for listening to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College.
Our vision as a College is to see God glorified by men and women living for
and proclaiming Jesus Christ, growing healthy churches, and reaching the lost.
We invite you to attend any of our upcoming events,
including this one from the Priscilla & Aquila Centre.
(27:38):
The Priscilla & Aquila Centre are hosting their first seminar for the year on the subject of “The beginning of all relationships”
on Wednesday 12th of March, 2025. One of the speakers, Simon Flinders, Archdeacon, to the Archbishop of Sydney, says this about the event:
I wonder if someone asked you what Genesis 2 was all about, what you would say. Seems to me that often in our
(28:01):
circles, people would respond by saying, it's a really foundational passage when it comes to thinking about marriage.
My contention is that Genesis 2 is about the beginning of all relationships and that it's got a lot to say to us, not
just about marriage, but about singleness, what it means for all of us to give ourselves to the service of God's kingdom.
That's what we're going to explore together on 12th March at Moore College.
(28:24):
I'd love you to come and join us.
I'll be teaching alongside Kara Hartley and Joc Bignall.
We're really looking forward to exploring the issues, and we hope you can come.
Find out more and register for this event on the Priscilla & Aquila website, paa.moore.edu.au.
That's paa.moore.edu.au.
(28:49):
You can find out more and register by going to the Moore College website:
moore.edu.au. If you have not already done so, we encourage you to
subscribe to our podcast through your favourite podcast platform so that you'll never miss an episode.
For past episodes, further resources, and to make a tax deductible donation to support the
(29:12):
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If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend and leave a review on your platform of choice.
We always benefit from feedback from our listeners, so if you'd like to get in touch, you can email us at comms@moore.edu.au.
(29:37):
The Moore in the Word podcast was edited and produced by me, Karen Beilharz and the Communications Team at Moore Theological College.
The music for our podcast was provided by MarkJuly from Pixabay.
Until next time.
Welcome to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, that seeks
to glorify God through biblically sound, thought-provoking, and challenging talks and interviews.
In this episode, from a chapel service held on Friday the 21st of February 2025.
Archie Poulos, Lecturer in the Ministry Department and Director of the Centre for
(00:33):
Ministry Development speaks on 2 Corinthians 4 and Paul's defence of his ministry.
He reminds us that even though there may be a gulf between our expectations of God and the reality of our lives. We hope you enjoy the episode.
(01:01):
Preaching on Friday morning is normally the, uh, province of the Principal.
And as you can see, I'm not the principle, but I'm very thankful to Mark for letting me, uh, uh, preach this morning.
And the passage we're going to be looking at is 2 Corinthians 4, the passage that Gloria just read to us.
And as we launch into our new year.
I want you to imagine what it is that you hope and expect that God will do in and through you.
(01:31):
The decisions and the sacrifices that you've made are no small thing in being here.
For some of you, the financial costs are great.
For others of you, the dislocations from family, uh, from being ripped away from your culture have been huge.
And I know that for some others of you, the relational stresses, uh, have gone on within your family as you've told
(01:55):
your family you're coming here and they have unfulfilled expectations and dreams and they weigh heavily on you.
But you've made these choices, I assume, because your heart's desire Is to see the Lord
God glorified in every corner of our planet and every soul that walks on this earth.
(02:16):
And you want to play your part in what God is doing.
And here at Moore College, I assume you've come because you want to be as effective as possible.
Uh, all of you have been given great gifts of God.
I look around here and I'm just amazed at the, uh, great gifts that God has given you.
And what you want to do, I assume, is not abuse the resources, the abilities, the talents that God has given you.
(02:40):
You don't want to bury those talents.
And so we sit here today desiring to be mightily used by God, used by God so that all might hear of our savior and submit to his rule.
Maybe it's not so grand as Billy Graham, but you want to be the best that you can be.
(03:01):
But on what basis are you going to measure your success?
And what things will shape how you do your ministry today and tomorrow and in the years to come?
And what is it that will energize you to keep on going and to keep on growing?
Now there are helpful answers that you can give to each of those questions.
(03:24):
You can say, I'm going to keep going because I'm in good spirits.
I'm going to keep going because of the feedback from those people that I shepherd and from fellow shepherds.
I'm going to keep going.
I'm doing well.
I'm successful because the outputs are going well, or sometimes I just keep going because I am fed by the precious word of God.
(03:45):
And these things are really helpful, but a time will come when we realize there is a gulf between our experience of ministry.
And what we thought God would do through us.
In our passage today, that was just read from 2 Corinthians 4, points us to the majestic and
weighty reality that integrates both our human failure and the divine sovereign purposes of God.
(04:11):
Because there is a gulf between what we desire to accomplish and what we actually achieve.
And there is a gulf between what we achieve and what we know that God has planned for everything.
And so that gulf can often lead to internal sadness, to grief, to frustration, uncertainty about whether we're actually doing what we should be doing.
(04:35):
And sometimes externally for searching for new devices and techniques that might bridge
those gulfs that exist between what we desire, what we achieve and what God's plan is.
And so our question this morning is how do we live today and for the rest of our lives that God gives
us when our heart's desire to win the world for Christ looks anything but like it's materializing.
(05:02):
It's surprising then that this gulf is written large in the life of the Apostle Paul.
And especially in today's passage, it's surprising because Paul began life as a successful Jewish leader.
He'd risen in prestige beyond his own age.
And on the Damascus road, he saw the risen Lord.
(05:22):
The Lord appeared specifically to him.
He spoke directly to Paul and he explicitly commissioned Paul as the apostle to the nations and the nations would hear and listen.
Paul was caught up into the third heaven.
Whatever that means, uh, he claims to have the mind of Christ and he can point to the transformation
(05:47):
of the Corinthians in as his letters of commendation written by nothing less than God's Holy Spirit.
And so here is the apostle commissioned by God.
to such a great task, empowered by the Lord for his service, and having been powerfully used by God.
Wouldn't that be the fulfillment of your heart's desire?
(06:09):
But even in the opening paragraph of this letter, as we saw earlier this week, We see how difficult and how different it was for the Apostle.
Hear the intensity and the personal anguish in his description of what's going on for him.
Chapter 1, verse 8.
(06:30):
We don't want you to be misinformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.
We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure.
So we despaired of life itself.
(06:50):
Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.
How does Paul put together These two seemingly irreconcilable realities for himself, for on the one hand, he is
the agent of God, God working through him powerfully, so powerful that the veil of unbelief and blindness can be
(07:17):
ripped away from the Corinthians who are being transformed into the Lord's image, image with increasing glory.
That's on the one hand.
And on the other hand.
And so Paul asks the question, who is equal to this task?
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And chapter four is Paul's defense of his apostolic ministry.
How despite looking outwardly weak, his ministry is God empowered.
And I hope that resonates with you as well.
How do you put these two truths together?
How can Paul put them together?
And it matters actually that they be reconciled because God is sovereign.
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He will most certainly bring about his purposes.
Nothing is going to stop that happening, but why is it so difficult at times?
For those that God chooses to work through.
We heard it, you know, when we read of Job a moment ago, when Eliphaz comes and gives that
terrible piece of advice, God always cares for, always does what is right for those that are his.
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And so you must be doing something wrong because you're in turmoil.
How do you put these ideas together?
Well hear the way then, that the great apostle describes his state.
I'm going to read to you verses 8 to 12, and again, hear the blood, the sweat, and the tears in the
intensity of his words, because it's easy to miss the pain that lies behind these short, simple words.
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Verse 8.
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed.
Perplexed, but not in despair.
Persecuted, but not abandoned.
Struck down, but not destroyed.
We always carry around in our bodies the death of Jesus, so the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body.
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For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus sake.
So that his life might also be revealed in our mortal bodies.
So then death's at work in us, but life is at work in you.
Feel that intensity?
Hard pressed is the apostle.
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Not just hard pressed, but hard pressed on every side, he says, and perplexed.
We think that Paul is on top of every situation.
He understood everything that was going on.
Everything was explained to him.
No, I'm perplexed, he says, struck down.
For him, not just struck down metaphorically, because when you're on the ground, when you're being beaten,
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that is when you're most susceptible to aggression, given over to death, the common theme in this chapter.
When he looked ahead, he saw not a bright, rosy future.
But a lonely, mortal demise.
That's the reality of life for Paul.
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But notice, in each of these intense pain, there is pairs where God meets his deepest needs.
Sure, he is hard pressed, but he's not crushed.
He is perplexed, but he's not in despair.
He's persecuted, but he's not abandoned.
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He's struck down, but he's not destroyed.
In the midst of all the pain, God gifts and empowers Paul so that he might persevere.
Faithful perseverance is the gift of God to his people in this world.
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And so Paul concludes in verse 16, Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we're being renewed day by day.
The external environment is truly terrible.
You can't sugarcoat that.
But God is at work re energizing the apostle, re energizing him, surprisingly, in and through all of this turmoil.
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Now I tried to think of an illustration that would capture this for us, but Paul gives us one in verse 7.
We have this treasure in jars of clay.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, you know about them, and you probably know the story.
In 1947, there were the Bedouin shepherds who were tending their goats at the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.
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One of them dropped a rock into a cave, and he heard a shattering sound, so they went into the cave, and they found jars containing scrolls.
They didn't know what the scrolls were, so the Bedouins took them, they raced
off to sell the scrolls, and they sold the first three for a total of 28.
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That's 390 in today's money.
The scrolls are, of course, priceless.
It's actually suspected that just one little fragment of Genesis from one of the, of one of the scrolls sold for 40 million dollars in 2013.
But you see, it's not the jars that are valuable, it's the contents that are so very, very precious.
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And that is what Paul is saying.
I've got an even better illustration than the Apostle Paul, though.
It's the Lord Jesus.
Jesus, a man, A man just like every other man.
In chapter 5 of this letter, Paul says he once regarded Jesus from a worldly point of view.
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Maybe he had been in the crowds around Jesus?
Jesus had observed him and thought of him as a man, but then on the cross, not just an unspectacular man, but a man under the curse of God.
But now he does not view Jesus that way.
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Now he knows him as the son of God, the ruler of the universe.
The only hope for mankind, who loved Paul and gave himself for him.
Outwardly, he saw Jesus as completely unimpressive, but inside, holding such infinite, unspeakable value.
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Brothers and sisters, that is what captured the apostle.
Externally, Paul is being ripped apart, but inwardly, he's being renewed daily by God.
And you see no indication of that reality just by looking on the externals.
And you and me too are in exactly the same situation, internal and external.
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Within this body of mine, I have to keep giving myself to more and more medical
appointments so that I feel the ministry opportunities I have are being crushed.
That's what life is like, and life seems to be getting more and more busy, more and more
complex, and my capacity for dealing with complexity seems to be getting less and less.
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And over the years there are all those repeated blows of gospel opposition and you'd think
that after years it'd make it easier, but no, it seems to be making it harder and harder.
Outwardly it seems so difficult, yet
within the confines of this skin, God is present by his Holy Spirit, powerfully at work in every one of
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us, shaping us to be more like Jesus and preparing us for the day when we're going to see him face to face.
That's what the Christian life is like, God powerfully at work, but it doesn't feel like it so often.
So what do you do?
What does Paul do?
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If this is the common experience of Christians, what do we do?
Our chapter, verses 1, verse 16, we don't lose heart, says Paul.
Verse 1, therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry.
We don't lose heart and then verse 16, therefore we don't lose heart though.
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Outwardly.
We're wasting away inwardly We're being renewed day by day for we moderns We think that the heart is the where the emotions
are but in biblical anthropology the heart is more It's the organ that motivates and directs the rest of your being.
It's what drives you to action.
And it's easy to read verse one and verse 16 and say, Oh yeah, of course that's the case.
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You don't lose heart.
As if it's easy not to lose heart and we're in no danger of losing heart.
But Paul has to declare twice in this chapter that he does not lose heart.
And so it is a very real possibility for both him and us to lose heart.
And it comes in all sorts of different guises, this loss of heart.
For some of you, it'll be feeling blue, or even depression, so that getting up and getting through the day takes so much effort.
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For some of us, losing heart is resignation.
This is just the way it is, I'll roll with the punches and I'll do my job.
For some of us, losing heart is avoidance.
Of any ministry that's messy, painful, or aggrimantism, icky.
Uh, maybe it's seeking the self soothing things that make us feel better.
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And of course, a soothing that usually is unhelpful or immoral.
But God is at work in our mortal bodies.
And there is no greater or more powerful working than that.
So Paul says don't lose heart.
So what does not losing heart look like?
Well, it's not about beating yourself up or trying harder.
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Paul gives us in this chapter two insights into not losing heart.
The first is how to behave.
Paul's thinking particularly about ministry and especially convincing people, uh, that they need to submit to the Lordship of Jesus.
Verses 1 and 2.
Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we don't lose heart.
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Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways.
We don't use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.
On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly.
We commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
Have you ever felt the urge to lose heart and to not set the for, uh, set forth the truth plainly?
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I have, and I am so good at it that I've even justified it.
I want people to surrender to Jesus.
I want them so much to do that I've embellished the Word of God in the name of them being converted.
In my first year on MTS, I recall meeting with a Greek man who declared that the Bible was a fiction.
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And so what we did was we discussed the way that Jesus had fulfilled all of these prophecies that were written centuries before.
So they cannot be the construction of a man in one point of time because they're centuries old.
And so I used Isaiah 7, Isaiah 35, But what I did was I used them to say more than they actually said.
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And I justified my overreach, because I wanted to get him over the line.
Is there anything that is more powerful than setting forth the truth plainly, and allowing God by his Spirit to do the work?
You see, it is so easy to lose heart and think, I've got to add something to what God has said.
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And after weeks of meeting with this man, he didn't become a Christian, and that was heartbreaking for me.
But do not lose heart, my soul, because, verse 3, Even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing.
The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they can't see the
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light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who's the image of God.
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants, for Jesus sake.
It was not necessarily my failure that caused this man not to turn to Jesus.
God is at work.
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My task is to set forth the truth plainly.
So the first consequence of not losing heart is setting the truth plainly before people.
The second aspect of not losing heart you find at the end of the chapter, verse 16.
Therefore, we don't lose heart, though outwardly we're wasting away, inwardly we're being renewed day by day.
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For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes, not on what's seen, but on what's unseen, since what is seen is temporary, and what's seen is eternal.
Pain, in the moment, always shortens your time perspective.
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If I snap a bone in my arm, All I can think about is the pain of the moment.
I don't care about tomorrow.
I don't care about next week.
When my wife was going through that excruciating pain of childbirth, it didn't help
one little bit when I said, Don't worry, tomorrow we'll be holding a baby in our arms.
Because the pain of the moment just sets your horizons, doesn't it?
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And the mechanism, though, for not losing heart.
It's not that time deadens pain, rather it's because of perspective, a longer term perspective that shows
you the weightiness, the importance, the magnificence of what the future holds over our present experience.
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And so as Paul looks to the end, as he looks to the eschaton, he sees it holds an eternal weight of glory.
That word glory, grandeur, gravity.
Massiveness, the thing that despite even your best efforts, you just cannot take your eyes off.
Nothing can compare to its magnificence.
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And that weightiness, though you can't add to it, though you can't add to the glory,
Paul actually adds extra words for emphasis, emphasis, weight, a weight of glory.
That is the weight of weightiness.
While glory is so massive, it is a weight of glory as well, and it's eternal.
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And so with that vision, with that view that he has here, with that perspective.
The very real and painful trials and difficulties that Paul has described, he can now call
light, as opposed to the weight of glory, and momentary, as opposed to the eternal glory.
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All that he is going through is a mere feather, in the midst of being hard pressed, perplexed, and persecuted.
Paul puts it all in perspective when he compares it to what will be revealed.
And so do not lose heart.
Paul fixes his eyes not on what's seen, but on what's unseen.
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And so as we finish, Paul has shown us how to live where things aren't as we want nor as they should be.
But there is one more crucial thread that runs through this chapter and it gives us an answer to a question, a question I think that we all have.
Yes, life is painful, but God is at work, so behave honorably, set your sights on what will be, but the question still is, why is it so hard?
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Especially if God is good, especially if God is sovereign, especially if God has called
people to work alongside him in what he is doing, why does he make it so painful?
And listen to the answer, I'm sure you know it.
But sometimes it gets lost in the pain of the moment with the broken, uh, broken arm or giving birth to a child.
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Listen to the answer.
Why the anguish?
Verse seven, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the all surpassing power is from God.
And not from us, verse 11, for we who are alive are always being given over to
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death for Jesus sake, so that his life might be revealed in our mortal bodies.
And verse 15, all this is for your benefit.
So the grace that's reaching more and more people.
May cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God this difficulty These light and momentary troubles are good for the
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Apostle and a benefit to those he has been Commissioned to proclaim it to that is the way God has set it up Let's think about
that for a moment for the proclaimers benefit weakness is an antidote to focusing on yourself and your abilities if you focus
on your abilities and your successes You cannot help but feel the weight, the value, the impressiveness of your results.
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And that can damage your faith and reshape your hearth, heart.
But it gets even more insidious than that.
Because success today makes tomorrow more difficult for you.
Because I have to be even more successful next time around.
We need to remember that the all surpassing power is from God, and not from us.
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Benefit to the proclaimer.
But secondly, benefit to the hearers.
Why are Bishop Polycarp's words, his words as he stood before the massive Roman power and proclaimed
the King Jesus, who is King even over Caesar, why are his words repeated down through the centuries?
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It is not his oratory powers, nor his bravery, but because his words testify to the transforming work of God in the weakness of this aged, frail body.
And so his words bless us, not because they draw us to Polycarp, but to Polycarp's God.
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So brothers and sisters, You carry in you the magnificent ongoing work of God.
He's given you and me the privilege to believe and so to speak.
And to be shepherds of his flock,
to do that with care and diligence, will bring persecution and perplexity.
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And at times we will cry out, who is equal to such a task?
And in that moment, it's easy to grasp for wrong actions and wrong thinking, to fill that gulf between desire and reality.
Please don't grasp for those.
Do not lose heart.
Rather, set forth the truth plainly.
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Do not lose heart.
Do not just judge by external evaluations.
But fix your eyes not on what's seen.
But what's unseen?
Because what is seen is temporary.
What is unseen is what is eternal.
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Thank you for listening to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College.
Our vision as a College is to see God glorified by men and women living for
and proclaiming Jesus Christ, growing healthy churches, and reaching the lost.
We invite you to attend any of our upcoming events,
including this one from the Priscilla & Aquila Centre.
(27:38):
The Priscilla & Aquila Centre are hosting their first seminar for the year on the subject of “The beginning of all relationships”
on Wednesday 12th of March, 2025. One of the speakers, Simon Flinders, Archdeacon, to the Archbishop of Sydney, says this about the event:
I wonder if someone asked you what Genesis 2 was all about, what you would say. Seems to me that often in our
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circles, people would respond by saying, it's a really foundational passage when it comes to thinking about marriage.
My contention is that Genesis 2 is about the beginning of all relationships and that it's got a lot to say to us, not
just about marriage, but about singleness, what it means for all of us to give ourselves to the service of God's kingdom.
That's what we're going to explore together on 12th March at Moore College.
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I'd love you to come and join us.
I'll be teaching alongside Kara Hartley and Joc Bignall.
We're really looking forward to exploring the issues, and we hope you can come.
Find out more and register for this event on the Priscilla & Aquila website, paa.moore.edu.au.
That's paa.moore.edu.au.
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You can find out more and register by going to the Moore College website:
moore.edu.au. If you have not already done so, we encourage you to
subscribe to our podcast through your favourite podcast platform so that you'll never miss an episode.
For past episodes, further resources, and to make a tax deductible donation to support the
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work of the College and its mission, please visit our website at moore.edu.au.
If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend and leave a review on your platform of choice.
We always benefit from feedback from our listeners, so if you'd like to get in touch, you can email us at comms@moore.edu.au.
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The Moore in the Word podcast was edited and produced by me, Karen Beilharz and the Communications Team at Moore Theological College.
The music for our podcast was provided by MarkJuly from Pixabay.
Until next time.
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