Well, again, let me welcome you this morning.
If you're new, especially joining us either in person or online, my name's Tommy.
I'm the rector here, and I'm excited to continue a series in Paul's letter to the Corinthians,
what we call 2 Corinthians.
And this is really a series about power.
It's a series about power, and it's a series about how the gospel transforms power.
It turns power and weakness upside down.
That's the theme that we're going to be following for the next several months, actually.
And this week, we're going to be looking at this in the context of Christian ministry.
And I don't just mean professional Christian ministry, people who have a career in Christian
ministry.
Every single Christian is a Christian minister.
We're all Christian ministers.
And so, if you're here this morning and you're a Christian, we're talking about you.
If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, you're going to have the opportunity
to sit in as we do a little self-reflection, as we think about how we define success in
the church.
What does a successful Christian ministry look like?
And should we define success in the same way that other institutions in our society define
success?
It's interesting being in a place like D.C. when we're out at social gatherings or whatever,
and the conversation almost always arises when you meet somebody.
Well, what do you do for a living?
And I say, well, I'm a pastor.
And invariably, if I get to the next question before the person politely excuses themselves
from conversation, the question will be some form of, well, how many people go to your
church?
And it's a kind of way, and I don't think that people always mean it this way, but for
me, maybe it's my own issues, but it always feels like they're trying to decide how important
I am or if I'm worth continuing a conversation with, right?
And Advent's been around for 14 years, and we started as a house church in a living room.
And so, it's been interesting to see the evolution of people's responses over the years.
What's more disconcerting is that when I go to pastor conferences or diocesan gatherings,
I get the same question, right?
And so, there is a question to be asked, how do we define success in Christian ministry?
Should it look like other institutions in our society?
So, we're going to be doing a little bit of self-reflection, which I think, given the
fact that this is the first Sunday in Lent, is very appropriate, very appropriate.
And we're going to be looking at this section that we just heard Chris read, and we're going
to be looking at Paul's ministry as an apostle.
And Paul gives us three metaphors for Christian ministry.
Each of these metaphors tells us something about Christian ministry, and all along the
way, we're going to be asking ourselves, how do we think about success?
How do we define our calling as Christian ministers, which again, we all are Christian ministers,
and how different is that?
How countercultural is it from the surrounding culture?
So, we're going to be looking at these three images to guide us.
Christian ministry, a triumphal procession, an aroma of life and death, living letters.
What does each of these images tell us about Christian ministry?
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for your word, and we thank you that it is not just ink and paper.
Your word is living and active because you are living and active.
You're not a deaf, dumb, mute idol.
You're a living God in our midst, here now speaking to us, offering yourself to us.
And before we come to this table and are nourished by your body and blood, Lord, we pray that we
would be nourished by your word, and that in the sacraments and the preaching, we would
experience the gospel in stereo.
We pray this, Lord, for our good and our blessing, but ultimately that you would be glorified in
our midst.
We pray this in your Son's holy name.
Amen.
So, let's look at this passage together.
I want to give you a little context so it makes sense where we are.
We're kind of dropping into the middle.
I think it was Jeff who said when he introduced this series that when you read 2 Corinthians,
it's like dropping into the middle of a pastor's inbox, and that's essentially what we're doing.
So, let me give you a little context.
Paul is writing this letter to address criticism that he's received from some of the Corinthians,
including some of the leaders in Corinth, who he later refers to as the super apostles.
And the reason is because he has had some hard words for the Corinthians in terms of how
they've been living.
He's tried to correct them as their pastor, and they've responded by delegitimizing his
ministry.
And they're essentially saying that he's not a legitimate apostle.
And the reason is because he's not very apostle-like.
He's not very apostle-y in his behavior.
In their minds, you know, if you were to ask one of the Corinthians, what is an apostle?
Here's what they would say.
Well, number one, an apostle is someone who is uniquely blessed by God.
That's true.
Therefore, they would say a true apostle should be a paragon of success because blessing by
God means that you're successful, right?
Then you look at Paul.
Paul's ministry is filled with failure.
It's filled with evidence of Paul's weakness, including the fact that Paul had changed his
mind several times, including one which we see referenced in verses 12 and 13.
He's there in Troas.
He's waiting for Titus to come and tell him whether or not the Corinthians have repented from
their rebellion.
And he has this explosion, this response to the gospel.
It says a door was opened for me there for the gospel.
But he's so anxious to know how the Corinthians have responded to his letter that he can't
wait in Troas.
And so he leaves.
He's got people lining up to be baptized.
And he's like, I can't stay.
I got to know what's happening with the Corinthians.
So he goes on to Macedonia to try to find Titus.
They're like, no real apostle of Jesus would abandon Troas when everybody's coming to
faith.
This is a huge opportunity.
Pentecost part two, and you just left.
You obviously don't have your priorities in order.
Not a real apostle.
Then they would say, you know, well, an apostle is a messenger commissioned personally by Jesus.
That's also true.
But they assumed, well, therefore, a true apostle should be very eloquent, very winsome, very
compelling as a public speaker.
We established last week Paul is anything but that.
He's a rather boring public speaker, very uninteresting.
Third, an apostle is a leader over the church.
Therefore, they would say a true apostle should have the most impressive credentials.
Paul didn't have impressive credentials as a Christian leader.
In fact, his only credential prior to his conversion is that he built his entire early career persecuting
Christians.
So not a very qualified leader of the church, right?
So Paul's critics are saying, look at all of these aspects of Paul's ministry.
Paul's ministry lacks all of the marks of true Christian ministry.
Therefore, Paul is obviously a fraud.
This is the context that we're dropping into.
Here's Paul's response that we're going to unpack.
It's essentially this.
You have completely misunderstood the nature of Christian ministry.
You've completely misunderstood the nature of Christian ministry.
And then he uses three metaphors to refute their assumptions one by one and show us what
true Christian looks like.
So the first image or metaphor that Paul uses is the image of the triumphal procession in verses
12 to 14, part A.
He says this, but thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.
Now at first glance, what does this seem to imply?
It seems to imply that all Christian ministry is like traipsing around the world, being celebrated,
people clapping and cheering as we just sort of go from one place to the next, sort of spreading
gospel cheer, right?
We're following Jesus in a triumphal procession.
We have triumphed over the world.
People are happy to see us.
Crowds, people line up to hear what we have to say.
Not true, right?
In order to understand this, we need to know that the word that Paul uses for triumphal procession
is actually a technical term referring to the Roman institution of the triumphal procession.
One of my former professors, Scott Hafeman, wrote a fantastic commentary on 2 Corinthians,
and here's what he says.
The triumphal procession was a lavish parade conducted in Rome to celebrate great victories
in significant military campaigns.
These were ostentatious celebrations filled with valiant soldiers, the spoils of war, and
the most theatrical pomp and circumstance Rome could muster.
There were over 350 recorded victories in Rome's history, and they were all celebrated this way.
And here's the key detail.
In order to demonstrate Rome's prowess as the victor, their utter unquestioned dominance,
a prominent feature of these celebrations was that you would have the chariot where the person
who was leading the procession would be celebrated, and then you would have a long train of prisoners.
Right?
The rival kings, the rival generals, the enemies.
Right?
Imagine, this is probably what Putin fantasizes about doing with Zelensky, right?
Marching him back in chains to Moscow, right?
We have been victorious.
This is the kind of thing that Rome would do.
They would take the rival leader, the rival king, and they would march them and all of their
generals in chains to humiliate them, which was a testament to the power and the glory of
Rome, right?
The highest honor that any Roman Caesar or general could receive would be to lead one of these
processions.
Conversely, to be led as a prisoner in such a procession was the most humiliating sign of defeat
you could experience, short of death.
And the prisoners would ultimately be marched to a place where they would be executed.
They would be executed to bring glory and honor to Rome and glory and honor to Rome's gods.
So here's the key to understanding what Paul is saying about Christian ministry.
In this metaphor, Paul is not the one leading the procession.
Paul is the prisoner in chains, following behind Jesus, who leads the procession.
Paul's entire life exists to bring glory and honor to Jesus.
Now, we might hear this and be disturbed by the idea of being a prisoner for Christ.
That's kind of a brutal image.
But all throughout Paul's letters, he delights in referring to himself as a prisoner of Christ,
even a slave to Christ.
That was his favorite title for himself as an apostle.
And the reason is because Paul had realized the truth about the human condition.
He had realized in his earlier life that, listen, guess what?
Like it or not, we are all slaves to something or to someone.
We are all slaves to something or someone.
If you can't stop overeating, you're a slave to food.
If you can't stop losing your temper, you're a slave to anger.
If you can't stop conforming to what others expect of you,
if you can't say no to people,
if you can't draw boundaries that need to be drawn,
then you're a slave to the approval of other people.
If you're dating and you can't stop conforming and shifting and compromising in your values and standards
so that that other man or woman will be more attracted to you
and be more likely to want to date you,
you're making that person your master.
You're their slave.
They're calling the shots about the most important things in your life.
And so the gospel says, and this is what Paul had realized,
the only way for us to be free from the things that enslave us in the world
is to become slaves of Christ.
Paul had discovered, I, as a slave to Christ, am free
because Christ as my master desires my freedom.
In Him, I'm free in a way that I never was before as a Pharisee.
Right, so this is Paul's realization.
Now let's just think of the implications of this for this broader question of Christian ministry
and how we think about it.
This is the first metaphor we're given.
The nature of Christian ministry is this,
following Jesus in a triumphal procession,
which is, now that we know what that means,
a death march where we are prisoners.
Right?
We need to understand the implications of this for Paul's critics and for us.
Paul's critics assumed that being a successful Christian minister
means success and prosperity, maybe even celebrity status.
And there were first century church leaders who were very much like celebrities.
But in truth, Paul is saying,
the nature of Christian ministry is not that you're a celebrity.
It's not that you have a massive following.
It's not that you are celebrated everywhere you go.
The nature of Christian ministry is that we're like prisoners following behind Jesus.
In other words, it is not about us.
It's about Him.
It's not about us.
It's about Him.
And I think that, and this is just me talking,
but I think that one of the main ways that the church in the United States has gone off the rails
is because we desperately want to be the ones leading the procession.
We want to be the ones who are celebrated.
We want to be the ones who have the prestige and the respectability.
We want cultural and political power and influence.
And I think that we have made extraordinarily grievous compromises
in order to grab and to hold on to these things.
And maybe, if we want a ministry that looks like Paul's ministry,
we need to be reminded that we were never meant to be the ones leading the procession.
We are prisoners for Christ's sake.
You know, over the last century, many Christians have been praying for revival in our country,
like the great revivals of past centuries.
We've been praying for revival in the church right now.
Some of us are praying for that right now.
We need another revival in our country, right?
But what do we see happening?
The church is having to reckon with its culture of celebrity worship
as more and more celebrity pastors are toppled from their pedestals
because of narcissism and sin and scandal.
Right?
We're praying for revival,
and yet what we see is the church having to reckon with its complicity
in sexual abuse, covering up grievous sin,
as well as complicity in racism and injustice.
Right?
We're praying for revival,
and yet what we see is the church is having to reckon
with all of the ways it has compromised its integrity
in order to gain and hold political power.
Right?
We're praying for revival,
and yet the church is having to reckon
with all of the ways it has compromised its doctrines
in order to appeal to the culture,
only to then die out.
Right?
So you may look at this,
and you may say,
well, God has failed to answer our prayer
for revival.
But what if God is answering our prayer?
What if God is answering our prayer?
In other words,
what if before revival can come,
there has to be a reckoning?
What if this is the road to revival?
What if before revival can come,
we have to remember
who is leading the triumphal procession?
Right?
We have to be reminded
that it's not about us.
It's about Him.
So this first metaphor shows us
the nature of Christian ministry.
We're like prisoners following Jesus
in a triumphal procession.
This leads us to the second metaphor,
the aroma of life and death.
The aroma of life and death.
Roman triumphal processions
would often include incense,
and as the procession passed by,
the incense would waft out
into the streets
for everybody to smell.
And as Paul says
in verses 14 through 16,
wherever he goes,
the aroma of Christ goes with him.
What he says is
that some people out there
see Paul's life
and they hear his message
and their hearts are immediately
open to the gospel
because God is already at work in them.
They're compelled by it.
Other people see the same life,
hear the same message,
and their hearts are closed off.
They don't respond.
You know, it's like some people
who get COVID
and then after COVID,
long after COVID,
they have this sense of smell
that's totally out of whack,
right, where they're like,
I know that this thing
should smell good to me,
but it smells rancid.
It smells rotten, right?
The way you know
you are being spiritually renewed
the way that you know
actually first in the case of COVID
that you are healing
is when your sense of smell
starts to be put right,
when things that should smell good
smell good
and things that should smell bad
smell bad.
And so one of the signs
that we're experiencing
spiritual renewal
is when the gospel
begins to smell good,
when there's something in you
that even if you're not a Christian,
you're curious.
And there are people,
some of you are here this morning
and you're here
and you're not necessarily a Christian,
but there's something about this
that is attractive to you.
There's something about this
that is drawing you.
You're curious.
You're wanting to learn more.
You know, many times
in our foundations class,
which is our church membership class,
it's a 13-week class
that we do a couple of times a year,
we'll have one or two people in there
who are not Christians,
but they're just curious.
They want to learn more
because something about this smells good.
It's attractive to them.
And Paul's saying,
listen, when people come to faith
in places like Troas,
where I was,
it's not because of my eloquence
or my brilliance.
They come to faith
because God is already at work
in their hearts.
Christ is working through me.
And I don't often know
who those people are.
So if the first metaphor
showed us the nature
of Christian ministry,
this metaphor shows us
the power in Christian ministry.
And that power comes
from the Holy Spirit,
not us.
Right?
The Holy Spirit,
not us.
And so you have Paul's critics,
they think that Christian ministry
depends on our gifts.
And they think it depends
on our talents
and our natural ability
and our charisma,
our good looks,
our techniques,
our strategies,
that we have to be impressive
in order to bring people to faith.
But the power of Christian ministry
comes from the Holy Spirit,
not us.
You know,
for most of us,
the whole concept of evangelism
makes us deeply uncomfortable
because it's so hard
to admit to our non-Christian
friends and co-workers
that we are even Christians,
much less share our faith.
Right?
Most of us feel like
we're just trying to get by
and the idea of actually
sharing our faith with somebody,
it just feels way beyond
what we're capable of.
And so I hope this is actually
a great comfort
to be reminded
that it actually doesn't depend on us,
but on the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now, does that mean that we,
doesn't matter if we share our faith?
No.
What it means is
there are people around you
in your life right now
in whom the Spirit is working,
who are open,
who do want to know more,
who are curious.
You know,
I think about my own experience
as a kid growing up,
sometimes going to church,
sometimes not.
My dad wanted us to go to church,
my mom didn't,
so their compromise
was to go once or twice a month.
And so,
but we would go
and I probably,
you know,
it was a good church
and I probably heard
the gospel presented
thousands of times
in a thousand different ways.
I had friends who knew
I wasn't really a believer
and so they would invite me
to their churches
to come to their church,
their evangelistic events.
And I would sit through
their gospel presentations
and still,
it's like my heart
was just like Teflon.
It was like Teflon.
My heart was a non-stick surface
and just nothing stuck.
Just totally apathetic
when it came to really,
I did not care at all.
And then one day
when I was about 22,
for no discernible reason
whatsoever,
I started to
be open to it.
I started meeting with a guy,
talking to him
about Christian things
and he's a great guy,
very well meaning,
but he wasn't
particularly articulate,
he wasn't versed
in apologetics.
You know,
I would ask my kind of
stinger gotcha questions
and he'd be like,
that's a great question,
I have no idea.
And yet somehow
I was drawn to it.
You know,
I read a couple of books
that he had given me
and frankly,
they were cheesy.
They were cheesy books.
You know,
I love a good book
and these were not good books.
They were cheesy.
But there was something
in my heart
that was open.
And I came to faith.
Why?
Because of the amazing apologetics
and the incredible books
that just spoke to my heart?
No,
it's because the Holy Spirit
was at work in me
that I was going to come to faith
one way or another.
It was going to happen.
And so that's how
the Holy Spirit works.
So for,
listen,
for those of us
who have friends
or family
or co-workers
or children
and we are so anxious
wondering,
are they ever going
to come to faith?
Yes,
it's important to know
how to phrase things well.
It's important to know
some apologetics.
It's helpful as a Christian
to know some of those things.
It's important to understand
winsome ways
of presenting the gospel.
Absolutely.
But the most important thing
we can do
is to pray
because it is the Holy Spirit
that will do that work,
not us.
Right?
So that's the power
in Christian ministry.
The nature of Christian ministry,
we're in a triumphal processional
and we are prisoners.
The power in Christian ministry,
guess what?
It's not us.
It is the work
of the Holy Spirit.
And then lastly,
we have this third image,
living letters.
What's that all about?
Chapter 3, verses 1 through 6.
To drive his point home,
Paul says this,
and there is definitely
a note of sarcasm here.
Definitely sarcasm.
He says,
okay,
are we beginning
to commend ourselves again?
Do you want proof?
Is my word not enough?
You want some proof
of my legitimacy?
You want some evidence
of my credibility?
Do you want a letter
of recommendation?
Should I go out
and get a letter
of recommendation?
Or do you want to write me
a letter of recommendation?
Right?
What do I need
to demonstrate
my credibility to you?
And then what does he say?
He says,
guess what?
You are my letter
of recommendation.
You want to know
my credentials?
You are my credentials.
What does he mean by that?
The people who are
criticizing Paul
and delegitimizing
his ministry
all came to faith
through Paul's ministry.
So he's like,
you're delegitimizing me
as an apostle.
You're saying that I'm
a fake and a fraud
and a phony
and yet your own faith
came about
through God's work
in me
and through me
in your life.
And then he says,
listen,
you just need to understand
this is nothing like
the old covenant
religion of Judaism.
Some of us knew
that religion,
right?
Where we would write
God's laws down
on tablets
and do our best
to follow those laws.
This is nothing like that.
The apostolic ministry
is a new covenant ministry.
What does that mean?
The Holy Spirit
is at work right now
opening hearts
to the truth of the gospel
and writing God's laws
on our hearts.
God has written
his law
on your heart.
You're my letter
of recommendation.
You're proof
that despite however
foolish or weak
I may look,
God is working through me
and your hearts
have changed
as a result.
So, you know,
we've seen the nature
of Christian ministry,
triumphal procession.
We've seen the power
of Christian ministry,
the Holy Spirit.
This is the evidence
for Christian ministry.
The evidence
for the fact
that there is something
to the gospel
that we cannot explain.
There are many churches
in our society
and I would probably
put us in that category
with all due respect
that have an overblown
love of credentials.
Have an overblown
love of credentials.
As though the gospel
is more credible
if it's coming
from someone
with a PhD
after their name.
Now listen, listen.
Am I saying
that the answer
is to become
anti-intellectual?
Hopefully you know
me well enough
to know that is
absolutely not
what I'm saying.
Right?
And there's a huge
I love to study.
I love to read.
Honestly, there's a big part
of me that would love
to spend the rest
of my life
holed up in a university
library somewhere.
That is like my happy place.
So I love it.
But part of me
also recognizes
the truth
that we're seeing here.
The most compelling
evidence for the truth
of the gospel
is not the letters
after someone's name.
It is the lives
that have been transformed.
In particular,
lives that have been
transformed
through ministries
that don't seem like
they could do anything.
Much less
transform lives.
Ministries that look weak,
that look foolish,
that are poorly run,
the finances are a mess,
they seem to have no idea
what they're doing.
And yet somehow
they're producing people
that have been
completely transformed.
So what Paul is saying
is the more foolish
I look,
the more weak I look,
the more I seem to lack
all the credentials
that you care about,
the more it glorifies who?
Not me,
God.
Because look at you,
look at the fruit
in your life.
You think I could do this?
This is why at one point
in this letter he says,
who's sufficient
for these things?
You think a PhD
is going to make
any difference
when it comes
to changing lives?
You know,
over the years
I have seen people
who were passing
through D.C.
on their way,
totally focused on career.
I've seen them
make a 90 degree turn
and stop in D.C.
and say,
you know,
I'm going to root down here
and I'm going to live here
because I want to be
a part of a community.
Completely change
their life plans.
I've seen marriages
that I knew
that was on the brink
of collapse
be completely restored
and renewed
and marriages
that are an entirely
different place.
Now,
some of you
are the people
that I'm talking about.
I've seen people
set free
from patterns of addiction
and cycles of abuse
and generational sin.
I've seen people
go from having
years and years
of stored up anger
and bitterness.
I've seen that anger
dissipate.
I've seen them
forgive people
they once hated.
I've seen people
that have overcome
massive,
deep political division
and embrace
and love one another
like family.
Right?
When you see things
like this,
life change,
there is no degree
in the world
that can change lives.
This is the kind of thing
only God can do.
Right?
So,
this is how we need
to be thinking
about Christian ministry
at least if we want
our ministry
to look like the ministry
that Paul had
in Corinth.
This is Paul's
countercultural ministry.
The question remains,
what gave Paul
the courage
to be so radically
countercultural
in the first place?
You know,
when Paul realized
what he was signing up
for,
a life of following
behind Jesus
like a prisoner
on his way
to an execution,
what was the thing
that compelled Paul
to say,
that's what I want
my life to be about?
And what's the thing
that might compel us
to say,
that's what I want
my life to be about?
Why would Paul
sign up for this?
It's because he realized
that with Jesus
there was one crucial
difference
from the Roman practice.
In the Roman practice,
the one leading
the procession
would get to
the final destination,
they would take
all the prisoners,
they would execute
those prisoners
to bring glory
to the leader
of the procession
and to the gods
that Rome worshipped.
But in Jesus'
triumphal procession,
the prisoners
are not the ones
who were executed.
In Jesus'
triumphal procession,
when they finally
arrive at that place
at Golgotha,
Jesus is the one
who gets down
off of the chariot,
takes off all
of the symbols
of glory and power
and majesty,
he's stripped down
to nothing,
allows himself
to be humiliated,
allows himself
to be tortured
like the worst criminal,
like the worst prisoner,
and then ultimately
allows himself
to be executed
in place of the prisoners.
And what that means
is that those
who were once in chains,
the chains come off
and they're invited
to come in
and share in the glory
and share in the honor
and share in the privilege
that Jesus enjoys
in the throne room
of heaven.
Countercultural ministry
is only possible
because of the
countercultural truth
of the gospel itself.
And a gospel-centered ministry
is therefore going to be,
by definition,
a countercultural ministry.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you
for your word
and we know we need
more than to hear it.
Lord, we need you
to work in us
as we've said
over and over
and over this morning.
So I pray that
as we come to you
in prayer,
as we come to you
in worship,
in singing,
as we come to you
around your table,
I pray that you would do
in us what we cannot
accomplish on our own.
And that is to show us
the freedom
that can be found
by following you,
to remind us
of the power
and the presence
of the Holy Spirit
in our midst.
Awaken us to the Spirit.
And then, Lord,
to remind us
that only you
can change lives.
And I pray that we would
lay our lives down
to be changed,
to be transformed.
That as we will
take this bread
and bless it
and break it
and give it out,
that you would take us
and bless us
and break us
and give us to the world.
That we might bring
glory to you, Lord.
And it's in the name
of your Son,
Jesus Christ,
we pray.
Amen.
.
you