The Significance Of A New Creation-17 Series

‘The Significance Of A New Creation’--XVII—2Corinthians 5:9--6:10...

14. The PRACTICAL REALITIES Of MINISTRY-B—2Corinthians 6:3-10...

Part B of point 14 in the series.

Attention:

No matter what we do for a living or how we worship together corporately, much more is required to bring about the actuality than may be considered/grasped by the receivers of such.

A true Christian receives a new nature.

Need:

*The key to our verses is 2Cor. 5:17—“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Paul clarified the significance of being a new creation in Christ to the Corinthian church.

There is great significance to being a new creation in Christ.

14 significations/signifiers of being a new creation in Christ.

Previously we have found that A new creation is significant in its New...

1. PLEASUREs(5:9)

2. RECEPTION(5:10)

3. PERSUASION(5:11)

4. OPPORTUNITY(5:12)

5. SOUND INSANITY(5:13)Risk

6. LOVE(5:14-15)

7. CONSIDERATIONS(5:16)

8. NEWNESS/Creativeness(5:17)

9. RELATIONSHIP--Reconciliation(5:18-19)

10. INSTRUMENTATION/Mediation(5:20)

11. RIGHTEOUSNESS(5:21)

12. VIEW Of VANITY(6:1)

13. URGENCY(6:2)

We will see that Paul & Timothy commended apostolic ministry to the Corinthian church thru a list of Practical Realities within which they operated.

The significance of how being a new creation in Christ is played out in the Practical Realities of Ministry.

We are going to examine the significance of these Practical Realities one-by-one in their manifestation as Commendors of God-ordained Ministry.

14—A new creation is significant in the...

PRACTICAL REALITIES Of MINISTRY-B(6:3-10)

So far we have looked at the role of...

A. OFFENSE & BLAME(6:3)...as well as...

B. MINISTRY COMMENDATIONS(6:4ff.)(CONT...)

i. Patience(6:4)—cheerful endurance & constancy

ii. Tribulations—pressures

iii. Needs—forced subsistence

iv. Distresses—narrowed circumstances

v. Stripes(6:5)—officially sanctioned punishment

vi. Imprisonments—officially sanctioned

vii. Tumults(6:5)—chaotic/unstable lifestyle

viii. Labors—physically/mentally taxing work

ix. Sleeplessness

Continuing our look at MINISTRY COMMENDATIONS we find a 10th commendation....

B. MINISTRY COMMENDATIONS(CONT...)

A 10th Commendation as ministers of God...

“in fastings”

Comes by means of “fastings/hunger.” i.e., A Commendable Ministry is delivered in the package of “fastings/hunger.”

a. These MAY ‘possibly’ be the “fastings/hungers” of insecure living in dependence upon the generosity( or lack thereof) of others. Such is the involuntary hunger resulting from having no steady income or set place of their own. These “fastings” result from not knowing where one’s next meal will come from & often does not arrive at all.

*The more common(23X) word translated “hunger” is peinaw which is a more general term.

b. These ‘more probably’ MAY also be the voluntary “fastings” secured thru hours of prayer, &/or study, &/or labor...i.e., commitments of devotion to God in Christ! Chosen “fasting” in anticipation of the movement of God!(direction/intervention/involvement). “Fasting” is employed to bring an intensified focus upon a specific matter of prayer. “Fasting” is ALWAYS coupled with prayer!

Jn. 4:34-36—“Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, & to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months & then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes & look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, & gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows & he who reaps may rejoice together.”

?Do your FASTINGS commend your ministry as born/borne of God...

...OR do they negate it?

“Fastings/Hunger”—nhsteia—Noun Dative Plural Fem.—1) A fasting, fast—1a) A voluntary, as a religious exercise—1a1) Of private fasting, 1a2) The public fast as prescribed by the Mosaic Law & kept yearly on the great day of atonement, the tenth of the month of Tisri(the month Tisri comprises a part of our September & October); The fast accordingly, occurred in the autumn when navigation was usually dangerous on account of storms, 1b) A fasting caused by want or poverty. Strong—Abstinence(from lack of food, or voluntary & religious); specifically--The fast of the Day of Atonement. Used 8X.

14—A new creation is significant in the...

PRACTICAL REALITIES Of MINISTRY--B(6:3-10)

B. MINISTRY COMMENDATIONS(CONT...)

6:6—“by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love,”

Paul & Timothy now continue to “commend” their ministry, thru contrast with the above 10 negative means(:4-5). They present 9 positive(6 in :6 & 3 in :7) aspects regarding the same commendation.

An 11th Commendation as ministers of God...

“by purity”

Comes in/“by” “purity.” i.e., A Commendable Ministry is delivered in/by the package of “purity.”

The minister(in whatever capacity) maintains a spiritually moral “purity” before God so as to elucidate the God-ordained ministry to which he/she has been called. His/her life is lived within the confines of spiritual cleanliness & blamelessness before God.

1Tim. 4:12—“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity[agneia].”

Titus 2:6-8—“Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.”