Opening illustration: On January 9th, 2007, Joshua Bell sold out Boston's Symphony Hall. Seats were nearly $100 each. Bell plays a violin worth more than $3 million and is one of the best musicians in the world. Three days later he entered a metro station in Washington, D.C. wearing casual clothing and a ball cap. He opened his case and played his violin for 45 minutes. Only six people stopped, 20 gave money (a total of $32), but no one recognized him.
Today, when it comes to the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ, many are blind. They do not see his beauty and majesty, and therefore do not ascribe to him the honor and worth he deserves. As Christians, we must desire to spread Christ's glory in the world. In 2 Corinthians 4:1–6 the Apostle Paul addressed how difficult this can be. We may become discouraged and desire to quit (v.1), but we have good reasons to press on.
Let us turn to 2 Corinthians 4 and catch up with Paul’s letter to the Christians in Corinth to remain encouraged and display Christ gory through their lives always.
Introduction: These first six verses of Second Corinthians, Chapter 4, will answer a lot of questions as to why so many people do not believe the gospel when they first hear it, or even after they have heard it over a long period of time. They will answer questions about why many who do believe the gospel quit after they have been walking in the Christian way for some time; and also questions about why some people whom you think will never believe it, suddenly do so. The passage begins with a tremendous declaration by the Apostle Paul, about his reaction to his own ministry.
All through this passage he has repeated that theme - "We do not get discouraged"; "we do not feel like quitting"; "we are confident"; "we are encouraged." Again and again you will find that note dominant throughout the passage. I run into a lot of Christians who are getting discouraged today. That is exactly why it is essential for us to display the manifested glory of God at every point of our lives.
How can the Glory of Christ be displayed through our lives into the world?
1. Refuse to distort the Word of God (vv. 1–2)
In verse 2 Paul refers to the methods of other teachers and philosophers of his day who used any means necessary to gather a following (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:20–25). This of course meant altering their message and merely tickling the ears of their hearers. Paul and his companions renounced these deceitful and shameful ways. They did not edit God's Word. They announced it. "By an open display of the truth" (v.2), the message remained the same for everyone who heard it.
Every Christian is tempted, at times, to adjust the gospel and make it more palatable to the culture. We may feel that we are making progress, but if they are not hearing the Gospel, we are only further condemning them. We should pause here to recognize that the Christ whom Paul preached was largely unpopular. The biblical Jesus is controversial. He made a lot of claims that people do not like. For example, He claimed to be the only way to heaven. Such exclusivity is frowned upon by the lost world, but that did not matter to Paul and it should not matter to us because that is the truth that either sets people free or binds them up for eternity.
In June 2013, The Atlantic featured an article titled "Listening to Young Atheists," which recounted the testimony of many young people who grew up in church, but are now atheists. Of the many factors that led to their exit, one staggered many readers. The churches they attended did not take the Bible seriously. The author said, "These students heard plenty of messages encouraging 'social justice,' community involvement, and 'being good,' but they seldom saw the relationship between that message, Jesus Christ, and the Bible" (The Atlantic, June 6, 2013).
Fascinating! This is the result when we distort the message: we drain the gospel of its power. While we must take great care to communicate the message clearly, we do not have the option of altering it.
George Whitefield said, “You will never preach with power feelingly while you deal in a false commerce [writing unclear] with unfelt truths. For my part, I would not preach an unknown Christ for 10,000 worlds.” F. B. Meyer tells preachers that they “must preach all your sermons over to yourself. Remember that your heart must be your first congregation.” And John Owen comments “No man preaches his sermon well to others if he doth not first preach it to his own heart.”
Illustration: Dr. Alexander Whyte of Edinburgh was a fearless preacher and he did not spare his congregation their sin and hypocrisy. Voices were raised to muffle him. Things reached a crisis point. When he was walking in the Highlands one day he recalled how “A divine voice spoke with all commanding power in my conscience –‘Go and flinch not!’ Go back and boldly finish the work that has been given you to do. Speak out, fear not … Spend what is left of your life in your anointed task of showing my people their sin and their need of my salvation.” It was said of Hezekiah, in everything he undertook he sought God, and worked whole-heartedly, and so he prospered (2 Chronicles 31:21).
Application: In what ways are you tempted to alter or soften the gospel? We must understand that if we are going to spread the glory of Christ in the world, we cannot distort God's Word.
2. Recognize the work of Satan (vv. 3–4)
Paul says the devil's tool is the veil. The devil is responsible for the unbelief of men, and men and women are helpless victims in the hands of the god of this age. That veil is the delusion that we are adequate to handle life by ourselves, that independent sense of pride that says, "I don't need any help; I can handle it by myself; I need no religious crutch; I don't need a savior." That is the veil that lies over the minds of people to keep them from seeing the death and condemnation that waits at the end of the fading glory. The devil's purpose, Paul says here, is to keep men and women from seeing that Jesus Christ is the secret of being like God, of being godlike, "... to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God."
The reasons some don't embrace the gospel are numerous. Pride, love of pleasure, fear, and moralism could be listed as factors for unbelief. But in verse 4 Paul focuses on the work of the "god of this age" who "has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (v.4). The devil fights for his own glory, and he will do anything to prevent people from seeing the glory of Christ.
We must keep this is mind. When someone fails to respond to the gospel despite our best efforts to convince them, we tend to question our methods, our character, and perhaps even the message itself. But blindness to the gospel should not surprise us! We are at war with powers and authorities that we cannot see (Ephesians 6:12). We have the greatest message in the world and unfortunately, the greatest enemy. J.R.R. Tolkien reminds us: "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him" (Tolkien, The Hobbit, 217). We live near a live dragon (Revelation 12:9) who hates the gospel … let us not forget this.
Illustration: Some things just don’t seem to fit in our modern 21st century. A tribe of headhunters is one of them. Yet there is one such group of people whose story is worth telling. A tribe living high in the Philippine mountains, a 3-day’s walk from the nearest city, has only within the past 10 years given up their tradition of displaying heads of captured enemies.
The leader of this tribe, a man who got that position because of his head-hunting success, was instrumental in the change. It came about because two women risked everything to travel to the village to live among the people and tell them about Jesus’ love. In 1999, 5 years after the women first visited the village, at least 50 people, including the chief, had trusted Christ to save them. As a result, the people’s lives were transformed, and they gave up their killing ways.
Headhunting may seem primitive, but its source is no different from the most modern sin. The same inborn evil that led Cain to murder Abel thousands of years ago (Genesis 4:8) still exists in human hearts today. All sin, new and old, has just one solution—Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-6). Even in a modern world, He alone is the answer to the ancient problem of the sinful heart. Has He changed yours?
Application: Have you forgotten the work of Satan? How does this impact your life?
3. Rest in the power of God (vv. 5–6)
I find many Christians who are ready to quit, feeling that they are not achieving anything. But when you talk with them you discover that, basically, they do not see themselves as Paul did, as being the instrument of God at work. They are focusing on what they are doing for God, or, as they feel at the moment, what they are not doing for God. They do not seem to understand the basis for this ministry that Paul speaks of which he calls the "new covenant," the new arrangement for living, which God has provided in Christ.
I was listening to a man on the radio the other day who was supposedly preaching the gospel. He closed his message by saying, "If you have faith in my prayers, then do such and such." That is not preaching Christ. That is preaching himself and that is a false gospel. You sometimes hear people say, "If you have faith in my ministry, do such and such" (especially, "send money"), but that is not preaching the gospel. Paul says, "We don't do that; what we preach is not ourselves. But how can we avoid preaching ourselves? The only way to do so is to ensure that Christ is our personal focus. If we are focused on Christ we will not want to draw attention away from Him and to ourselves. On the contrary, we will cry with John the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
In verses 5–6 Paul reminds the Corinthians, and us, that only God can save. Just as in the beginning God made light shine out of darkness (Genesis 1:1–3), He can open blind eyes to the light of the glory of Christ in the gospel (v.6). Our task is simple: announce that Jesus is Lord (v.5). The rest is up to God. We cannot open blind eyes. We cannot create new creatures in Christ. We cannot give life to spiritually dead people. But God can and we must rest in His power.
Charles Wesley wrote, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray - I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee" (Wesley, "And Can It Be That I Should Gain"). We did not save ourselves and we cannot save anyone else. We simply announce the message and leave the results to God.
We must speak of what we know and have experienced, else our speaking will be remote, academic and irrelevant. The more we tremble at God’s word and feel its power in our conscience, the more we can speak with conviction to others. The Bible will come alive to others when it has first of all come alive to us. The congregation does not want second hand religion, but a message throbbing with first-hand knowledge and experience.
That is what God is saying to us in these words. Where do you find the light of the glory of God? In the face of Jesus Christ. And where do you find the face of Jesus? In the Scriptures. This book is all about Jesus. The Gospels give you the record of his amazing life on earth; the Epistles explain the implications of that life, his death and resurrection, and his working for us; the Old Testament is full of anticipations of his character and his being. As you read them and let the Spirit of God interpret them, the "face of Christ" comes clearer and clearer. That is how light comes into a darkened heart.
Are you walking in darkness? Well, then, begin to seek the "face of Christ." That is where the light shines. Not the Christ you hear about in all the popular presentations around us. There is nothing historic about the Jesus you meet in many of the presentations today. Oftentimes that is a false Christ. But in the Scriptures you have the authentic Jesus, and in the fellowship of the people of God the character and the love of Jesus come through. In moments of communion and prayer you see the "face of Christ." That is what turns off the darkness and brings the light into your life. You do not have to walk in darkness in this day and age when you can look at the "face of Christ," for there is "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" for all to see.
Illustration: The story goes of an American visitor to London last century, who heard two different preachers’ morning and evening at the same church. His comment after the morning service was “What oratory, what dynamic preaching and personality!” His comment after the evening service “What a wonderful savior Jesus is.”
Application: Are you trying to save someone in your own power and skill? I encourage you to rest in the power of God. Be fervent in prayer, be faithful to witness, but trust God as the only savior.
Final Illustration: The Warren Theatre in Wichita, Kansas currently hosts the world's largest IMAX screen. It measures 60 feet high and 84 feet wide. But the screen does not exist for itself. Imagine how strange it would be if people merely paid to see a blank screen! No. It exists to display movies. Christians do not exist for themselves. We exist to put the glory of Christ on display in the world. Let us press on and not lose heart.
