Today we’re going to talk a bit more about what it means to be an ambassador of Christ. In particular we’re going to think about what’s involved in ambassadors of Christ doing their job to the best of their ability. Paul is aware of the urgency of the task, of the need for people to hear about Christ and respond to his offer of forgiveness before it’s too late and so he goes on to talk about what we can do to increase our effectiveness as messengers of the gospel. He begins by saying "We put no obstacle or stumbling block in anyone’s way." Nothing that might come between his hearers and the gospel.
Now it seems to me that this is quite a timely warning for Christians in 2004. Is there any doubt that the revelations of sexual and physical abuse by clergy and now of paedophilia among both clergy and Christian teachers has harmed the cause of the gospel? Our credibility has gone downhill over the past few years. This is a great stumbling block to the gospel.
But it’s not only that sort of misbehaviour that gives Christianity a bad name. What about revelations of big name preachers with a healing ministry who have essentially been shown to be frauds, who have manipulated people into giving them huge amounts of money on the basis of a lie. People see those sorts of stories and immediately question whether real cases of healing fall in the same category of made up stories.
In the same category I think, are those preachers who proclaim a prosperity doctrine; who fill their churches by promising people that if they’ll just have faith they can have anything; who say God wants to make us rich, not just in godliness but in material wealth as well. All you have to do is ask. I think the phrase that’s commonly used in this case is "Name it and claim it."
Then there are those preachers who use all the tricks of rhetoric to sway their audience. They fill their churches by the way they present their message, or by the topics they choose to preach on. They package it in such a way as to attract the right demographic to their services. Earlier this year Michael mentioned some pastors he’d come across who said they’d rather employ a music director than a pastoral worker, because they were more effective at bringing people in. I know that some people were put off by the style of the woman speaking on the DVD last week. Why were they put off? I think because of the way she presented her message. It wasn’t the message itself. It was the way she tried to manipulate the audience to get her point across. The way she shouted at them; the way she strutted across the stage and then turned and pointed at the audience, bending down to their level to make the point even more powerfully. And if you’re like me you might think it’s all just an act. It’s all just designed to manipulate my emotions so I respond. Well I did respond, but probably not the way she meant. I have a fairly low tolerance for manipulative behaviour. (I actually didn’t intend to show that bit last week. I just forgot where I was going to turn it off. But it serves as a good example, I think, of the way we can cause a stumbling block by the way we behave.)
So we need to ask what are we on about as Christians? What is the nature of Christian ministry?
There was an article in The Age on Wednesday about General Synod rejecting the possibility of women bishops and one of the comments was that this was denying women the possibility of being recognised? Well, it seems to me that that isn’t really the issue. As far as Christian ministry is concerned, are we on about personal recognition? Is ordination part of a career path? No. There may be other reasons for allowing women to be bishops but that’s not one of them. Certainly we need to recognise gifts in people before appointing them as bishops. But personal recognition isn’t what it’s about. As we’ll see in a moment, Paul’s experience at Corinth didn’t include personal recognition. In fact the opposite. Yet he kept on because he knew that wasn’t the issue.
The issue is that ministry is about service - we’re servants of God. And nothing can cause the reputation of the master to be tarnished as much as servants who fail to practise the ethics of their master. A minister whose conduct is clearly a contradiction of the transforming power of God in Christ is only going to lead people to malign God and to make a mockery of the gospel.
So Paul’s desire is not to commend himself. Rather it’s his ministry, that is the ministry of the gospel, that he’s concerned about. As a servant, his job is to show his master in the best possible light. So how does he do that? Well, his solution to the question of how to commend the gospel to our hearers is twofold: total commitment, combined with a willingness to be different.
1 Total Commitment - this is a
A. A commitment that perseveres
He says: "[We’ve commended ourselves in every way:] through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger."
It’s worth noting at this point that the criticism Paul had been receiving from the Corinthians included such complaints as his apparent weakness, the fact that he was too emotional, his failure as an orator, his low public profile and perhaps even that he was dishonest in what he taught.
But as we’ll see in a moment just the opposite is the case. Had he presented the gospel the way these opponents wanted him to, it wouldn’t have been true to the gospel. It would’ve be peddling a cheap grace that wouldn’t stand the test of time.
One of the things that I think a number of people would have disliked about that woman’s presentation on the DVD last week was the almost triumphalist tone she employed; the loud voiced orator who uses the power of words to sway an audience. There are parts of the Christian church where this is the norm. Not everywhere has a preacher who’s a static as yours seem to be. And it seems that that was the case in Corinth. They were used to preachers who spoke with powerful words, who never admitted weakness, who overcame every obstacle with ease. The people they looked up to had visions, ecstatic utterances, prophecies, miracles and other manifestations of power. And then along came Paul, who was weak, obviously afflicted by some ailment from time to time, used to being beaten up by his opponents, who never seemed to come out with tongues or other revelations; the very antithesis of the sort of leader they were used to.
But, he says, that’s simply because I’m living consistently with my calling. My calling isn’t to win victories or to be triumphalist. My calling is to be a servant. And how does he show that he’s a good servant? By putting up with whatever trouble comes to him in the service of his master, in the service of God. His Lord is Jesus Christ who was led like a lamb to the slaughter, who never opened his mouth, but before his shearers was dumb.
And his ministry is the ministry of reconciliation. That entails crossing the barriers between God and people, between cultures, between religions even. It involves being vulnerable. And that will inevitably involve hardship. Just as Christ suffered to bring about this reconciliation, so too his servants will suffer as they share that message with people.
He’s not complaining about his hardships. They’re just a fact of life. In fact he says elsewhere they serve to make him even more aware of what Christ has suffered. It’s almost as if he’s experiencing Christ’s suffering in his own body. And so he perseveres. But he not only has a commitment that perseveres, he also has:
B. A commitment that shows integrity
He says look at any part of my life and you’ll see me expressing the character of God in the way I behave. In my private life I strive for purity and innocence. In my social interactions I show understanding, patience, kindness, sensitivity, genuineness. In my personal life you’ll find the fruit of the spirit. In my preaching you’ll only see honesty, plain speaking and a total dependence on the power of God to sway my hearers. I don’t need to manipulate, or use the latest psychological tools, because God is speaking through my words. The weapons I wield, he says, are the weapons of righteousness alone.
Now it seems to me the personal integrity of the Christian is the touchstone of a living faith. And that involves my internal life as well as my external life. I can show a certain integrity in my external life but if my private behaviour doesn’t match up then it isn’t integrity at all is it? It’s actually the sign of a split personality. It’s hypocrisy, play acting. My commitment to Christ must show itself in integrity in all of my life.
C. A Commitment that breeds contentment
Paul could have been excused for being a bit upset at the way he gets treated. He could easily have asked, as others often do, "Why me?" He could have been discouraged; could even have given up after some of the things that happened to him. But no, he says, it doesn’t matter how he’s being treated, he always shows by his response that God is his master. If that means he suffers, so be it. That’s the lot of a disciple of Christ, after all.
Besides which, he knows the truth of the situation. He can see the positive side to whatever circumstance he finds himself in. If he’s treated as an impostor, that’s OK because he knows he’s true. If someone claims he’s an unknown so what, he’s known by God. How better known can you be? It doesn’t matter if he gets no personal recognition, because God has recognised him. If people think he’s dying, well they’ve got another think coming. He’s going to be around for a while yet. The suffering he’s experienced has done nothing to dampen his enthusiasm for God. In fact the opposite: he’s always rejoicing, he knows that even if he’s poor, he’s made many rich, and he possess everything; everything that really matters, that is.
Now, this isn’t triumphalism. He’s aware of his weakness, the way he’s suffered and will no doubt suffer again. He knows that there are things that some people do better than he. No, this is simply looking with the right perspective on his life; looking at it from God’s point of view; seeing that God is doing something that transcends his finite experience of suffering and weakness.
And the reason he lives like this, the reason he’s committed to a life of integrity and perseverance, the reason he remains content even without a church of 5000 people to minister to, is that this is how the Gospel will be commended to the world, as they see God’s power made perfect in weakness. I don’t know about you but I know I’d rather be part of a Christianity that’s based on commitment and perseverance and integrity and contentment than any of the prosperity or success based models we see in the world today.
But there’s another aspect to our lifestyle that we need to get right if our message is to be unhindered. And that’s:
2 A Willingness to be different.
He says "Do not be mismatched with unbelievers." That word could also be translated ’unequally yoked’. He’s picking up the idea of one of the laws of Moses that an ox and a donkey weren’t to be harnessed together. That law was part of a general principle of God’s law for his people that they mustn’t get things mixed up. There may have been some practical reason for this prohibition, but the main reason was to emphasise to the people of Israel the importance God places on purity, of life as well as worship.
I think there’s often a misunderstanding of the way God insists that his people should separate themselves, to some extent at least, from unbelievers. When the Israelites enter the promised land they’re told to drive the other nations out, not just so they can take over their land, nor as a means of genocide, but primarily because God knows that if those other nations remain in the land they’ll corrupt his people. Their purity will be tainted through their interaction with people who practice idolatry. And of course that’s what happens. Slowly but surely their worship is corrupted. They begin to worship idols and their place in the land as God’s own people is in jeopardy.
And that’s what Paul’s concerned about here, as far as Christians are concerned. He warns us not to take up partnerships with unbelievers. Now this has most commonly been thought to refer to marriage partnerships, but I guess it could equally refer to business partnerships. It might also refer to inter faith worship services though, mightn’t it? He isn’t saying we should get out of the world but that we should be careful about the partnerships we form. And he gives 4 reasons why this matters.
A. It is incongruous. (vs 14,15)
Christians have a world view that’s diametrically opposed to the rest of the world. Our priorities are different. Our values are different. Our objectives are different. That means that partnership with a non-Christian is going to be fraught with difficulty, with conflict. And the end result is likely to be that we find our standards and values, even our basic beliefs, being eroded, undermined; compromise creeping in, concessions being made, so that in the end our Christian faith may even be brought into question.
B. It is Sacrilegious (v16)
The Church isn’t a club, it’s a supernatural institution established by God, indwelt by his Spirit, established so people could worship him in Spirit and in truth. So for the Church to be in partnership with people who have no interest in God or who worship their own gods isn’t just incongruous it’s sacrilegious. It’s to demean the nature of God and of the Christian Church,
C. It is Disobedient. (v17)
The command that Paul quotes in v17 was originally given to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. They were told to be careful that they weren’t corrupted by their surroundings. They, like us, could do nothing about the fact that they were living in a predominantly pagan city. But they could make sure that their lifestyle was different. They could keep themselves separate at least to the extent of the way they lived their lives.
Paul’s saying that Christians too, are a people who are living in exile, awaiting the day when God will bring us home. And while we wait we’re called to remain obedient to his command, to be people of integrity in the way we conduct ourselves, not allowing ourselves to be corrupted by the culture in which we’re immersed.
D. You have been made different (v18)
He says "I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." The eternal reality for the Christian is that God has adopted us as his children. We’re now part of his family. That means we need to behave the way the family behaves. That means we’ll have different priorities to other families.
And we have a different future to prepare for which entails being ready. So he says: "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God." Let’s begin now to ready ourselves for the future. Let’s make sure that even now, we don’t bring shame on our heavenly father.
Don’t think that it’s irrelevant if we become partners with someone who’s an unbeliever. Of course it’s relevant. It would be like bringing the ACTU secretary to a Liberal Party meeting. They have nothing in common and will only cause problems by being there.
Rather we need to acknowledge our difference from the world, even while we live within it and through the positives of that difference commend the gospel to those who haven’t yet heard it.
Well, we need to stop so let me summarise. What God is telling us in this passage is that we need to be people of commitment, of integrity and of contentment. And we need to be a people set apart for God, made clean, so God can use us as his ambassadors.
For more sermons from this source go to home.vicnet.net.au/~sttheos/
