The Significance Of A New Creation-22 Series

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

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

Part B of point 14 in the series.

A true Christian receives a new nature in order to accomplish ministry!

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)

Attention:

You are a lousy cook if.…

•Your husband refers to the smoke detector as the oven timer.

•Your family automatically heads for the table every time they hear a fire siren.

•No matter what you do to it the gravy still turns bright purple.

•Anyone has ever broken a tooth eating your homemade yoghurt.

•Your kids know what "peas porridge in a pot nine days old" tastes like.

•Your son goes outside to make mud pies, the rest of the family grabs forks & follows him.

•Your kids' favorite drink is Alka-Seltzer.

•You have to buy 25 pounds of dog food twice a week for your toy poodle.

•Your kids got even with the neighborhood bully by inviting him over for dinner.

The responses of the family indicated Mom's cooking ability.

So the responses of Christian family(ministers) commend their ministries before God.

No matter what we do for a living or how we worship together corporately, much more is required to bring about the actual working of ministry than may be perceived/considered/grasped.

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

ii. Tribulations—pressures

iii. Needs—forced subsistence

iv. Distresses—narrowed circumstances

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

vi. Imprisonments—(officially sanctioned removal from society)

vii. Tumults—chaotic/unstable lifestyle

viii. Labors—physically/mentally taxing work

ix. Sleeplessness

x. Fastings—prayer & fasting

xi. (6:6)Purity—living uprightly

xii. Knowledge—personal, of God & His way

xiii. Longsuffering—refrain from wrath/revenge/vengeance

xiv. Kindness—Useful moral goodness

xv. The Holy Spirit—

xvi. Sincere Love—Unhypocritical

xvii. (6:7)the Word Of Truth—God’s unfailing word

xviii. the Power Of God—God’s ability

xix. The Armor/Weaponry Of Righteousness—protection

xx. (6:8)Both Honor& Dishonor

xxi. Both Evil Report & Good Report

xxii. Perceived as Deceivers yet Genuine

xxiii. (6:9)As both Unknown & Well-known

Continuing our look at MINISTRY COMMENDATIONS we find a 24th Commendation in 6:9....

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

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

B. MINISTRY COMMENDATIONS(CONT...)—

6:9—A 24th Commendation as ministers of God...

“as dying, & behold we live”

Comes in their being regarded “as dying,” while at the same time being obviously witnessed as those who “live.”

Such ministers continually carry about the dying of the Lord Jesus(2Cor. 4:10). The dying of the Lord Jesus is taking upon oneself a full commitment to Him above the threats that such commitment entails.

2Cor. 4:7-12—“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God & not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed-- always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.

The Christian minister always lives under the threat of death. He/She largely does not agree with family, friendly, political, or other directives which arise from the things near & dear to the ‘natural’ heart. Christian ministers are threatened due to what the lost consider foolish.(1Cor. 2:14).

1Cor. 2:14—“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Jn. 3:19-21—“And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, & men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light & does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”