The Significance Of A New Creation-23 Series

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

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

Part B of point 14 in the series.

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

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)

Attention:

Incompetent to Competent:

There was a time in my brother’s life when he was considered the ‘black sheep of the family.’ He was in many aspects a rebel.

He had become an alcoholic & was the source of the divorce from his first wife, the mother of his three children.

In fact things were so bad with my brother that my father & mother actually excluded him from their will. He was unfit to handle any financial concerns of the family, even though he was the first born. His ‘ministry’ as a son was compromised.

*However eventually he came to his senses & ‘repented’ of his erring ways. Seeing his repentance Momma & Daddy wrote him back into the will & re-established him as executor. He again became trustworthy in their ‘kingdom’ & with ‘kingdom’ matters.

My brother’s commendation/competence was reestablished.

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

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 Commenders 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 both Deceivers & Genuine

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

xxiv. Perceived as Dying but Actually Living

xxv. Chastened, but not killed

Continuing our look at MINISTRY COMMENDATIONS we find a 26th Commendation in 6:10.... 14—A new creation is significant in the...

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

B. MINISTRY COMMENDATIONS(CONT...)

6:10—“as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, & yet possessing all things.”

Again & finally Paul & Timothy’s “ministry” is commended in contrasting ways depending upon the heart-set of those who observe it.

A 26th Commendation as ministers of God...

“as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”

Comes in their being regarded “as” “sorrowful,”...

...while at the same time being regarded as “always rejoicing.”

The “sorrow” comes to God’s ministers...

a.—in your being wrongly perceived.

b.—in your being wrongly received.

c.—in giving of yourselves to the chagrin of those who choose not to believe, i.e.--by our ‘infringing upon’ & ‘restricting’ the ‘rights’ of unbelievers.

d.—in your presenting a dissenting message to the lost world.

e.—in your being openly persecuted.

f.—in your being surrendered to the biblical God—He Who is mere hearsay & foolishness to unbelievers.

2Tim. 1:7-11—“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power & of love & of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us & called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose & grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death & brought life & immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, & a teacher of the Gentiles.”