Sermon Transcript
The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.
- 2 Corinthians 4: We Do Not Preach Ourselves
- Attacks on the Messenger
- The Christianity Inoculation
- A Jesus Gospel
2 Corinthians 4: We Do Not Preach Ourselves
[audio unclear] In a moment, we’ll look at Paul, but I want to just read chapter 4. Verse, where do we want to start? We’ll just start at verse 1. “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” I saw a recent bulletin blooper. Want to hear it? The morning bulletin said, at this evening service we’ll have a special song, “Walking on the Water.” And the sermon title is, “Where is Jesus?” You get it? But it’s a good question, isn’t it? Where is Jesus? Where is Jesus? Is Jesus the center of our lives? Is Jesus the center of our homes? Is Jesus the center of our church? Is Jesus the center of our gospel? Do we have a Jesus gospel or do we have a Christianity gospel? Paul says we do not preach ourselves, verse 5, but Christ Jesus the Lord. We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. Why did Paul have to say this? Well, if you look at 1 and 2 Corinthians, what you see is that the opponents of Paul, really the opponents of the gospel, but they singled out Paul and were attacking. The opponents of Paul were attacking the gospel by attacking him. And this is what happens when people don’t have an argument. What do I, [audio unclear] people would not listen to the [audio unclear] “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” And Paul says, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? In other words, people were comparing the leaders and saying, I like this one, I don’t like this one, they’re criticizing this one and praising this one. And Paul says, it’s not about us, it’s about Jesus. It’s about Jesus. Jesus was crucified for you. You’re baptized in the name of Jesus. It’s about Jesus. And then he goes on and says in chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians, “Let a man so consider us,” verse 1, “as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord.” He’s saying I don’t really care if you’re going to judge me, you’re going to judge me, because God is my judge. Amen. God is the one who reveals the secrets of the heart. God knows what goes on in darkness. God is aware of everything. So God is the one who’s going to judge. And then he says in verse 9, “For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death.” Now, what’s so striking about this is you have to remember, Paul is writing this because he’s being criticized. So in other words, here’s my defense of the bad opinions about me. Here’s my, this is what he’s saying, here’s my defense. “For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death. For we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.” As we would say today, Paul was getting a lot of bad press. And so his defense wasn’t to boast. It was to show them everything that he had endured for the sake of Christ and Christ’s gospel and that this was actually in God’s plan. And so there’s many, many texts in 1 and 2 Corinthians as well as elsewhere where Paul, you see that Paul is responding to personal attacks. It has gotten so silly that in 2 Corinthians, if you go back there where we started, in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul says this in verse 12, he says, “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.” Then he goes on and he describes how he was planning to come and visit them, but then there was a change in his plans and he didn’t come at the time that he was planning. And so his enemies used that against him. Say, look at Paul, he’s so carnal. He changed his mind. I mean, that’s how trivial the attacks have gotten on Paul. Anything would do to undermine Paul. Anything would do to attack Paul because they couldn’t refute the gospel. They couldn’t refute the truth. So they had to go after the messenger. Very common method. Amen. People go after the messenger because they can’t refute the message. And so what does Paul say? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, we’re not preaching ourselves. So you could, Paul’s saying, you can criticize me and you can attack me, but I’m not preaching me. I’m preaching Jesus. It’s not about me, Paul says. It’s about Jesus. Amen? So although they’re trying to discredit the gospel by attacking Paul, Paul turns around and says, you’re missing the point. You’re trying to make this about me. It’s not about me. It’s about Jesus Christ. He’s the Savior, not man. You weren’t baptized in the name of Paul, you’re baptized in the name of Jesus, amen. Paul wasn’t crucified for you, Jesus was crucified for you. It’s about Jesus. That’s what it’s about. And it’s still about Jesus, amen. It’s about Jesus.
The Christianity Inoculation
I’ve noticed two phenomenons happening, and I’m certainly not a prophet, and I’m not a social scientist, but I try to stay aware of things that are happening as best I can. And I’ve noticed two phenomenons which on the surface might appear unrelated. But I think there’s a connection. One is this. I saw this blog by a social commentator that I watch and he’s actually an atheist, but he’s got some good insights on stuff so I’ll watch it. And he tells his story about the softening of his atheism and how he’s, yeah I’m still an atheist, but I’m not an angry atheist. We all go through the angry atheist phase, and actually I went through that phase, the angry atheist. But what was interesting is he never, and this is probably a 10 or 15 minute thing, he never mentioned Jesus, but he mentioned Christianity over and over and over and over. You hear me? He mentioned Christianity, he mentioned going to church because his niece had some ceremony that he was invited to and he’s like I don’t really believe in all this hooey but I went anyway. But he never mentioned Jesus. So here’s a guy that’s rejecting Christianity, right? He’s rejecting Christianity. Well, if you read between the lines of what he was saying, you can figure out what kind of religion, what kind of Christianity he was raised in. Okay? And I was raised in the same kind. And it made an atheist out of me too. And that’s often what Christianity does. It prepares people to be atheists. It’s a scary thought, isn’t it? But it’s true. I’ve met so many ex-Catholics who are atheists. I’ve met ex-Lutherans who are atheists, ex-Baptists who are atheists. So this is the other phenomenon we’re seeing. More and more we’re seeing now that we’re into our second or third generation of the homeschooling movement, now we’re seeing these young, millennials say, yeah, I was homeschooled and it’s insanity. I don’t believe any of that. I was raised to not have sex till marriage and I think that’s a harmful teaching. I was taught to be modest and I think this is bad. And so you see all of these younger people who are raised in the church, who were taught Christianity, basically rejecting it all. See that phenomenon anywhere? A lot of it. But the thing that has in common with the angry atheist, or should I call him the mellowing atheist, is that they talk about Christianity a lot. They talk about church, but they’re not talking about Jesus. They’re not talking about Jesus. So what does that have to do with us? Well, we’re ambassadors of the gospel, amen. Can I get an amen on that? Thank you. Just as Paul was, we are ambassadors of the gospel. We are not ambassadors for Christianity. We are not to preach Christianity. That is not what we are called to do. We are not called to defend Christianity. If you look at the history of Christianity, Christianity has done some wonderful things. A lot of great things have developed in Western culture because of Christianity, but you know what? There’s a lot of bad things too. And a lot of times when you’re trying to share Jesus with people, they can’t get to Jesus because of Christianity. Well, what about the Crusades? And what about the Inquisition? And what about this? And what about that? And what about segregation in the American church? What about, Christianity is an obstacle to Jesus. I had that problem when I came to Jesus. Now the thing about Christianity in people’s minds, a lot of times it’s about, you know, an inch deep and a mile wide, right? What they really know is very little and what they know is usually the bad stuff. Right? So let’s be honest about it. The media is not fair. The typical non-Christian, if they hear about Christianity, it’s usually something negative. Evangelicals want to take over the world and impose a theocracy. You know, headlines like that. Nevertheless, for every stereotype, there’s always a little bit of truth. It doesn’t grow out of nothing. It grows out of something. And so institutional Christianity has a really spotty record. A lot of great things, a lot of not so great things. But we are ambassadors of Jesus. That means we don’t preach our brand of evangelicalism. We don’t preach Christianity. We don’t preach homeschooling. We preach Jesus. Amen. That’s what the message is. It’s the Jesus gospel, not the Christianity gospel. Jesus.
So when we talk about Christianity, our Christianity can be a, well, yeah, I’ll say that first. No, I won’t say that first. I’ll say this first. So you know what an inoculation is? I was at the farm, it’s not too long. Hey, did you get the flu shot? I said no, because I don’t want to get the flu. I might get, I’ll get the inoculation, I’ll actually get the flu. It’s like no you won’t get the flu. And so the way inoculation works you get a little bit, right? You just get a little bit in the body, but it causes your body to do what? Say it again. The nurse in the room says he creates antibodies. Yeah, and what do the antibodies do? They fight against the real thing. It fights against the real thing. You get a little bit, but not the real thing. And then it fights against the real thing. So what happens is the reason we’re seeing these people saying, yeah, I was raised in church, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, it’s all garbage now, and I was raised with all garbage. The problem is many of them, I can’t say all, because I don’t know people’s hearts, but I have a theory, and the theory is what’s happened is they’ve been inoculated with a little bit, and that inoculation actually has caused them to reject the real thing. And they’ve confused believing in Christianity or accepting Christianity with actually embracing Jesus Christ personally. And there’s a world of difference, a world of difference. Christianity can be a creed, a set of doctrinal statements that people believe in, but it can be a dead orthodoxy, dead. It is a finely dressed cadaver. It looks beautiful on paper, but it is devoid of life. I’m probably going to look better in my casket than I do right now. Let’s just say the truth. All right. Let’s just, let’s just get it all out there. But there won’t be any life there. It’ll just be the corpse, right? And we can have nice creeds and doctrinal statements and handbooks and we can have a paper church and it looks great on paper, but it’s dead. It’s dead. Some people think of Christianity as morality, and this is one of the, I think one of the main problems with many young people who’ve grown up in the church, is what they’re rejecting is, they’re rejecting morality, because they were raised in an environment in which Christianity to them was yes or no, yes or no and mainly no. Do the right thing, don’t do the bad thing. Avoid this, avoid this, avoid this and avoid this and you’ll be a good Christian. For some people, Christianity is a religion, meaning some people actually like religion. Now, I grew up in a religion which made me hate religion. All right, what I mean by religion is the liturgies and the robes and the candles and, you know, the decorations and the stained glass and everything that was associated with religion, some people like that because there’s an aesthetic appeal to it. All right. Now, many, many, many, many years later now that I’m not part of it, I can understand actually some of the aesthetic appeal of it. I get that. And in itself, it isn’t wrong. The problem is it becomes a substitute for the real thing. So people, I’ve heard even atheists and agnostics say, well occasionally I go to church just to kind of sit there and feel the environment. You know, like I like the stained glass and the organ music and it just provides some kind of psychological peace. Well, in and of itself it’s not bad. The problem is that that’s not the same as meeting Jesus. Right? Not the same. And so many of those rejecting the faith, whether they’re just the out-and-out atheists or the backslidden or the apostate evangelical, they’re rejecting religion. And I might even say more power to you for rejecting religion. But the question is for them, I would say the question is for them, is do you know Jesus? Have you ever met Jesus?
A Jesus Gospel
Now I’ve been in ministry a long time. I don’t know how many years, I can’t count anymore. Long time. And I’ve seen the dark side of the church. It’s like Pink Floyd, the dark side of the moon. You should listen to that album sometime. You know, the side that nobody can really see. The dark side. And yes, it’s pretty dark. And if anybody has a reason to reject Christianity, it’s probably pastors. Because they see the worst in the church. I mean, I really wish I could go back to those days when I was first saved and I go to church and I just assumed everybody was doing great. You know what I mean? Everybody’s doing awesome, man. Praise the Lord. They’re praising the Lord. Man, nobody’s got problems. Nobody’s struggling. Nobody’s sinned. We’re all good. Everything’s good. Okay, well then, you know, the veil opens up and you see the dark side like, oh my gosh. People are really that fallen. Can people really be that evil while they’re professing Jesus? Yes, they can. But I know Jesus. I know Jesus. And there’s a lot about American evangelicalism which I actually think is condemnatory. But Jesus is not. Jesus is praiseworthy. Amen. Jesus is praise—now you know we’re fallen so what we do is we take Jesus and we start wrapping Him up in different ways, you know. We wrap Him up and make Him a guru and make Him this and make Him a latte-sipping homosexual. We do all kinds of things with Jesus. I mean a million Jesuses out there. Right? Got the American-flag Jesus. I mean all kinds of Jesuses. That’s our fallenness working its way out. But when you meet the Jesus of the Bible, this is what I tell people when I try to share Christ, like just read the Gospels, just read them a few times. Just read the words of Jesus. Look at what Jesus did, how He acted, what He said. Look at Jesus. So there might be much to blame in a church regardless of its denomination. Jesus is blameless and we love and we serve and we adore and we witness for Jesus. We have a Jesus gospel, not a church gospel, not a Christianity gospel. If your faith is a creed only, brother, you might miss heaven by 18 inches. I’m telling you. You know, a lot of people believe in Christianity and say that they like the idea that God’s there and, you know, they’re going to be forgiven. It’s just like, it gives them an intellectual structure. And it provides some sort of psychological security because of that. But they don’t know Jesus Christ. Other people, as I said, ritual, [audio unclear] of that. When you read Paul, it’s amazing how in one sentence he can say the word Jesus ten times. No, I’m serious. It’s either Jesus, our Lord, Christ Jesus. I mean it’s like Jesus was so interwoven to everything he thought about. But what we often do is we take things and we separate it from Jesus. Okay, let’s talk about how to be a good parent and we don’t mention Jesus. Well that’s not going to work. It’s not going to work. I’m just FYI. I was talking to a brother recently, he was asking me, so you know your kids are older and they should be doing okay, so you know what would you do? I won’t say that joke. Anyway, I said you know, I don’t know what, I don’t really remember exactly what I shared, but I’m not sure it was actually very helpful. But I thought about that conversation later, and the more I thought about it, here’s the question that every parent should be asking. Number one, do I love Jesus Christ? I’m talking parent, just parent. Do I love Jesus Christ? I mean, really. We sing these songs, you know, love You more than anything, You’re my vision, I don’t think about anything else. I know we say that. But do I really love Jesus Christ? And if you can say yes to that, then the only other question you have to answer is this. Do your kids know that? If you love Jesus, and I mean love Jesus Christ, not love Christianity, not love church, if you love Jesus Christ and your children know that you love Jesus Christ, I’m going to tell you, you’ve got a good chance of your kids following Jesus Christ. But if you’re just doing church, and even if you’re a good church person and there’s no relationship that you have with Christ and they don’t see you love Jesus, well you’re diminishing your odds radically. Because what they’re seeing, whether rightly or wrongly, what happens is they’re seeing Christianity. They’re seeing religion. They need to see what it looks like for a person to know and love Jesus Christ. That’s what they need to see. Now I’m not saying there aren’t a lot of other things that parents have to do, but this isn’t a parenting sermon. Okay? My point is that we can get so focused on the secondary things that we forget the major thing. Right? We get so concerned with the techniques and the details and the structure of things, we forget the main thing. You know how many times I’ve said to people, and it’s in a variety of different contexts, so are your parents saved? You know how many times people have said to me, well, they go to church. I mean, that answer is so common. And I remember hearing that when I was a younger Christian and I thought, oh my gosh, what if when I’m older and my kids are older, maybe I’m already dead and gone, my kids are going to a church and they want to be a member there and the pastor’s saying, so tell me, are you from a Christian family? Were your parents saved? What would they say? Thank you. But I ask myself, would they say, well, they went to church. That’s not good enough, folks. That’s not good. That’s not how you pass on the faith, to go to church, and I’m not saying you don’t take your kids to church. I think the kind of church you go to is very important. The church doesn’t save you, but I can assure you the church can damn you. I’ve seen a lot of people get in bad churches and I’ve seen them. Boom, down. Their kids, down. It really matters, the community you’re in. It matters, the kind of fellowship you’re surrounded with. But the church doesn’t, for Paul, Christianity was inseparable from Jesus. Matter of fact, the way we think of Christianity was probably foreign to Paul’s mindset. For Paul, the purpose of his life was Jesus.
We’ll look at a couple more Scriptures then we’re going to close. You can go to Philippians. You all know the verses I’m going to read because we’ve heard them many times. In Philippians 1, Paul is imprisoned and he’s saying I’m in prison but God is using that. There are people that are preaching Christ. Some don’t have good motives. Some do, but I’m glad Jesus Christ is being preached. And it says in verse, well, I’ll just start in verse 19, New King James, 1:19, “For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” Paul is saying, I’m in prison. There is a chance that I will be executed, I don’t know. But what he’s saying is my preference would be to go to heaven. Amen? I want to go see Jesus. That’s what he said. I want to go see Jesus. But if God wants me to stay, I’ll stay and God will be magnified by me staying. He’ll be magnified in my body if I live. He’ll be magnified in my body if I die. This was Paul’s desire and Paul’s passion. For Paul, Christianity was about Jesus Christ. That’s why he says in chapter 3 verse 7, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” [audio unclear] I have Jesus, he says, and therefore not only have I counted it lost in the past, I count it lost now at the present moment. It’s okay that it’s gone because I have Jesus. “That I may gain Christ,” gain Christ, not gain religion, not gain Christianity, not gain a creed, but to gain Christ “and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” I want to know Jesus in the good, I want to know Jesus in the bad, I want to know Jesus in the highs, Jesus in the lows, I want to know Jesus. Amen? Do you want to know Jesus? For Paul, Jesus Christ was the essence of what we mean by Christianity. He wanted to live for Christ, he was willing to die for Christ. Paul’s religion was not about a cause, it was about a Christ. For Paul, Jesus was the author and finisher of his salvation. He was the captain of his salvation. He was the Lamb of God, the bread of life, the Alpha and Omega, the all in all. Not a small part. He was the beginning, the middle, and the end. Paul’s passion for the gospel, his passion for God’s people, were all wrapped up in the fact that Paul loved Jesus. He loved Jesus. Christianity is not about church. It’s not about the creed. It’s not about the morality. It’s about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ as Lord. That is who we preach. Amen.
Let’s stand together. Lord Jesus, words are not sufficient. [audio unclear] Words are just not sufficient. And I know that my words today are wholly inadequate to convey the centrality that You ought to have in our lives. I pray, Lord, that we as Your people would be true Christ-lovers, Christ-followers. I pray, Lord, that we would get our priorities right and that You would be the first, You would be the beginning, You would be the middle and You’d be the end, the Alpha and the Omega. I pray, Lord, that as we share our faith, it would be our faith in You, our love for You. That we would not be, people would not hear us preaching religion, they would hear us talking about someone that we know and love. And I pray for, I believe that many here know You, Lord, I pray for those that know You. I pray, Lord, for a deeper, deeper level of love for You. And I pray that that love would overflow to others. I pray that others would see that love for You, that that love would motivate them to share the gospel with others, the gospel of Jesus. And Lord, if there’s any here that have been inoculated, I ask, God, that You would save them. Save them, Lord, from that pathogen or that virus. Save them, God, and help them embrace the truth. And Lord, if we have in any way been a stumbling block, we ask You to forgive us, by our religiousness at times, our morality, our self-righteousness, forgive us, Lord, and I pray that they would look at Jesus. We are all flawed followers, but Jesus, You are a perfect Savior. I pray, Lord, that You’d open their eyes to see You. Not to see us, but to see You. [audio unclear]