Living Witnesses (2 Corinthians 3:4-9)

A little over a week ago there was that tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minnesota. The victims were in a church praying.

Immediately there were many statements about the identity of the shooter … most of which were wrong.

As usual … there were many calling for prayer for the families and victims and the response to this call to prayer … by some … was atrocious … to say the least.

Basically these people were saying that prayer was useless … after all the victims were in a church praying when they were shot.  

And … of course … they said we needed more gun control … like that would have stopped the shooter.  

In fact we have learned … that the shooter specifically choose the school because he knew it would be a soft target … with no one there to defend them.

Now, I don’t want to get into the mental stability … or the lack thereof of the shooter … or the subject of gun control … which is really just control …

… but rather the clear insults to people of faith … those of us who believe that prayer is an important part of our lives.

As people of faith we are always open to the criticism of the unbeliever — we can say that it goes with the territory.

If you are living a Christian life … following the path that God has revealed in the Scriptures … the best you can … you will … at some time … receive criticism … and maybe even persecution.

After all, Jesus told his followers … ““If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.””

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says: ““Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.””

Bottom line … we know that as Christians … who believe that Jesus died in our place for our sins … and that if we identify ourselves as Christians … we can expect people to say all kinds of things about us and against us.

In our Epistle lesson from 2 Corinthians the Apostle Paul … in addressing the Christians at Corinth tells them … and us … that they are ministers of the New Covenant … and as such they are living witnesses … witnesses to the grace of God!

During Paul’s day, Corinth was the most important city in Greece. It was the hub of worldwide commerce … but it was also a city that was very idolatrous and extremely immoral … in fact there was a word to describe their immorality … to corinthianize.

Really … total depravity was alive and well in Corinth.

It was out of this extremely pagan society that Paul founded a church — that is, he preached the gospel and people responded to it — which you can read about in Acts 18.

This church … being defined as those people who had come to faith in Christ as Savior and Lord … then adopted a lifestyle more consistent with their new Christian faith.

In other words … they didn’t continue to live in their previous depravity and idiolatry … their lives had been changed … for the most part.

They were doing what Paul said to the Christians at Ephesus:

““This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles (non-Christians) walk, in the futility of their mind, … But you have not so learned Christ,  if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.””

… putting off the old man … and putting on the new man in Christ … a theme consistent with the Apostle Paul … and what the Christians in Corinth had done.

By putting off the old man you will then become … living witnesses … ministers of the new covenant.

What was the Old Covenant … it was the series of laws and sacrifices that God had given Moses … and it was as we read in verse 7: ““engraved on stones …””

The people were to obey this law … in it’s entirety … and then they were to offer sacrifices so that they could have forgiveness of their sins when they didn’t obey the law.

But we see a couple of things … no one could keep the law perfectly … except of course … the Lord Jesus Christ.

As James tells us … ““For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.””

We also know … as we compare Scripture with Scripture … that all of the Old Testament sacrifices looked forward to the one final and perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary.

However …  we know … as we read … this Old Covenant … given by God … was glorious in it’s own right … even though it could not lead to life … eternal life.

Jesus said: “““Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”” 

And … as we know … it was fulfilled in Christ.

So … what did the law do?

As we read in Romans 3 … the law gives us knowledge of sin.

““Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.””

As we gather here for worship we are those who know that we are sinners … we know that all of us have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.

At the same time … at some point in our lives we acknowledged that sin … and we trusted … we believed … that Jesus died in our place for our sins.

In his first letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul says:

““For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.””

Again … ““ … it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.””

We believe what God has revealed in His Word — the Bible.

We believe the simple truths of the Gospel … as Paul says also in 1 Corinthians 15:

““For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,.””

We believe the other things from the Scriptures … such as those truths that we confess each week in our Creed! … the Virgin birth … the crucifixion … the burial … the resurrection … and his coming again.

We believe and confess these truths each week.

And along with all that we believe … is the privilege that we have of prayer.

We read in Hebrews 4:16: ““Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.””

What a privilege we have … through the Lord Jesus Christ we can boldly approach the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. — WOW.

But this is the privilege that only those who believe in Christ as Savior and Lord have.

However, those people who criticized us who believe in prayer … were only do what comes natural to them.

Why? Simple …  Because they don’t have the Holy Spirit!

Aside from believing that Jesus died in our place for our sins … as a result of our faith … of our salvation … we have the Holy Spirit … and that separates us from those who do not believe.

And that is why … as we read: ““For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing …””

Paul emphasizes this truth by saying: ““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.””

This is why … as living witnesses … people criticize those who believe … because they don’t have the Spirit of God.

I would be remiss if I didn’t add what Paul puts forth in the previous chapter of our Epistle lesson … where he says:

““Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?””

You have heard me say this before … and as I get older I find it more and more true … to the unbeliever we are the aroma of their death … their spiritual death.  

““For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, …””

You want to know why people criticize those who believe … here it is.

You want to know why there is persecution … here it is.

You want to know why people are offended by the cross … here it is!

As I said … it goes with the territory.

We know that God has called us out darkness into the light of His salvation … 

… we know that it is only by the grace of God that we believe that Jesus died in our place for our sin …

… we know that we are now alive in Christ … that we have been born again!

… and because of this … we need to be eternally thankful … thankful for our salvation … 

… because … as we read … ““ … it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.””

God has done it … as the familiar words of Ephesians 2:8 says: ““ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,””

It is for this reason that we need to be in prayer for those in our family … friends … neighbors … co-workers … that do NOT know Christ as Savior and Lord … that God would bestow His grace on them also … and give them the gift of life … eternal life through Jesus Christ … the only way of salvation.