A Ministry Like Paul’s

Introduction

Probably like many of you, I am on Facebook, but not really. I’m mostly just a stalker on Facebook. I don’t post a whole lot. I don’t take pictures of every meal that I eat and all of the exotic places that I don’t go to. I used to do more posting on Facebook. I don’t really know why I don’t post as much as I used to. I used to post different things. Probably not a big surprise to most of you. What I used to post was mostly humorous jokes kind of thing. For a while, several years ago, I had a running weekly series of jokes that were entitled You Might Be a Preacher If. They were based kind of on the Jeff Foxworthy, you might be a redneck, remember those jokes.

And so I came up with my own, you might be a preacher if jokes. And so once a week I would post something that you might be a preacher. Here’s two of my favorites. One was you might be a preacher if you’ve ever received an anonymous U-Haul gift certificate. We’ve got to think about that one for a minute. Another one was you might be a preacher, is if you’ve ever secretly wish that after a particularly good stirring sermon, the congregation would douse you with Gatorade. And that’s never happened.

It’s just it’s just different. People view you differently. People always kind of have a weird expression on their face when they find out you’re a preacher. And usually one of two things happen. Number one is they feel like they have to defend themselves. They’ll talk about their spiritual life or where they go to church, as if I’m some kind of judge or arbiter of their spiritual condition. And the other is they want to ask some kind of spiritual or biblical off-the-wall question. Like I’m some kind of scholar and I have all the answers. The funniest one was years ago in a McDonald’s after a gospel meeting. I was preaching in that gospel meeting and I was dressed like this in my preacher uniform, and some random guy walked up to me and said, Are you a preacher?

And I paused for a little while, and I thought, well, I’ve got to be honest. And so I said yes. And he cornered me in that McDonald’s and talked what felt like 45 minutes about UFOs, and whether that was biblical or not. And so it’s just kind of weird being a preacher and the way people view you and deal with you. Another weird thing about it is you don’t really know what to call yourself. There are terms in the Bible uses. Preacher is one of them. Evangelist is another, and minister is a term that’s often used. By the way, the term that I’m probably in the world most often called is not a biblical at all. A lot of people call me pastor, and that’s really not a term that refers to preachers or evangelists or ministers.

That’s a term that refers to elders or bishops in a local church. This morning I’d like to talk about one of those terms that we sometimes see in scripture that may be a little bit misunderstood and maybe a little bit misapplied. And that’s the idea of minister or ministry. Ron read in our Bible reading from 2 Corinthians chapter 4. In fact, you might go ahead and turn in your Bibles to that text, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We’re going to spend our entire time in 1st and 2 Corinthians, as Paul will talk about his role as a minister and his ministry when he said there, as Ron read for us in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1, therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.

Now, Paul is talking about his role as an evangelist, maybe more specifically, his role as an apostle. That was his ministry. Now, where maybe that is misunderstood is that we stop there. And we say that since Paul was a preacher of the gospel, that was his ministry. That’s the sum total of Christian ministry. And that’s the sum total of Christian ministers or those who declare the gospel either in a pulpit or on a street corner and a kitchen table somewhere.

The term minister simply means a servant. And ministry is simply a service, maybe a good working definition of the biblical word ministry is a service offered to God and to others in God’s name. And so one thing, if you get nothing else out of this morning’s lesson, understand this that if you’re a Christian, a fully engaged New Testament Christian, that you’re a minister, and that you have a ministry. That is, you have a service to perform. You have a service to offer to God and a service to offer to others in the name of God. We’re all ministers, and we all have a ministry. And so, what I’d like for us to do in our lesson this morning is to talk about Paul’s ministry and how he viewed his ministry and then apply that to us.

Whatever your ministry might be, whether it be standing in a pulpit on a street corner or a kitchen table declaring the gospel or whatever form it might take. You have a ministry. You are a minister. And I believe that Paul is a wonderful example of the type of minister that you ought to be. That Paul’s a tremendous example in teaching us how you should approach your ministry. And so we’re going to use three words that describe how Paul will talk about his approach to his ministry that should be the your approach to your ministry. And so let’s see if we can work at having a ministry like Paul’s. And again, I’m not talking about going on missionary journeys all over the world preaching the gospel. That might be your ministry.

1. Paul’s Ministry Was Prioritized

But your ministry might be close at home and might never involve preaching the gospel. But you have a ministry nonetheless. And I hope your ministry can be described by these three words. Paul’s ministry can be described as being prioritized. Look with me in 2 Corinthians. Excuse me, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul in both 1 and 2 Corinthians is going to talk about his ministry a lot, really defend his ministry against accusations that Paul, number one, really wasn’t an apostle, and that he was a false teacher. And so Paul has to defend his ministry. And so he’s going to talk about his approach in his ministry. And one thing he wants those Corinthians and us today to know is that he prioritized his ministry.

And you and I should as well. Notice what he says. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1. And I, brethren, I, brethren, when I came to you, excellence of speech or of wisdom, declared testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul says, When I came to Corinth, I didn’t come with excellence of speech. I came with fear and trembling. So many people have misunderstood what Paul is trying to say there.

In fact, many scholars have misunderstood. I was reading one commentary that talked about this passage of scripture of Paul coming not with excellence of speech and with fear and with trembling, that even came to the conclusion, as ridiculous as I think it is, that Paul had some kind of speech impediment that hampered his ability to do public speaking. In fact, how’s this for connecting dots? That this so called scholar even said that was probably Paul’s thorn in the flesh, that he had some kind of stutter or speech impediment that made him a poor public speaker, and that Paul was really kind of apologizing to Corinthians for just not being a good preacher and not a good public speaker. That’s missed the point completely. It’s not what Paul is saying.

Paul is not apologizing for his lack of ability to communicate God’s word. And I think we can prove that in two ways. Hold your finger here in 1 Corinthians 2. We’re going to come back and look over in Acts chapter 14. In Acts chapter 14, Paul is in the Galatian area. He and Barnabas are preaching the gospel. And something, a tragedy happens here. And it says in Acts chapter 14, verse 11, when the people that saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lyconian language, the gods, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. And Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. These idol worshiping people had seen Paul perform a miracle and had seen Barnabas and the things that they had done, and had incorrectly concluded that Paul and Barnabas were these mythological gods who had come down.

And they had called Barnabas Zeus. Now, if you’ve studied this kind of Greek and Roman mythology when you were in high school or college, you may remember Zeus was kind of the chief God. He was supposedly the top one. And so some have led to the conclusion that maybe Barnabas was a big guy. Because Zeus would have been the biggest of them. And so they called Barnabas Zeus, because maybe Barnabas was bigger than Paul. But that’s not the main point. The main point is that Paul, these people who were well versed in these so-called Greek mythological gods, they called Paul Hermes or Mercury because he was the chief speaker. Mercury was the messenger God, the God of public speakers. Now, do you think these people who worshiped ignorantly worship these false gods that they would have called Paul the God, the messenger God, if God Paul was a bad public speaker and spoke with some kind of speech impediment?

I don’t think so. I think I come to the conclusion that Paul was probably good at speaking. And that’s why they incorrectly called him a god, a messenger God. But another proof is back in our text. Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul’s not apologizing for his inability to effectively communicate God’s word.

This is key. For I determined, I determined, he says. And he says, he determined that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul says, I came to you intentionally without power of public speaking. Because I didn’t want the focus to be about me. I wanted it to be about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I didn’t want to leave Corinth and you say, Wow, that Paul. Isn’t he something? I wanted to leave Corinth and you say, Wow, Jesus Christ.

As you see how his ministry was prioritized, that to Paul, Jesus Christ and His gospel was everything. And so Paul said, Don’t make it about me. Make it about him. And so let’s translate that. Let’s talk about just preachers. That puts a responsibility really to both speaker and audience in this regard. I think the speaker has to be very careful to not make his presentation about him. Not about him. It’s about the message. Every conscientious, effective preacher of the gospel should set it as his goal that when people leave a service, that they don’t go, wow, he’s a great speaker. They go, that was a good message. Anything is said complimentary. Or I learned something about the Word of God today. Let’s illustrate it this way.

Several, several years ago. I can remember I was at a place where they had a started saying impersonator. That’s not really the right word. Recreator, maybe is the word. Somebody came out and was dressed like Thomas Jefferson. Dressed, period thing, had the kind of the powdered wig on and the garb of the revolution and talked about Thomas Jefferson as if he was Thomas Jefferson. And this person knew everything there was to know about Thomas Jefferson. He spoke some speeches that Thomas Jefferson had written and given, and the audience asked questions, and he told things about Thomas Jefferson and did all of those kind of things.

But as far as a statesman and a politician and a writer, brilliant man.

That dressed as Thomas Jefferson and told us about Thomas Jefferson. I thought, I have no idea. Because he just came out and said, I’m Thomas Jefferson. He didn’t tell us who his who he was and where he was from. And I thought he must have been a historian. Maybe he has a degree. He went to college and got a degree in history, but he didn’t talk about that. I don’t know where he went to college, even if he went to college and what he studied. He didn’t talk anything about himself. So I went away knowing nothing about that man. But I went away knowing a lot about Thomas Jefferson. I’m going to tell you that guy did a great job. Now he did a pitiful job promoting himself.

Because if I wanted to hire a Thomas Jefferson personator, I wouldn’t be able to find that guy if my life depended on him. But that wasn’t the point. The point was I want to teach these people about Thomas Jefferson, not myself. And every preacher of the gospel and every minister of the gospel should remember that. That also puts on us a responsibility upon the audience. What demands do we make of a presenter of the gospel? Do we want a flowery presentation, something that’s slick and polished? Or do we recognize that if that person gets up dry as dust, but preaches the word of God, that they did their job, that they taught the truth of God’s word, their mission was accomplished, and we should be praising God for that.

2. His Ministry and Ours Is Triumphant

Do we understand that in our role as a minister, that our job is to do what Paul said he did, I’m hiding behind the cross of Christ, because it’s all about him. The second word that Paul used about his ministry that I hope that we can use about ours is he understood what we need to understand, and that his ministry and ours is triumphant. Would you look with me in 2 Corinthians this time? 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Recently in the auditorium, last quarter, in fact, we studied from the book of Acts, and we made the observation, you may remember if you were in that study from the book of Acts, that almost every good story is followed by a bad story. You have a story of somebody being stoned for preaching the gospel, but the very next story is about hundreds, if not thousands of people obeying the gospel.

And maybe that’s the point, that the gospel is going to have that reaction, good and bad. But Paul is going to say, regardless of the response, we are triumphant in Christ Jesus. We have to realign our thinking. Notice how he puts it, how poetically he puts it. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12, he says, Furthermore, when I came to Troaz to preach Christ’s gospel, a door. Let’s pause there. This connects us to our last point. Christ’s gospel, not my gospel. Christ’s gospel. A door was opened to me by the Lord, and I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find Titus, my brother. But taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia. Now thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God, who always, always, 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? Paul says, as a preacher of the gospel, as a minister, our job is just to diffuse the fragrance of Christ. And he says that’s a sweet smell in the nostrils of those who hear it, believe it, obey it, and are saved by it. But it’s the stench of death to those who reject it.

It’s possible. But it illustrates it nonetheless. That in ancient times, when a village or a country would go to war against a neighboring village and country, they would send their men off to war. And if they were victorious in that battle or in that war, they would come back from that battle, and they would come back with the spoils of war. And sometimes the spoils of war in those days would be slaves. And so here they would come back, the victors in the front of this parade. And in the back of the parade, in chains, sometimes in hooks in their mouth, would be the slaves. And the occupants of that village or that town or of that country would welcome their heroes. And they would welcome them much the way we welcome heroes today.

They would line the streets.

And they would stroll the streets with whatever flowers were in bloom in that season. And the author said that those soldiers who had been victorious in that battle, that strong odor of incense and flower as they came back home would have smelled like victory as they were being welcomed back home as victors. But that exact same scent of that incense and those flowers to those captive slaves who had lost that battle would have been the stench of death and defeat. The exact same aroma, the exact same scent, but a very different response. But Paul says, Christ always leads us in triumph. If you’re living the Christian life, if you’re engaged in your service to Christ and to others in his name, you’re triumphant. Now, is everybody going to agree with that?

3. His Ministry Was a Resilient Ministry

And pat you on the back for that? No. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re victorious. And don’t ever forget, as a minister of God in Christ Jesus, that you’ve read the last chapter of the book, you know how this story ends, and you’re triumphant. You win. Because God and Christ Jesus win, and you’re on their side. It’s a triumphant ministry. And lastly, Paul wants us to know that his ministry was a resilient ministry. And so should ours be.

Since we have this ministry, Paul says, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. Because we’ve put first things first. This is Christ’s gospel. And we’re putting him first. And because we recognize that no matter what the world may view what we’re doing, and how popular or unpopular who we are and what we do might be, that we’re triumphant. And because we’re receiving the mercy of God, we don’t lose heart. Another way of saying that, in fact, your translation may translate it this way we don’t give up. We just don’t give up.

It doesn’t matter what the vicissitudes of life, it doesn’t matter what lousy circumstances might fall upon us, it doesn’t matter what somebody else might do to us, we don’t give up, Paul says. And I would remind you, we don’t have time this morning to go back to chapter 6 and chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians, where Paul will go through a laundry list of all the stuff that he went through. It’s this same epistle that he talks about. I was shipwrecked this many times and imprisoned and stripes and stoned. Paul says, since we’ve had this ministry, we don’t lose heart.

Another way of saying that is Paul says, I’m willing to give up everything but this. In fact, isn’t that what he says? Start there again, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1. Therefore, since we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But, verse 2, but we have renounced the hidden things of shame. In other words, we don’t give this up, but we’ve given up that. We’ve renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, 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.

Turn back a page or two in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. And in verse 12, by saying it this way, for our boasting is this. Now recognize that throughout this letter, he’s using the term boasting kind of tongue in cheek. But our boasting is this the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity. Now I’m reading from the New King James. Your translation may read differently. But he says, we conducted ourselves in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God and more abundantly towards you. That’s the same thing, or really kind of the other side of the coin from what he said in 2 Corinthians 4 that we just read, not in craftiness or handling the word of God deceitfully.

Paul says, we lived our lives, we conducted ourselves in simplicity. Now let’s talk about that pardon the pun, that simple word for just a little bit. What does Paul mean? Simplicity. Two things that he doesn’t mean. He doesn’t mean that his message was simple. Although it might have been easy to understand, but that’s not what he’s saying. He also doesn’t mean simplicity in the sense that he lived a simple life.

Now that was probably true of Paul, but that’s not his point here. The word simplicity here is maybe best understood or defined by looking at its opposite.

And we all know people like that, don’t we? That if they do you a favor, you’re instantly worried. What are they up to? They want something. I’ve told you the story before about me getting mad at the public’s cashier. Can I tell you that story? Went to Publix to buy Deedra flowers because they have them on sale. Buy one, get one. And that’s all I bought was flowers. And so I put the flowers up on the cashier lane there, and the cashier scans them and says, What did you do? And that kind of made me mad. Because for once I hadn’t done anything, at least that I didn’t know it.

And I told her, I said, Can’t a husband just buy his wife flowers because he loves her. I’m not buying these flowers to get out of the doghouse. I’m not doing this because I did something wrong or said something wrong or forgot an anniversary or a birthday. It was a simple act. That’s Paul’s word simple here. I wasn’t trying to do that to cover up something or to grease the skids for something. No. Paul was saying another way of saying simplicity, Paul was saying, what you see is what you get. There was no trickery, what he said in chapter 4, verse 2. There’s no deceitfulness. No. Paul said we lived our lives in simplicity. We weren’t up to anything. There was no conniving or scheming. We were just preaching the gospel.

Conclusion

What you see is what you get. We gave up the hidden things of shame. We gave up worldly wisdom, worldly craftiness, and that’s the way we should conduct our Christian lives. The way we should conduct our ministry is just be genuine. Godly sincerity. Be who you are. And who you are, who you ought to be, is modeled in Christ Jesus. Because that’s the triumphant and prioritized life that should characterize our ministry as it characterized Paul. And so today, when you go out to lunch, somebody asks you, what do you do? And proudly say, I’m a minister. Now you might have to explain that. But it’s true. Because you have a ministry. You have a service to perform. And what better footsteps to walk in than the apostle Paul?

The only better footsteps I can think of are Jesus Christ, who said he didn’t come to be served, but to serve. May God help us to serve in godly sincerity and simplicity, knowing that if we put Christ and the cross first, that we are triumphant in all we do. Can we help you as you respond to this gospel message? Is there anything you need to do to put your life right with Jesus Christ this morning? Can we help you with that? Or in any way, let it be known as together we stand and as we sing.