Weak and weary

I'd like to leave your Bibles open there and bow your heads and we'll pray.

Gracious Father, we thank you for the privilege of being able to meet together now.

And as we look at the global task that you've given your church,

we pray that in our weakness and our weariness,

we might be filled with hope and expectation

of what you might do with us for one or two or hundreds or many more.

And so Father, fill us with the hope of your spirit and your purpose

to bring light in amongst the darkness.

And we ask it for your sake. Amen.

So how does it make you feel when you hear of things

like 2.8 billion people in the world have never heard of Jesus?

The modern missionary movement has done a lot and achieved much,

and yet there is still so much more to do.

How does it make you feel that 50 million people a year

slip into a Christless eternity?

That's it. 50 million people a year.

Is that enough to make you lose heart that the task just seems so big?

2.8 million, 50 million a year.

What can you do about that?

Forget about that.

Let's just look at something a bit smaller.

Look at the corporate vision of our church.

We are hoping under God to grow to 500 in attendance

by the end of next year.

That is people coming to know Jesus

through the ministry of the church.

Not 500 people coming from another church,

but people who have come to know Jesus

in our area and ministries of influence.

It's not 2.8 billion people,

but maybe it's still enough to make you lose heart.

We're talking a couple hundred people here,

something like that.

Maybe you've seen these church vision things

and they seem never achieve what we hope.

We always see maybe a bit of growth,

but nothing really spectacular.

And at the end of the day,

we walk away and say,

we didn't really get there.

Seen it again and again and again.

Forget that.

Forget 2.8 billion.

Forget a couple of hundred.

What about your neighbour and your family member

or your friend and your colleague

who you've been representing Jesus to?

And it appears that they are no clearer on Christ now

than what they were 12 months ago,

10 years ago, 25 years ago,

for some people, 50 years ago.

Is that enough to make you feel weary and weak,

wondering what God is doing in this world?

Why bother keep speaking about Jesus

and his lordship

and the need to repent and to follow him

why bother praying

because I've done that

and it doesn't seem to work

and why bother giving to global mission

because there's still 2.8 million people out there

who need to know Christ?

It doesn't make you feel weary and weak

when you think of the global task

that God's given us.

Now let me tell you,

it does for me.

I think of the task of just seeing us as a church grow

so that there are pews that are filled

or soon-to-be seats filled

with people just coming to know Christ.

The great English preacher Charles Spurgeon

wrote a lecture to his ministry students

titled The Minister's Fainting Fits

and in it he describes the pressures

upon the Christian minister to lose heart

and he says this,

a bit of old language,

our work when earnestly undertaken

lays us open to attacks

in the direction of depression.

Who can bear the weight of souls

without sometimes sinking to the dust?

Passionate longings after people's conversion,

if not fully satisfied

and when are they fully satisfied,

consume the soul with anxiety and disappointment.

The kingdom comes not as we would.

The reverent name of Jesus

is not hallowed as we desire

and for this we must weep.

How can we be otherwise than sorrowful

while men believe not our report

and the divine arm is not revealed?

All mental work tends to weary and to depress

for much study is a weariness of the flesh,

but ours is more than mental work,

it is heart work.

The labour of our inmost soul,

such soul travail as that of a faithful minister

will bring on occasion seasons of exhaustion

when heart and flesh will fail.

I think Spurgeon's words there

will find sympathetic agreement

with any heart acquainted with Christian ministry and mission.

I'm not just talking about those involved in vocational ministry,

which is what Spurgeon was talking about there.

I'm talking about anyone involved in Christian ministry

and ministry mission in any form.

The community group leader who has taught and pastored

and exhorted people to follow Christ

for months and for years

without any apparent fruit that comes from that.

The disciple who has represented the Lord Jesus

to their friends and their family members

and their colleagues at McDonald's

and without any apparent response whatsoever.

Weak, weary, sceptical, tired, loss of confidence.

They're the feelings which bubble away there

at the depths of the heart,

even if there is an exterior which is triumphant at times.

And I think that no one has ever experienced

more of what Spurgeon describes there

than the Apostle Paul.

As you look into 2 Corinthians,

you see it in 6 and you see it in chapter 11,

1 Corinthians 1 primarily,

a list of what you might call

deadly ministerial pressures

that were upon the Apostle Paul.

And it's astounding what he suffered

in the midst of this ministry that he's involved in.

And the list is capped off there in chapter 11,

verses 28 to 29,

with his concluding comment,

which is,

apart from the other things,

there is the daily pressure on me

of my anxiety for all the churches.

Who is weak and I am not weak?

Who is made to fall?

And I am not indignant.

And the question that I ask

when I look at the Apostle Paul,

when you look at his life,

you look at what he suffered,

what he gave up,

and the hardships and the attacks,

did he grow faint?

Did he lose heart

in the midst of all that difficulty?

And the answer that chapter 4 gives us

is no, he did not.

We do not lose heart,

is what he says.

He says it twice in chapter 4.

And so when the task of 2.8 million people

are in front of us,

when the task of Chatswood

and our friends and our family

are in front of us,

and it seems so huge,

and I am tempted

to lose heart in the face of that,

I need to listen

to a bloke like Paul

who suffered more

and did not lose heart.

And we need to do that too.

And he says here

in chapter 4, verse 1,

therefore since through God's mercy

we have this ministry,

we do not lose heart.

And I want to know

why he didn't lose heart.

And not more

why he didn't lose heart,

but what continued

to propel him forward

again and again

for God's global kingdom cause.

The first reason

I think he doesn't lose heart

is in those two words

in verse 1,

this ministry.

It says there,

therefore since through God's mercy

we have this ministry,

we do not lose heart.

And the ministry

that he's talking about there

is the ministry

of the new covenant

of the Spirit,

which he spent most

of chapter 3 talking about.

And especially

what he does there

in chapter 3,

he compares

the old covenant ministry

with the new covenant ministry

of the Spirit.

And in the old covenant ministry

he particularly hones in

on Moses

and Moses' ministry.

And the surprise

of chapter 3

is that this impressive

old covenant ministry

that Moses had,

and it was impressive,

you know,

you see Moses and God

talking face to face

as a man talks

to his friend,

that's impressive.

The mountain shakes,

the cloud descends,

there's fire

and there's lightning

and stuff like that

when God gives

the Ten Commandments

to his people

through Moses,

parting of the waters.

It's all

pretty impressive stuff

that Moses involved

in with his old covenant ministry.

And the surprise

of chapter 3 is

Paul says

it ain't a patch

on what

new covenant ministry is.

It doesn't even compare.

It's like getting a torch

and shining at the sun

and saying,

take that, son.

The brightness

is incomparable.

See what he says there?

Chapter 3, verse 9,

if you've got your Bibles open,

have a look at it.

If you don't,

open your Bibles

and have a look at it.

If this ministry

that condemns men

is glorious,

how much more glorious

is the ministry

that brings righteousness?

For what was glorious

has no glory now

in comparison

with this surpassing glory.

And then down

in verse 18,

and we who

with unveiled faces

all reflect

the Lord's glory

are being transformed

into his likeness

with ever increasing glory

which comes

from the Lord

who is the Spirit.

There's the comparison.

Notice the difference.

Old covenant ministry,

death,

new covenant life.

Old covenant ministry,

Exodus 33,

when Moses talked

with God,

he had to put a veil

over his face

because his face

was just beaming

with brightness.

Had to put a veil

over it

because it freaked out

all his mates.

And here it says

in new covenant ministry,

we all with unveiled faces

reflect the full glory

of God.

That's the difference.

Veiled glory,

full glory.

So that's the first reason

I think that Paul

doesn't lose heart.

In spite of how things

look on the outside,

and it looked like

Paul was pretty unimpressive,

and the ministry he had

was pretty unimpressive,

that's the whole argument

of Paul's opponents

in 2 Corinthians.

We're impressive,

super apostles,

Paul's false

because he gets rejected,

he gets beaten,

his speaking doesn't

amount to much,

he's not the real deal.

And what Paul says

is that regardless

of how it looks,

the ministry

that he's involved in,

new covenant ministry

of the Spirit

is a ministry

about life,

and it's so much

more impressive

than anything

that even Moses

did in the Old Testament.

There's another reason

in verse 1.

Therefore,

since through God's mercy

we have this ministry,

we do not lose heart.

And so the second reason

he doesn't lose heart

is that this ordinary

looking,

but glorious ministry

has been given to him

through God's mercy.

And so what is happening

here in 2 Corinthians 4,

particularly in these

early verses

of chapter 4,

is it's Paul's own story

being traced out.

You see,

he was an unbeliever,

he was blinded

to the glory of Christ,

he persecuted Christ,

and then on the Damascus road

Paul had seen the glory

of God in the face of Christ.

Paul was fully aware

that this glorious ministry

was given to him

at the moment of his conversion

on the road to Damascus

when he was knocked

to the ground

by the flash of light

of the glory of Christ.

His salvation

and his apostleship

were solely due

to God's mercy.

And so the combination

of this mercy

at his own conversion

and the astonishing glory

of this ministry

kept him from losing heart.

And not only did it not

cause him not to lose heart,

but in fact he was propelled

forward in this ministry.

So see it there in verse 2.

We have renounced secret

and shameful ways.

We do not use distortion,

nor do we,

we do not use deception,

nor do we distort

the word of God.

On the contrary,

by sending forth

the truth plainly,

we commend ourselves

to every man's conscience

in the sight of God.

And so what it says here

is that

in the face of temptation,

Paul rejected all cunning,

all manipulation,

trickery,

nor did he tamper

with the word of God,

nor did he falsify it,

distort it,

confuse it,

water it down.

Instead,

what he does here,

he embraces openness

and candor

and forthrightness

and clarity

about the glory

of the gospel

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no vague meaning.

There is no confusing language

coming out of Paul's mouth.

There is no ambivalence

about where he stood

or what he meant.

He imparted the truth

without deviation.

That's what it means.

Without distortion means

he went straight

with the truth.

Undiluted.

He wanted the news

about Jesus Christ

to be absolutely

crystal clear.

not vague

and clouded views

about Jesus.

Why?

I think the first reason

is at the end

of verse 2

where he says

he sets forth

the truth plainly

in the sight of God.

That is,

the first reason

he did it

was because God

was his audience.

He didn't give a rip

about what people

thought of him.

God was his

primary audience

and he would ultimately

answer to him

and no one else

and he wanted

to make sure

that that was

a good day.

Another reason

is given to us

in chapter 4

verses 4 to 6.

This is why

he sets forth

the truth plainly.

This is why

he didn't deviate.

This is what

propelled him forward.

And let's start

with verse 4.

The God of this age

has blinded

the minds

of unbelievers

so they cannot see

the light of the gospel

of the glory of Christ

who is the image

of God.

You see what

he's saying there?

The weight of what

he's saying there?

This is why

it is so essential

for Paul

that Jesus

be crystal clear

that the word

of God

be not distorted

that he speak

the truth

wherever he could.

He says

people

who don't believe

in Christ

are blind.

They can't see

the supreme

value

of Christ.

And so they won't

receive him

as their treasure

and they will not

be saved.

They're blind.

The work of God

is needed

in our lives

to open our eyes

and give us life

so that we can see

and receive

and savor

the Lord Jesus Christ

so that he might

be our greatest

treasure.

But without that

we're blind.

And that's not

the state of some

people.

It's not just the state

of two people.

It's the state of

everyone without Christ.

Blinded.

It was my condition

for 23 years.

Blinded

to glory of Christ.

I can read

the Bible

and I cannot

see Christ

in it

for 23 years

or for as long

as I can read.

At the heart

of this impressive

new covenant

ministry

is the message

of the gospel

in the word

of God

the Bible.

The glory

of this ministry

is the gospel.

And this is

what we are

blinded to.

The gospel

is what Paul

came to see

and believe.

The gospel

is what he

wants others

to come and

see and believe.

But it's this

gospel that

they're blinded

to.

The gospel

is the good

news that God

sent his son

into the world

to live a

perfect life,

to die as a

substitute for

sinners,

to absorb

the anger

of God,

to take away

our guilt,

to provide

the gift of

right standing

before God

and to give

eternal joy

through faith

in the Lord

Jesus alone

apart from any

works of

obedience on our

behalf.

That is what

we are blinded

to.

All of us.

We are all

blind to the

glory of those

facts unless

verse 6

happens.

For God who

said,

let light shine

out of darkness,

made his light

shine in our

hearts to give

us the light

of the knowledge

of the glory

of God in the

face of Christ.

Christ.

What Paul

describes there

in verse 6

is the new

birth,

even though he

doesn't use

the term.

The God who

created light in

the beginning

does the same

thing in the

heart of every

human being

that comes to

Christ.

Only the light

this time is not

a physical

light,

but the light

of the knowledge

of the glory of

God in the face

of Christ,

or as verse 4

puts it,

the light of the

gospel of the

glory of Christ

who is the

image of God.

God causes

the human

heart and

the mind to

see the truth

and the beauty

and the worth

of Christ,

the glory of

Christ.

Not just to

see the facts,

but to see the

glory of the

facts.

Darkness

remains in

our hearts

and in our

minds until

God illumines

the heart and

the mind.

And when he

does,

darkness cannot

stop it.

This light

that he

shines in

pushes all

darkness and

blindness out

and the

darkness and

the blindness

cannot resist

it,

cannot prevail

against it.

So then we

see Christ for

who he is.

We receive him

for who he is

and that's what

we want.

Is it not for

our children,

whether they be

6 or 16 or

26 or 66,

and for our

parents and our

spouses and our

neighbours and our

colleagues and our

friends at school and

for all the

chastardly 2.8

billion people in

the world,

the darkness

might be removed

in the heart.

We want the

light to shine in

their hearts so

that they see and

receive and savour

Christ.

We want them to be

born again.

It is a mighty

act of God and we

cannot do it.

But that does

not mean passivity

on our behalf.

Just because it's

a work of God

that we can't do

doesn't mean we

sit still and

just kind of

twiddle our

thumbs and wait

for God to

work.

There is a

human means that

God uses to

make this great

work happen.

In verse 4 we

have the dreadful

plight of the

human condition

of the heart,

blinded, dead

if you like.

Verse 6 we

have the

sovereign work

of God causing

sight and light

to break in with

clarity so that

Christ is revealed

and he's embraced

and received and

new life comes.

And bang in the

middle of those

two verses is

verse 5 which

says we do not

preach ourselves

but Jesus

Christ as

Lord and

ourselves as

your servants

for Jesus

sake.

Paul's role,

our role is to

proclaim Jesus

as Lord.

Remember I

said that the

gospel is the

good news that

God sent his

son into the

world to live a

perfect life, to

die a substitutionary

death for sinners,

to absorb the

anger of God, to

take away our

guilt, to

provide the

gift of

right standing

before God and

give eternal joy

through faith in

the Lord Jesus

alone apart from

any works of

obedience on our

behalf.

But let me say

that the gospel is

not just about us

or even primarily

about us, about

the good news for

us, about God's

love for us.

It primarily says

something very

significant about

the Lord Jesus.

Philippians 2

describes this

great work of

the gospel in

the death and

resurrection of

the Lord Jesus

to take away the

sins of the

world.

And it goes on to

say this about

Jesus, therefore

this is the

consequence of the

death and

resurrection of

Jesus.

Therefore God

exalted him to

the highest place

and gave him the

name that is above

every name, that

at the name of

Jesus every knee

should bow in

heaven and on

earth and under

the earth and

every tongue

confess that Jesus

Christ is Lord,

Master, King,

Boss, Ruler,

over all things

for the glory of

his Father.

The crucified

Jesus Christ has

been exalted

through resurrection

as the heavenly

Lord.

God's suffering

servant is now

the ruler of the

universe.

The man Jesus

Christ, he

exalts a God

over all of

people, over all

nations, over all

of history.

And Paul says

you make that

clear.

Do not distort

that truth by

shying away from

the exclusive

claim that

Jesus Lord and

King and

Master and

Ruler over all

that is, has

been and will

be and call

people to

confess with

their tongue and

surrender their

lives to his

loving rule.

He said you

make that

clear.

And proclaim

it all this

from a heart

of love and

a life of

service.

That I think

is what it

means when he

says that we

don't preach

ourselves.

It's to make

that message

clear of the

Lordship of

Christ from a

heart of love

and a life of

service.

All self-interest

is laid aside.

My friends,

verse 5 is

why Christ is

to be clear

and the word

of God is

not to be

distorted.

The means

that God

uses to

affect the

great and

eternal

transformation

that we

long to see

across this

world in the

hearts of

every man,

woman and

child and

even teenagers

is bold,

clear, plain

proclamation of

the good news

of the Lord

Jesus Christ.

As Lord,

from a heart

of love and

a life of

service,

that is the

impressive

ministry of

the new

covenant that

causes the

blind to see

for dark to

be distinguished,

extinguished,

for death to

be defeated and

eternal life

granted.

That's the

impressive

ministry.

Let me tell

you that that

impressive ministry

is a ministry

that is not

well received

in a world

where exclusive

claims are not

tolerated.

And one of the

great challenges,

not just for the

preacher but for

every single

Christian, as you

are a witness for

Christ, is to

dumb down the

exclusive claims of

Christ.

Great temptation

when you're

speaking with a

friend or a

family member or

Lord or a

neighbour is to

not push hard on

the Lordship of

Christ over all

that is.

But just to say

Jesus died on the

cross to save you

from your sins and

you get to go to

heaven.

And so for those

who are struggling

with it, and I

think we do

struggle with it,

maybe even losing

heart, let's just

keep reading.

Verse 7.

But we have

this treasure in

jars of clay, this

impressive ministry

of God's

recreating power

bringing people from

death to life.

We have it in

jars of clay to

show that this

all-surpassing

power is from

God and not

from us.

The great

encouragement of

that verse there

is that God uses

weak and weary

and ordinary

people, ordinary

jars of clay, to

bring about his

great eternal

purposes in the

lives of people.

God wants to

display to the

world the glory

of the Lord

Jesus Christ, the

power and the

beauty of the

gospel, and he

does it via

unimpressive

vessels.

We're not the

treasure.

And when we

think we are the

treasure, or even

rely upon ourselves

because we've got

some clever

argumentation,

we're articulate,

passionate, humorous,

bubbly, successful,

stylish, beautiful,

then we will very

quickly lose heart

in mission and

ministry.

When we think we

are the treasure,

our programs are the

treasure, my

ability to beat

that person's

argument is the

treasure, we will

very quickly discover

that we are

powerless.

This, I think, is

what we need to

get.

I made this

box about 30

years ago.

Can't believe I

can even say

that.

This box was

made to hold

cassettes.

For those of you

who don't know

what a cassette

is, it's one of

these things.

And so 30

years ago, these

were popular

cassettes were

because nothing

else existed.

And so now,

although I've been

given another

alternative for it,

so I wanted to

use this box,

cassettes have

long disappeared

into obsoleteness.

And in fact, I

didn't even have

one of these in

my house, and so

where do you look

for something that's

obsolete and no

further in use?

You look in church

cupboards.

And you will find

things like this in

existence still, still

being held onto.

And so I found

one, there it is.

It used to hold

it.

These are long

gone.

The box is not.

It hasn't had

anything in it for

ages.

Why?

Because the box is

more precious to me

than what was in

it.

That's anti-gospel.

That's anti-Christian

ministry.

The box isn't the

impressive thing.

This is closer to

the truth.

This is a takeaway

container.

It's a 21st century

version of the

1st century clay pot.

Its purpose is to

hold the spectacular

treasure of salt and

pepper calamari that

I enjoyed on Friday

night.

And once the

treasure is consumed,

it's meant to be

discarded, although my

wife seems to hang

onto them for some

reason.

I thought that's why

Tupperware was

invented, but that's

another whole story.

Don't get me started

on Tupperware.

I cannot understand

why you would sit

around for two hours

discussing plastic

containers.

I really...

Shoot me dead, for

goodness sake, before I

do that.

Anyway, I've had my

piece.

I've said my piece.

Friends, we've got

to understand that we

are the takeaway

containers.

The treasure is on

the inside.

It's not the box.

We're not the

treasure.

And sometimes I think

we act and we behave

as if we are the

treasure.

Anything eternal,

anything good,

lasting that God

will ever work out,

it's because of the

treasure that's inside.

It's not because of

how impressive that we

are.

God's concept of

ministry is so

different from what

this world thinks.

our world stresses

the classy, the

top shelf, the

polished containers,

not the glory of God

working through human

weakness.

The impressive

nature of the new

covenant ministry is

the great treasure of

the power of God

revealing the glory of

the gospel through

takeaway containers like

you and me.

Sinful, broken,

fallen, inept,

takeaway containers like

you and me.

And because we are

takeaway containers,

what that means is

you're meant to feel

unimpressive and weak

and weary, but not

ultimately defeated.

Verse 8, we are

hard pressed on every

side, but we are not

crushed.

We are perplexed, but

we are not in despair.

Persecuted, but we are

not abandoned.

We are struck down, but

we are not destroyed.

We always carry around

our body the death of

Jesus so the life of

Jesus may also be

revealed in our body.

For we who are alive

are always being given

over to death for

Jesus' sake so that

his life may be

revealed in our

mortal body.

Hardship and struggle

are the normal lot of

any sort of takeaway

container.

It's normal.

The temptation is to

lose heart and always

to think it doesn't,

it's not meant to be

like this.

And so if you're

feeling weak and weary

and out of ideas,

helpless in the face

of lost people,

unable to affect real

change in someone's

life, then you are

feeling probably what

you ought to be

feeling.

Pretty normal.

But know this, such a

clay pot is not a

liability to God.

Your weakness and your

weariness is normal,

expected, and not a

hindrance.

Our ordinary lives is not

a liability.

It is in fact an asset

to God's global

purposes.

That is, if you truly

want God to be

glorified.

On the other hand,

the proud, the

self-assured, the

confident person in

their own abilities is

in fact a hindrance to

God's global mission.

Because they will not

act out of a heart of

love or a life of

service.

God deliberately

chooses to use weak and

humble people, but he

never abandons them to

go it alone.

He puts the treasure of

his gospel and gifts in

clay pots like you and

me.

And so friends, if you're

sitting on the sideline

when you think of God's

global mission, and you

wonder, what can I

possibly ever say to my

neighbor?

What can I ever possibly

say to my friends?

What can I possibly do to

make a contribution to

2.8 billion people who

don't know Jesus?

The 50 million people I

can convey about of

corpses disappearing into

eternity.

What can I possibly do for

that?

I want to say to you

that no one is too

common, too weak, too

shy, too unarticulate,

too old, too disabled,

too young to be involved

in this spectacular

ministry of God's global

purposes going out into

the world.

And therefore, since

through God's mercy we

have this ministry, I

want to implore you not

to lose heart.

And for us as a church,

not to lose heart.

Let us press on in the

task of proclaiming Christ

as Lord out of hearts

of love and lives of

service while looking to

God to push out darkness

with the light of the

glory of the gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.