Countercultural Christian Ministry

Well, again, let me welcome you this morning.

If you're new, especially joining us either in person or online, my name's Tommy.

I'm the rector here, and I'm excited to continue a series in Paul's letter to the Corinthians,

what we call 2 Corinthians.

And this is really a series about power.

It's a series about power, and it's a series about how the gospel transforms power.

It turns power and weakness upside down.

That's the theme that we're going to be following for the next several months, actually.

And this week, we're going to be looking at this in the context of Christian ministry.

And I don't just mean professional Christian ministry, people who have a career in Christian

ministry.

Every single Christian is a Christian minister.

We're all Christian ministers.

And so, if you're here this morning and you're a Christian, we're talking about you.

If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, you're going to have the opportunity

to sit in as we do a little self-reflection, as we think about how we define success in

the church.

What does a successful Christian ministry look like?

And should we define success in the same way that other institutions in our society define

success?

It's interesting being in a place like D.C. when we're out at social gatherings or whatever,

and the conversation almost always arises when you meet somebody.

Well, what do you do for a living?

And I say, well, I'm a pastor.

And invariably, if I get to the next question before the person politely excuses themselves

from conversation, the question will be some form of, well, how many people go to your

church?

And it's a kind of way, and I don't think that people always mean it this way, but for

me, maybe it's my own issues, but it always feels like they're trying to decide how important

I am or if I'm worth continuing a conversation with, right?

And Advent's been around for 14 years, and we started as a house church in a living room.

And so, it's been interesting to see the evolution of people's responses over the years.

What's more disconcerting is that when I go to pastor conferences or diocesan gatherings,

I get the same question, right?

And so, there is a question to be asked, how do we define success in Christian ministry?

Should it look like other institutions in our society?

So, we're going to be doing a little bit of self-reflection, which I think, given the

fact that this is the first Sunday in Lent, is very appropriate, very appropriate.

And we're going to be looking at this section that we just heard Chris read, and we're going

to be looking at Paul's ministry as an apostle.

And Paul gives us three metaphors for Christian ministry.

Each of these metaphors tells us something about Christian ministry, and all along the

way, we're going to be asking ourselves, how do we think about success?

How do we define our calling as Christian ministers, which again, we all are Christian ministers,

and how different is that?

How countercultural is it from the surrounding culture?

So, we're going to be looking at these three images to guide us.

Christian ministry, a triumphal procession, an aroma of life and death, living letters.

What does each of these images tell us about Christian ministry?

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word, and we thank you that it is not just ink and paper.

Your word is living and active because you are living and active.

You're not a deaf, dumb, mute idol.

You're a living God in our midst, here now speaking to us, offering yourself to us.

And before we come to this table and are nourished by your body and blood, Lord, we pray that we

would be nourished by your word, and that in the sacraments and the preaching, we would

experience the gospel in stereo.

We pray this, Lord, for our good and our blessing, but ultimately that you would be glorified in

our midst.

We pray this in your Son's holy name.

Amen.

So, let's look at this passage together.

I want to give you a little context so it makes sense where we are.

We're kind of dropping into the middle.

I think it was Jeff who said when he introduced this series that when you read 2 Corinthians,

it's like dropping into the middle of a pastor's inbox, and that's essentially what we're doing.

So, let me give you a little context.

Paul is writing this letter to address criticism that he's received from some of the Corinthians,

including some of the leaders in Corinth, who he later refers to as the super apostles.

And the reason is because he has had some hard words for the Corinthians in terms of how

they've been living.

He's tried to correct them as their pastor, and they've responded by delegitimizing his

ministry.

And they're essentially saying that he's not a legitimate apostle.

And the reason is because he's not very apostle-like.

He's not very apostle-y in his behavior.

In their minds, you know, if you were to ask one of the Corinthians, what is an apostle?

Here's what they would say.

Well, number one, an apostle is someone who is uniquely blessed by God.

That's true.

Therefore, they would say a true apostle should be a paragon of success because blessing by

God means that you're successful, right?

Then you look at Paul.

Paul's ministry is filled with failure.

It's filled with evidence of Paul's weakness, including the fact that Paul had changed his

mind several times, including one which we see referenced in verses 12 and 13.

He's there in Troas.

He's waiting for Titus to come and tell him whether or not the Corinthians have repented from

their rebellion.

And he has this explosion, this response to the gospel.

It says a door was opened for me there for the gospel.

But he's so anxious to know how the Corinthians have responded to his letter that he can't

wait in Troas.

And so he leaves.

He's got people lining up to be baptized.

And he's like, I can't stay.

I got to know what's happening with the Corinthians.

So he goes on to Macedonia to try to find Titus.

They're like, no real apostle of Jesus would abandon Troas when everybody's coming to

faith.

This is a huge opportunity.

Pentecost part two, and you just left.

You obviously don't have your priorities in order.

Not a real apostle.

Then they would say, you know, well, an apostle is a messenger commissioned personally by Jesus.

That's also true.

But they assumed, well, therefore, a true apostle should be very eloquent, very winsome, very

compelling as a public speaker.

We established last week Paul is anything but that.

He's a rather boring public speaker, very uninteresting.

Third, an apostle is a leader over the church.

Therefore, they would say a true apostle should have the most impressive credentials.

Paul didn't have impressive credentials as a Christian leader.

In fact, his only credential prior to his conversion is that he built his entire early career persecuting

Christians.

So not a very qualified leader of the church, right?

So Paul's critics are saying, look at all of these aspects of Paul's ministry.

Paul's ministry lacks all of the marks of true Christian ministry.

Therefore, Paul is obviously a fraud.

This is the context that we're dropping into.

Here's Paul's response that we're going to unpack.

It's essentially this.

You have completely misunderstood the nature of Christian ministry.

You've completely misunderstood the nature of Christian ministry.

And then he uses three metaphors to refute their assumptions one by one and show us what

true Christian looks like.

So the first image or metaphor that Paul uses is the image of the triumphal procession in verses

12 to 14, part A.

He says this, but thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.

Now at first glance, what does this seem to imply?

It seems to imply that all Christian ministry is like traipsing around the world, being celebrated,

people clapping and cheering as we just sort of go from one place to the next, sort of spreading

gospel cheer, right?

We're following Jesus in a triumphal procession.

We have triumphed over the world.

People are happy to see us.

Crowds, people line up to hear what we have to say.

Not true, right?

In order to understand this, we need to know that the word that Paul uses for triumphal procession

is actually a technical term referring to the Roman institution of the triumphal procession.

One of my former professors, Scott Hafeman, wrote a fantastic commentary on 2 Corinthians,

and here's what he says.

The triumphal procession was a lavish parade conducted in Rome to celebrate great victories

in significant military campaigns.

These were ostentatious celebrations filled with valiant soldiers, the spoils of war, and

the most theatrical pomp and circumstance Rome could muster.

There were over 350 recorded victories in Rome's history, and they were all celebrated this way.

And here's the key detail.

In order to demonstrate Rome's prowess as the victor, their utter unquestioned dominance,

a prominent feature of these celebrations was that you would have the chariot where the person

who was leading the procession would be celebrated, and then you would have a long train of prisoners.

Right?

The rival kings, the rival generals, the enemies.

Right?

Imagine, this is probably what Putin fantasizes about doing with Zelensky, right?

Marching him back in chains to Moscow, right?

We have been victorious.

This is the kind of thing that Rome would do.

They would take the rival leader, the rival king, and they would march them and all of their

generals in chains to humiliate them, which was a testament to the power and the glory of

Rome, right?

The highest honor that any Roman Caesar or general could receive would be to lead one of these

processions.

Conversely, to be led as a prisoner in such a procession was the most humiliating sign of defeat

you could experience, short of death.

And the prisoners would ultimately be marched to a place where they would be executed.

They would be executed to bring glory and honor to Rome and glory and honor to Rome's gods.

So here's the key to understanding what Paul is saying about Christian ministry.

In this metaphor, Paul is not the one leading the procession.

Paul is the prisoner in chains, following behind Jesus, who leads the procession.

Paul's entire life exists to bring glory and honor to Jesus.

Now, we might hear this and be disturbed by the idea of being a prisoner for Christ.

That's kind of a brutal image.

But all throughout Paul's letters, he delights in referring to himself as a prisoner of Christ,

even a slave to Christ.

That was his favorite title for himself as an apostle.

And the reason is because Paul had realized the truth about the human condition.

He had realized in his earlier life that, listen, guess what?

Like it or not, we are all slaves to something or to someone.

We are all slaves to something or someone.

If you can't stop overeating, you're a slave to food.

If you can't stop losing your temper, you're a slave to anger.

If you can't stop conforming to what others expect of you,

if you can't say no to people,

if you can't draw boundaries that need to be drawn,

then you're a slave to the approval of other people.

If you're dating and you can't stop conforming and shifting and compromising in your values and standards

so that that other man or woman will be more attracted to you

and be more likely to want to date you,

you're making that person your master.

You're their slave.

They're calling the shots about the most important things in your life.

And so the gospel says, and this is what Paul had realized,

the only way for us to be free from the things that enslave us in the world

is to become slaves of Christ.

Paul had discovered, I, as a slave to Christ, am free

because Christ as my master desires my freedom.

In Him, I'm free in a way that I never was before as a Pharisee.

Right, so this is Paul's realization.

Now let's just think of the implications of this for this broader question of Christian ministry

and how we think about it.

This is the first metaphor we're given.

The nature of Christian ministry is this,

following Jesus in a triumphal procession,

which is, now that we know what that means,

a death march where we are prisoners.

Right?

We need to understand the implications of this for Paul's critics and for us.

Paul's critics assumed that being a successful Christian minister

means success and prosperity, maybe even celebrity status.

And there were first century church leaders who were very much like celebrities.

But in truth, Paul is saying,

the nature of Christian ministry is not that you're a celebrity.

It's not that you have a massive following.

It's not that you are celebrated everywhere you go.

The nature of Christian ministry is that we're like prisoners following behind Jesus.

In other words, it is not about us.

It's about Him.

It's not about us.

It's about Him.

And I think that, and this is just me talking,

but I think that one of the main ways that the church in the United States has gone off the rails

is because we desperately want to be the ones leading the procession.

We want to be the ones who are celebrated.

We want to be the ones who have the prestige and the respectability.

We want cultural and political power and influence.

And I think that we have made extraordinarily grievous compromises

in order to grab and to hold on to these things.

And maybe, if we want a ministry that looks like Paul's ministry,

we need to be reminded that we were never meant to be the ones leading the procession.

We are prisoners for Christ's sake.

You know, over the last century, many Christians have been praying for revival in our country,

like the great revivals of past centuries.

We've been praying for revival in the church right now.

Some of us are praying for that right now.

We need another revival in our country, right?

But what do we see happening?

The church is having to reckon with its culture of celebrity worship

as more and more celebrity pastors are toppled from their pedestals

because of narcissism and sin and scandal.

Right?

We're praying for revival,

and yet what we see is the church having to reckon with its complicity

in sexual abuse, covering up grievous sin,

as well as complicity in racism and injustice.

Right?

We're praying for revival,

and yet what we see is the church is having to reckon

with all of the ways it has compromised its integrity

in order to gain and hold political power.

Right?

We're praying for revival,

and yet the church is having to reckon

with all of the ways it has compromised its doctrines

in order to appeal to the culture,

only to then die out.

Right?

So you may look at this,

and you may say,

well, God has failed to answer our prayer

for revival.

But what if God is answering our prayer?

What if God is answering our prayer?

In other words,

what if before revival can come,

there has to be a reckoning?

What if this is the road to revival?

What if before revival can come,

we have to remember

who is leading the triumphal procession?

Right?

We have to be reminded

that it's not about us.

It's about Him.

So this first metaphor shows us

the nature of Christian ministry.

We're like prisoners following Jesus

in a triumphal procession.

This leads us to the second metaphor,

the aroma of life and death.

The aroma of life and death.

Roman triumphal processions

would often include incense,

and as the procession passed by,

the incense would waft out

into the streets

for everybody to smell.

And as Paul says

in verses 14 through 16,

wherever he goes,

the aroma of Christ goes with him.

What he says is

that some people out there

see Paul's life

and they hear his message

and their hearts are immediately

open to the gospel

because God is already at work in them.

They're compelled by it.

Other people see the same life,

hear the same message,

and their hearts are closed off.

They don't respond.

You know, it's like some people

who get COVID

and then after COVID,

long after COVID,

they have this sense of smell

that's totally out of whack,

right, where they're like,

I know that this thing

should smell good to me,

but it smells rancid.

It smells rotten, right?

The way you know

you are being spiritually renewed

the way that you know

actually first in the case of COVID

that you are healing

is when your sense of smell

starts to be put right,

when things that should smell good

smell good

and things that should smell bad

smell bad.

And so one of the signs

that we're experiencing

spiritual renewal

is when the gospel

begins to smell good,

when there's something in you

that even if you're not a Christian,

you're curious.

And there are people,

some of you are here this morning

and you're here

and you're not necessarily a Christian,

but there's something about this

that is attractive to you.

There's something about this

that is drawing you.

You're curious.

You're wanting to learn more.

You know, many times

in our foundations class,

which is our church membership class,

it's a 13-week class

that we do a couple of times a year,

we'll have one or two people in there

who are not Christians,

but they're just curious.

They want to learn more

because something about this smells good.

It's attractive to them.

And Paul's saying,

listen, when people come to faith

in places like Troas,

where I was,

it's not because of my eloquence

or my brilliance.

They come to faith

because God is already at work

in their hearts.

Christ is working through me.

And I don't often know

who those people are.

So if the first metaphor

showed us the nature

of Christian ministry,

this metaphor shows us

the power in Christian ministry.

And that power comes

from the Holy Spirit,

not us.

Right?

The Holy Spirit,

not us.

And so you have Paul's critics,

they think that Christian ministry

depends on our gifts.

And they think it depends

on our talents

and our natural ability

and our charisma,

our good looks,

our techniques,

our strategies,

that we have to be impressive

in order to bring people to faith.

But the power of Christian ministry

comes from the Holy Spirit,

not us.

You know,

for most of us,

the whole concept of evangelism

makes us deeply uncomfortable

because it's so hard

to admit to our non-Christian

friends and co-workers

that we are even Christians,

much less share our faith.

Right?

Most of us feel like

we're just trying to get by

and the idea of actually

sharing our faith with somebody,

it just feels way beyond

what we're capable of.

And so I hope this is actually

a great comfort

to be reminded

that it actually doesn't depend on us,

but on the work of the Holy Spirit.

Now, does that mean that we,

doesn't matter if we share our faith?

No.

What it means is

there are people around you

in your life right now

in whom the Spirit is working,

who are open,

who do want to know more,

who are curious.

You know,

I think about my own experience

as a kid growing up,

sometimes going to church,

sometimes not.

My dad wanted us to go to church,

my mom didn't,

so their compromise

was to go once or twice a month.

And so,

but we would go

and I probably,

you know,

it was a good church

and I probably heard

the gospel presented

thousands of times

in a thousand different ways.

I had friends who knew

I wasn't really a believer

and so they would invite me

to their churches

to come to their church,

their evangelistic events.

And I would sit through

their gospel presentations

and still,

it's like my heart

was just like Teflon.

It was like Teflon.

My heart was a non-stick surface

and just nothing stuck.

Just totally apathetic

when it came to really,

I did not care at all.

And then one day

when I was about 22,

for no discernible reason

whatsoever,

I started to

be open to it.

I started meeting with a guy,

talking to him

about Christian things

and he's a great guy,

very well meaning,

but he wasn't

particularly articulate,

he wasn't versed

in apologetics.

You know,

I would ask my kind of

stinger gotcha questions

and he'd be like,

that's a great question,

I have no idea.

And yet somehow

I was drawn to it.

You know,

I read a couple of books

that he had given me

and frankly,

they were cheesy.

They were cheesy books.

You know,

I love a good book

and these were not good books.

They were cheesy.

But there was something

in my heart

that was open.

And I came to faith.

Why?

Because of the amazing apologetics

and the incredible books

that just spoke to my heart?

No,

it's because the Holy Spirit

was at work in me

that I was going to come to faith

one way or another.

It was going to happen.

And so that's how

the Holy Spirit works.

So for,

listen,

for those of us

who have friends

or family

or co-workers

or children

and we are so anxious

wondering,

are they ever going

to come to faith?

Yes,

it's important to know

how to phrase things well.

It's important to know

some apologetics.

It's helpful as a Christian

to know some of those things.

It's important to understand

winsome ways

of presenting the gospel.

Absolutely.

But the most important thing

we can do

is to pray

because it is the Holy Spirit

that will do that work,

not us.

Right?

So that's the power

in Christian ministry.

The nature of Christian ministry,

we're in a triumphal processional

and we are prisoners.

The power in Christian ministry,

guess what?

It's not us.

It is the work

of the Holy Spirit.

And then lastly,

we have this third image,

living letters.

What's that all about?

Chapter 3, verses 1 through 6.

To drive his point home,

Paul says this,

and there is definitely

a note of sarcasm here.

Definitely sarcasm.

He says,

okay,

are we beginning

to commend ourselves again?

Do you want proof?

Is my word not enough?

You want some proof

of my legitimacy?

You want some evidence

of my credibility?

Do you want a letter

of recommendation?

Should I go out

and get a letter

of recommendation?

Or do you want to write me

a letter of recommendation?

Right?

What do I need

to demonstrate

my credibility to you?

And then what does he say?

He says,

guess what?

You are my letter

of recommendation.

You want to know

my credentials?

You are my credentials.

What does he mean by that?

The people who are

criticizing Paul

and delegitimizing

his ministry

all came to faith

through Paul's ministry.

So he's like,

you're delegitimizing me

as an apostle.

You're saying that I'm

a fake and a fraud

and a phony

and yet your own faith

came about

through God's work

in me

and through me

in your life.

And then he says,

listen,

you just need to understand

this is nothing like

the old covenant

religion of Judaism.

Some of us knew

that religion,

right?

Where we would write

God's laws down

on tablets

and do our best

to follow those laws.

This is nothing like that.

The apostolic ministry

is a new covenant ministry.

What does that mean?

The Holy Spirit

is at work right now

opening hearts

to the truth of the gospel

and writing God's laws

on our hearts.

God has written

his law

on your heart.

You're my letter

of recommendation.

You're proof

that despite however

foolish or weak

I may look,

God is working through me

and your hearts

have changed

as a result.

So, you know,

we've seen the nature

of Christian ministry,

triumphal procession.

We've seen the power

of Christian ministry,

the Holy Spirit.

This is the evidence

for Christian ministry.

The evidence

for the fact

that there is something

to the gospel

that we cannot explain.

There are many churches

in our society

and I would probably

put us in that category

with all due respect

that have an overblown

love of credentials.

Have an overblown

love of credentials.

As though the gospel

is more credible

if it's coming

from someone

with a PhD

after their name.

Now listen, listen.

Am I saying

that the answer

is to become

anti-intellectual?

Hopefully you know

me well enough

to know that is

absolutely not

what I'm saying.

Right?

And there's a huge

I love to study.

I love to read.

Honestly, there's a big part

of me that would love

to spend the rest

of my life

holed up in a university

library somewhere.

That is like my happy place.

So I love it.

But part of me

also recognizes

the truth

that we're seeing here.

The most compelling

evidence for the truth

of the gospel

is not the letters

after someone's name.

It is the lives

that have been transformed.

In particular,

lives that have been

transformed

through ministries

that don't seem like

they could do anything.

Much less

transform lives.

Ministries that look weak,

that look foolish,

that are poorly run,

the finances are a mess,

they seem to have no idea

what they're doing.

And yet somehow

they're producing people

that have been

completely transformed.

So what Paul is saying

is the more foolish

I look,

the more weak I look,

the more I seem to lack

all the credentials

that you care about,

the more it glorifies who?

Not me,

God.

Because look at you,

look at the fruit

in your life.

You think I could do this?

This is why at one point

in this letter he says,

who's sufficient

for these things?

You think a PhD

is going to make

any difference

when it comes

to changing lives?

You know,

over the years

I have seen people

who were passing

through D.C.

on their way,

totally focused on career.

I've seen them

make a 90 degree turn

and stop in D.C.

and say,

you know,

I'm going to root down here

and I'm going to live here

because I want to be

a part of a community.

Completely change

their life plans.

I've seen marriages

that I knew

that was on the brink

of collapse

be completely restored

and renewed

and marriages

that are an entirely

different place.

Now,

some of you

are the people

that I'm talking about.

I've seen people

set free

from patterns of addiction

and cycles of abuse

and generational sin.

I've seen people

go from having

years and years

of stored up anger

and bitterness.

I've seen that anger

dissipate.

I've seen them

forgive people

they once hated.

I've seen people

that have overcome

massive,

deep political division

and embrace

and love one another

like family.

Right?

When you see things

like this,

life change,

there is no degree

in the world

that can change lives.

This is the kind of thing

only God can do.

Right?

So,

this is how we need

to be thinking

about Christian ministry

at least if we want

our ministry

to look like the ministry

that Paul had

in Corinth.

This is Paul's

countercultural ministry.

The question remains,

what gave Paul

the courage

to be so radically

countercultural

in the first place?

You know,

when Paul realized

what he was signing up

for,

a life of following

behind Jesus

like a prisoner

on his way

to an execution,

what was the thing

that compelled Paul

to say,

that's what I want

my life to be about?

And what's the thing

that might compel us

to say,

that's what I want

my life to be about?

Why would Paul

sign up for this?

It's because he realized

that with Jesus

there was one crucial

difference

from the Roman practice.

In the Roman practice,

the one leading

the procession

would get to

the final destination,

they would take

all the prisoners,

they would execute

those prisoners

to bring glory

to the leader

of the procession

and to the gods

that Rome worshipped.

But in Jesus'

triumphal procession,

the prisoners

are not the ones

who were executed.

In Jesus'

triumphal procession,

when they finally

arrive at that place

at Golgotha,

Jesus is the one

who gets down

off of the chariot,

takes off all

of the symbols

of glory and power

and majesty,

he's stripped down

to nothing,

allows himself

to be humiliated,

allows himself

to be tortured

like the worst criminal,

like the worst prisoner,

and then ultimately

allows himself

to be executed

in place of the prisoners.

And what that means

is that those

who were once in chains,

the chains come off

and they're invited

to come in

and share in the glory

and share in the honor

and share in the privilege

that Jesus enjoys

in the throne room

of heaven.

Countercultural ministry

is only possible

because of the

countercultural truth

of the gospel itself.

And a gospel-centered ministry

is therefore going to be,

by definition,

a countercultural ministry.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you

for your word

and we know we need

more than to hear it.

Lord, we need you

to work in us

as we've said

over and over

and over this morning.

So I pray that

as we come to you

in prayer,

as we come to you

in worship,

in singing,

as we come to you

around your table,

I pray that you would do

in us what we cannot

accomplish on our own.

And that is to show us

the freedom

that can be found

by following you,

to remind us

of the power

and the presence

of the Holy Spirit

in our midst.

Awaken us to the Spirit.

And then, Lord,

to remind us

that only you

can change lives.

And I pray that we would

lay our lives down

to be changed,

to be transformed.

That as we will

take this bread

and bless it

and break it

and give it out,

that you would take us

and bless us

and break us

and give us to the world.

That we might bring

glory to you, Lord.

And it's in the name

of your Son,

Jesus Christ,

we pray.

Amen.

.

you