 Right. Good morning everyone. Welcome to a new week. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer. So, maybe one of us can please lead in prayer. Go ahead. Anybody can lead. Can I be faster? Yes, go ahead please. Dear God, thank you so much for everything that you're doing. Thanks very much for learning the book of Corinthians. Thank you so much, God, for this opportunity to learn about your word. And also I pray that as Pastor is teaching you, that you follow your spirit and maybe understand the way that you are doing it. And be kind to God. Thank you for everything. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Asha. All right, so we've gone into Second Corinthians. Last, I think that was two weeks back, we did chapter one and two. Let's just do a little bit of a background, right? So remember in First Corinthians, Paul was very stern with the believers. He ends the letter saying, you know, you guys need to make some changes within the church. But in Second Corinthians, his approach completely changes. He begins to say, listen, God, chapter one, we looked at God being the comfort. He comforts us in our distress, in our sadness, in our trials, in our troubles. And then in chapter one, Paul does something very significant. He was on the way to Judea. Sorry, he was on the way to Macedonia. And he said he went, he visited Corinth. But his plan, while coming back from Macedonia, was to visit Corinth again. But he changed his plan, right? And so we talked about this, right? The reason he changed his plan is because he did not want to meet the believers and, you know, cause them any more pain and distress. And so he didn't want to, he just felt, okay, it's better I write to them than to meet them face to face. Because when he met them face to face, you know, he saw that they were sad, they were, you know, feeling very broken. And so he changed his plan there, right? But in chapter two, he says, he begins to encourage them. He says, okay, we all, you know, are sinners, but there is forgiveness through Jesus Christ. And he says, we are ministers of the new covenant. He talks about how, as believers, all of us within the church, especially, you know, he says to them, we are all believers in the new covenant. A covenant that is, you know, so powerful, a covenant that is eternal, a covenant that is triumphant. So here we see that Paul has moved on from just bringing correction to bringing exhortation and encouragement, right? So today we'll start with chapter three, and he continues this whole, you know, this whole letter. He continues in the same kind of a format. We see that he, there's very, very little, you know, correction, but there is more of encouragement and exhortation. Right? So let's get into chapter three. Chapter three is very interesting. The Apostle Paul brings out the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant, right? So another thing I'd just like to say is we have about 16 chapters in this second Corinthians and we don't have too much time. So I may be going a little quick, but if you have any questions, please feel free to stop me. And the reason I'll be going a little fast is just so that we'll be able to complete the potions on time, right? So chapter three, do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need as some others epistles of recommendation to you or letters of recommendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly you are an epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink by the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on the tablets of flesh, that is of your heart. Now, during the time of Apostle Paul, recommendation letters from esteemed ministers was something that people would use to attest credibility, right? Because during those times there were false prophets, false apostles, false teachings, false kinds of ideologies coming into the church. So they would attest a recommendation saying, okay, for example, Timothy, okay, Paul is recommending and saying, okay, whatever Timothy is saying, I as a prophet, Apostle Paul, I am recommending this, what he says, right? Now Paul is referring to that practice and he's saying, do we need any recommendation letter? And he's saying, we don't need it because you yourselves, your transformed lives is the letter already. It is already a proof that what we are doing is not something out of the flesh, but it's out of the Spirit. And it's the Holy Spirit who bought transformation in your heart and transformation in your lives. So we don't need a letter of recommendation. Our works itself has shown it. So that's what Paul is telling the church here. Then he goes on, verse five, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter or of the Spirit, but the letter kills and the Spirit gives life. Look at this word sufficiency. The Greek word, haikonotius, is competency or the ability to do something. Now Paul is acknowledging, he's saying, okay, it's not that my ability is from myself, but it's from God. And the fruitfulness of our ministry is not on our natural abilities. It's not on our skills, on our talents that we have, but it's through the Holy Spirit. And God can use those gifts and talents for His kingdom. So I want us to understand this. Gifts, talents are God given, but these are natural abilities. Paul is saying, I'm not coming my natural ability, but it's through the Holy Spirit, but God also uses the gifts that we have so that we can glorify God. So God has given us the ability to serve Him and serve His people in the new covenant. Paul explains this in Romans 7, but we will just go down. We will go into seeing what is Paul trying to say in terms of the old covenant and the new covenant. Now this portion is very, very important, right? Now he's talking to people who are, you know, remember the church and Corinth are both Gentiles and there are Jews as well. So it's a mixed congregation, right? So now not many of them in the church are going to understand when, you know, when he's talking about Moses and all of that. So maybe some of them are wondering, who's this Moses? But let's look at how he's bringing this beautiful comparison here. Verse 7, but of the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones was glorious. So the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which was, which glory was passing away. How will the ministry of the spirit not be more glorious? For the ministry of condemnation had glory. The ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. Let me pause there. Moses went up the mountain. He was there for 40 days. He came down and when he was coming down the mountain, Joshua says, cover your face, Moses, because I can't see your face. A glory of the Lord is upon your face. And then he, Moses and Joshua walked down that mountain, they come down and the Israelites could not see the face of Moses. Because Moses had spent 40 days in the presence of God and the glory of God was upon Moses' face that they said, Moses, please put a veil on your face so that we can see you when you talk. Right now, let's, let's, let's look at what Paul is saying here. He's saying how much more glorious will not, will be the new new covenant. The old covenant is glorious. How much more glorious is a new covenant? Right. Look at verse 12. Therefore, since we have such hope news, great boldness of speech, unlike Moses who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away, but their minds were blinded for until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ. Even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. You notice what Paul is saying here. He's saying the Old Testament is a ministry of death. The New Testament is a ministry of spirit. The Old Testament is a ministry of condemnation. The New Testament is a ministry of righteousness. The Old Covenant was passing away, the glory was just passing away. But the New Covenant, the glory remains. Now Paul is making a wonderful comparison. He's saying, okay, the people in Israel could not see Moses and Moses had to wear a veil. The same way even now, when people are reading scriptures, it says that right, when they're reading when verse 15, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Which means Paul is saying this veil is, you know, it blocks us from understanding the ministry of the New Covenant. So we still stuck. So Paul is trying to say, hey, you're going on reading the scriptures, but there's a veil in your heart. Moses had a veil because the glory of the Lord was there upon his face and the people could not see Moses' face. The same way, there's a veil in our heart that we are not able to understand the glory of the New Covenant. You see that comparison? Here was a natural thing. They really couldn't see Moses' face. So Moses had to cover it with a veil. But here, Paul is using that example saying, here, it's a spiritual thing where there's a veil in their heart that even when they read the scriptures, they're not able to understand the glory of the New Covenant and what Jesus did for us. That is why many people are not accepting the Lord Jesus. And this is true even now. When we look around, many of them, many of them, right, they read the scriptures, they know about Jesus. But there's a veil over their heart. The enemy has blinded their minds. And so they're not able to see the glory of God. They're not able to experience the glory of God. Now, Paul is declaring this truth without ambiguity. He's declaring it with all frankness and all boldness. And he's saying, we need to walk in the New Covenant because the ministry of the Spirit, that is the ministry of the New Covenant will break the veil that is over our hearts. And that veil is only taken away when we turn to Jesus. Very important. If you look at things around us, we see, right, many of us, many of them don't believe in Jesus because there's a veil in their heart. Or many of them have believed in Jesus and turned away from him because of certain situations or pleasures of the world or peer pressures. But what's happening there? There's a veil in their heart. Paul goes on verse 17. He says, now the Lord is the Spirit. And by the Spirit, the Lord is, that is liberty. That is freedom. When the Jews or Gentiles turn to Jesus and receive salvation, the veil covering our hearts that is preventing us to see who God is is taken away. And suddenly we have a revelation of who God is. We are liberated. No longer in bondage, no longer gripped by the yoke of the devil. Everything is just liberated. We don't have to, you know, go back to religious forms and customs and traditions. Right? There's liberty. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Right? And he goes on verse 18. He says, but we all with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed. Right? It's so wonderful to see. As we continue to look to God, as we continue to look to Jesus by reading of the Word, by meditating on God's Word, worship and prayer and, you know, just flowing the gifts of the Spirit. The more we do that, we are continuously being transformed into the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember what Apostle Paul says? You know, when we die, we will see Him as He is. How can we see Jesus as He is? We need that glorified body. Right? And so as we continue to keep spending time and growing in our work with God, being changed, I continuously transformed into the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. This transforming work of the Spirit is more from the inside and happens inside of us. Then we become more like Jesus. So Paul is encouraging here, verse 3, chapter 3, he's saying, don't worry about what you're missing out in the Old Covenant because the glory of the New Covenant, I'm sure the Gentiles will be wondering what's happening here, but maybe some of them have, you know, really understood the whole concept of what's happening. The Lord, the Holy Spirit would have brought revelation. And so they're saying, okay, the New Covenant is so much more glorious from what was there earlier on. When we read the Old Covenant, there was glory, New Covenant, much better, greater promises, greater glory. The glory is not going to pass away. It's going to remain, right? Because the glory that was on Moses' face after a while, it passed away. But the glory of God will continue to be upon us as we continue to seek Him. Right? So here it's very encouraging. Now picture this. The church has been through so much of correction, so much of, you know, the Apostle Paul has been extremely stern with them, but now he's giving them such beautiful insights. And he's saying, this is what you are. Okay, let's look at chapter 4. Having contrasted the Old and New Covenant, Paul goes on to share the experiences as a minister of the New Covenant. Now he's saying, so you are all part of the New Covenant. So what is it? Because you're part of the New Covenant. What was it? He talks about us being treasures and jars of clay. So let's read that. The light of the Gospel. 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. Therefore, since we have this ministry, we have received mercy. Now we all know what's mercy, undeserving compassion. We've received pity. But Paul does not want us to be discouraged. He's telling us, don't be discouraged, because each one of you has been entrusted with a ministry. There will be times in ministry, there will be discouragements, there will be weirdness, there will be tiredness, there will be persecutions. All of that is there. But we have expedience, the compassion and the mercy of God. So because of the mercy of God, we are strengthened and we don't have to give up. So this is such an encouraging thing. Now remember, the church in Corinth was a persecuted church. It's not like they were enjoying freedom where they were. They were persecuted, they were probably just a small group of people and maybe the entire city was like, what are you people doing worshipping this man named Jesus and Christianity? I'm sure they were a persecuted group. But here Paul is saying, you've been entrusted with a ministry and through all those persecutions and challenges, we have the mercy of God. As a minister of God, Paul states that he does and does not do the following. Let's look at those three points. Paul states that he has given up everything that might have any reason for him to be ashamed of. Paul is not saying, oh man, what do people think of me? Studied under Gamaliel, the Pharisee of the Pharisee, the tribe of Benjamin, a Roman citizen. I've got so much of credentials. Maybe I'll go to a place where nobody knows me and I'll just do some ministry there. Paul is saying, I've given up everything. Whether I'm a Jew, whether I'm a Gentile, whether I'm a Pharisee, all of those things don't matter because now I know the truth, I know the gospel and I'm not ashamed of it. Two, he says he does not use any cunningness or deceiving people to believe in the Lord Jesus. He does not use any cunningness with his interactions with people. If you look at Acts 17, I think it's Acts 17 where Paul is at Athens, again in Greece. Yes, Acts 17, yes. He's in Athens just before he goes into Koran. You see that he's talking to the people in Marzill, Aeropagus, and he says to an unknown God and he began to interact with the people and they were all intellectuals. Now he did not use any cunningness while speaking. If you see that whole interaction, he was just proclaiming the gospel, saying, hey, what you have said to an unknown God, let me just reveal that to you. There was no cunningness. There was no craftiness that he used. He was just simple, plain to the people. Thirdly, Paul does not adulterate the word of God while ministering in order to ensnare the hearers. This is very important. Paul doesn't say, okay, you people don't like health, normally you won't go to hell, or don't worry about sin. You can believe in Jesus and then you can also go to the temples. You can do your sacrifice, but just ask for forgiveness. No, no, no. Paul does not adulterate the word of God. What does he say? You've got to choose. In 1 Corinthians he says, how can Christ be divided? How can some of you go to eat the food, sacrifice to idols and then come here and you were stern? Look at the Galatians. What does he say to them? How can you go back to circumcision when you've already given your life to Christ? It's so foolish. It does not make sense. Paul is not flattering them and trying to say, okay, if I say this, will you come to church or will you not come to... No, no, no. He's stern. He says, don't adulterate the word of God. Right? And so his conscience was clear and Paul, the apostle, proved himself as an established man, an apostle of God, because of the credibility of the ministry that he had. It didn't worry Paul whether people come, go. No, my responsibility as a minister of God is to minister the word in truth, to bring correction in love and to build people up. That's what he did. That's okay, verse 3 to 6. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Something very similar to Romans. Okay, I think there's a question. Siddhant has a question. Siddhant, do you have a question? Oh, my mistake. Okay. Okay. So verse 3 to 6. 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, whose the image of God should shine on them. Well, we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your born servants, for Jesus is safe. For it is the God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, which shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Look at that revelation. I'm just reading it. Bring so much of joy in our hearts. It is God who has commanded the light to shine out of darkness. Look at that. Who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. To those who are unbelieving, the message is hidden. Why? Because the God of this age has blinded their eyes. So every time we try to share the gospel with people who are unbelievers, if they don't accept it, they don't believe it. It is not their fault. It is because the God of this age has blinded their eyes. Gospel is known as obscure by Satan. But when somebody turns to Christ, their hearts, the light of the gospel flows into their heart. But we must understand that Satan is able to blind the minds. So that's why we pray, God, I'm going to minister to this person. Let the work of the Holy Spirit and the blinds be removed. And who can remove that blindness? No man can do that. It's only the work of the Holy Spirit. And so Paul is saying, it is the Lord Jesus who only, the work of the Holy Spirit that can change lives. And then we see that he's proclaiming and he's saying it is Christ. Once we are changed from within, we become like the image of God. Paul does not talk about himself, but proclaims the gospel according to the Lord Jesus only. He considers himself a servant of the Corinthians for the sake of the Lord Jesus. And not only to the Corinthians, in many places, right? Paul, the apostle says, to the Jew, I'll be a Jew. To the Gentile, I'll be a Gentile. To the rich, I'll be rich. To the poor, I'll be poor. I'll be whoever I have to be, to whoever I am ministering to. So what is the lesson here? The lesson is that in ministry, no matter how big we become, it's nice to start small. When we start small, you know, we are very humble. We say, God help us. But what happens when we grow? When the ministry grows, people begin to recognize, recognize us, recognize our ministry, recognize the calling that we have. And then people bring in callers, invite us. And then what is it that we are doing at that time? We must guard our hearts. We are not appointed to lord over people. Or, you know, just remember, many a times, you know, I have openly corrected pastors and, you know, they just say, go get me a glass of water. Go do this. Go bring my children from school. And they use the church believers. And I remember telling this pastor once, I said, why is it that your believers, your church believers, has to go pick your children up, drop them in the morning, go bring, go to the vegetable market, get your, you know, go to the supermarket, get your things. And you're just sitting here doing nothing. And many of them were only upset, but I had to bring it out because we are not here to use people. As a minister, we are servants of Christ. It should be the other way around. We must have a heart of servanthood. The problem is we, you know, especially in our nation of India, we have lifted up the pastor, the preacher, the prophet, such a high place, he's not willing to come down. It is our fault. We have lifted them up. We have to honour. We are not to, you know, carry them over our head and say, okay, this man is a good, no, we don't have to do all that. Just be simple, right? Because we are servants of God. And so Paul is basically saying, no matter what we are, just be servants of Christ. Be humble, right? And that will, that'll be like a testimony to our ministry. Right? Now, verse seven onwards, he talks about being earthen vessels and treasures of, treasures and jars of clay. Let's read verse seven. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We've all used this verse, verse eight. We are heart-pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed but not in despair. We are persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. Always caring about in the Bhoori the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. Let me pause here. So look at verse eight. We are heart-pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed but not in despair. We are persecuted but not forsaken. We are struck down but not destroyed. So Paul is bringing out this wonderful, you know, he's saying, we are not crushed. We are not in despair. We are not forsaken. We are not destroyed. Now, these things may come against us. People may crush us from every side. Oh, you are a Christian. You are doing this and that. They may try to crush us but we are not crushed. People may try to bring despair and hatred and anger to us and against us but we are not in despair. We may not have people around us to support us. We may feel forsaken. We may feel alone, lonely. We may feel, God, where are you in these times of distress? Paul is saying, we are not forsaken. We may be struck down but we are not destroyed. So there may be persecutions but we will not be destroyed. Why? Because when we look at this, Paul is not only talking about the physical, the biological life. Death is going to come to everyone but he is talking about also this God kind of life. This God kind of life to be displayed in us all the time. Every moment of our life, the God kind of life, like how the Lord Jesus on the cross as well, he displayed that God kind of life even on the cross, where on the cross he says, Father forgive them for they don't know what they are doing. So Paul is, now listen, Paul is not talking about something which he has not gone through. Was he crushed? Definitely yes. Was he in despair? Many a times. Was he forsaken from his own people, from the people who he ministered to also, he was forsaken. Forget about Gentiles. Was he destroyed? Yes, he was tried. They were tried to kill him many a times. And he is saying, just because they are trying all this, this is the reality. We are not crushed. We are not in despair. We are not forsaken. We are not destroyed. And verse 11, for we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in a mortal flesh. So then death is working in us but life in you. Look at that sentence. Powerful sentence. And since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke. We also believe and therefore speak. Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise up with Jesus and will present us with you for all things are for your sakes that grace having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Now, it's wonderful. Is this touching how Paul is talking here? He is saying, Paul talks about the physical suffering and he is saying, even at martyrdom that he also faced, he and his team regularly faced just as they were delivered to death for the sake of the Lord Jesus, the life of the Lord was also displayed powerfully through their lives. I think the best example would be in Acts, a couple of examples here. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas in prison, they were physically beaten, they were bruised, they also tried to kill them but they were put into prison. They were almost killed but what happened? The power of God was displayed through their lives. Yes? They were praying. The whole jail was just broken down. The power of God came through their lives, through their broken lives, through their, you know, sufferings. God displayed their power. Look at the example of many years later in the book of Acts itself, Paul is towards his last missionary journey. I think he's in the island of Malta, the shipwreck that happened. I think that's, yeah, Acts 28, I guess. So they reached the island of Malta and then the Apostle Paul was putting up a fire and a snake came, what did he do? He shook off that snake. Now there was, you know, the work of the enemy trying to destroy Paul but the glory of the Lord was displayed. The life, this life was manifest in the manner of truth, integrity, character and a powerful ministry of the Spirit. We will face physical suffering but even through that physical suffering there's an overflow of God's work, God's life working. And Paul is relating this to the Corinthian church. He's saying, listen, there is suffering, there is persecution that you're going through but the God kind of life is going to flow in each of you and in the church that will touch many lives and God will use it as miracles. God will use this God kind of life, this glory of God, the power of God to touch many other people. So he's encouraging the church. But having the same faith according to written scripture, Paul speaks out the strong conviction in what he believes in that the Lord Jesus resurrected from the dead. We also will be resurrected. So even if death comes, one day we will be resurrected and we will present ourselves before the presence of God. And so Paul is here, he's so wonderfully saying, if you're alive, let the glory of God through those sufferings let the power and the glory of God be released touching many lives. If we are in death, then we will stand and present ourselves before Christ. We will be resurrected. So he doesn't go into the whole thing of resurrection here because he's already spoken of it previously in the previous first letter that he wrote. He briefly spoke about the resurrection. So then he goes on to seeing the invisible 16 through 18. Therefore we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding an eternal weight of glory while we do not look at things which are seen or not seen for the things that are seen are temporary the things that are not seen are eternal these are words wisdom from the apostle Paul. Just look at that therefore church you are in persecution, you are being tormented you're being crushed, you're being persecuted there's so many things going against you but do not lose heart because outwardly we may be perishing but in our inner being our spirit is being renewed right the body, the physical body may lose strength, vigor it is obvious when we are 20 and then we are 60 there is going to be a change if you look at apostle Paul when he was 30, 33 years old he said, let me go to Damascus man full of zeal full of strength and vigor, physical vigor he said, commander of the temple god because I can picture the apostle Paul, a young man early 30s he said, give me letters I will go to Damascus and wipe out this religion called Christianity then he has a beautiful encounter he spent 17 years 17 years in silence just making tents and ministering to people in Tarsus and now he is 50 years old, he begins his first missionary journey and when he starts his first missionary journey the persecution start now he is saying physically we may be weeding out but in our inner man the spirit is being strengthened the physical tribulation and physical distress is quick but that physical pain and distress is sometimes what takes us away from god so Paul is saying don't focus on that physical because what is important is what is not what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal so Paul is saying don't worry about the physical you look at your spirit look at what is eternal look at what God is doing in your hearts in your spirit and so here Paul ends this chapter so chapter 4 and chapter 5 we see again Paul chapter 3 and chapter 4 Paul is encouraging the church saying don't look at the things that I have said in the because he is not regretting what he said in the first letter but here now he has changed his approach because he, remember he visits the church and probably they were all sad and he says no I am not going to visit you again but I am going to write and I am going to encourage you and so we see even as we go on we will go on to chapter 5 chapter 6, chapter 7 again he goes on encouraging all through chapter 8, chapter 9 he defends his ministry a bit chapter 10, chapter 11 he talks about his vision and the ministry that God has called him for so it is wonderful this letter is, no he knew probably that this is going to be his last letter to them because he was heading to Judea after that where he will be persecuted and probably put to prison so these are last words of encouragement alright let's take a break we will come back at 10 o'clock and we will begin with chapter 5 thank you so much