 Welcome everyone. Good to see you all and to be back at the Bible College last week I was teaching from home so good to be here with you all. Let's just begin with a word of prayer and then we'll talk through some of the things, assignments and things like that before we go into today's passage. Would someone be willing to open us in prayer please? We want to thank you for this time. Thank you for your presence, your grace upon us this morning. We ask for God that you would minister to us this morning as we begin to learn from your word. We ask for your grace and bless each one of us God with your power, with your glory. Help us to live a life which is pleasing before your eyes. In Jesus name we pray. Thank you. So I think your first assignment, your reflection paper was due last week. I haven't looked at how many people turned it in and but if you haven't yet turned it in please do that. Were there any questions anyone had or no? Okay. The other thing is that I posted two videos or I didn't posted Monika who helps with the classroom posted two videos last week. So these were the two videos just to make up because we had missed one class a few weeks ago. So please watch those videos because today we're going to be continuing from past those videos. I did the end of first Corinthians and then second Corinthians just the introduction and chapter one and two. So today we'll continue from chapter three. So y'all can go back and watch those videos if you haven't yet seen it. Yeah, so we can go into second Corinthians. Does anyone have anything else with assignments? If you have started on your final assignment, any questions, anything? Okay. Feel free to reach out to me during the week. I'll try and keep an eye on my on Google classroom. I'll know if somebody posts but if you're emailing me or something, I'll just look out for that in case you'll have any questions and need help as you're doing it or preparing to do the assignment. So we go into chapter three of second Corinthians. But before that, let me just give you a brief background to second Corinthians. I've done it in the video, but in case you missed it or you haven't yet seen it just so that you have some context to what is going on here. So second Corinthians was written about three years after first Corinthians. And so the letter to the Corinthians that first letter that we have in the Bible was written in response to some things that Paul had heard about the church, things that were going on in the church from reports that he'd received from within the church and possibly Titus who had also visited the Corinthian church had gone back and met Paul and shared some of these things. And so Paul wrote first Corinthians as a just to answer some of the questions to address some of the issues that were there. Now, second Corinthians is quite different. It mostly is Paul's self defense. So it seems that there were there was a continue continuation of that tension between a leader, church leaders. So there were people who had come in who were mocking Paul in some way. We'll see a little more in detail about that in second Corinthians chapter 11 where he talks more directly about it. But so there were some people who were claiming to be greater apostles or leaders than Paul, and they had come into the church and they were kind of trying to teach the church certain new things. And so that was a confusion within the church of who should is Paul really somebody that they can is he someone who has the authority or for leader that they can trust. And so Paul is sort of writing a defense about his own his own role as an apostle. And also it is that continuation of the the tension between the elite within the church, wanting a leader who meets their standards of rhetoric, who meets their standards of being someone that they support financially, whereas Paul was not receiving financial support from them. So all of these things created some tension between Paul as the as a someone as someone who had authority within the current in church as a leader there. And so he's writing this letter to support or to defend himself. So we'll see a lot of things where he's talking about writing a letter of recommendation being somebody who can be trusted for what for the work that he has done, especially today, what we look at in chapter three, we'll talk a lot about that. So with that, we can go into chapter three. Would someone be willing to just read the entire chapter for us? It's not a very long chapter. Second Corinthians chapter three. Do we begin again to comment ourselves? Or do we need as some others epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our episode written in our hearts known and read by all men. Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ ministered by us written not with ink, but by the spirit of the living God, not as tablets of stone, but on top, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is of the heart, the spirit, not the little and we have such trust through Christ toward God. 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, who has also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit for the letter of kills, but the spirit gives life, glory of the new covenant. But if the ministry of death written and engraved on stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech unlike Moses who put a veil on his 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. But even to this day when Moses is spread 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. Amen. Thank you sister. So we see here Paul beginning with this thought of do we have to start from the beginning again. So when Paul first went to the Corinthians they didn't know him and so he had to win their trust or he had to build their trust in who he was. So in verse one he's saying do we begin again now to commend ourselves to you. Should we again now try and prove who we are to you or should we have somebody else write a letter. So we see that even in scriptures where Paul will write a small just a small recommendation for the person who's taking the letter or someone who's going to the church on his behalf. He writes that on behalf of Timothy on behalf of Titus. So similarly this was something that was common a common practice where a leader a church leader or minister would have somebody write on their behalf just so that the people that they were going to would be able to trust them because they've got a recommendation from somebody they know or they got a recommendation from someone they trust and so he's saying should we ourselves now have a letter like that that we give to you from somebody else or should we ask you yourselves for a letter and then in verse two he says but you are our letter written on our hearts known and read by all men and so he says when people look at you when they see the fruit that has been born in this church that is the proof of the work that we did. Proof that the work we did was work that truly was of the spirit was of God and it's proof to everyone right because everyone can see your lives everyone can see the church what's going on in the church so just by seeing the fruit of the work they can tell that our work was work that was genuine and that's a beautiful thing just as people who are serving the Lord to think about that when we are ministering to people their lives how they are impacted will be proof that God has worked through us and other people will also be able to see that work and know that God himself has done this God has used us but it's God himself who has done it something for us to kind of look at in the work that we are doing to look at the lives of the people we are serving and see what is the impact it's having on their lives do we see that that kind of spiritual growth do we see maturity in their walk with Christ all of those things is is that happening in their lives and if so then that is the evidence that what we've been doing is really is really in line with God and in line with his spirit so then in verse 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ ministered by us written not with ink but by the spirit of the living God not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh so we this language is very familiar because it's it's a use of images from scripture itself right where we hear in the Old Testament that the law would no longer be written on on stone on tablets of stone but would be written on people's hearts when when the Holy Spirit came when people encountered Jesus so we'll just look at some of those passages if someone can read Jeremiah 31 31 to 34 Jeremiah 31 verse 31 behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt my covenant which they broke though I was a husband to them says the Lord but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people no more shall every man teaches neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them says the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more amen thank you so we see here Paul using that we see the same language used in other parts of the Old Testament as well in Ezekiel 11 19 and 20 in Ezekiel 36 26 and 27 talking about removing the heart of stone of the people and God removing the heart of stone that people had and giving them a heart of flesh through the Holy Spirit so Paul is intentionally using this language because from here on he shifts to talking about the old covenant versus the new covenant and in doing that he is why is he doing that is because he's saying that I am an apostle of a covenant that is much greater than the covenant that was given through Moses okay so these many of the people in the church were from a Jewish background and they had a great reverence for Moses because of his leadership of the people of Israel and the fact that that covenant was established between God and Israel through Moses through Moses's leadership and so here Paul is saying that the covenant that I have brought to you is greater than that covenant that Moses brought to you and so if you give Moses that kind of reverence then recognize that I am also worthy of respect not because of my authority but because of the glory of the covenant that God has allowed me to bring to you to share with you so so here in verse 3 he basically is saying that work that was promised in the Old Testament of the heart being transformed right so moving from the letter of the law to moving to a heart of flesh which carries the truth of God which carries the law of God in your heart that was what happened for you as a church for y'all as people who receive the gospel and so that itself is evidence of the work that we did so then from there verses 4 to 6 and we have such trust through Christ toward God so this confidence that they have is through Christ it's not in themselves in what they did but it is because of what Jesus did and what Jesus has done in the lives of the church and then verse 5 not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves but our sufficiency is from God so he's making it clear here even though I'm talking about myself and I'm talking about my I'm trying to defend my role as the leader here I want you to recognize that it's only because of God that that position that I have the work that has been accomplished everything has been only through God so that in no way is he trying to take glory for what has been accomplished and here the word sufficiency means the ability or the competency so the ability for him to have seen that church transform those people transformed or the competency to carry the gospel to them all was from God and not from himself so this is something for us also to remember that in ministry we are often called to things that are much much greater than anything we can accomplish in our own strength and our sufficiency our strength our ability our competency whether we have the knowledge or the skills or all of that is secondary it's definitely important to work on those things and to grow in those things but what is important is the calling and our obedience to the calling and then trusting in God to give us the the understanding the skills that we need to carry out what he has called us to and to give him the glory when we see that happen as well verse 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter kills but the spirit gives life so he made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant or minister somebody who serves who runs errands for a master so it's also understood as someone who picks up dust so he they are sent they run to do the task that has been entrusted to them and so that was the understanding of what paul was called to he was just carrying out the task that christ his master had entrusted to him and ministers of the new covenant now covenant is a will a legal contract an agreement that is binding on the people within the covenant and the covenant he's referring here to is the new covenant in the blood that is sealed with the blood of christ right so our covenant with god the father through the blood of christ and so this is a covenant that they were ministers of and this is a covenant not of the letter that is not like the old covenant which was simply a set of rules but it is of the spirit so this spirit that transforms the hearts of people not the letter that kills meaning not the letter that gives you a set of rules that you cannot follow but of the spirit who gives life so the spirit who transforms our hearts enables us to live in obedience to the will of god and through that to experience the life the abundant life that comes through christ so we see here the same thing about the role of the law versus the spirit in the new covenant in roman 7 5 to 6 if someone can read that for us please Romans chapter 7 verse 5 to 6 for when we were in the flesh the sinful passion which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to be a fruit to death but now we have been delivered from the law having died to what we were held by so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter yes so we see here the same thing there that the law was something that we were trying to fulfill or we're trying to live in accordance with the law in our own strength in our physical ability in our own flesh we were trying to live in accordance with the righteous law of god and we obviously failed because we could not meet god's standards and because we couldn't meet god's standards that would lead to death for us but because of this new covenant we no longer have to live in the power of our own flesh but we live in the power of the holy spirit and the holy spirit enables us to live a life that is pleasing to god and therefore to have life in christ so from there we go into verses 7 to 18 here we see paul just contrasting these two covenants so talking about the old covenant having glory that was limited versus a new covenant that is much more glorious again here continuing to tell them tell them to value what what god is entrusted to paul as a minister to them and so to recognize that this was something glorious that god himself had chosen paul to carry to the church so but if the ministry of death written and engraved on stones was glorious so that the children of israel could not steadily look at the face of moses because of the glory of his countenance which glory was passing away so this is from exodus 34 29 maybe we can just read that account exodus 34 29 to 33 actually can read from 29 to 35 from verse 29 34 29 exodus chapter 34 verse 29 now it was so when moses came down from mount sanai and the two tablets of the testimony where moses and when he came down from the mountain that moses did not know that the skin of his face shown while he talked with him so when aaron and all the children of israel saw moses behold the skin of his face shown and they were afraid to come near him then moses called to them and aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him and moses stopped with them afterward all the children of this little game and he gave them as commandments all the all that the lord has spoken with him on mount sanai and moses had finished speaking with him he put a veil on his face but whenever moses went in before the lord to speak with him he would take the veil off until he came on and he would come out and speak to the children of israel whatever he had been commanded and whenever the children of israel saw the face of moses and that the skin of moses face shown then moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with him so we see this account of the when moses received the tablets of stone with the old covenant with the law that god had given and so paul is talking about this specific these specific verses in the old testament that talks about that radiance on moses's face whenever he was meeting with god that that radiance could be seen on his face that glory could be seen on his face so he's saying here there that glory was a temporary glory because we see that after some time it would fade away right so he would come immediately after meeting with god his face would be radiant and then it would fade over time and then when he went back and met with god again he would come back with that radiance so that was a glory that was passing away but but this ministry of the spirit is a glory that will remain for eternity and so how much more glorious than is this ministry of the spirit versus that ministry of the old covenant and then in verse nine for the ministry of condemnation had glory the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more glory so another contrast where that one was a one of condemnation it it showed the people how sinful they were it didn't give them a way to be saved it only exposed that they were in a place of sin they were in a place of condemnation whereas the new covenant was a covenant of salvation it exposed the sins of people and gave people a way to be saved through Jesus and Jesus paid the price for that for our salvation and so contrasting the condemnation versus the righteousness that here we were condemned here we are made righteous in the new covenant we are made righteous in verse 10 for even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels for if what is passing away was glorious what remains is much more glorious so he's saying that old covenant actually has no glory now when you look at this new covenant this old covenant can't even be talked about as glorious because this glory is so great it eclipses anything that was in the Old Testament or in the Old Covenant verse 12 therefore since we have such hope we use 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 so Moses covered his face as he was engaging with the people on the other hand Paul could stand boldly and proclaim the gospel because of how great the gospel is so he's using now we know that Moses was not covering his face because of any sense of shame or anything of that sort but Paul is using that as an image that that veil was a picture of it being something less than versus we can stand boldly in front of you without any covering without having to shield ourselves in any way we can proclaim the gospel to you and then he also uses that veil to talk about the blinding of the people so the people who are still living with the Old Covenant their eyes are blinded so those who had not received Christ those who had not responded to the gospel had been blinded and that veil that was covering Moses face is like a veil that covers their eyes that they are unable to see the truth of who Jesus is but it is in the New Covenant that Christ takes away that veil and opens our spiritual eyes to reveal to us that salvation is in him to reveal to us what it means to be a covenant people truly people in covenant people made righteous people who stand before God as his people and so all of the things that the Old Testament talked about but didn't fulfill now in Christ is brought to reality and so that veil is taken away that spiritual blindness is taken away in Christ and then verse 15 okay verse 15 is saying a little more about that verse 17 so 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 is by the spirit of the Lord so so he says this is where true liberty is where true freedom is is in the Holy Spirit and when we experience that freedom from sin freedom from being enslaved and we're able to walk in righteousness we're able to walk in holiness that's where our liberty is and in this liberty we can gaze on on Christ we can look at Christ and it's like we are looking in a mirror and as we are gazing at Christ we become more and more like him we become more and more glorious and that is the work of the Holy Spirit in us so we keep our eyes fixed on Christ we are constantly allowing ourselves to be transformed into his image into his likeness doing that as we surrender more and more through the Holy Spirit's work in us and so this is also a beautiful thing that it's not only a covenant that is more glorious but we are a people who carry that glory so the the Old Testament had some glory and Moses was a carrier of some of that glory but now each of us as believers become carriers of this greater glory and we're growing from glory to glory as we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us as we continue to fix our eyes on Christ continue to gaze upon him and allow him to make us more like him so we can move from there to the next chapter we can move chapter four um I think this is also a short chapter so if somebody can read that for us chapter four chapter four the light of Christ 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 but even if our gospel is wailed it is wailed 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 who is the image of God should shine on them for we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your born servants for Jesus sake for it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ but we have this treasure in earthen reserves that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us we are hard pressed on every side yet not crushed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed always caring about in in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body for for we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus sake that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh so then death is working in us but life in you and since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written I I believe and therefore I spoke we also believe and therefore speak knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you for all things are are for your sakes that grace having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God therefore we do not lose heart even though our outer 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 and eternal weight of glory while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal thank you so here we see Paul moving from this talking about the two covenants contrasting them talking about the fact that this covenant that they brought was a covenant that was so glorious and so God had entrusted that ministry to Paul now he talks about this other side of of the sacrifice that is involved in this gospel the things that they have suffered the things that they have gone through because they know that glory is not for this present day so even if the church is looking for a leader who is who is someone who is impressive or someone who in some way matches their idea of what is great what is something for them to boast in he says that is not what we are looking at we are not looking at what is what is considered glorious in the present we are looking at a future glory and so he talks he talks more about that through this chapter versus from verse one onwards since we have this ministry we as we have received mercy we do not lose heart and so it's recognizing that this ministry is given to them through the mercy of God and because it's given through the mercy of God whatever challenges they face and whatever comes against them in whatever way whether it is from outside the church or within the church they do not lose heart because it is that recognition of God's goodness to them God's compassion towards them that is undeserved God entrusting them with this ministry just out of his own kindness towards them that is what encourages them that's what keeps them going even in the face of challenges this is something that is so important for us as people who may be ministering in different contexts whether it's in a full-time context or voluntarily whatever it is challenges are a normal part of ministry there will be people who question the things we do people who don't like the way we're doing things people who think someone else may be a better leader whatever those challenges are sometimes from the people the very people we are leading it's different when it's someone from the outside who you're not ministering to you don't you may not be as hurt by a challenge that comes from the outside but when it is the very people that you are making sacrifices for when it's those people for whom you're pouring out your life you're doing all of these things to see them grow to bless them and then you see them question you or them to in some way not not recognize what you are doing for them then it's so easy to become discouraged to feel like our work is hopeless or our work is not being not really useful in any way in these times it is so important to be strengthened by the Lord to remember it is the Lord who has called us it's the Lord who's entrusted this ministry to us it's the Lord who has in his compassion in his great mercy towards us and towards the people we are serving he has given us this ministry and entrusted to us and that should be what keeps us going even when outside circumstances are not encouraging us to be encouraged in the spirit through that confidence that we have in Christ and that gratitude that we have for what he has entrusted to us so verse two 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 so he says we have done this without in any way trying to deceive people so we have not tried to trap you we've not tried to adulterate or give you something that is impure something that is incorrect something that is wrong we've not tried in any way to to deceive you rather we have brought to you the truth the plain truth right we've been honest before you we've presented the gospel to you and this itself should be proof to you that we can be trusted so the fact that we didn't come with any ulterior motive in the way we presented the gospel we didn't in any way choose any cunning way any way to take your money nothing like that we just came with the pure gospel and by seeing the way we did it the way we presented the truth to you that um should should prove our character and our hearts to you so we'll stop here we'll take a 10 minute break and be back and kind of continue from there thank you