2 Corinthians 2:12-3:3

What do you do when ministry — or life — doesn't feel triumphant at all? In this study of 2 Corinthians 2:12–3:3, we uncover two universal human aches: the anxious uncertainty of not knowing how things will turn out, and the exhausting pressure to prove ourselves through performance and credentials. Paul faced both, missing his coworker Titus and fielding attacks from self-proclaimed "Super-Apostles" in Corinth. But he reframes his identity through a strange and beautiful image: the Roman triumphal procession, where he is not the conquering general but the captive — swept along in Christ's victory rather than earning his own. We explore what it means that our validation isn't found in self-commendation or impressive letters of recommendation, but in transformed lives written by the Spirit on human hearts rather than on tablets of stone. This is a message about resting in Christ's finished triumph instead of chasing our own.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

2 Corinthians, we're moving through this letter written by Paul. We are in chapter 2, and we will touch chapter 3 this morning. So let me put up in front of you what we've we've talked about every week, which is again that God has made you a blessable, image-bearing, covenant partner. And we are studying through 2 Corinthians to learn what this looks like according to Paul. How did Paul live this out? And so last week we were in a section where we talked about forgiveness. You remember there was the guy in the church, gross sin, he repented, and Paul has to tell him, okay, welcome him back in. Welcome him back as a part of the church family. Paul is going to continue this idea, and one of the things that we're going to see is that Paul's still being really, really transparent about the stuff that's going on in his own life. You remember that this was a dark season. Chapter 1, Paul said that he despaired even of life. And Paul's not even there right now, and there's a strain. And it just so happens he was kicked out of Ephesus after a couple of years of ministry there, and he is basically trying to reconnect with his ministry partners and get over to Corinth by traveling up through Macedonia. So we're going to look at this passage together. There's nine verses we're going to look at this morning together. One of the things that we do when we're studying the Bible is that we are we're looking for a few key things in the text. One of them is an ache, you could call it. You ever had a headache? Yeah, so there's an ache. It's not a headache, it's an ache that comes to us in the text from the fallen condition. In Genesis 3, it says that humanity rebelled against God, fell from their original design into this place of rebellion, and death spread across the world. And so in every text that we are going to study in the Bible, there is a reference typically to some part of this fallen condition. The fact that humans are finite, fallen, and that they're fragile. You're fallen, finite and fragile. And so that's how you're able to connect with this text. We're also going to look at how the gospel is in the text and kind of patches the holes of humanity. How does the work of Jesus and the new covenant patch the holes of our fallenness? And the third thing that we want to see and ask: is there any reference in this text that really kind of points us back to Genesis 1 and 2, the original design? Is there any echoes of creation in this passage? One of the things that you're going to see going back to just that ache, is that this text exposes the human craving for validation through performance, credentials, or self-promotion rather than resting on Christ's finished triumph. There is just this aspect of being human where just being in Jesus sometimes feels like it's not good enough, and we feel like we've got to prove ourselves. And Paul does a beautiful job of not getting sucked into that. Let me read to you these nine verses. We'll pray and then we'll look at it together. Sound good? When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though the Lord opened a door for me, I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus. Instead, I said goodbye to them and left for Macedonia. But thanks be to God who always leads us in Christ's triumphal procession, and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. For to God we are the fragrance of Christ amongst those who are being saved, and amongst those who are perishing. To some we are the aroma of death leading to death, but to others an aroma of life leading to life. And who is adequate for these things? For we do not market the word of God for profit like so many. On the contrary, we speak with sincerity in Christ as from God and before God. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need like some letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You should you show that you are Christ's letter, delivered by us, not written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Let's pray together. Father, as we look into your word and read through this text together, we pray that you would instruct us, that you would teach us, correct us where we need correction. We want our ears to be open to the whisper of your spirit as we're going through this text. We each brought in our own stories this morning, God. We each we each have things that we've gone through that we're going through. And Lord, we we count it a privilege when you speak to us from your word about our lives. When you give us a word for us specifically. And so we ask for that experience this morning. Train us, teach us, rebuke us, correct us where we need it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I want to look first at this idea of uh of the ache. Sometimes in ministry or in life, it doesn't feel triumphant at all. You kind of feel like you're under, not over, uh, like you're beat down, maybe confused, um, and that the that you're like running against the tide and the tide is winning. In in this passage, there are two glimpses of this idea. There are two points at which we see um almost a sense of um setback. Have you ever had a setback in your life? Like you take the you're making progress, and then it's like, man, that was a real, real setback. Maybe it's a self-inflicted wound, maybe it's a deal that falls through. Um, Paul experienced that. And I want to start with those those two things. And again, this is that that human ache in the text where where you and I can relate to man. Paul, you know, I've felt that before too. You know, if Paul was sitting here and he he told us these these two things, you'd be able to look at it and be like, man, I can relate to that. That's my human experience. The first comes up in verse 12. And he talks about um leaving Troaz or coming to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though the Lord had opened a door for him. He had no rest in his spirit because he didn't find Titus. And so he said goodbye to them and he left for Macedonia. Let me just show you the map. So Paul has been for two years over here in Ephesus, teaching in the house of Trophimus. In Acts 18, you can look it up, right? So he's here in Ephesus, but then this riot starts. He's been working with Corinth over here, sending letters, sending, um doing quick trips over. And we've already saw that he had this plan, that he was going to originally his plan was to leave Ephesus, come to Corinth, and then go up here into Macedonia. But then things really got bad in Corinth, and they needed a little bit more time to fix themselves. I think that was my computer. They needed a little bit more time to fix themselves. And so Paul takes this journey. He also gets spit out of Ephesus by this riot, expelled from the city faster than he had planned, and so he travels up here to Troaz. So back here in our text, Paul says that when he got to Troaz to preach the gospel, that the Lord opened a door for him. But he has no rest in his spirit. He feels troubled because he couldn't find his brother Titus. So again, this is where we jump in. We got to find, okay, who is Titus in this case? Is Titus just his friend? No, if we go to chapter 7, what we see is that Paul had already sent Titus from Ephesus to Corinth to try to help this church with their problems. Paul had maybe sent a letter with Titus that we don't have. Titus was doing all this work there with the church in Corinth, and Paul was waiting to hear an update from Titus, but before he gets a chance to connect with Titus here, Paul gets kicked out. Now, they don't have cell phones, they don't have beepers, they don't have GPS. Like all of a sudden, the plan is in turmoil, and how are these two guys gonna find each other, right? And Paul's on his way up here to Troaz, and where's Titus? And so Paul's not just upset because he misses his buddy, but Titus is this vessel carrying an update about how the church is doing. And he says he has no rest in his spirit. But here's the interesting thing. Paul is a man called to preach the gospel, and he comes to Troz, which is a major Roman city at the time, and it says that he came there to preach the gospel of Christ. And even though the Lord opened a door for him, that's kind of the context, he didn't find Titus, and so he says goodbye. Now, if you go and look up Troaz, you're gonna see that he stops there in Acts chapter 20 at the back half of this trip. In fact, I think that's on the map. So on the way back, they come back through Troaz. They have an important meeting with some of the church elders there. So Paul isn't totally abandoning it, but he recognizes there is a significant open door for Jesus in this city. He just decided this was not his open door. Those of you that are going through the lessons of assurance book, you know that you go through that chapter on guidance. And we're talking about how do you discern the will of God. And Paul here has to discern what is God's will for him in Troas. Sometimes people say, Well, I knew it was God's will because I felt a great sense of peace in my life. Okay, that might be a factor. Others say, Well, I knew it was God's will for me because there was an open door for me. Well, here in this particular case, Paul doesn't take that as God's will in this time. And um, so I want you to press in as you're going through your green book, your lessons of assurance book on that guidance topic, think through. What does it mean for God to guide you? Just because you have an open door doesn't mean that it's from God. Satan can open up doors as well, right? Satan can give you all kinds of opportunities. Right? So don't just look at open doors and be like, oh, that's God's will for my life. Now it seems as if here it's the Lord who opened the door for him. But the cool thing about Paul's ministry style was he had Titus's, he had Timothy's, he had Silas's. He could basically start, he could keep moving, and he could send somebody else back to Troas to keep that ministry work happening. It's interesting, it's an interesting note, but I what I want you to see here is that the humanity of Paul comes to the surface, the ache of being finite, fragile, and fallen. Here we have this experience of no rest in my spirit. Now, nowadays we have a medication for that. It's an anti-anxiety medication, probably, right? But for Paul, there was no medication, no prescription that he could get. He just had this sense of turmoil because he couldn't find Titus there. He couldn't find Titus. There are times in your life and my life where there are things where it's just like, man, this is upsetting. This is upsetting. And instead of being paralyzed by that, Paul keeps moving forward. I want to do something, just briefly. I'm not going to follow the flow here entirely. What I want to do is I want to jump down to verse 1 of chapter 3. And we'll come back to verse 14. So in 2 Corinthians 3, 1, Paul says, Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Your version may say, Do we need to commend ourselves again? Or do we need like some other letters of recommendation to you or from you? You see, at this time, Paul was facing the reality that this church had an outside group that had come in while Paul was away. Remember, they were talking smack about Paul? They're undercutting Paul's reputation. And they're saying, you know, Paul's not a great apostle. You know, he's he's somebody, you know, he's a second-rate apostle. Scrawny, ugly, and has a hooked nose.

unknown 16:49

Right?

SPEAKER_00 16:50

And so Paul asks this question. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Do we need letters of recommendation to you? There's this pressure that Paul feels, right? So he's upset about Titus not being in Troas. He's upset about all of a sudden he doesn't, he feels like his authority in the church is being undercut, his his influence is being undercut. Maybe you have this, maybe you have this with a teenager, right? You're raising your teenager and all of a sudden they rebel. And your word isn't gold anymore. And they just think you are the dumbest adult ever born on the face of the earth, right? That might be your parenting experience, right? And there's this sense of like, I've got to justify myself. Maybe it happens to you at work where you're just like, do you know like the schooling that I've done? Do you know all that, all that I have, all that I've done, to have this position, and you're gonna challenge me? That's a it's a com Paul's in a in a setting that's fairly common. It's it's common to our human experience. And yet Paul is going to respond to this moment, not like Moses would respond, but he's gonna respond according to the new covenant like Jesus would respond. So we have turmoil in his heart, we have the pressure to prove himself. Let's see what he has to say, jumping back over to verse 14. The triumph of Christ. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in Christ's triumphal procession, and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. All right, now this is not an easy verse to translate into English because the work about being a captive here that um leads us in Christ's triumphal procession, there is this um word in Greek that is the idea of that we are Christ's captive. So what Paul is doing, he's speaking into a Roman culture that was familiar with a general's victory parade. And these generals would come back from war, they would take their army, they would have a victory parade through Rome. And a part of the parade was the captured soldiers from the opposing army marching behind that general's chariot. There would be incense burning along the route. It would be pleasant incense to the victors, but to those who lost, it was a signal of their doom, oftentimes execution for the captives. It's likely that Paul here is saying that he is Christ's captive, following in that parade. Sometimes you'll see this, and there are some people that will teach that we are with Christ in his victories as co-victors. That's not that's probably not the image Paul has here. Now, in other places, it says that Christ leads us in victory. But the image that Paul wants the Corinthians to have here, particularly, is that we are his captives in his victory parade, Christ's triumphal procession. We are a trophy of his victory, and there is this aroma that comes from us. He's describing himself one as captured in Christ's victory. Jesus is the winner, bless you. Jesus is the winner in this scenario. And he goes on in verse 15, it says, For to God we are the fragrance of Christ amongst those who are being saved and amongst those who are perishing. So Jesus wins the day. We are captives in that. We are the trophies of Jesus' victory, and we Smell like Jesus to both those who are saved and to those who are perishing. Now that smell, to some, it's the aroma of death leading to death, those who are perishing. But to others, it's an aroma of life leading to life, and who's adequate for these things. Remember, we've talked about Gary Bershir's cosmic battle theory. That there was before the world was created, there was this cosmic battle where Satan, an angel created, rebelled against God and took a third of the angels with him and was cursed, cast out of heaven, and was thrown down to the earth. And that cosmic battle was unfolding between God and this rebellion of angels, and in the midst of that battle, God created humanity to bear his image in Satan's domain on the earth, to be his image bearers, to be blessed by God in the midst of that, and by doing good, being fruitful, doing good by giving order to the world, he's overcoming the chaos monster, Satan, in the world. And so you and I are born into, created in the midst of a battle, and yet what do the first humans do? They rebel against God, they give in to the temptation of Satan, and so there is this minor victory for Satan, and yet God is not done with humans. He is still going to bring about his victory, and he does that through Christ. And so Christ is now, according to Paul, he's leading this triumphal procession. There are some that he has taken captive, Christ is taken captive. You and I, if you're a follower of Jesus, we've been taken captive by him, and we're trophies in God's battle of his victory. If you want to be a trophy in the victory of God, all you have to do is submit your life to Christ. And this is what you need to know that Jesus will win. We already know the end of the story. So it's not like you're betting on which baseball team or horse is going to win. The Bible already tells you who will win this battle. And the winning side is inviting you onto his team. He's saying, if you will surrender your life to me, if you will follow me, you can be on the winning side. You can be a captive of Christ, smelling like Jesus, on the side of victory. But you can also decide that you want to reject that, and the Christians around you will smell like death. Why do they smell like death? Why do Christians smell like death? Well, because they're not doing life like the rest of culture. They're loving their neighbor, they're being generous. Like they're laying down their life so that others can live and be fruitful. It smells like death if you're not a follower of Jesus. But for those of us who know Christ, when we watch one another as captive by Christ, we look at it and go, man, just there's an aroma of life coming from you. I mean, that's my Sunday experience. It's overwhelming. The more people we have at church, it was like one thing when our church was like 18 people, and it was like, I knew your stories. It was like, but now, you know, we got a hundred people that are like here, usually on a Sunday, and I know your stories, and I watch you follow Jesus, and it's just it's like overwhelming. It's like I stepped into like a perfume store, and it smells like so much life, so much, so much of the triumph of Christ playing out in your life as you submit to Jesus. And so you may be like a Paul, where you go to Troaz and you can't find your buddy there, and and you're waiting for this crucial, important information about Corinth, and you feel troubled, but you've got to know that Jesus is still winning. And notice while Jesus is winning and leading his captives in triumph in this procession, Paul's heart doesn't feel like that. Right? Because how did he describe his heart? His heart feels like no rest in my spirit. That's what he's going through, but yet Jesus is winning. You've got to be able to hold intention the fact that even though Jesus is winning, I may not always feel like he's winning. That's just a part of following Jesus. So we've got the triumph, but he goes on into verse 17. He says this, for we do not market the word of God for profit like so many. This may be like a like an elbow in the side of these super apostles back there in Corinth, who are positioning themselves as really the great true apostles, and Paul as a second rate apostle. He says, look, it for us, when we do ministry, we're not out to make a profit. We're not marketing the gospel. Instead, on the contrary, we speak with sincerity in Christ as from God and before God. We're just super, we're just straightforward. You can hold up our life to the light. There's no cracks in our life, there's no hidden motives in how we do ministry. What you see is what you get. We're just super sincere. What? Yeah, yeah. It's beautiful. It's beautiful how he shares about his ministry. Now, we read verse one already, which is the next verse out of chapter three, because he's just said, he's just said, he's talked about many others who are trying to do ministry but for profit. And so he says, do we need again to commend ourselves? Or we do we need to prove ourselves? Like some with letters of recommendation. Now he's not saying that a letter of recommendation is bad. He's just saying it's so out of context. It's like if I if I was like, um, you know, you know, my son Hudson, if I said, you know, um, Hudson, I've got some advice for you, but uh before you listen to my my advice, I need you to get some letters of recommendation. He's like, that's just so absurd. He knows me, like he's grown up with me, right? He knows all that need, and so, but but here with Paul, Paul planted this church in Corinth, and here's some outsiders that are challenging us, and he's like, Do I really, do I really need to go and prove myself again to you? You yourselves are our letter. He's like, look at look at look at the ministry there. You are the, you're the evidence, you are the letter, and it's written in our hearts, known and read by everyone. And then verse 3. You show that you're Christ's letter. So not only are you my letter, right? So not are you, not only are you a letter of reference for me, but but you're also a letter of Christ. Now, here's what's important. This sets up everything we're gonna talk about next week, okay? We have him talking about this letter, that you're a letter written by Christ. And that's this this would apply to you and I, right? Jesus is writing your life as if it were a letter. Like he's composing your life. He's at work in you. But Paul's gonna contrast this with the old covenant. He's gonna say there's letter writing, there's the instrument for writing according to the old covenant, and there's the material that writing happens on according to the old covenant. But then there's new covenant ministry. This is gold. This is so important for you to grab a hold of because just because you've got the Bible, you need to understand that there's the old covenant Moses way of doing ministry, and then there's the new covenant Jesus way of doing ministry. So Paul says, you're a letter of Christ delivered by us, not written with ink, but written with the Spirit of the living God. So it's not, you're not an ink letter like you would have on LinkedIn, or when you go to apply for a job and your former boss writes you an ink letter. No, the letter that you have is a Spirit of God letter that is right, that you're this letter of Christ. And then it's not on tablets of stone. What do we what do you think of with tablets of stone? Moses, right? Yeah, Moses had the tablets of stone. Under the old covenant, God wrote his law on these tablets of stone. The Ten Commandments, that's right. And and Paul says to them, listen, you as a letter, you're not written on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the human heart. God's at work writing, you as a letter, commending Paul, commending Christ, not with ink, not on tablets of stone, but the Spirit of God is at work in you, writing on your heart. Is he? Church, is he? Are you letting the Spirit of God go to work inside of you? Or are you trusting that your transformation is going to be a ministry of ink and tablets of stone? Are you trusting that your fruitfulness is going to be some exterior letter writing and taking the Moses' Ten Commandments? If you think that your spiritual growth is going to come from just following the Ten Commandments, you're totally missing it. Because we're under the new covenant. And according to the new covenant, God is at work in you and me if we will cooperate. That's why we're memorizing scripture in our waypoints, discipleship growth. That's why we're learning to study our Bibles, is so that the Spirit of God can take those things and go to work on the inside of us. Does that make sense? It's not this external thing, it's an internal work by the Spirit of God in you and I. That's why for phase two we're talking about prayer. Because as we're talking to God, and as he's speaking to us through his word by his spirit, he is shaping us. We want to be this. We want to be those who are Christ's letter. And Paul in the faith, he uses just this temptation to justify himself and prove himself and be like, nope, I'm in the kingdom of heaven. And in the kingdom of heaven, under the new covenant, God's at work inside people. And I don't need to prove myself. You don't need to prove yourself. You don't need to justify yourself. You're Christ's letter. Christ is working on your behalf. You're his captive in his triumphal procession. He leads the way. He is the one that has saved you, has rescued you. You only need to follow him. You've got victory. You've got his triumph on your account. Lord, we pray that you would take the difference between a Moses old covenant striving, works, and contrast it with a new covenant grace that you want us to have in our life. We want to be a people that are like, that are just understanding what Paul is saying and then working with other people like that. We don't want to work with people according to the law of Moses. We want to work with the people around us according to the new covenant. So, Lord, thank you for this morning and just the time to spend in your word. We ask that you continue to teach us these things. And we pray this in your name. Amen.