Commending the Gospel

I. Introduction
 A. 2Corinthians 6:3–5 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;
 B. As Paul is engaged in the ministry of reconciliation, he exercises great care to put no obstacle in anyone’s way,  but rather he strives to commend himself as a servant of God by the way he lives.
  1. Jesus had warned, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” Mt.7:15-18
   a. How do you tell the difference between a true prophet and a false one? By their fruit, by their life.
   b. If there’s no real change in a person’s life, there’s no real faith in that person’s heart.
   c. Paul was eager to show that he was a true servant of Christ, not a false one, so he was zealous to commend Christ by the way he lived.
  2. You see, as a pastor, if someone finds fault in my ministry, then it puts an obstacle in their way to embracing the gospel I preach. If I reek of pride, or hypocrisy, or cowardice, or greed, or the fear of man, or worldly ambition, people will not listen to what I’m preaching.
  3. The point is, we preach with our lives, not just with our words. Therefore, our lives need to match our Christian testimony. We need God’s Spirit to work in us deeply so that our lives don’t undermine the gospel but commend it to others.
  4. In Titus 2:9-10 Paul exhorts bond-servants to live their lives in such a way “so that in everything they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” Too many times the lives of professing believers do not adorn the gospel but actually destroy our testimony, and give non-believers an excuse to push the message of Christ aside. Lord, may it not be true for us! 
 C. What follows is a list of 27 phrases that describe the context in which Paul lives out his message.
  1. But, don’t worry, we’re not going to cover all 27 today. The 27 are composed of three sub-lists of nine each. We are going to focus on the first nine this morning. The first group focuses on Paul commending the gospel by the way he endures troubles.
 D. So that’s our topic today: enduring difficulties Christianly so as to bear a good witness for Christ.
 E. This sub-list of nine is comprised of three groups of three items each.
  1. The first of these triplets is three general terms for troubles: afflictions, hardships, and calamities.
  2. The second triplet focuses on persecutions: in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots.
  3. And the third subgroup of three is three forms of bodily suffering: labors, sleepless nights, hunger.
II. So, let’s think about endurance in the context of adversity, persecutions, and bodily suffering.
 A.  Commending the gospel in adversity (6:3-4)
  1. The first 3 items on this list of 9 are general terms for difficulty: afflictions, hardships, distresses.
  2. Paul’s gospel-commending lifestyle was lived out in the context of much suffering.
  3. Paul showed forth the glory of Christ in the manner in which he endured his many afflictions, hardships, and distresses. He actually gives us a list of his sufferings coming up in 2Cor.11:23-29.
  4. So often we think we could be happy, vibrant Christians if only our circumstances would improve: if only my spouse were what he/she should be, if only I was married, if only I had a better job, if only I wasn’t sick, if only I had more money, if only..., if only..., if only....
  5. When things go the way we want them, it’s easy be happy! That’s not the joy of the Lord!
  6. It’s during hard times that joy/hope/peace/love stand out as unexplainable except by God’s power.
  7. Paul’s life shows us that God’s light can shine in us even in hardships of all things.
  8. It is easy to have peace in your soul when everything is going the way we like it to go. But when turmoil comes, how quick we become anxious and disturbed in heart! We need the peace that passes human understanding, the peace that comes only from the Lord, the peace that comes from knowing Christ and His love and His trustworthiness and His goodness and promises.
  9. The non-believer thinks he can be happy only if his circumstances change. But the believer walks in the knowledge that by God’s grace he can have joy and freedom and a vibrant testimony even while experiencing troubles.
  10. In fact, the Christian knows that all his troubles actually give him INCREASED opportunity for witness to others and glorification of Christ. If people can see that we have hope when circumstances look bad, then they  are much more likely to pay attention to our testimony.
   a. Every adversity we experience gives us a platform from which we can proclaim the excellencies of the risen Christ, who endured all things for the sake of His beloved.
   b. And that contentment makes the gospel look real in the eyes of those watching us.
  11. Of course, the flesh wants to react with anger, with self-pity, with denial. Endurance in the face of afflictions, hardships, and distresses is a sign of the Spirit of Christ at work.
 B. Commending the gospel in the face of persecution (6:5)
  1. The next three words all have to do with persecution: beatings, imprisonments, riots.
  2. Few of us have experienced persecutions this severe. But we see in the book of Acts, that, throughout his ministry, Paul’s preaching of the gospel stirred up lots of this kind of opposition.
   a. He was often beaten: “countless beatings, often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.” - 2Cor.11:23-25.
   b. He was frequently imprisoned (see 2Cor.11:23).
   c. And numerous riots were stirred up against him (Barnett says, "According to the Acts of the Apostles there was scarcely a major center visited by Paul that did not sustain some social upheaval in the course of his ministry there.").
  3. And yet in all this, Paul lived a life that was a splendid advertisement for the gospel.
   a. Like his Lord, he did not fight back (though he did flee a few times); he did not pay back evil for evil or insult for insult. Instead, he "persevered in tribulation," he "blessed those who persecuted" him (Rom.12:12, 14). By God’s power he loved even those who were attacking him.
   b. He lived out the instructions he gave to others about how to respond to persecution: “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone... If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved... if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Rom.12:17-21)
  4. Perhaps the most splendid example of Paul’s Christlike response to persecution is found in Acts 16:23-40. After being beaten with many blows and thrown into prison in Philippi, Paul and Silas are found "praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." As it turns out, the jailer was also listening to them and became one of the first converts in that city and indeed in all of Europe. 
  5. Paul commended the gospel by his response to persecution. Our persecution may be much more mild, but if our response is like Paul’s (as opposed to self-pity, anger, or fear, for instance) then when we spread the good news about Christ, our lives will display what our mouths proclaim.
 C. Commending the gospel in times of bodily distress (6:5)
  1. The next triplet in Paul’s list is three forms of bodily suffering: labors, sleeplessness, and hunger.
  2. All of us know what it means to have to work extremely hard, to the point of exhaustion/fatigue.
   a. And we know how easy it is to get irritable and unhappy in that situation.
   b. But when we have joy in that situation, and when we love people even when we’re completely wiped out, then we really commend the gospel.
  3. And the same is true with sleeplessness. You know, we usually see each other when we’ve had a good night’s sleep and a chance to wake up and get something to eat, and get ready. But what are we like when the baby wakes up for the fourth time of the night, or when we work night shift and don’t sleep for 24 hours or more?
  4. And all of us know what it’s like to be so hungry that we begin to feel weak and dizzy.
  5. We all also know how very hard it is to be godly in these conditions. We know how easy it is to be self-centered in these circumstances. We know how easy it is to grumble and feel sorry for ourselves and be grumpy toward others.
  6. Paul commended the gospel by the way he behaved when experiencing these affiliations. “A ministry of reconciliation requires that one must go to those who are unreconciled and impenitent, to claim those claimed by Satan, to march boldly into the dens of vice, ignorance, and deviltry. It is dangerous work, as Christ’s crucifixion reveals. The demonic powers do not lie down weakly in submission when the gospel is preached. But they rise up and lash out viciously in a desperate attempt to prevent it from taking hold.” – Garland
  7. He was not a man who was dependent on his creature comforts. He was dependent on the Lord.
  8. He also glorified God by his willingness to experience these things, entering into activities that were bound to result in things like these.
  9. He didn’t avoid situations which might be uncomfortable or tiresome or difficult. He threw himself into ministry. He was willing to take risks. He was wiling to be inconvenienced. He was willing to go out of his comfort zone.
  10. Are you ready for this? None of us are. We need much help from our Lord in order to be able to be a good advertisement for Christ when we are exhausted or hungry or sick.
  11. Do you remember when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and his face glowed with the glory of God? Did you know that this was after 40 days of fasting? Godly joy, love, and gratitude are not the fruits of eating and being well-rested. They are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. They are the fruits of being connected to God.
  12. Sufferings don’t cause sin. They expose sin that’s already in our hearts. Jesus went 40 days without food and still wouldn’t give in to the temptation to sin. And though He had gone all night without sleep, and been whipped to within an inch of death, though He was so exhausted that he collapsed under the weight of the cross, yet He still did not sin but remained perfectly righteous in all He did and said and thought.
III. Conclusion
 A. We’re not going to get there by trying hard to remain calm. We can’t do this. We can’t be patient, kind, gentle, joyful and loving while we’re suffering.
 B. Here’s the key: we need to see what’s really there. We need God to open our eyes to reality.
 C. You know what sufferings do? They can easily distract us from Christ. So can success.
 D. Christ in our lives is more powerful than hunger, sleepiness, exhaustion.
 E. And more powerful than loneliness, rejection, and even abuse.
 F. And He’s more powerful than worldly achievement, popularity, recognition.
 G. Christ is always the big thing in our lives.
 H. The disciples in the storm (Matt.8:23-27): the One asleep on a pillow was actually more powerful than the storm. On a sea journey, it’s easy to ignore someone asleep off in a corner.
 I. Peter walking on water in Matt.14:22-23: Jesus was bigger than the winds/waves. But Peter took His eyes off Jesus and focused on the problem.
 J. This is our problem. When troubles arise, we take our eyes off Jesus. or perhaps we didn’t really have our eyes on Jesus before troubles arose. And we don’t go to Jesus until we are desperate enough.