Sermon Tone Analysis

Glow-in-the-Dark Christians

A Pocket Paper \\ from \\ The Donelson Fellowship \\ *______________*

*Robert J. Morgan \\ *March 4, 2007

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Have you ever been criticized?

Hurt by the words of another?

I don’t know if you remember last year when a CNN reporter was covering President Bush as he made a speech, and during his speech she slipped into the bathroom and, while there, ran into a friend and chatted a few minutes.

She didn’t realize that her microphone was on and her words were coming across the air and being beamed into millions of homes.

In what she thought was a private conversation, she made some remarks that were critical of her sister-in-law, and everyone heard them including, presumably, that sister-in-law.

I think a lot of us wondered how the next family gathering went.

Nobody likes it when criticism comes or when we hear something that someone else has said about us; but I’ve found that if you stand really still for must a few moments, the criticism will go in one ear and out the other.

It’s often not a very good idea to try to defend yourself or answer your critics.

It’s amazing how much we can shrug off when we want to.

In the early 1970s, I was working with the Billy Graham team in Norfolk, and I was amazed at how critical some of the clergymen were towards Dr. Graham.

In fact, there was one group of very conservative, fundamentalist preachers who took out full-page ads in the newspaper, and I still remember the banner at the top of the page:  “The Bible or Billy.”

I was alarmed about this, but when I went to the crusade office and discussed it with Dr. Graham’s men, they just smiled and shrugged it off.

They told me, “Dr.

Graham has always had a policy of not responding to criticism.

He says that if you wrestle with a skunk, even if you win, you lose.”

As a rule, I’ve found that’s good advice.

Too often we get our feelings hurt, we let ourselves get upset, we take offense too easily, and we’re too sensitive.

We need to just shrug things off and go on without letting them affect us.

I often think of Jesus, when he was criticized and rejected in Nazareth and they took Him to the brow of the hill to push Him off.

But the Bible laconically says simply that passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

But occasionally there are times when you need to explain yourself to those who are criticizing you, and that’s what 2 Corinthians is all about.

Paul was extremely distressed by some of the things being said about him in the city of Corinth, because he was afraid the criticism would affect the way people felt about the Gospel and about Christ Himself.

They weren’t just criticising him, but his message, his motives, and his methods.

And so the book of 2 Corinthians is a very personal and autobiographical work in which Paul seeks to explain himself in the face of certain criticisms.

I said last week that Paul’s great theme was: “Thank God for pressure.”

Well, today we’re talking about the pressure of criticism.

And one of the criticisms is that he was too assertive, too authoritative, and too bold.

In the passage we’re coming to today, Paul explains his boldness, why he is so open and honest and assertive in presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And in so doing, he tells us all how to be phosphorescent, glow-in-the-dark Christians.

This is a rather difficult but a very wonderful passage, so I’d like to look at it as carefully and exegetically and biblically as we can in the limited time we have, so would you begin by reading with me 2 Corinthians 3:7-18

 

/Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters of stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness?

For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.

And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!/

/ /

/Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.

But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read.

It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.

Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.

But whenever anyone 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 freedom.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit./

This is not an easy passage to figure out, and I’ve struggled with it quite a bit; but I think we can make it relatively simple; and when you get to the basic truth running through it, it’s well worth the effort.

Paul’s basic point here is that his message and his Savior is so glorious that he cannot help being bold.

Being a Christian, he claims, is glorious!

It is a glorious thing!

It’s a wonderful thing!

It’s the most glorious thing in the world.

It’s so glorious that our faces should be shining all the time, and our lives should be under continuous transformation from one degree of glory to another.

The whole world may be veiled in darkness, but the Christian walks in the light of the glory of God and is being transformed from glory to glory by the Lord, the Holy Spirit.

Our very lives glow in the dark, and because we have such hope we are very bold.

That’s his basic point as I understand it.

He gets there in four stages of thought.

*Our Message is Super-Glorious*

*(Verses 7-11)*

Stage one is: Our message is super-glorious.

The Old Covenant (the Old Testament, the Mosaic Law) was glorious, but the New Covenant (the Gospel) is super-glorious.

As he wrote this, the apostle Paul had on his mind the story of Moses in Exodus 34.

As you may recall, in that chapter Moses ascended onto Mount Sinai into the very presence of the Lord to receive instructions for the newly-liberated Hebrews slaves who had just escaped the tyranny of Egypt and were on their way to the Promised Land.

Moses ascended into the very glory-clouds of God’s splendor, and when he came down from the mountain his face glowed.

It was as though someone had turned on a powerful light bulb just under his skin, and the original languages even indicate that beams were shooting out of his face.

The Israelites were so distracted and alarmed by this that Moses covered his face with a veil until the phosphorescence faded.

Now, here is what the apostle Paul is saying.

Moses received the Law, which was given to show us the character and the standards of God’s holiness.

The Ten Commandments summarized the righteous requirements that flow out of God’s pure character.

In so doing, the Law defines sin.

What is sin?

It is the violating of God’s Law; and all of us are sinners and so all of us are dying.

The Law defines sins and sin results in death.

That’s the Old Covenant.

Jesus Christ, however, came to fulfill the Law and to shed His blood to forgive lawbreakers like us.

The Holy Spirit takes the sacrifice of Christ and sets us free.

That’s the New Covenant.

Now, if the Old Covenant was so glorious that it caused Moses’ face to shine, how much more glorious is the New Covenant.

If the Law of God is wonderful in that it summarizes God’s holy character and His expectations, how much more wonderful is it that Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Law and to pardon our sins and to give us life.

You see, that’s Paul’s clearly point in verses 7-11:

 

/Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters of stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness?

For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.

And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!/

 

*Our Message Makes Us Bold*

*(Verses 12-13)*

Now, in verse 12, Paul gets to his next point:  Moses veiled his face, but we are very bold.

The verse says:  /Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold./

/ /

In this passage, he is saying, in effect: “Yes, when it comes to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I am assertive and I am bold, and here’s the reason why.

I have a message that radiates with a glory that far surpasses the glory of the old message.

My message of grace is greater than Moses’ message of the Law.

Moses had his message and it made his face glow, but he hid the radiance behind a veil.

But I’m not hiding my message behind a veil.

Since I have such a hope, I am very bold.”

Look at verses 12ff.

again:  /Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away./

/ /

*This Message is Veiled to Some*

*(Verses 14-17)*

But now, there’s a third stage to Paul’s argument.

He admits that this message which so thrills him with its super-glorious nature, is indeed veiled to those who do not believe.