Sermon Tone Analysis

“Ministry” or “minister” are words you here often in religious conversation.

“Minister” basically means “to serve” so “ministry” is that of giving service.

One who ministers is one who serves the need, whatever it is.

Both words carry with them the idea of “humility.”

Scripture has much to say about “ministry.”

It speaks of young Samuel ministering to Eli and Joshua ministering with Moses.

Priests at the altars were ministers.

Governing authorities are spoken of as ministers of God.

Those seven men chosen to serve tables in the early church were ministers.

In Ephesians 4 we read that pastors and teachers are given to the church to equip the saints to “do works of service, so that the body of Christ might be built up.”

Ministers and those who do ministry then are not some elite few or select few.

A church does not have one minister or a select ministry team, ministers are all those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and how great is that calling!

Our ultimate example in ministry is Jesus Christ who “came in the nature of a servant” and “came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

Indeed, he said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

Not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all” (Mark 10:41-45).

In this passage we are confronted with Paul’s ministry which is the ministry of the cross and challenged to make our ministry rest in God’s power, not ours, which is found in the message of the crucified Christ.

Again and again Paul has set out to make the point to the Corinthians that their fascination with human standards of wisdom, power, and status which portend themselves to human self sufficiency, pride, and boasting are disregarded and proven to be foolish in God’s economy.

Again, Paul labors that point with the example of his ministry to them.

We learn that Paul’s ministry is pathetic (by human standards), proclamation (of God, Of Christ, in weakness, and without manipulation), and power.

*I.

The Ministry of Paul is Pathetic (by human standards).

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Paul says he did not come to the Corinthians with “eloquence or superior wisdom,” rather he came “in weakness and fear, and with much trembling” and his message and preaching were not with “wise and persuasive words.”

By human standards, this sounds pathetic, useless, powerless, and wimpy and would be especially pathetic to a society that greatly values and treasures sophistry and rhetoric.

In Corinthian culture, if you had a golden tongue, you were treated and looked up to as a world-class superstar.

It mattered little whether your content had any substance, only if you could speak convincingly and movingly.

In Corinthian culture, if you were one of great pedigree, or one who is wise, or one who is powerful you had great status and influential.

The result of such things is pride, arrogance, and idolatry.

So Paul had a choice, he could either come and wow and pizzazz them with awesome eloquence and presentation thus resulting in human praise and adoration for himself or he could choose the less traveled road and seek to demonstrate in his weakness and through the foolishness of what is preached the glory and power and wisdom of God in the foolishness of the cross.

If he chose to come and wow and pizzazz them with his high-sounding, sophisticated, and eloquent words he would have been guilty of self-display.

After laboring in the previous verses about boasting only in God, Paul would be a hypocrite if he was to come demonstrating superiority and pre-eminence with high sounding words.

He would be guilty of self-boasting!

We of course know that he “resolved” to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

He dare not preach the gospel with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Rather, he stuck with the message of the cross, for it is in the foolishness of what is preached, that is Jesus Christ, that God is most pleased.

In another way, Paul wants the Corinthians to realize that his behavior among them matched the message he preached and was centered entirely on Christ and not himself.

He did not want to be a hypocrite and disqualify himself. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets a prize?

Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.

They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.

No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

As Engberg-Pederson say, “preaching the gospel in ways that exhibit human wisdom would be an expression of self-assertion and would thus go directly against the content of the gospel.”

“The gospel always points beyond humans to God and Christ and becomes garbled whenever humans exploit it instead to headline themselves as its stars” (Garland, 82).

Let’s be clear about what Paul is not saying in these verses.

First, it would be wrong to infer from these verses that Paul is a bad speaker.

Paul was a scholar and an orator of the highest degree.

When Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra, the pagans identified Paul with Hermes, the Greek god of communication because Paul was the chief speaker.

D.A. Carson says, “Doubtless Paul displayed many communicative skills and worked to improve the clarity and potency of his presentation.

In Thessalonica he earnestly “reasoned,” “explained,” and “proved” that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead (Acts 17:2-3).

What Paul avoided was artificial communication that won applause for the speaker but distracted from the message.

Second, these verses make no room for lazy preachers.

Again D.A. Carson has wisely commented on this verse, “Lazy preachers have no right to appeal to 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 to justify indolence [indifference] in the study and careless delivery in the pulpit.

These verses do not prohibit diligent preparation, passion, clear articulation, and persuasive presentation.

Rather, they warn against any method that leads people to say, “What a marvelous preacher!”

rather than, “What a marvelous Savior” (Carson, 34, 35).

A certain church had a beautiful stained-glass window just behind the pulpit.

It depicted Jesus Christ on the cross.

One Sunday there was a guest minister who was much smaller than the regular pastor.

A little girl listened to the guest for a time, then turned to her mother and asked, “Where is the man who usually stands there so we can’t see Jesus?

Too many preachers of the word so magnify themselves and their gifts that they fail to reveal the glory of Jesus Christ.

Paul in his ministry wanted everyone to look past him and see the Savior.

He wanted to decrease that God might increase.

He wanted Jesus Christ to be lifted up, so that all peoples may be drawn to him.

He wanted to be hidden behind the message of the cross so he made sure his ministry matched the message he preached and was centered entirely on Christ and not himself.

Pathetic, foolish, weak to the world?

So be it.

*II.

The Ministry of Paul is Proclamation (of God, Of Christ, In Weakness, Without Manipulation).

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Paul’s ministry was not to serve himself, but to serve others, and he served others through the ministry of proclamation of God, Of Christ, in weakness, and without manipulation.

First, his ministry proclaimed the testimony of God (v.1).

Rather than engaging himself in public displays of rhetoric and philosophy, which he very well could have done, he engaged in bearing witness to God.

Indeed, verse one says he “proclaimed” God.

That is, he preached and announced the wonderful acts of God.

This proclamation about God finds its ultimate expression in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

By preaching or proclaiming we are not to understand it only as what I am doing right now or every Sunday for 30 to 40 minutes.

We are all to proclaim the wonderful acts of God. 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

We are to be proclaiming with our mouths the testimony about God.

God has taken action, and the good news is announced.

God is not negotiating; he is both announcing and confronting.

In God we live and move and have our being!

God is working all things together for good.

God works all things after the counsel of his will!

Proclaim God? Yes! Proclaim and boast in him!

It is because of him that we are in Christ Jesus!

Done properly, proclaiming the testimony of God is simply the re-presentation of God’s gospel, God’s good news, by which men and women come to know him.

Thus preaching mediates God himself.

So in your ministry of the cross to others, proclaim God first.

This does not mean be loud and boisterous and obnoxious, it means talk about him, share his wondrous acts with others, and please do not undue with your actions what you say with your lips!

The more you think about God, the more you will talk about him!

Something God has been laying on my heart this week that I would like to proclaim to you about God is “do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.

A man reaps what he sows.

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the spirit will reap eternal life.”

God knows all your thoughts and actions.

You cannot trick him or slip one by him.

You cannot deceive him.

If you are living your entire life in pride, arrogance, self sufficiency, my way or the high way, you are sowing to the sinful nature and you will reap destruction.

There is no doubt about it.

God will not be mocked.

Let go of your pride and resolve to know nothing but Jesus Christ.