Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: You and I, we might well imagine that if someone doesn't understand God's word having heard Bible teaching, that if someone does not come to faith having heard the gospel proclaimed, that if someone does not receive new life in Christ, if that doesn't take place, there must be something wrong with the teaching. But Paul says no. Paul says that's not the issue; that's not the reason.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths; I'm Steve Hiller, glad you're here. So Jonathan, if Paul is saying it is not the teaching, what is the issue then?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, in our passage today in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4, Paul says this: "In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." That's where he's going to take us. And he's going to say that there is a spiritual battle going on. And while we proclaim the gospel, while others make Jesus known, there is someone who wants to close minds and hearts and eyes to the truth of the gospel.

And so whenever the good news is going out, we need to be praying that the Lord would work in the hearts of hearers such that he would open blind eyes and soften hearts so that people who have been blinded by the enemy might come to see the light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we need to be very, very prayerful about this.

And let me say, if you're someone who's listening to this program and maybe you've been listening for a while and you just can't make sense of it—you want to understand, but you feel like there's a barrier—let me invite you and let me encourage you: speak to the Lord about that. Pray about that and ask that the Lord might do something in your heart such that he might open your eyes, open your understanding, that you might come to see and receive what he has for you in his word, that you might come to know the Lord Jesus Christ personally. And I know the Lord would love to answer that prayer.

Steve Hiller: Amen. Well, let's continue to look at this as we open our Bibles together. As Jonathan said, we're in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, beginning a message called "The Light of the Gospel." Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Imagine undertaking a great endeavor, getting partway through that endeavor, and wondering if indeed you can go on. Perhaps it's a journey of some kind, an expedition, maybe a bike ride over a long distance, a great hike. Some great undertaking which you know from the outset will be strenuous and which seems to be taking everything out of you. You go a certain distance, you undertake a certain amount of strain, you expend a certain degree of energy, you face certain obstacles, and then you pause and you sit down and you reflect: can I continue? Can I go on?

The journey thus far has been difficult. It has been demanding. There has been pain involved. It seems to have stressed you to your limit and perhaps beyond your limit, and you wonder if now is the time to turn back. To put it plainly, you are losing heart. Most great endeavors involve reaching some kind of a pain threshold and deciding whether to push through that threshold.

Marathon runners know this perhaps better than anyone else. David Goggins, a retired Navy SEAL and a celebrated ultramarathon runner, tells of his experience in running his first 100-mile ultramarathon. At the start of his running career, he recounts how by the time he reached the 70-mile mark, his kidneys were failing, he had developed stress fractures in his lower legs, and he had broken small bones in his feet. And by that point, and this is before he had really trained, the temptation to quit was overwhelming. But he decided in that moment to push through, to continue, and to finish the race despite all of his physical limitation. And for that, he became something of a legend actually in the running world.

As we follow the apostle Paul through 2 Corinthians, we sense that in his personal ministry and in his ministry to the Corinthians, he has reached a pain threshold and a moment of reckoning and a moment of decision. He has spoken of struggle, and he has spoken of strain, of difficulty, and of grief. We won't revisit the details of that narrative now, but we have seen in our study of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians that Paul has faced opposition and heartbreak of various kinds at Corinth, and we know that his wider ministry around the Mediterranean rim has caused him plenty of suffering in other ways. Paul has felt the strain of it.

He has despaired even of life itself at points, and no doubt the thought has occurred to him that it might be better at this point simply to quit. But here at the start of chapter 4, we see Paul pick himself up and dust himself off. We see him resolved to move forward in the ministry that God has called him to complete. At the end of chapter 3, you may remember, he pointed us to the sheer wonder of the work that God has called him to: that as he proclaims Christ, the Holy Spirit is at work in such a way that he and his hearers both behold the glory of the Lord and are transformed into the image of the Savior. Paul has remembered afresh the magnificence of the task to which he's been called.

You will notice quite quickly that the imagery that dominates this section of the letter is that of glory and of light. That language is quite prevalent here. Paul has remembered that in his ministry, the glory of Jesus Christ is seen and the light of the gospel shines very brightly. Here at the start of chapter 4, he resolves to move forward in faith, to minister in the glow of that magnificent light. Verse 1: "Therefore, having this ministry," such a ministry, "by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart."

He's not going to succumb to discouragement, though he has felt it. Through the mercy of God, mercy poured out at the cross of Calvary, mercy experienced by Paul in his life, mercy that you and I experience in ours, Paul knows that he has this ministry by that mercy—this ministry of glory and of revelation and of transformation. Paul doesn't deserve the privilege of this ministry; it has come to him by the mercy of God alone. And since he has this ministry through the kindness of God, not through any deserving of his own, he is resolved to move forward in the Lord's grace.

Now as he picks himself up, dusts himself off, as he gets back on the trail, as he sets his face pointing toward the destination set him by God, Paul shares with us three features that are going to shape his ministry going forward. These features of his ministry flow from a maturity that has been forged in the flames of opposition and suffering and difficulty. They represent hard-won lessons; they reflect the outlook of wisdom shaped by experience and godly insight through the help of the Spirit. Having suffered so much, having considered the possibility of giving up under the sheer weight of the pressure, what will Paul's gospel ministry look like going forward as he serves in the radiant light of the gospel of Christ? What's going to mark out his ministry?

First, it's going to be marked by a simple commitment. A simple commitment. As you will know, there has been something of a movement back toward simplicity in food and in nutrition and in diet. Food companies and restaurants speak of being honest and simple and real in their ingredients and in their production processes. A supermarket like Whole Foods has built its entire brand around this concept. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver captured the spirit of this well when he said that "real food doesn't have ingredients; real food is ingredients." Simplicity is king when it comes to nutrition.

And in his own way, Paul is making a similar commitment when it comes to the spiritual diet of his ministry, that which he is feeding the Corinthians. His commitment is to give the Corinthians the unaltered, unadulterated word of God in its simplicity, in its raw and authentic form. Notice this with me, verse 1 again: "Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God."

Now we've got to remember, of course, that Paul's preaching ministry was not always popular with all the Corinthians. Many were critical of both his substance and his style, and many were drawn to other teachers who frequently traveled through the region and made a splash, not to mention a good bit of cash, with their teaching. That was one of the sources of discouragement for the apostle Paul in his ministry. And so you can imagine that Paul would have felt a certain amount of pressure to modify his message and to alter his style. When the criticisms came, the gossipy comments, he must have felt like something of a failure, at least some of the time.

But again, he's remembered the glory of the exercise at the end of chapter 3: that when he opens up the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, he and his hearers, verse 18 of chapter 3, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to another. Paul has discovered a profound confidence in his ministry of the word. When he proclaims Christ from the pages of scripture, something very wonderful happens. And so Paul has decided not to veer from that exercise.

He has decided not to depart from the proclamation of the unadulterated word of God, the proclamation of Christ from the scriptures. If the glory of God is seen in the preaching of the word of God, then Paul doesn't want to move away from doing that very thing in its simplicity and in its authenticity. Although there might be a sense of pressure to modify the message, to manipulate it to make it seem more enticing, perhaps to sidestep some of the more challenging elements of the message, like the discussion of sin and of judgment and of hell, to soften some of the requirements of repentance and faith and discipleship toward Christ, Paul has decided not to do any of that.

No, in his heart, he has renounced disgraceful and underhanded ways. And of course, in the ministry landscape, there are plenty of examples of those who practice disgraceful and underhanded ways: people who manipulate the message of the Bible in order to manipulate people, in order to gain popularity, in order to pursue a personal agenda. We see that perhaps most obviously today with the health and wealth teachers, the prosperity teachers who make false promises to needy people—promises of material abundance and of physical health, promises that the Bible does not make for us this side of heaven, but promises that serve the personal agendas of the teachers very well indeed.

But Paul won't do anything like that. He refuses to practice cunning, to tamper with the word of God; he will not do it. Rather, by contrast, by the open statement of the truth—that is, by simply saying what the Bible says, by opening up the word of God so that its meaning is clearly understood—Paul and his associates would commend themselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. That is, they feel confident that the Corinthians and others will see that they have been transparent and honest and straightforward in their handling of scripture. To put it simply, they have been careful in their interpretation of the text, meticulous in their exegesis of scripture, faithful in their unfolding of its meaning. And so before the people and before God, they feel they've got nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of.

Now I think this is a tremendous model for you and for me, both as hearers of the word and as those who have opportunity to speak the word to others. When you and I go looking for Bible teachers, when we look for podcasts to listen to or churches to attend in other places, books to read, here is the standard: we look for teachers who say clearly what the Bible is saying, who carefully proclaim what the Lord is proclaiming through his own word. When we have opportunity to teach the word in any kind of setting, we want to make sure that we are those who always strive to say what the text is actually saying—not more and not less, but precisely what the Lord is saying through his word.

When you have opportunity to teach the Bible, whether it be in the children's ministry or in the youth ministry or in your community group or around your dinner table at home, or if you have an opportunity to give a Bible talk in one of our ministries, or if like me you are a preacher of God's word, when we have such opportunities, your job and my job is nothing more and nothing less than to say what God is saying through his word. Our responsibility is not primarily to be creative, and it is certainly not to be innovative; it is to be faithful.

It's interesting that when you go looking for a definition of expository teaching, you will hear lots of different things and you will encounter, I think, some degree of confusion around that definition. And to be fair, it can be a little confusing to try and define that word; it's multifaceted. But perhaps my favorite definition of expository teaching, a definition which is not comprehensive but which is instructive, it comes from the British preacher Dick Lucas, who has been quite influential as a model of Bible exposition over the years. I once heard Dick say that expository Bible preaching is, and I quote, "preaching that takes the text seriously."

Preaching that takes the text seriously. I think that's very, very helpful as a definition, just to consider that: preaching that takes the text seriously. You know, I think we get a sense of this when we're handling the text ourselves and when we're listening to others attempt to handle the text. We can actually quite quickly discern whether this is in fact what is going on. Is this a teacher who is taking the text seriously? Is this someone who really wants to know what the text is actually saying? Or is this someone, by contrast, someone with an agenda who is manipulating the text to make it say what they actually want it to say?

It's a good question. I once heard a preacher joking—and this was actually a preacher who is quite serious about exposition, so he was genuinely joking about it—but I heard him say, "I know the message I want to bring on Sunday; now I just need to find the Bible passage that will allow me to say it." Now on his part, that was tongue-in-cheek. But I suspect, I suspect we've all heard Bible teaching where we sense that that is precisely what is going on. The preacher already knew the message that he wanted to communicate; he just needed to find the text that would act as a plausible pretext for saying what he already had on his mind. Have you ever heard that kind of thing? I hope not here.

I often love to compare two images when talking about the approach to Bible teaching. These have been used by others, so I won't claim them as being entirely novel or original to myself. But consider first the image of a miner. A miner. What does a miner do? A miner digs for the treasure that is beneath the surface. A miner keeps digging until he or she finds gold. And having struck gold, the miner comes back up to the surface to present the world with the treasure that's been found. A faithful teacher of the word mines the text for its treasure during the week and presents that treasure to others on a Sunday for all to see. That's one image, that of a miner.

Another image, which is very different, is the image of a trampolinist. This is someone who uses the text as a thing to bounce off, but only engages with the text of scripture in a very superficial way. And perhaps you've heard and encountered that kind of Bible teaching: the teacher who is bouncing off the text but not actually grappling with it, not digging. And friends, whenever we handle the word of God, we want to be miners, not trampolinists. Okay? Miners, not trampolinists. And that's what Paul was; he was a miner. He was someone who took the text seriously, who dug, who grappled. Notice the seriousness of his approach again; let me read it for us, verse 2: "But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God."

Now in this respect, the apostle Paul sets for us the gold standard of Bible teaching, and he teaches us what to expect of other teachers. So when you perhaps are looking for a new church, maybe you move to another city, please find one where those who teach the word take the text seriously, where those who teach the word refuse to tamper with it in any respect. When you engage in ministry of your own, make this your own personal pledge. A simple commitment. That's the first feature of Paul's ministry going forward and of ministry in light of the gospel.

And here's the next one, the second feature: Paul's ministry will be marked by a sober assessment. A sober assessment. Paul may have a new spring in his step, but he is still grounded in reality. Despite the glory of Jesus seen and experienced through the faithful ministry of the word, despite the sheer brightness and brilliance of such a ministry, Paul is conscious that not everyone will understand and accept what he's saying. Not everyone who listens to his preaching will come to an understanding of the truth. His ministry will still meet with rejection in some quarters, but he has a theological understanding of why that is. He has a theological explanation for it, and one that is very compelling. Verse 3, notice it with me: "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this world has blinded their minds, the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

What Paul is saying there is very weighty theologically, and it's very helpful for us to take hold of. This is quite a deep insight for us. You see, you and I, we might well imagine that if someone doesn't understand God's word having heard Bible teaching, that if someone does not come to faith having heard the gospel proclaimed, that if someone does not receive new life in Christ having received instruction in the scriptures, if that doesn't take place, there must be something wrong with the teaching. But Paul says no. Paul says that's not the issue, or at least not necessarily so.

When the truth is openly proclaimed and when in Christ the veil is taken away for those who know him, for those who don't know the Lord, a veil will still remain even in the same teaching opportunity. Why is this so? Why is there a barrier to the understanding of the truth of God's word and to the message of the gospel? Well, says Paul, for those who are perishing, for those who are spiritually dead and dying, there is a spiritual dynamic at work that we need to take into account and reckon with in the equation.

In the case of such people, God's great enemy, Satan—whom Paul calls here "the god of this world"—he has blinded their minds, and he is actively keeping them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. The enemy is actively at work stopping these people from understanding the gospel. Evidently, the enemy has the power to do that within the limited sway that God has allowed him in this age and in this world for a time. The enemy is able to do this. It's a sobering thought. Indeed, it's quite a chilling thought. But at the same time, it is a tremendous help for us to know it.

After all, consider your own experience. You have almost certainly had the experience of trying to speak to a friend or a neighbor or a loved about the gospel, and as you do so, as you try and explain the message of Jesus, the good news of salvation, what you see on them is a blank or indeed a hard look on their face. And you just have this feeling that nothing is getting through to them at all. What you're saying to them, it makes perfect sense to you; it thrills your heart, it delights your soul. But nothing of it seems to be resonating in their heart or mind or soul, and you wonder, why is this so?

Well, here is the answer: Satan is actively at work blinding their minds so that they cannot see the wonderful light of the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ, who is the very image of God. It's a tragedy. It's an immensely wicked thing that Satan does. But it is his program, it is his aim, it is his intention. And we just need to recognize that. And we need to be wise to that. And we need to constantly bear in mind the fact that the work of the gospel involves more than simply communicating truth or convincing people on an intellectual level; it involves a spiritual battle. And so our preaching of the gospel, our open statement of the truth, it must be accompanied by urgent prayer—prayer that the Lord would overrule in the hearts and minds of those who are perishing and enable them to see even as Satan seeks to blind them.

Steve Hiller: And we have to pause the teaching right there, but we'll continue our message, "The Light of the Gospel" from 2 Corinthians 4, next time. You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. And if you ever join us late, have to leave early, or want to go back and listen to a broadcast again, you can do that when you come to our website, encounterthetruth.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Again, that's at encounterthetruth.org.

Encounter the Truth is a listener-supported ministry; we're able to be on the radio, make the podcast, the app, all the tools available because of your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a book that Jonathan has picked out. It's called Weakness Is the Way, written by J.I. Packer. And Jonathan, why did you pick out this book?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, Steve, I picked this book out because I love the subject and I love the author. J.I. Packer, I think, is one of the most capable and faithful theologians of the last century of the Christian Church, and I so appreciate all his writings. And I particularly appreciate this book because he's touching on the theme of weakness in the Christian life, which of course is really central to our teaching this series this month from 2 Corinthians. And I think it's such an important topic for us to think about as believers because we often despise weakness, we try and avoid weakness, we try and overcome weakness. But what we discover in the scriptures is that the Lord loves to use our weaknesses to display his strength. And I think we'll have a lot of listeners, and you're following the program and you are in a season of weakness for all kinds of different reasons, but you know that this is a time of weakness you're walking through it and you're wanting to know how to live faithfully through it. And this book is for you because within this book, J.I. Packer shares something of his own story and he shares truth from the word of God and he teaches us in all kinds of different ways that the Lord works through our weaknesses to show his strength and to use us for his glory. And I think this is going to be a real encouragement for you. I'm eager to get this book into your hands.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. Again, it's called Weakness Is the Way, and you can give a gift of any amount this month and we'll send you a copy again as our way of saying thank you for your support. Give online at encounterthetruth.org or when you call 1-833-99-TRUTH. That's 1-833-998-7884 or encounterthetruth.org. You can also write to us at Encounter the Truth, P.O. Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario, K2C 3M1. Or in the U.S. at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Breathtach, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.