19th century preacher DL Moody is renowned as one of America’s greatest evangelists. He crisscrossed the nation calling men and women to faith in his meetings and was the prominent voice for many in their conversion to Christ. But Moody himself was once evangelized.[1]
Moody had attended church most of his life and grown up going to Sunday school. When he was 18 his Sunday school teacher, Mr. Kimball, had a particular burden for him. He was very much concerned that Moody needed to bring his life into submission to Christ.
Of course, Mr. Kimball was diligently seeking to disciple him from week to week. But he was determined to win Moody that he set off to the Boston shop with the particular aim of sharing Christ and confronting Moody with the gospel. When he got to the store he paused outside the doors. He hesitated, wondering if he should make this appeal during store hours. He decided to press on in and he found Moody in the back of the shop wrapping up some boots. He put his hand on Moody’s shoulder and began to make his appeal.
In looking back on the event Mr. Kimball said that it was by no means anything grand or glorious. His report made it seem like his encounter was a bumbling mess. He said, “I made what I felt was a weak appeal for Christ. I merely told him of Christ’s love and said that Christ wanted to be loved in return.”
Even though the occasion turned out to be somewhat awkward, it ended up being quite effective. That day Moody put his faith in Christ.
The fact of the matter is that you probably have never heard of Mr. Kimball. While DL Moody is fairly famous, the man who is to be considered one of the most influential figures in Moody’s life is, for the most part, a nobody in the grand scheme of history.
But that is often the way God works. He uses ordinary people to bring about extraordinary things.
Ordinary people doing the ordinary labors of the gospel. Sometimes awkward, sometimes more astute, but probably never all that stunning or dazzling. It is just the labors of men and women, fathers and mothers, elders and preachers. And these are distinguished as the mighty tools that God uses in advancing His kingdom and building his people up in the most holy faith.
Each of us plays a part in that great work that God is doing. You might be leading a Bible study. You might be a ministry leader. But you might also be a father and mother who are discipling your kids. Or you could even be a grand father or grandmother who offers that sage advice to your grand kids. You, like Mr. Kimball, are the ordinary, yet faithful witness, that God is using.
And that is why this passage is so good for each of us. In this passage Paul is talking about His duties as a minister of the gospel. And even though he’s talking about his apostleship in particular, what he says here serves as great encouragement to any one who is involved in the work of discipleship.
I. Encourages us to be humble [1a]
Verse 1 starts out by stating a very important thing. It says that we have this ministry “by the mercy of God.”
The gospel can be summed up in the word mercy. Mercy is the pity God shows upon us. It is his favor in not punishing us when we deserve it. We deserve God’s wrath and cursing, but we don’t undergo it. Instead, we get something else. Something good.
What Paul does here is publicly recognize that he didn’t come to have this position because he was such a great guy. It wasn’t because of some innate goodness in his character or because his resume as a leader was exemplary. You’ll remember that Paul was a persecutor and a murderer. It’s not the most ideal background for a leader.
So what Paul is doing here is admitting that his being here was purely the result of God’s favor. He’s recognizing that he was (and still is) a sinner and deserved nothing—the least of which was to lead God’s people.
Listen to what one commentator has said:
Nothing will more effectually humble a minister, and prevent his assuming any arrogant and self-confident airs, than to look over his past life; especially if his life was one of blasphemy, vice, or infidelity; and to remember that it is by the mere mercy of God that he is entrusted with the high office of an ambassador of Jesus Christ.[2]
Why is this stated at the outset? It is because humility is one of the most essential ingredients to being a gospel witness. Richard Baxter is noted to have said that he as a minister is simply a beggar seeking to show other beggars where to get bread.
We have to understand that arrogance is that which gives the most interference to communicating the gospel. A person who is not sensitive to the fact that he owes everything to God’s mercy is someone who gets in the way of the gospel. That’s because the message becomes more about you than it is about Christ. It becomes about how much people like us or how we are regarded. We end up building our own little kingdom, rather than the kingdom of God.
If we are to really be used by God, we must understand that we are merely beggars showing other beggars where to find bread.
This is not just for apostles, elders, and preachers. This is something that is spread across every area of authority. Think about you mothers. You ladies are doing the work of evangelism/discipleship probably more than any of us. You’re ministry in the home with the children. You’re nurturing them in the gospel.
Now, let’s back up and think, do you have a right to be a mother? We often think that way. We are father’s by our right of bringing this child into the world. But if we really think about it, we didn’t deserve this position of authority. God shouldn’t have entrusted this child--His child—into our care.
If we keep that in mind, we’re going to be in a better position now to minister to our kids, aren’t we? We’re going to be a little more patient with them. We’re going to recognize that they need our mercy just as much as they need God’s mercy.
And the same is true in the church or out in the street or at work with your coworkers. If you have this mindset, that you have received mercy, you are more likely to share God’s mercy.
But the gospel not only encourages us to be humble, it also encourages us to be bold.
II. Encourages us to be bold [1b]
Verse 1 says, “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.” Another version says, “We do not faint.” The idea is that you don’t get exhausted or worn down. When it comes to the work of discipleship, despite its hardships, you continue to persevere and remain bold. It is descriptive of a person who remains faithful despite pressures he’s been facing.
It is a lot like a bicycle wheel that has pressure placed on it. You can crank those petals and watch that wheel spin. But if you apply the brakes or start putting pressure on the tire, it is going to slow down until it eventually comes to a stop.
Your witness for Christ would do the same if it were not for the gospel. You are faced with many different pressures that can wear you down and cause you to lose an interest in sharing the gospel. It can cause that boldness to burn out.
You can be exhausted because of what seems to be constant rejection. You can be worn down because hearts seem to be so hardened and nobody wants to listen. You can be worn down by people’s malice too. Some people will not listen to you, but others will listen and get angry and end up maligning you. Still others can take it to the next step. Some people, as Paul certainly encountered, wear your down physically because they are physically attacking you.
Friends of ours see some of this on a first hand basis. The Tuninga family are missionaries to Uganda and they are seeing many people come to faith in Christ. They are being saved out of Islam. But some of them are threatened by their own families. There was one young girl who was afraid to go home because she knew that she would be beaten. Her father would assault her because she had renounced the family’s Islamic faith.
Here are all kinds of pressures; pressures that are faced sometimes on a daily basis. All these things are episodes that could easily cause a person to lose heart and not want to even be a Christian, let alone seek to be a witness for the faith.
But that’s where the gospel comes in. The gospel is continually revving the engines of your faith. It is the supernatural fuel that burns deep down your bones and impels you to keep going.
A good illustration of this is the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah, of course, is known as the weeping prophet. And for good reason. He labored for years and only had a congregation of one—his trusty friend Baruch. Everyone else in the world turned away from him. Even his own family, we are told, thought he was a kook. And when you read that book you find him often offering laments unto God. In Jeremiah 20 it becomes particularly vivid. He essentially says he wants to throw in the towel. He just wants to give up and never speak about God ever again.
But he says he can’t. Even if he tried he says that there is within him as it were a fire. He describes it as a fire in his bones. Though he wants to hold back, he finds himself compelled, driven by a supernatural urge, to speak for God.
You might not be a Spirit inspired prophet like Jeremiah, but if you are acquainted with the Saving power of Christ and filled with His Spirit, then you’ll experience the same sort of thing. There will be within you always an understanding that the Lord has granted you great grace. He has given you access to untold riches. And you will somehow find yourself being driven forward, like Mr. Kimball at the door of that boot shop.
But it not only encourages us to be bold, the gospel also encourages us to be honest. That’s what you see in the second verse.
III. Encourages us to be honest [2]
It says, “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God’s word.” Not at all, but rather, “by open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”
What Paul basically says is that there are two kinds of ministry, one that is based in trickery and deceit and one that is based in plain spoken, honesty. One way makes disciples by making things very attractive—whether by changing the message or by packaging it in a way that makes it appealing. The other way of making disciples is merely by presenting the truth it as it is.
I was just speaking with a fellow this week who is now serving as a pastor. From what I gathered he used to be in theater. What capacity, I’m not sure. But he had a theater background. And as we were talking about services in church he said, “I like to set the mood.” And by that he meant have the right music, right lighting, and the right setting. So there was a real focus on the environment. The idea was that if the right mood can be set, people will be more likely to respond to what you say. The service will have more appeal if we dress it up the right way.
Now, its fine to have a nice place to worship and nice music. But if you are seeking to manipulate the atmosphere to make the gospel more appealing or evoke a greater response, you’re not doing it right. The gospel doesn’t encourage that. Ego drives that kind of thing. Those kinds of things flow out of a desire to get more popular or more money.
But the great thing about the gospel is that you don’t have to dress it up to get people to like it. It already comes with a natural appeal, so to speak. You’ll notice that Paul talks about commending himself to everyone’s conscience. What he means is that everyone is naturally hard wired in such a way that the gospel already has an inroad.
Now, this doesn’t mean that everyone is going to be saved, as we’ll see in just a moment. But there is a natural point of contact for the gospel inside of every single person. The conscience is that place in your heart that is sensitive to the fact that you do right and wrong. When you do something right, you have a clear conscience. When you do something wrong, you have a guilty conscience. That little voice in the back of your head starts to nudge you and say, “Hey, you did wrong there. You’re not living the way God wants you to.”
And this is where the gospel makes its appeal. It taps on that agitated conscience and it says to it, “There is a way to get right with God.” That’s why we don’t have to dress it up or make it more appealing or put some savvy music in the background. A plain, honest statement of the truth is enough because it strikes right at the heart’s greatest need.
to be hopeful.
IV. Encourages us to be hopeful [3-6]
In verses 3-4 Paul recognizes that no everyone will accept the gospel. He talks about the veil that lies over the eyes of unbelievers. In verse 4 he describes them as being blinded by the god of this world [Satan]. There is a degree of power that Satan exerts over the unbelieving. They have, so to speak, a mental handicap because he keeps their minds in the dark.
But despite this demonic hold on the world’s populous the gospel still penetrates into the lives of people. You see that verse 6 he says that there is a God who once said “Let light shine in the darkness” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
At the creation, you remember that there was darkness over all the land. But God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. God demonstrated his sovereign power over the forces that were in play to bring light into the world.
Paul uses that as an analogy to the work of the gospel. That same God exerts the same sovereign power in the lives of people as they are converted from the darkness of sin. Though the hearts of men are utterly averse to the Lord and even though they are under the sway of Satan, God beams the light of the truth down into them and he causes them to turn to him.
This really dispels the notion that if you believe in the Calvinist system, you’ll not be much of an evangelist. This is actually saying the exact opposite. If you’re a Calvinist, you’re witness will be that much more bold. You don’t know who or where the person will respond, but the possibility exists because God is the one who changes hearts.
Years ago I met a guy who used to be in a band. He had grown up in the church, but he wasn’t overly interested in the things of the Lord. But they had a gig in Texas that they had scheduled. And they thought that they would make a road trip out of it. They decided to make their way south, pull through New Orleans and see if they could pick up some shows there, and then make their way on to their show in Texas. One of the main attractions in New Orleans is Bourbon Street. From what I understand it is a bustling party virtually year round. They went there and were walking along enjoying the revelry of the atmosphere. One of the fellows said to this guy, “Look at all these people on their way to hell. And here we are to entertain them!”
That was just a fleeting comment, but it disturbed the fellow. He wondered if htat was his purpose in life—to entertain people who are on their way to hell. The comment stuck with him all through the trip. It ended up motivating him to begin to really study the Bible when he got back home. And eventually he was converted.
Isnt’ that the way God works though? There was a man covered in darkness—in perhaps one of the darkest places on earth—he had the beginning rays of light burst upon his soul.
The power of the gospel should encourage us and give us great hope that our labors are not in vain.
______________________________________
[1] https://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biomoody5.html
[2] Albert Barnes, commentary.
Moody had attended church most of his life and grown up going to Sunday school. When he was 18 his Sunday school teacher, Mr. Kimball, had a particular burden for him. He was very much concerned that Moody needed to bring his life into submission to Christ.
Of course, Mr. Kimball was diligently seeking to disciple him from week to week. But he was determined to win Moody that he set off to the Boston shop with the particular aim of sharing Christ and confronting Moody with the gospel. When he got to the store he paused outside the doors. He hesitated, wondering if he should make this appeal during store hours. He decided to press on in and he found Moody in the back of the shop wrapping up some boots. He put his hand on Moody’s shoulder and began to make his appeal.
In looking back on the event Mr. Kimball said that it was by no means anything grand or glorious. His report made it seem like his encounter was a bumbling mess. He said, “I made what I felt was a weak appeal for Christ. I merely told him of Christ’s love and said that Christ wanted to be loved in return.”
Even though the occasion turned out to be somewhat awkward, it ended up being quite effective. That day Moody put his faith in Christ.
The fact of the matter is that you probably have never heard of Mr. Kimball. While DL Moody is fairly famous, the man who is to be considered one of the most influential figures in Moody’s life is, for the most part, a nobody in the grand scheme of history.
But that is often the way God works. He uses ordinary people to bring about extraordinary things.
Ordinary people doing the ordinary labors of the gospel. Sometimes awkward, sometimes more astute, but probably never all that stunning or dazzling. It is just the labors of men and women, fathers and mothers, elders and preachers. And these are distinguished as the mighty tools that God uses in advancing His kingdom and building his people up in the most holy faith.
Each of us plays a part in that great work that God is doing. You might be leading a Bible study. You might be a ministry leader. But you might also be a father and mother who are discipling your kids. Or you could even be a grand father or grandmother who offers that sage advice to your grand kids. You, like Mr. Kimball, are the ordinary, yet faithful witness, that God is using.
And that is why this passage is so good for each of us. In this passage Paul is talking about His duties as a minister of the gospel. And even though he’s talking about his apostleship in particular, what he says here serves as great encouragement to any one who is involved in the work of discipleship.
I. Encourages us to be humble [1a]
Verse 1 starts out by stating a very important thing. It says that we have this ministry “by the mercy of God.”
The gospel can be summed up in the word mercy. Mercy is the pity God shows upon us. It is his favor in not punishing us when we deserve it. We deserve God’s wrath and cursing, but we don’t undergo it. Instead, we get something else. Something good.
What Paul does here is publicly recognize that he didn’t come to have this position because he was such a great guy. It wasn’t because of some innate goodness in his character or because his resume as a leader was exemplary. You’ll remember that Paul was a persecutor and a murderer. It’s not the most ideal background for a leader.
So what Paul is doing here is admitting that his being here was purely the result of God’s favor. He’s recognizing that he was (and still is) a sinner and deserved nothing—the least of which was to lead God’s people.
Listen to what one commentator has said:
Nothing will more effectually humble a minister, and prevent his assuming any arrogant and self-confident airs, than to look over his past life; especially if his life was one of blasphemy, vice, or infidelity; and to remember that it is by the mere mercy of God that he is entrusted with the high office of an ambassador of Jesus Christ.[2]
Why is this stated at the outset? It is because humility is one of the most essential ingredients to being a gospel witness. Richard Baxter is noted to have said that he as a minister is simply a beggar seeking to show other beggars where to get bread.
We have to understand that arrogance is that which gives the most interference to communicating the gospel. A person who is not sensitive to the fact that he owes everything to God’s mercy is someone who gets in the way of the gospel. That’s because the message becomes more about you than it is about Christ. It becomes about how much people like us or how we are regarded. We end up building our own little kingdom, rather than the kingdom of God.
If we are to really be used by God, we must understand that we are merely beggars showing other beggars where to find bread.
This is not just for apostles, elders, and preachers. This is something that is spread across every area of authority. Think about you mothers. You ladies are doing the work of evangelism/discipleship probably more than any of us. You’re ministry in the home with the children. You’re nurturing them in the gospel.
Now, let’s back up and think, do you have a right to be a mother? We often think that way. We are father’s by our right of bringing this child into the world. But if we really think about it, we didn’t deserve this position of authority. God shouldn’t have entrusted this child--His child—into our care.
If we keep that in mind, we’re going to be in a better position now to minister to our kids, aren’t we? We’re going to be a little more patient with them. We’re going to recognize that they need our mercy just as much as they need God’s mercy.
And the same is true in the church or out in the street or at work with your coworkers. If you have this mindset, that you have received mercy, you are more likely to share God’s mercy.
But the gospel not only encourages us to be humble, it also encourages us to be bold.
II. Encourages us to be bold [1b]
Verse 1 says, “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.” Another version says, “We do not faint.” The idea is that you don’t get exhausted or worn down. When it comes to the work of discipleship, despite its hardships, you continue to persevere and remain bold. It is descriptive of a person who remains faithful despite pressures he’s been facing.
It is a lot like a bicycle wheel that has pressure placed on it. You can crank those petals and watch that wheel spin. But if you apply the brakes or start putting pressure on the tire, it is going to slow down until it eventually comes to a stop.
Your witness for Christ would do the same if it were not for the gospel. You are faced with many different pressures that can wear you down and cause you to lose an interest in sharing the gospel. It can cause that boldness to burn out.
You can be exhausted because of what seems to be constant rejection. You can be worn down because hearts seem to be so hardened and nobody wants to listen. You can be worn down by people’s malice too. Some people will not listen to you, but others will listen and get angry and end up maligning you. Still others can take it to the next step. Some people, as Paul certainly encountered, wear your down physically because they are physically attacking you.
Friends of ours see some of this on a first hand basis. The Tuninga family are missionaries to Uganda and they are seeing many people come to faith in Christ. They are being saved out of Islam. But some of them are threatened by their own families. There was one young girl who was afraid to go home because she knew that she would be beaten. Her father would assault her because she had renounced the family’s Islamic faith.
Here are all kinds of pressures; pressures that are faced sometimes on a daily basis. All these things are episodes that could easily cause a person to lose heart and not want to even be a Christian, let alone seek to be a witness for the faith.
But that’s where the gospel comes in. The gospel is continually revving the engines of your faith. It is the supernatural fuel that burns deep down your bones and impels you to keep going.
A good illustration of this is the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah, of course, is known as the weeping prophet. And for good reason. He labored for years and only had a congregation of one—his trusty friend Baruch. Everyone else in the world turned away from him. Even his own family, we are told, thought he was a kook. And when you read that book you find him often offering laments unto God. In Jeremiah 20 it becomes particularly vivid. He essentially says he wants to throw in the towel. He just wants to give up and never speak about God ever again.
But he says he can’t. Even if he tried he says that there is within him as it were a fire. He describes it as a fire in his bones. Though he wants to hold back, he finds himself compelled, driven by a supernatural urge, to speak for God.
You might not be a Spirit inspired prophet like Jeremiah, but if you are acquainted with the Saving power of Christ and filled with His Spirit, then you’ll experience the same sort of thing. There will be within you always an understanding that the Lord has granted you great grace. He has given you access to untold riches. And you will somehow find yourself being driven forward, like Mr. Kimball at the door of that boot shop.
But it not only encourages us to be bold, the gospel also encourages us to be honest. That’s what you see in the second verse.
III. Encourages us to be honest [2]
It says, “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God’s word.” Not at all, but rather, “by open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”
What Paul basically says is that there are two kinds of ministry, one that is based in trickery and deceit and one that is based in plain spoken, honesty. One way makes disciples by making things very attractive—whether by changing the message or by packaging it in a way that makes it appealing. The other way of making disciples is merely by presenting the truth it as it is.
I was just speaking with a fellow this week who is now serving as a pastor. From what I gathered he used to be in theater. What capacity, I’m not sure. But he had a theater background. And as we were talking about services in church he said, “I like to set the mood.” And by that he meant have the right music, right lighting, and the right setting. So there was a real focus on the environment. The idea was that if the right mood can be set, people will be more likely to respond to what you say. The service will have more appeal if we dress it up the right way.
Now, its fine to have a nice place to worship and nice music. But if you are seeking to manipulate the atmosphere to make the gospel more appealing or evoke a greater response, you’re not doing it right. The gospel doesn’t encourage that. Ego drives that kind of thing. Those kinds of things flow out of a desire to get more popular or more money.
But the great thing about the gospel is that you don’t have to dress it up to get people to like it. It already comes with a natural appeal, so to speak. You’ll notice that Paul talks about commending himself to everyone’s conscience. What he means is that everyone is naturally hard wired in such a way that the gospel already has an inroad.
Now, this doesn’t mean that everyone is going to be saved, as we’ll see in just a moment. But there is a natural point of contact for the gospel inside of every single person. The conscience is that place in your heart that is sensitive to the fact that you do right and wrong. When you do something right, you have a clear conscience. When you do something wrong, you have a guilty conscience. That little voice in the back of your head starts to nudge you and say, “Hey, you did wrong there. You’re not living the way God wants you to.”
And this is where the gospel makes its appeal. It taps on that agitated conscience and it says to it, “There is a way to get right with God.” That’s why we don’t have to dress it up or make it more appealing or put some savvy music in the background. A plain, honest statement of the truth is enough because it strikes right at the heart’s greatest need.
to be hopeful.
IV. Encourages us to be hopeful [3-6]
In verses 3-4 Paul recognizes that no everyone will accept the gospel. He talks about the veil that lies over the eyes of unbelievers. In verse 4 he describes them as being blinded by the god of this world [Satan]. There is a degree of power that Satan exerts over the unbelieving. They have, so to speak, a mental handicap because he keeps their minds in the dark.
But despite this demonic hold on the world’s populous the gospel still penetrates into the lives of people. You see that verse 6 he says that there is a God who once said “Let light shine in the darkness” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
At the creation, you remember that there was darkness over all the land. But God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. God demonstrated his sovereign power over the forces that were in play to bring light into the world.
Paul uses that as an analogy to the work of the gospel. That same God exerts the same sovereign power in the lives of people as they are converted from the darkness of sin. Though the hearts of men are utterly averse to the Lord and even though they are under the sway of Satan, God beams the light of the truth down into them and he causes them to turn to him.
This really dispels the notion that if you believe in the Calvinist system, you’ll not be much of an evangelist. This is actually saying the exact opposite. If you’re a Calvinist, you’re witness will be that much more bold. You don’t know who or where the person will respond, but the possibility exists because God is the one who changes hearts.
Years ago I met a guy who used to be in a band. He had grown up in the church, but he wasn’t overly interested in the things of the Lord. But they had a gig in Texas that they had scheduled. And they thought that they would make a road trip out of it. They decided to make their way south, pull through New Orleans and see if they could pick up some shows there, and then make their way on to their show in Texas. One of the main attractions in New Orleans is Bourbon Street. From what I understand it is a bustling party virtually year round. They went there and were walking along enjoying the revelry of the atmosphere. One of the fellows said to this guy, “Look at all these people on their way to hell. And here we are to entertain them!”
That was just a fleeting comment, but it disturbed the fellow. He wondered if htat was his purpose in life—to entertain people who are on their way to hell. The comment stuck with him all through the trip. It ended up motivating him to begin to really study the Bible when he got back home. And eventually he was converted.
Isnt’ that the way God works though? There was a man covered in darkness—in perhaps one of the darkest places on earth—he had the beginning rays of light burst upon his soul.
The power of the gospel should encourage us and give us great hope that our labors are not in vain.
______________________________________
[1] https://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biomoody5.html
[2] Albert Barnes, commentary.