Message for Impact, Sept 24

Mark Seven
The life of the Heart

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“ ‘ This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Mk 7:1-23

intro
(At the beginning of this message I bring a plant in and show it. It is obviously not healthy. Where did I put it? Did it thrive? Was it designed to be there?)

What does this passage have to do with this plant?

Out of touch with our hearts
I want you to take one lesson from this passage- These guys had no idea where there hearts were. They thought they were with God. Near God. And yet they were totally wrong. How could they be so wrong? They thought they loved God more than any others, they thought they knew their hearts where closest to God, and yet they were so out of touch with where their hearts were that they actually were farthest away from God. They had it completely wrong! How can this be?
See, this is what I want you to see- very, very often humans do not know their own hearts. They are unfamiliar with them.
Do you know where your heart is?


What do I mean your “heart.” I do not mean just your feelings or your love. I mean that innermost part of you where your desires live, where your decisions are made, where your love resides, that very central part of yourself that defines you, your will, your all. The center of all you are. I am talking about that place in your core where all your wants are, all your longings. That part of you that wants to be loved. The real you, that is what I am talking about. The inner true self, the inner true you.

This inner self, this true you, the inner part that desires and longs, it is this part that I think you have neglected. I wonder how many of you right now really know your heart? I mean really know it- you know what it wants, you know where it has been, you know right now what it longs for. This very central part of us, this thing that really defines us, we so often are out of touch with. We get our hearts wrong.

Why?
We tend to ignore our hearts. We get so distracted with so many things that we hardly ever stop to think about the inner life of our heart. We do not stop to examine ourselves too often. We do not try and understand what we want, and why we want it. Just like these Pharisees, we have neglected to think about our hearts, and why we do what we do and want what we want.
We are so out of touch with our hearts and what they really need that we spend a good deal of time being very careless with them. We are told in the Word to guard our hearts. To be careful with them, to give them the right things, but we don’t. we ignore them.

How are we careless with our hearts?
We are careless with our hearts when we put it close to things that it was never designed to be close to. You see, what this text tonight tells us is that our hearts where designed to be near God. That is what Jesus is saying. The problem with the Pharisees is that their heart was not near Him, as it was designed to be. Jesus says this is so important that even if you make a million rules and keep them, even if you sing the greatest songs of praise, and tell all your friends about Jesus, and prayer the greatest prayers, and give the best sermons, and speak the greatest truths- even if your lips praise Him like this- if your heart is far from Him, all that you have done is in vain- it is worth nothing. Because God does not want lips that say the right things, He wants hearts that love Him, that are close to Him. That beat for Him. Is that your heart?
Have you been careless with your heart?

Really, the only thing most people know about their hearts is that they are not content. They are not ok with what they have, there is something missing that they want. (How dangerous it is, actually, when we don’t feel this way, when we feel completely satisfied with what is here!)
Tozer said this- "thirsty hearts are those whose longings have been wakened by the touch of God within them.” This feeling in our heart is a gift, and it drives us to put our heart close to things. We are driven to find something that will make it better.

What have you let your heart get close to? Where has it been?
What do I mean? Let me give you some examples-
• Some people have let their hearts get close to popularity. They want just to be admired and be thought much of. They wanted to see if their heart would grow and thrive in that light, and it certainly seems like it will, it feels right. And so under that light it goes, and we take our heart and we give it to the crowds. Imagine that- the crowds! And they trample upon it, and use it, and mold it into what will best suit and entertain them. This trampling of our heart leaves it dirty, and hurting.
• Some people have let their hearts get close to a certain person. They want the love not just of crowds, but of a certain one. You know, Impact has a position on dating for this reason. Dating is not a sin. Understand, there have been people in Impact that have dated with Impact’s blessing- two of them leaders now- Ben and Mark. But, the American idea of dating is one we encourage students to stay away from. Why? Because it is a giving of your heart over and over to different people. We try it here, and there, and before you know it again our hearts have been all over the place, dirtied, and tired.
• All of the things that we might find here to put our hearts close to will harm our hearts, because if our hearts are close to and tied to the things here, our hearts will share their fate. – look-

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.1 Jn 2:15-17

We are told not to love the things here- that is, tie our hearts to them- because if we do, we tie our hearts to something that is dying, passing away, and our hearts will share the fate of what we tie them too. Do you want an argument for not dating an unbeliever- here it is- do not tie your heart to something that is passing away, dying. All unbelievers fit that definition, and to fall in love with and date an unbeliever is to tie your heart to one who is perishing, and so your heart will share their fate. This is why being in a relationship with a believer is different- they are not passing away!


So we have put our hearts close to so many things. Like the plant I showed you, our hearts have been close to things that can not give life, and the result is that they are dying, and sick, and hurting.
The saddest situation is when someone has done that for a long time, and then gives up. Then they try and just ignore the ache in their hearts.



The way we try and fix our hearts
But for some of you, you can not ignore it. And you don’t want to. Maybe you are sitting here now thinking “yes, I have done this. I have placed my heart close to so many things, given it a bit too much to things I should never have given it.”
We realize that we have let our heart get a bit dirtied. It has been too close to things it should never be close to. Our hearts have longed and ached for things, and we thought they could get what they need if we just let our hearts get close to some of the things in the world. Yet we still ache, and in the end our heart is dirtier than before. What will we do?
Our first reaction, and maybe your reaction right now, is to say something like this to ourselves- “ok, that’s all, I am going to start to do good. I will make myself do better. I wont be a bad person anymore, I wont run after those other things, I wont dirty my heart ever again that way.”
This is exactly what the Pharisees did, and I have news for you – it doesn’t work.
Look-

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

The Jews had all these rules and regulations about what they could touch and how to wash and what to do to be clean. They wanted to do what you want to do- have a clean heart, make things right. But this does not work. Listen, I have good news for you- for those of you in here with dirty hearts that have been too close to the world, I have good news. You can not do anything to fix the problem. Now, that doesn’t sound like good news, but it is. It means that you can scrap all your plans to try and just be good and protect your heart. You cant do it. You will fail.

Why do I say this?
Because Jesus makes this clear in the rest of this passage. In the midst of all this stuff about hearts being near or far from God, and being clean or dirty, Jesus says
15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

The problem, Jesus says, is not with what you do, not with what you put your heart close to, but with your heart itself. He explains-

Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

The problem, Jesus is saying, is not that you put your heart close to the wrong things, but that it wants to be close to the wrong things, the problem is with your heart. It is dirty through and through. It will always chase after the things that will kill it. It is like a plant that only wants to be in the dark. You can try your best to keep putting it in the light, but it is always wanting to go back in the dark. It is broken. The bible makes this point so clear about our hearts-


9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
Je 17:9


5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Ge 6:5

Our heart will continue to return to the same things that will dirty it again. The problem is our hearts need to be close to God, but don’t like being close to God. Our hearts are broken, they like the wrong things. They like what kills them, what dirties them.
Maybe, after all, there is no hope for your heart. In fact, i think this is the case. our hearts are hopeless. They will never want what is right, they will never love God over evil, they will never live, they are dying. What hope do we have?

Jesus’ way of fixing our hearts
There is only one hope for our hearts.
Death.
We must hand this heart, and all it’s wicked desires, over to God. We must ask Him to kill it, and give us a new heart.
A new heart! This is our hope, this is what we need.
We are orphans until this takes place. we become His children when He gives us new hearts.

But how can this be? How can you have your heart be put to death?
Understand, every one of you- your heart, your heart that has longed for such evil and sinful things, that has been so close to what it should never have been close to, it will die. It must die. God’s wrath is upon your heart, for your heart has not honored God. It has been far from Him, it runs from Him. This is the heart you were born with. This is what we call sin.
And if our hearts die, we die with them. We are connected to them. We can not just have it taken out and put to death, we can not say “Lord, punish my heart, but spare me.” We are one with our heart. And yet our heart must taste death, it must be destroyed. And so we must be destroyed.
But God is so filled with love, so good, and so caring, that even though our hearts run from Him, even though we have not wanted him, while we hated him, he did a wonderful thing. Jesus Christ came and he took the punishment that you deserve because of your wicked heart and sin. He took your place on the Cross, he was punished as a substitute for all who will believe.

So now you can go to him this night and say this- “Lord, I am sick of my heart and how it runs to be close to what will never satisfy it. I am sick of how it does not want you the way it should. I know there is nothing I can do to make up for that, there is nothing I can do to fix it. And I know that I deserve to never be close to you because of it. Please, let Christ’s death be the punishment for me. Let Him be punished in my place, and give me a new heart, one that loves you and wants what is right. Make me a new creation.”

Friends, your heart must be made new. God promises he will do this!

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. Ezekiel 36:25-29

Our hearts are broken, and evil, and ever wandering, ever going their own way. And the Maker of the stars, he hears the cry of your broken heart tonight, he knows the ache in you, and he comes to set you free from it. This is the love and mercy of God- that He would love you so much that He would make a way for you to be near Him. He has made a way for our hearts to be close to Him. He has taken away His wrath, His wrath at us, by spending it on His son. Now, he will give you a new heart, a heart that is close to Him.
What should you do?
Where is your heart tonight? Is it His? Is it new? If it is not, run to Him, He is waiting to make it new! And if it is new, protect it, and keep it close to Him, and rejoice that He has done such a wonderful thing for you, and that forever your heart will get closer and closer to Him. What should you do? Well, if you are not sure if you are His child-
Realize that your heart has been far from Him, and that it can not be fixed by anything you have done. Understand that the fact that since you have been so resistant to loving Him as He should be loved mean that His anger burns against you, your heart is cut off from Him forever, it is not close, nor can it be, nor will it ever want to be. It is like a plant in the dark, it will die.
Tell Him that you need help. That you want to be close to Him. You want His wrath to be removed, and you want a new heart, a heart that does not love sin and evil anymore, but that loves Him.
Tell Him that you want Jesus’ death on the cross to count for you, and that you want Christ’s goodness to count for you too. Tell Him you want Christ to be your substitute, so that all of God’s anger at you can be poured out on the Son.
Realize that this is the case- God’s anger at you is poured out on Jesus. And realize that when God looks at you now, he sees Jesus’ righteousness and good works, they now count for you, and you are clean in God’s sight!
And rejoice that God is at work in you- let the world know it!

If you are His child-
Examine what you have been doing with your heart, and what it has been close to.
Examine where you have led others- have you led them to put their hearts close to you, or to God? To what will give life, or what will take life?
Turn from anything in your life that is trying to win your heart away from God.
Get your heart close to God so that it will thrive and not die.
Live in such a way that the world knows that He owns your heart, and that you want to be close to Him. The world you are in always is giving their hearts to the things around them. Don’t join them, live differently, let that be seen!

Upcoming event- Concert!

There is a Tenth Ave concert coming up, the details are below. For those attending, we must know ASAP, no later than Wednesday, September 17!

Sanctus Real, Skillet, Tenth Avenue North, and VOTA (formerly Casting Peals) Concert
• Sunday September 21, 2008
• Concert Time: 6:30pm (Doors open at 5:30pm)
• Tickets: $10
• At Calvary Church in Souderton, PA (1 hour and 15 min. away)
Students will travel by leaders' vehicles to and from the event. We will meet outside the Firehouse at 4:00pm on Sept. 21. Estimated return time 10:00pm. If you have any questions, please contact me. Thanks!

Impact's goal

What is High impact’s goal?

How do we judge the effectiveness of a student ministry, or any ministry at all?
What would be the best thing to do with the time that I have been given to invest in this ministry?
What kind of change do I want to see in those in the ministry?
What does God’s word say is the means by which change takes place?
Is Impact doing what it was intended to do? What was it intended to do?

These are questions I have been wrestling with for the past year and a half or so. For lots of years in youth ministry I have gone through tons of different models of ministry, lots of different ways to reach kids, to spend time with kids, to get kids excited about ministry. But what way is the right way, and how do we know if we are being effective?

Many youth leaders today are in a panic. Things do not look good. Ministries face one of two problems- first, they are either simply struggling to get kids to want to come out, seeing that methods that worked in the past (big games, exciting events) just are not drawing the same kinds of numbers as they once did. Others face another problem. They have tweaked things enough to still get the numbers, but the drop off rate after graduation is horrifying. Statistics show anywhere from 60-80 percent are not involved five years after they graduate. Many youth leaders lament that their ministry is not producing the next generation of spiritual leaders, but a generation of those who have “been there and done that”, and want nothing more to do with the faith.
And, as any good leader would do, when things are not going well, just like the rest of us, they panic. And they go into “fix it” mode. What can we do to make kids come back out? How can we get them to stick around? Who is doing things in such a way that the kids are sticking around? How can we copy them?
Some just give up and ask “What do the kids want?” And they just give them that. There has been a huge movement toward a new model of Christianity called the “emergent” model in many youth ministries. Indeed, the very “voice” of youth ministry, “Youth Specialties” a publisher and leader in American youth group ministry, has sold out completely to this model where truth is not discussed. We share out stories, go out and do good things, lots of social activism, and provide a loving community for students. We can tell our story about who god is to us, but we can not say we know the truth for sure, or that it is right for anyone else. Kids love it.
Others are disbanding youth ministries all together. Is it even biblical?

So what should we do?
We would like to take a hard look at what the bible says about how people change, and then build a model of ministry based on what the Word says.
We realize that we can not judge our ministry by number of conversions, or even strength or maturity of believers. While a ministry that constantly produces problems certainly needs to be examined, we have to acknowledge that we are not the ones that produce heart change, and so we can not use heart change as a gauge of how well we are doing. Our job is to do what God says we are to do to be a part of His work in changing people.
What does that look like? What is our part?
Our job is to model, to teach, to love, and to serve. We need to ask how well we are doing those things. To that end, we can acknowledge that our goal – our real, do-able, measurable goal, is to become a community of students, leaders and parents where a passion for the supremacy of Jesus Christ can be caught and lived out in every sphere of life.

In other words, when we ask the question “how does change come about”, our answer is
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.2 Co 3:18

We are transformed as we behold glory, we are changed by God as we see who He is, and we see this chiefly through the gospel. We want to show off God, let students see how valuable He is to us and why, and the what life looks like when you see God as valuable.

So we ask the question, “what would happen if a community of leaders, parents, and students began to model lives that are all about showing off how wonderful Jesus is, where Jesus was supreme in our affections, in our obedience, in our desires? What if we taught the gospel to students, and then lived in response to the gospel, in front of students?” To do this would provide a wonderful picture of God’s importance and worth, his beauty and glory. It would show students what it looks like to live out their faith in all spheres of their lives. It would provide a place where students who are lost could come and see a people who live with a hope that they do not have, and who lovingly invite them to join them in placing their hope in Christ.
This does not mean that we would only teach the “ABC’s” of the gospel each week. What it means is that as we teach through God’s Word, and come across relevant passages to students and discuss various topics that the Word leads us to, we will emphasize how it all relates to the gospel. What it means is that we will try and show by how we live how Christ can be the center of all that God calls us to do.

Now notice that this is a community of leaders, students, and parents. This is essential to see. As we will talk about shortly, you play a crucial role in modeling this to your children. And we have to face the fact that we have failed to equip you to do this, and encourage and support you in the process. That is one of the big things we want to change about our ministry. We are to build a community that models a passion for the supremacy of Christ in all things, but the major component of that community is you.

So again, our goal- to become a community of students, leaders and parents where a passion for the supremacy of Jesus Christ can be caught and lived out in every sphere of life.

Handout from Parent's meeting

Ultimate goal for partnering with parents at Impact

1- Train
Bi weekly meetings with parents and students followed by “Parent Impact” meeting, where parents have a small group time have a discussion/training time.
This semester, these will be led by John Quay, and will be on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. On the first Wednesday John will be leading a class called “Help for Parents”. On the 4th Wednesday he will be leading a time of discussion based on the book “ReThink” which discusses parent centered youth ministry.

yearly parent retreat

we want to help parents be able to -
• help teens learn to make decisions
• help teens develop a biblical worldview, helping parents remember that "small" things often teach big things (what you do with your money, what you talk about over dinner, what vacation you take, what you do after work, etc.)
• help you develop thinkers who do hard things, not just players
• help you to communicate effectively with their children
• discuss ways to live out and remind children of the gospel

2- Involve
Develop a Parent Leader Team
This team will-
• Team will meet 6-8 times a year
• Pray for the ministry
• Encourage the student leader team
• Give guidance and suggestions from a parent perspective
• Brainstorm ideas
• Evaluate ministry

Provide 2-4 yearly activities from parents/students to do together (may overlap into other ministries, such as men’s and women’s ministry.)
Involve parents more in the weekly running of Impact
• Admin help
• Supplies/transportation needs
• Adopting a student in need (student without parental support.)
• Depend on parent to keep student accountable for bible reading, devotions, etc., especially as they relate to Impact small groups and activities.
• Recruit parents to recruit other parents to be involved- at Impact, but more importantly, in the spiritual lives of their children.

3- resource
Provide materials for parents to engage students in spiritual matters
Provide materials for parents to grow in their faith
Provide materials for parents to learn/think more about their role as their children’s mentors.

An explanation of what is at the heart of the ministry

An explanation of what is at the heart of the ministry

Proclaiming the gospel- that is, sharing the gospel in the form of words and sentences- is the greatest means God has chosen to use to bring about change in a life, whether it be new birth, or growing to maturity. This proclamation needs to come from the midst of a community that is being transformed by the God of the gospel. Yet it is the proclamation that God has chosen to use to do the transforming.

Paul trusted that the gospel was powerful enough to transform. He explains this in 2 Corinthians three and four. Paul is had been having a hard time with the Corinthians, after planting the church false teachers had come in among the flock, and had been spreading rumors about Paul, trying to make him look bad. These teachers, bringing a false gospel, mocked Paul’s weak preaching, and his humble appearance. And now it seems they were telling the Corinthians that they need not worry about or listen to Paul. Who was he, after all? Why should he carry so much authority with them or anyone? Apparently these teachers came with recommendations from others. They were qualified- Paul, he was not. And Paul is shocked, and hurt, because it seems as though the Corinthians are buying it. Paul is thinking “don’t you guys know me? Don’t you remember me? Don’t you remember what happened when I came to you?”

And so Paul says to them “All the evidence that you need is the changes that came about in your lives when I came and ministered to you.”

3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

And then He quickly points out that these changes did not come about because he is so powerful or wonderful, but because the message he brought is so powerful and wonderful.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant,

And then he lays out just how powerful this new covenant, this gospel message, is. He does that by drawing a comparison. It is as if he is saying to them “don’t you realize the power of this message? Don’t you see that this new covenant that you heard about from me is all that you need, that anything else is false? Whatever these new guys are bringing to you, don’t listen, because it won’t do what the new covenant does and did in you.”

This is what I think we need to hear and consider. Before we run to anything else to experience change, let’s hear why Paul thinks that the gospel message is a message of transforming power.

What Paul does is this: He compares two things- the old covenant, and the new.

There was an old covenant before this new one. There was an old way. The old way is a way of death. It was a ministry of death, and condemnation. It was the law, given to Moses. This old way does not bring change. It can’t. It only brings death to us. God, in His mercy, did reveal himself to us, He told us what He requires in order for us to be at peace with God, in order for us to enter into His presence, and the demands are staggering. They are contained in the law of Moses, and when we are faced with them they reveal our absolute poverty.

Think about where you stand before God by the law. The law gives you this code to live by and you fail at every point. You sin. And it is not just that you sin, it is not just that you do wrong things, but the law reveals that we are sinners. That is, we are not just people who do wrong things, we are wrong people. We do not just do evil, we are evil. Just let that sit in your head for a moment. We are evil, we are outcasts and criminals in the universe. Your very nature is corrupt. And nothing you can do can fix it. You do not have the ability to change it, and you do not have the means to pay the penalty for it. And if you doubt or question the depth of your evil, if you find that you are struggling to really understand how horrible what you have done is- just stop and think about it. God, in his wisdom, is the best judge of all things. God could tell us, he could judge for us, how bad sin is. Maybe we are not good at it, maybe we have a hard time understanding the depth of it, but God knows. He could tell us. He can weigh things rightly.

And what happens if we go to God and say “help me understand the weight of sin. Help me understand how evil I am and how bad what I do is”? What happens is he takes one, just one sin, and he says “look at this. This sin, this one small sin in your eyes, do you know what the weight of it is? One sin weighs the same as a forever, an eternal existence in fire, pain, torture, cut off from every good thing, from ever hope. Not just for one person, but for countless millions.” Now, if we think God knows what he is talking about, then thinking of sin that way, that is eye opening.

And that knowledge of sin, that understanding of death and condemnation came through the old way, the law. This law, this old way, it brings death. Paul calls it a ministry of death. A ministry of condemnation. The covenant that was fading away.

And here is what he says- that old way, when it was given, came with a glory that was beyond what you can imagine. Think about how the old covenant came. Imagine the Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai, ready to receive the old covenant- and here is how it came to them: God Himself descended upon the mountain, in a thick smoke and fire. Incredible lightning and thunder came forth, the whole mountain is covered in smoke, and a very loud trumpet blast comes from the mountain, so that the people tremble (ex 19:16.) The Lord continues to descend on the mountain, and as he does the smoke goes up from it like from a kiln, the bible says, and the whole mountain trembled “greatly”. Then the sound of the trumpet grows louder and louder and louder, and there Moses standing at the foot of the mountain bathed in the glow of the fire of God, speaks to God, and God answers with thunder. Then Moses would go speak with God on the mountain, and when he came back, his face would glow. What a picture of power, what a picture of awe inspiring majesty that would have made any of us here tremble and fall on our faces as though dead.

And Paul says that that was the ministry of death- and so what will the ministry of life look like when it comes? Paul says that whatever he is dealing with now, this new covenant, it makes all that look like no glory at all.

10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 2 Co 3:10

That is the power that Paul sees in the New Covenant. That is the incredible power that comes in the gospel.

Do you see it as that? Do you really think that the message that is in the gospel is more powerful than quaking mountains and the fiery presence of God? It is! More than we can imagine!

Yet there was something not right with that glory. The glory that Moses experienced, and took to the people, it was fading. It wasn’t a lasting glory. And so we are told by Paul that he wore a veil so that the people would not see it fade. But Paul says that there is a problem- this veil, it is still there. But it has moved. It is no longer covering Moses’ face, it is covering the glory. But the problem is that the glory it covers has changed. You see, they still think it’s all the same stuff that Moses brought, and so the veil remains. They still think it’s the old way, the law. So the veil remains, only now it is on their hearts.

The glory is hidden- with Moses the veil hid the fading glory, and the veil still hides glory, but not fading glory- an eternal glory. And not just for them, but for you and me too.

This is what we are told in chapter four. Paul goes on to explain -

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded 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.

There is still a veil, it exists in every unbelievers mind, and it is a veil that the enemy longs to keep in place, because it covers something. It covers a glory- the glory of Christ, the glory that is seen in the gospel.

What does that mean?

“…the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…”

Why such wording? The light-that is, the truth- of what? Of the gospel, that is, the good news. The truth of the good news- of what? What good news? This is interesting- we see this same word come up again- the good news of the “glory”, the glory of Christ. What does that mean? It means that Paul thinks that the glory of Christ, it is good news. What is the glory? We saw the glory of the Old Covenant- the power with which it came, the awe and beauty, though fading, that accompanied it. And here we have Paul telling us that the gospel is the good news of Christ’s glory. His “set apartness”- his difference from us in his perfections- His perfections, on display. That is to say, His beauty.

Listen, that glory that Moses’ face had, it faded. When you looked at it, it did not last. But when you look at Jesus’ face, you see a glory that does not fade- you see a beauty that is the beauty of God Himself-

6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And that is what the enemy wants to keep a veil on. Because to see it transforms. All I am saying is is that the Cross is the perfect lens through which to see the glory of God, that the truth of the Cross makes God look really attractive- beautiful- so much so, that if it is really seen, it makes you want him, to makes you want to be at peace with him, and it makes you want to not transgress his ways, and it makes you see him as all satisfying. In other words, it makes you love Him. So the cross is the means to peace with God, but also what makes us want peace with him to begin with. It transforms- it changes our wants. We want Him now, we want to please Him, we love Him. He who is forgiven much loves much- and when we see that forgiveness, and how glorious he is, we love Him. It is the means, and the source of the desire both.

This is what it is like: Imagine three criminals. One is a petty thief, a pick pocket. And he gets caught. And when he gets caught, he realizes that there is a punishment for what he has done, and he does not want to go to jail and suffer, so he “repents.” His repentance is not real- he has not really understood what he did wrong, he just doesn’t want to suffer.

The second criminal is a businessman, who embezzles money from his company. His white collar crime shames him when he is caught, and he repents. His repentance is not real, because he is only sorry that he now looks bad in front of his co-workers and family. He does not understand how what he did is wrong.

You see, I wonder if we understand why sin is sin, and why what we do is so wrong.

And that takes me to the third criminal. He is a graffiti artist. And one night he breaks into a famous art museum and finds the most loved work he can find, and paints big black stripes all across it. Now, the next day he goes back to the museum when it opens, to admire his handy work. And the press is there, and a crowd is gathered around the painting. And he stand there smirking, looking at what he has done… and as he stands there he look through his graffiti, to the painting underneath, and sees the real beauty of it, and he weeps. He weeps that he has defaced something so incredibly beautiful. He has repented. And he need not anyone to tell him to not do it again. The thought of doing it again is sick to him. He hates what he did. He sees the beauty he has defaced.

Do you see? The Cross makes us face the beauty we have defaced- the beauty of a God who loves us while we hate Him. And this beauty wins our hearts. And this message is also about the way God has made, through His Son, to restore our relationship with Him.

Let’s not become so much about the message that we forget who It’s about- Him. But that is why the message is so powerful- it is the clearest lens through which to see Him in this place of rare glimpses. “Show us your glory!” We cry- and He says “look at my Cross.”

16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

And your version may read “reflecting” not “beholding”, but either way, the point is that there is some interaction with this glorious New Covenant, this thing of great power that brings about change, and in chapter four we know more specifically that the enemy is trying to prevent the glory from being seen.

So, Paul believed that seeing glory is transforming. And he believed it was the glory of God that must be seen, and he believed it was seen in the gospel. The gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe-

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Ro 1:16-17

Often times this idea is looked upon skeptically. Haven’t we all heard many sermons and read many books only to see no change at all? Our experience tells us that there are more effective means to produce change in someone’s life. But we must consider two important questions-

1- Shall we be guided by experience or by the Word?

We should be so committed to the Word that even if we did all it said and saw no change, we would not give up on God’s methods and trade them in for our own.

Yet some would argue that the Bible does teach other methods. Didn’t Paul share his life with those he ministered to? (1 Thess 2:8.) He says, in fact, he shared “not only the gospel”, so doesn’t that show us that the gospel alone is not what is needed?

This is certainly not Paul’s point in this passage. He is not trying to demonstrate that the gospel alone does not change us. He is not saying “in all the other cases where I shared the gospel only, those poor souls were doomed to never see change.” He is also not saying “I have always shared my own self in this same way with all I have ministered to.” What Paul is explaining is the special relationship he has with the believers at Thessalonica, a relationship all ministers should have with those they disciple! But to suggest from this text we learn that unless we are sharing our lives with each person we share the gospel with we will see no change is going beyond the text. We can, and many have, seen great growth in themselves through those who they have never even met, through the teachings of those long dead whose witness goes forth in books and writings, for instance. Of course, a believer will needs to have those in his life that are sharing themselves with him, there must be real, personal discipling going on! And the gospel being proclaimed from a community of believers who are being transformed is our goal! But that is not the “missing ingredient” that is needed to make God’s word work. His word works through the Holy Spirit, as His gospel is preached. Our experience may be that hearing someone preach brings no change to us or others. If that is the case, let us suspect the preaching before we suspect the Word. Perhaps we have not heard real preaching enough? Perhaps we have a famine of real preaching in our day, where God and His glory are not upheld as transformative, awesome, or beautiful. If preachers do not think that we are transformed by a vision of glory, they will not share anything that highlights that glory, and so sermons will be ineffective. We can not look at such sermons and then conclude that preaching that exalts the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and puts that glory on display through the gospel is ineffective, and is in need of some help to bring about real change.

2- We also have to ask, “What kind of change are we encountering through these other methods?” It maybe that we are producing change, but not the kind of change that God wants or requires. People do change for many reasons. Have you ever wondered about the success rate of secular organizations when it comes to helping unbelievers avoid certain sins? We can not deny that many secular specialists have helped countless people overcome depression, eating disorders, addictions, etc. And we can not deny that there are things that take place in people’s lives that bring change other than hearing the gospel proclaimed. Near death experiences, a tragedy, even things like meeting a certain famous person, can bring about life long changes in unbelievers. People do change for many reasons, but we must understand that none of these changes are the types of changes that God is looking for, they are not new birth, they are not real Christ conformity. That kind of change comes about through seeing glory.

The point is not that we are to simply speak words, indifferently, to lost people. This is not what Paul did. We need to be a community who together loves and proclaims Christ, and shows Christ by suffering and doing hard things for one another and the lost. Yet, we can not forget that God has chosen what seems to be a foolish method of bringing about transformation- a simple message proclaimed! Do we believe this?