The key words to our time of fellowship these days are found in 2 Corinthians 6:1: “And working together with Him”; and in 2 Corinthians 4:1: “Therefore seeing we have this ministry.”
We have intimated that the message at this time relates to the ministry of the Lord’s people; that is, the ministry of the church, whether it be the church in general or the church in local communions. It is the ministry to which the Lord’s people, both individually and collectively, are called.
You will remember that in another letter the same writer spoke about the gifts given by the ascended Lord in the church:
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering.
The end of all the divine activities now is that the church shall be a ministering instrument and vessel of the ascended Lord. We have to get our minds clear and adjusted over that word ministry.
Ministry does not only mean, and very largely it does not mean at all, going about with the Bible in your hands and giving addresses anywhere. That may be a form of ministry which some have. Ministry is a very comprehensive thing.
If I were to put it into a phrase, I should say this: ministry is the influence and effect of the Lord’s people being here in this world. That effect and influence can be in very many different ways.
What we amount to for the Lord by being here; what the world knows by our being here; and what other believers know by our being here.
We are not, in a spiritual sense at any rate, nonentities—people who do not exist. That is the meaning of that word: nonentities; no existence.
In the Lord Jesus, we are not to be as though we did not exist. Very much to the contrary, we do very much exist, and it ought to be realized that we exist—not in our own self-importance or self-sufficiency, but just by being here in our relationship with the Lord Jesus.
That is a general statement, or definition, of ministry. It may work out in particular ways, but this is the ministry of the church: to be here; to be in view; or to be in any other place where you may be related to the Lord’s people by the will of God. To be there, not as nonentities but as entities—living entities—is in itself something, without any preaching, without any platform.
The apostle says in two connections—and I believe it was true in more than the two—that through them the word sounded out into all the regions. That was true of the Lord Jesus: His fame went out throughout all the regions. Something was taken note of. People knew that they existed.
God forbid that we should be in any place and people not know of our existence in a spiritual way. You know what I mean when I am talking about the ministry of the church.
Having said that, I hope it has got home, meeting the challenge. As I said yesterday, right at the beginning, this second letter is so practical that we have to meet a challenge from the beginning to the end, because it is the letter of ministry. I think we shall learn a lot about the nature of ministry as we go on, but it is a great challenge to the spiritual effectiveness of the Lord’s people as being in this world.
At Corinth, spiritually, they had lost their testimony in the world—a ministry to the world—and become neutralized and overshadowed. They were no longer a spiritual power in that great city, until something happened between the two letters, so that a second—or perhaps a third—letter could be written on the whole matter of ministry.
Well now, we remind ourselves of the content of this first chapter again. We ought to read it all, but there is not time to do that. I had a feeling last night that you would want to go home and read the chapter again very carefully. You did not? Well, I suggest that you do.
Repeatedly read this first chapter, because it is the essence and summary of all that follows. All of it, in the whole letter to the end, is in some way implied or touched upon in this first chapter.
We spent our first hour on this first feature of ministry. This chapter is so full of this word suffering—suffering, and the suffering accompanied by consolation.
We summed it all up by saying that there is no real, effectual ministry or testimony that does not spring out of suffering of some kind, in some way: the sufferings of Christ.
Let me pause at “the sufferings of Christ.” There is more in it than the phrase. Contemplate the sufferings of Christ. I do not mean the crucifixion; I do not even mean the nails in His hands and feet, or the thorns on His head. These are the sufferings that are made so much of, for instance, in Rome and in other realms. That is not what we refer to.
You know, very terrible things have been said about that. I remember, at the beginning of the First World War, hearing a famous preacher from America preaching at the City Temple in London. He said, “Many a British soldier has put up a better show than Jesus Christ did when He was crucified.”
If that were true—doubtful if it is true—however, dwelling wholly upon the physical aspect of things, you well might make comparisons like that. However, that is not the meaning of the sufferings of Christ.
There is a deeper realm. No man in all history, soldier or other, has ever touched the real sufferings of Christ: His vicarious, representative suffering; God-forsaken, and that in full consciousness.
I believe that this phrase, “the sufferings of Christ,” carries that meaning. What immensely fruitful sufferings they were! No individual, cumulative suffering has ever borne the fruit that His sufferings have borne.
We have this morning been dwelling upon the fruit of His sufferings. Our apprehension of the meaning of His shed blood and His broken body may be limited—microscopic, perhaps—but however small it is, it makes us individually feel how immensely efficacious and virtuous those sufferings were.
If only my son has been redeemed and saved, and secured unto eternal glory for ever and ever, those sufferings were not in vain. They were great sufferings. No man could ever do that.
When you gather a great multitude, which no man can number—ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands—language beggars comprehension. See them standing in the virtue of the blood of the Lamb: the fruit of His suffering. His sufferings were fruitful.
That is the point. The apostle is saying that he was privileged to share the sufferings of Christ, and the church—even the church at Corinth. As the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, what is the point? That the values of suffering may be produced; that the wine from the winepress should give new life, minister life.
The emphasis is not upon the sufferings in themselves, but upon the value, the profit, the gain, the fruit of those sufferings. That is what the apostle is talking about, and the letter itself is set right in that, as we shall see in a minute.
For these few minutes, we can dwell upon the afflictions of Christ, the sufferings of Christ, which abound unto His people for the sake of their ministry: to make us effectual and fruitful in ministry to others, to effect life.
I think we have to bow our heads in shame. So often—more often than not—our sufferings are allowed to turn us in upon ourselves, and make us miserable in look and appearance, and heavy in our contact with other people: just the reverse of ministering life. Is that true?
Well, if we do bow before that, if we go down before that charge, let us realize that that is why the Lord is speaking to us at this time about this matter: trying to help us to get on our feet and take another view of suffering, the afflictions of Christ which abound unto us.
See that, in the Lord’s meaning and intention, seeing it is in union with Himself, His intention is that our ministry, our testimony, our influence here in this world should be a fruitful one—and a more fruitful one.
The apostle introduces, right at the heart of this opening part of his letter, a great experience through which he had passed in this way:
For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia,
that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power,
insomuch that we despaired even of life:
yea, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves.
Now, I said this first chapter is a kind of summary of the whole. If you go on through the letter, you come upon a great deal more like that, to which we may refer at some other point. He will list and tabulate many, many sufferings that came into his life—how many, and how terrible they were.
But here he introduces the whole range of suffering with this one instance and incident in Asia. This is suffering, you know; this is intense suffering, is it not? Weighed down exceedingly, in excess, beyond our power.
Perhaps some of you have sometimes had to say, “Lord, it is beyond me. Lord, beyond my power; it is beyond my measure of grace. I just cannot stand any more.” Well, that was Paul: beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life.
We had the sentence—it was as though we heard the sentence passed: “It is death. The end has come.”
But that is only half the verse. That is the setting. What follows? A mighty, mighty word is the next one:
We ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves,
that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God Who raiseth the dead.
“That” means “in order that.” All this—can it be? Yes, all this death—with a definite object, a definite purpose, a definite meaning in it all: that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God Who raiseth the dead.
There was not much left for trusting anyway, was there? And then, at the great turn—down the dark road, when you thought, in our modern language, that you had gone round the bend, round the corner—but God, Who raiseth the dead.
What then was the divine thought and object in these afflictions of Christ, so deep, so terrible? What was He working toward? What was He meaning at this time?
The context is so tremendously impressive. To answer the question first: it was all intended by the Lord to bring into a new knowledge of the power of His resurrection. That is where your ministry is going to take its rise and have its fruit.
A new knowledge in our own selves: as we have known in ourselves the sentence of death, to know in ourselves, in a new way and in a new measure, God Who raiseth the dead.
You can put all the eleven disciples right into this. When Christ died, that for them was the sentence of death within themselves, and they were scattered. If there was one more than another amongst them who would say, “I had the sentence of death in myself,” it was Peter.
It is almost a worn-out statement and idea, but as I get into it, that would keep us from making it light and familiar: “Go, tell My disciples and Peter.”
It does not want much imagination. Find that group, the one sent, arriving amongst them and saying, “I have a message from the Lord. He is alive. I have a message from the Lord to you. He has told me to come and speak to you. And Peter—He specially mentioned you.”
“What? Peter? A message to me? He mentioned me? Are you speaking the truth? Do you mean it? He really picked me up and said that you were to say it to me, as well as in a general way—to make it personal to me?”
That was, of course, in the Lord’s knowledge, very necessary for Peter. As I have said, if ever a man felt the sentence of death in himself, it was Peter at that time. They were all there—oh, there!
All ministry was impossible until that moment. There would be no New Testament, no Book of Acts, and nothing at all of our New Testament until they knew that He was risen, and knew it in themselves.
The New Testament, you see, springs out of the resurrection; it is based upon it. The message to the world was that. Oh, ministry springs from, first, the sentence of death, and then the knowledge of Him in the power of His resurrection.
This is not just history long ago. This is something continuous, repeated again and again in the history of the church and of individual Christians.
The apostle speaks about this: that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh; always bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of the Lord Jesus should also be manifested. Always, everywhere, repeated.
Paul had known the risen Lord in a mighty way at the beginning of his Christian life. This is long after, in Asia. I think we would be right in saying he had gone more deeply than ever in Asia.
Have I said enough, or too much, to say that the fruit of the afflictions of Christ—for testimony, for ministry, for influence, for effect, for impact, for making us significant amongst men in this world—is that we are the embodiment of the power of His resurrection?
When we have more than once come to the place where everything says, “It is the end. This is the end,” and we are still here and going on—that has happened many times. You are familiar with words like this, but this is the very thing, is it not? It is real. It is practical indeed.
So that all ministry comes out of resurrection. That is the hope of suffering.
Did not the Lord say this in a parable which could only really be understood after His resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit: the parable about the vine and the branches?
I think we dwell a lot upon the vine, and rightly so, and upon the branches, and rightly so. But let us dwell a little more upon the vinedresser and the knife in his hand. Watch him.
Here is this thing spreading itself, showing itself in every way, growing perhaps in its beauty and glory. Then the knife comes down. Off comes this, and off comes that; this and that, and another thing is severed.
Branches are wrecked, one thing after another, until it is cut right back to the very quick. It is bleeding at every point.
Well, that is the truth about vine-dressing, is it not? You go where the vines are and see the preparation for the next yield of grapes. When the dresser has done, you wonder if anything will survive at all, if there is any future for that vine. It is cut back and down; so much has been taken away.
That is the principle, you see: cut, bleeding, suffering and anguish, stripped, bereft of this thing and that thing which was our glory, which was our life.
And the Lord Jesus said, again, “that it may bring forth more fruit”—and better fruit.
Remember, now, we must keep to reality, because I said last night there is this other word, consolation, which is running parallel all the time with suffering, with affliction.
Is it not the greatest consolation when we come into a new experience of the power of His resurrection? Is learning better than that? When we have despaired and gone beyond our measure, and then find that that is not the end after all; but it is not only just survival and going on in our existence. There is something more, something fuller, something richer.
Now, I said the setting of this is in itself a great illumination. Read the first letter to the Corinthians. There is no document in the Bible so terrible—well, there are some terrible ones—but terrible here because of all that they had had.
They had had two years of the ministry of the Apostle Paul, day and night with them. Oh, such a man had to give them for two years, concentrated ministry; and apparently a very real experience, wonderful activities and operations of the Holy Spirit, and gifts of the Spirit.
After the two years, the apostle left them for four or five years. Then, away up there, some household slaves—Christian slaves—arrived. They were of the household of Chloe, and told the apostle what had happened in Corinth.
The awful spiritual decline and breakdown; this awful state of things. “It is declared unto me,” he says, “by them of the household of Chloe,” and then he goes on telling the story: there are divisions amongst you; some of you go to the worldly courts to fight out your case against your own brethren in the church, to get your rights.
On he goes until he reaches the deepest depths: there is even incest amongst you, and the church condones it. This man goes down, for Paul loved Corinth—he loved Corinth, that is, the church. He said, with tears day and night, he had laboured on their behalf. Then he had this report: terrible, devastating to the man.
He called Timothy. “Timothy, away to Corinth. Hurry after Corinth. See if this is all true, and do what you can. Just straighten it out; put it right.”
Timothy reported, “It is all true, and I am afraid it is worse than has been reported.” Paul said, “Titus, you go. Perhaps they do not take sufficient notice of Timothy, being young. You go. See what you can do.”
The report was just as bad as anything. Paul, at that time, left Ephesus and went to Troas, and told Titus to meet him there, in the hope that Titus would have some kind of better account to give.
He went to Troas. He said, “A door was opened unto me” to preach the word, “but I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus.” Titus had been delayed in arriving. The man’s heart was breaking, and he had to leave an open door for the gospel and go into Macedonia.
But the report was confirmed. He wrote his first letter. What a letter it is.
Then, as many believe, he wrote a second letter—I cannot confirm that—which was lost. If that is true, I think it was in the providence of God that it was lost. It must have been a devastating letter, if the things in this second letter really apply to that letter.
Some terrible things resulted. He smashed them up completely with that second letter, if it was so. Well, I am glad it does not exist in the New Testament.
But then something did happen. Oh yes, it went home. Notice how, in the second letter, he speaks: “Oh, what repentance! What tears! Heartbrokenness! What humbling of yourselves! What apologizing! What seeking forgiveness!”
Yes—death, and the Corinthian turn. This is the consolation he is speaking about now: resurrection in Corinth.
All the things that had happened were not cured; this letter will show that there were still some of them. Nevertheless, the general situation had turned, and the power of resurrection had come in.
The apostle here is saying, “Yes, you have been where I have been. We have gone through it together—to despair, beyond our endurance, the sentence of death. We have all been in it together. And you and I are now together in the power of His resurrection: God Who raiseth the dead.”
You see the very practical setting and background of this teaching. From that time, the apostle will open up the whole matter of ministry. He could never have done that before with Corinth. Ministry? No, never for such a church in such a state.
Now, as I have said, the most wonderful document on the church’s ministry is the second letter, so called, to the Corinthians. What a letter it is on ministry! We have not got there yet; we are only at the beginning so far.
But I trust we are able to draw something from this. Many of the Lord’s people are knowing great suffering—the fellowship of His sufferings, the afflictions of Christ, deep trials. Perhaps not in the same form as the Apostle Paul, or even the Corinthian church, but we are in days when the Lord’s people are knowing a great heaviness, a trial of faith.
Going through deep waters; often hard pressed, pursued, cast down, sometimes to despair. Let us take the Lord’s word to heart.
He does not mean all this to be the end. His meaning inside of it all is that, not trusting in ourselves, we should trust in God Who raiseth the dead.