Introduction

Who believes in miracles? We have been thinking a lot about miracles in the past few weeks as we have celebrated the birth of Jesus and thought about what that means for the world! Now, as we come into lent and move towards easter on our horizon, the greatest miracle and display of God’s glory that the world would ever see is the Cross. We are Christians, people whose hope is in the cross of Christ, in the crucified king who died that we might live and who lives so that we will never die – “Of course, we believe in miracles!” You could be saying to yourself.

We see miracles all around us, in the church’s life, our own lives, and worldwide. Even in the last week, we have been blessed to witness miracles unfold before our eyes, as prayers that many of us have offered to God consistently in the previous two years have finally been answered. These were prayers that many of us longed to see fulfilled, but the longer they went on, the less likely it seemed that they could happen; we doubt that we could ever turn to God in thanks rather than petition for it. Then, two years later, one of the greatest miracles Northern Ireland has ever seen occurred on live television – Stormont was brought back to life two years after it died!

The reality is, even if we do not see it, sometimes we are surrounded by wonderful works of God in our life and the world (miracles) – that point us to the beauty of life with him and the glory of his power. We are surrounded by works of God that show the world the beauty of God and the wonder of Jesus Christ. They are the greatest miracles, the most visible. Miracles the world will see, yet they often go unnoticed, unseen, and unassumed.

This is perhaps the greatest thing about the Kingdom of God – the greatest miracles are often insignificant and normal. Have you ever stopped to consider that in a world looking for miracles and people obsessed with them, as we sit here in our church and chat in conversations afterwards, we are among some of the greatest works of God?

Have you ever stopped to consider that if you are Christ’s disciple and have confessed to him by faith, then you are one of the miracles through which God displays his power, majesty and love to the world? By faith, when we each come into a relationship with Jesus, we become great works of God (miracles) and continuous works as the Holy Spirit dwells in us and works in us to make us more into the image of Jesus. He sanctifies us to make us more into the image of his son. We are all miracles of Grace. We are miracles by Grace because God is finishing what he has already begun through it: “Within each of us exists the image of God, however, disfigured and corrupted by sin it may presently be. God can recover this image through grace as we are conformed to Christ.”

Context of Passage

Why all this talk about miracles? Well, simply because we are reminded about it so clearly and beautifully in our passage today. In Paul’s fourth letter to this young Church in Corinth, and our second because we don’t have access to the other two, Paul is teaching about the relationship between suffering and the Power of the Holy Spirit in his Ministry life, message and preaching. Additionally, he seeks to respond strongly to criticism that has been levelled at him and his leadership: his motivation for raising a collection for the suffering believers in Judea (8:20-21), and indeed his boldness and courage in life and ministry for the Lord (10:10-11).

Ironically, those questioning Paul have said that because he has suffered so much, it’s a sign that God does not bless him and is not an authentic messenger of Jesus. Even in the Church’s early days, the lies of the world and desire for comfort had seeped into the Church’s way of life and passion for living. Paul was not judged by his faithfulness and determination to continue for Jesus under challenging times. Still, instead, he was being judged because of the difficulty he faced and his determination in it. In severe opposition, Paul seeks to defend his ministry and his preached gospel. Why? Because it was the authentic message that all the Apostles had proclaimed in unity and had suffered for in unity – as a sign of its eternal beauty and authenticity, not as a condemnation of their ministry.

You can roughly break the letter into three sections that help us to understand its flow and points and then to understand the passage that we are looking at this morning:

1. Chapters 1 to 7 – Paul seeks to deal with the attacks on his new ministry and message.
2. Chapters 8 & 9 – Paul focuses on the present responsibility of those who have repented and claim to follow Jesus as disciples.
3. Chapters 10 to 13 – Paul again graciously warns as an act of Mercy about the coming judgement for all who continue to rebel against the gospel and promote a false gospel.
   

We are right in the middle of that beginning section where Paul seeks to defend his life and ministry. Not just because he is an Authentic apostle who has seen the risen Lord Jesus and been commissioned by Jesus, but because his life and ministry mirror that of Jesus and display to all who will follow him – the beauty of Gospel grace and the reality of life in the Kingdom amid a world hostile to God. Paul has made his case and boasted in it not because he is proud of his suffering but because he knows he has been faithful. Then Paul uses his example to encourage the Church in Corinth to the same way and lifestyle. In the section before our passage, Paul has outlined his visit to Troas and Macedonia and all the beautiful works there that God had done through them as they spread the beauty of the Gospel, a fragrant offering: “We are the Aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” (2 Cor. 2:15). It must no doubt have been deeply hurtful for Paul to be accused of not being an authentic teacher of Jesus, especially when he was aware of all the false teachers out there. Thus, it is with that Image of the false teachers and their motivations that Paul finishes that section to act as a contrast to his teachings and motivations:

” For we do not market the word of God for profit like so many. On the contrary, we speak sincerely in Christ, as from God and before God.”

See in Yourself the Fruit of the Spirit and the Gospel of Grace (1-3)

One process that most of us agree that we all dislike is the modern-day approach to applying for a job. The hassle of spending hours online, flicking through papers, reading One thing I hated about applying for jobs was figuring out who should be a reference or a referee. Who can be bothered reading through Job descriptions and then trying to adapt your CV to make it sound like the skills you offer are precisely what they need, even though everyone else applying has the same abilities? Sadly, that is not even the worst bit of the whole process – I hate when you have to figure out who will be your references. Especially when they say, non-close family or friends. You are applying for a job, which often means that you are leaving a job and you have to get references to voucher for all the claims you have made in your CV, and usually you don’t want people to know that you are applying to jobs. Who do you ask? What do they even say other than what you have already said? Let’s be honest: you will never use a referee who will speak poorly of you. The only thing worse than asking someone to be your reference for a job is being asked to be a reference! What on earth are you meant to say the odd time that you get emailed and asked for feedback or when you get sent a form with 20 questions that ask you about the commentary of a friend for a job, their character, skills and qualities:

“I am not sure Andrew would be a great fit for this role, to be honest, but he is a really nice minister and very funny. Even if he goes on a bit when he is preaching.”

You are the Reference You Need!

Who would be willing to be my referee and say some nice things about me? Every leader will face some form of opposition, people who don’t trust what they are doing or like things the way they are. Even in church, and even in the early days of the church – Paul experienced this constantly. He has been defending his ministry and the authority under which he has been sent – the authority of Jesus. Furthermore, he has given a defence of the message that he has preached and the effects that it has had on his life as evidence of its worth, not as signs that he is a false teacher.

Now, he asks directly those who oppose him and his ministry (almost sarcastically) at the start of our passage what sort of reference they want in terms of the authenticity of his ministry and leadership. Who do they want him to get to write or speak on his behalf? Do they want him to go? They have been reminded about those who preach and teach about Jesus to benefit themselves – for money, profit and personal promotion. Against which Paul reminds us that he declares the good news of Jesus with “sincerity” as one sent from God and who knows he will stand before God (2:17). Thus, what Paul asks at the start of Chapter 3 is a challenge to those who oppose him to consider what it is they want? Do they want him to start again, or does it sound like he is trying to be forceful? As Peterson phrases it: “Does it sound like we are patting ourselves on the back… asserting our authority?”

Paul knows the authority under which he has been sent, yet rather than making him one who boasts in his position, it humbles him because he has grasped what that means about him – it is by Grace we are saved, and by Grace, we serve – not position or prestige. Thus, Paul goes further because not only does he not laud those who have led to faith and the churches he planted, nor even those who challenge his authority. He dismissed the need to bring Letters of recommendation with him for Ministry or to ever ask for a Letter from human hands to authenticate what he has been doing and been called to do. Why is Paul so strong that he never needs to bring a letter to or from this church? Because he is not on a human mandate, he is not serving an earthly call – so what use is Earthly affirmation, primarily when they have not understood this great work of God? Paul was accountable to God and his word and judged his faithfulness.

The Cross is our Commendation

In the same way, as we serve in the word of God, we must be humble and speak Christ with “sincerity”, knowing that we are from God and before God in all the things we do. God calls us to walk with Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit makes real in us and through us the model that Jesus lived out. When we serve the King in the Kingdom, we are free from the need to be affirmed or validated by the world and its standards. Instead, we must remember that we have been called to bring transformation into the world with a message that is not from it but is for it. The Cross is our commendation, and Christ’s ascension is our payback for the work of the Kingdom. The fruit that the work of the Spirit produces in us and through us is the affirmation God gives us of His work in our lives and through our living.

A Living Reccomdation

As he continues, that is Paul’s point: the church in Corinth’s growth in faith and fruitfulness, even amid the opposition and division, is the only commendation Paul will ever need. They are God’s affirmation of his ministry because an authentic message produces authentic conversation and leads to genuine faith and fruit. That is why Paul is so cheerful about their faith and its realness. If someone asks Paul how they can be sure he is the real deal, he will say to them – look at these people and the work of God in their lives. Grace realised it was the greatest miracle of all. Thus, as we gather each Sunday and worship the Lord, we must judge ourselves by the same standards – the ethic of the Kingdom and our fruitfulness in the King. Of the church in Corinth, Paul reminds them:

“You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter anyone can read by looking at you.”¹

When we truly follow Jesus and live for Him within the ethics and rhythms of his Kingdom, our lives will show it. It will be obvious to a weary world because to live for Jesus by itself is an otherworldly act. How do we live for Jesus? Simply put, we prioritise our relationship with him through prayer, Scripture, worship, and life in the Spirit, and then we get on with being faithful wherever God has placed us. To be a living letter is nothing fancy or complex; it is simply being faithful to the Kingdom and its commission in the context of our normal, deepening our love of Jesus and dependency on him, and trusting that as we move towards Him, he will move through us and in us to produce fruit. After all, it is not our work or worry to bring people to him; it is Jesus who does it in us and through us: “Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiselled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.²

This is Paul’s closing point in this section: Grace is a gift of God to us, and effectual grace in our lives remains a gift of God by the very presence of the Holy Spirit. This living work in us is not a work of earthly power (Ink) but of heaven – God’s living spirit, and it is not written on something lifeless. Instead, it is being written in each of us in whom the Spirit dwells daily as we live with God and for God. The Old Covenant was written on Tablets of stone, but the New Covenant is alive and made real in our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit. As we walk with Christ and live with him, he is writing the law of God and work of God in our hearts and the world around us by Grace – That is what it means to Christ’s letter written with the Spirit of the Living God

Paul is pointing back to the prophetic promises that God spoke through the Old Testament Prophets, that he would do something new in the lives of his people for all people. Think of the words of Ezekiel: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 36:26). Paul teaches to the Church in Corinth that The New Covenant has come. We are reminded that we are living in It now.

” The needed change within us is God’s work, not ours. The demand is for an inside job, and only God can work from the inside. We cannot attain or earn this righteousness of the kingdom of God: it is a grace that is given.” – RJ Foster.

Our Certainty and Sufficiency come from God (4-6)

Paul goes on in the final few verses to affirm all that he has said and has been saying Cceary – that his confidence is from God. Verse four highlights that the gospel confidence in his ministry for Christ is from Christ before God. God calls Paul, sustains him in the ministry, and bears fruit in his ministry and faithfulness. Again, they are to see the evidence in their conversions and Kingdom fruitfulness. Paul is confident in his ministry and the authenticity of his Kingdom service, yet, again, we see beautifully in verse 5 that his confidence is never based on his merit!

Once, Paul boasted that he was the most zealous of religious leaders, from the finest stocks and purest lines. Now he declares to a Church that wants him to make something of himself – “We are not competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.” This is the boast of the Kingdom. We are blessed to serve and do marvellous things for the Lord, but like all the faithful saints, we delight even more in taking none of the Glory and giving it all to God.

Paul is explaining as simply as he can to the church, those who accuse him and us 2000 years later who read it now that certainty in Kingdom life and ministry comes from God through Christ (and what he has done for us on the cross), and is made real in us by the Holy Spirit. It is God who calls us, God who does the work in us, and God who does the work through us. So we boast in him and live out our freedom to serve in the Kingdom and to live out the beauty of life in Christ rather than under the weight of trying to find out value by early standards or to be accredited by the Kingdoms of this world.

We are all ministers of the New Covenant, and our sufficiency in that ministry comes from the work of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s what we mean when we say it comes from God. The beauty of this Gospel life is contrasted with life under the old covenant. Where the law was chiselled into stone with an external code to obey, now, the New Covenant of God takes the same truths and writes them on our hearts – Paul is stating the simple Gospel truth that the Old Covenant and law could do nothing to help one live by it. In contrast, today, in the Kingdom of God, the New Covenant is defined by life in the Spirit and the work of the Spirit in our life to enable us to know God and live for him. So let us get on with living out the Kingdom Life as Living letters being written so that others might know the same hope.

Living Letters of Grace (Conclusion ) ³

As we draw to a close, let us embrace the profound truth that we, as a Church family, are living letters of grace penned by the hand of God Himself. Our lives, transformed by the miracle of the Gospel, bear witness to the enduring power of Christ’s work on the cross and His resurrection; letters that live are read as they are experienced and seen by the world around us. In a world yearning for signs and something to hope in, let us remember that the greatest miracle is the transformation of a human heart by the Gospel of Grace. A transformation that we are compelled to embody as disciples and as a community to bring Glory to God.

Our very existence as followers of Christ, as people who have been made new through His grace, is a testament to the miraculous. It is a beacon of hope in a fractured world. We are not merely recipients of this Gospel; we are its heralds, its incarnation – called to share the message of love, forgiveness, and redemption in the normality of our day with all those around us in word and deed so that as people see us – they see him.

In living out our faith, let us hold fast to the beautiful assurance that our sufficiency comes not from ourselves but from God. He has equipped us, through His Spirit, to be ministers of the New Covenant – the Gospel of Grace—a covenant not of stone but of the life-giving Spirit, alive and active within us.

This is our call to reflect the beauty of the Gospel to everyone we encounter, serving as a living invitation to explore the depths of God’s love, Grace and Glory. Let our prayer be that each of us will strive to be faithful stewards of the grace we have received for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom in North Belfast and beyond.

“O for a heart to praise my God,
a heart from sin set free;
a heart that’s sprinkled with the blood
so freely shed for me:

Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart,
come quickly from above;
write thy new name upon my heart,
thy new best name of Love.

Oh For a Heart to Praise My God ⁴

1. Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), 2 Co 3:2. ↩
2. Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), 2 Co 3:3. ↩
3. Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 2 Co 2:17. ↩
4. https://hymnary.org/text/o_for_a_heart_to_praise_my_god ↩