Speaker 1: Well, if you've been following along in the news this week, you may have heard a lot about the conversation around domestic violence, the crisis that's facing us in Australia.
Speaker 1: It's certainly had more than its fair share of controversy, which is very unfortunate given it's such a serious issue and not everyone agrees on everything being said.
Speaker 1: But everyone agrees we need to do something.
Speaker 1: It really is a terrible scourge in our society and you probably know someone who's been affected by it.
Speaker 1: And look, while it's not the topic of my sermon this morning, I do want to say that if you need help in a domestic violence situation either to get out, or perhaps you or someone you know wants to stop abusing please reach out so we can support you in that.
Speaker 1: But as I've listened to the ways people are suggesting we can prevent, manage and mitigate the crisis, it struck me that one thing is missing, and it's actually missing because it's beyond the ability of any advocate or politician or any human being really to do anything about it.
Speaker 1: See, we're a church that wants to see God's transformation come to every heart and home his love, peace and righteousness transforming hearts and homes by the gospel, and that's something that needs a miracle.
Speaker 1: And what would it look like if toxic homes, fueled by addiction and alcohol and gambling and financial stress and violence, were transformed by the gospel?
Speaker 1: What would that look like?
Speaker 1: And so this morning we're asking how does this transformation happening?
Speaker 1: And as part of that, we're going to turn to 2 Corinthians 3.
Speaker 1: I'm going to shorten what I was going to read just because time's gotten away from us.
Speaker 1: I'm going to start from verse 7 and then fill in a little bit of the backstory.
Speaker 1: So 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 7.
Speaker 1: Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses' face because of its glory, which was set aside, how would the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
Speaker 1: For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory.
Speaker 1: In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison, because of the glory that surpasses it.
Speaker 1: For if what was set aside was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.
Speaker 1: Since then we have such a hope.
Speaker 1: We act with great boldness.
Speaker 1: We're not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end of the glory of what was being set aside.
Speaker 1: But their minds were hardened, for to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains.
Speaker 1: It is not lifted because it is set aside only in Christ.
Speaker 1: Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.
Speaker 1: But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Speaker 1: Now the Lord is the spirit.
Speaker 1: Well, paul found himself having to defend his apostolic ministry before his beloved church in Corinth, which is in modern day Greece.
Speaker 1: Some false apostles had come with letters of commendation from somewhere and were claiming some kind of authority in the church.
Speaker 1: And now the Corinthians were asking Paul, where is your letter of commendation?
Speaker 1: Paul Now, keep in mind, paul had started this church.
Speaker 1: He had labored there for 18 months to establish it.
Speaker 1: And so Paul argues to the Corinthians, just before the passage we read, that they themselves are his letter of commendation a living letter, are his letter of commendation a living letter?
Speaker 1: And then he lays out the basis for his ministry and authority.
Speaker 1: It's not in the dead words of a letter on parchment, but something greater, greater even than the Torah, which was written in letters carved in stone, particularly the Ten Commandments.
Speaker 1: So Paul says that law was a ministry of death, literally in the Greek.
Speaker 1: My translation says a ministry that brought condemnation.
Speaker 1: And it's a ministry of death because it brings condemnation, not because of anything within the law that's bad, but because we can't keep all the righteous requirements of the law and so we stand condemned before it.
Speaker 1: Despite that, paul says, even though it's a ministry of death, it is glorious.
Speaker 1: It's the word of God.
Speaker 1: But Paul served a ministry that was even more glorious, a ministry that was even more glorious.
Speaker 1: So, as glorious as the old covenant was, it fades in comparison to the glory of the new, the gospel.
Speaker 1: A ministry of righteousness because it makes us right, it doesn't condemn us, and that shines with a greater glory and will endure.
Speaker 1: And so Paul says this explains his and the other apostles' boldness.
Speaker 1: This explains why he doesn't need a letter of commendation.
Speaker 1: He and the other true apostles are not like Moses.
Speaker 1: And now he refers back to a story in the Old Testament where Moses goes up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and the law from God, and then he comes down and the Israelites are freaked out because his face is glowing.
Speaker 1: So would yours be if you had been face to face in, well, almost face to face, in the heaven, which essentially is the image that the Old Testament, that Exodus, gives us.
Speaker 1: And so he puts this veil over his face to hide the glory of God, so that the Israelites won't run away.
Speaker 1: And Paul considers this veil a symbolic barrier between Israel and their experience of God's glory.
Speaker 1: Now, israel had been invited at one stage, very early, into God's glory and they couldn't handle it.
Speaker 1: So now, excuse me, I'll grab my water.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: Paul says for the Jews and really anyone who reads the Old Testament, who reads the Old Testament, this veil today still remains, not, again, because of anything deficient in the law, pardon me, but because the veil can only be removed in Christ.
Speaker 1: And so their hearts are hard.
Speaker 1: But he says whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Speaker 1: You see, when Moses went back into the tent each day, the tent of meeting, where the glory of God resided amongst the people, he would remove the veil.
Speaker 1: He turned to the Lord, removed the veil and saw God face to face again, so to speak.
Speaker 1: And Paul says the veil can come off for anyone.
Speaker 1: The key is turning to the Lord, because the Lord is the life-giving spirit, not dead letters chiseled into rock.
Speaker 1: And all of that then brings us to our key text today, verse 18.
Speaker 1: We all, pardon me, with unveiled faces, are looking, as in a mirror, at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory.
Speaker 1: This is from the Lord, who is spirit.
Speaker 1: We are being transformed into the same image.
Speaker 1: So Paul wanted the Corinthians to know that this glory was their present reality.
Speaker 1: They were living in it, not in the policies and procedures, as we might put it, that they were looking for, like a letter of commendation, as if that meant anything to Paul.
Speaker 1: Now he says it's not that we see the glory in its fullness now.
Speaker 1: We are living in the reality of it, but we're not living in the fullness of it.
Speaker 1: We only see as in a mirror.
Speaker 1: In those days, of course, mirrors weren't the shiny, perfectly reflective thing we have, even in a cheap mirror today.
Speaker 1: They were made of polished metal and they could get scratched and tarnished so that the reflection was just a very poor image of the original.
Speaker 1: So maybe a more apt image for us would be looking into a pool of water, where ripples across the surface, distort the image and you can't see your reflection clearly.
Speaker 1: But you do see your reflection.
Speaker 1: It's really there, but you know that it's something real and glorious and so close you can just touch it.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about your reflection, sorry.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the reflection of the glory of God.
Speaker 1: You know, one day we're going to turn around and see that glory face to face.
Speaker 1: It's just been reflected in that pool of water and we're going to, it's going to catch our breath and it'll be so amazing, more amazing than we could have imagined.
Speaker 1: Paul says until then, church of Corinth, keep seeking the glory, the real glory.
Speaker 1: Keep turning to the Lord, not to a dead letter, not to false apostles, because it's God's glory that is transformational.
Speaker 1: Keep seeking the glory of the Lord Bentley Baptist, because it's his glory that will transform every heart and home.
Speaker 1: What is this glory?
Speaker 1: Well, it has two intertwined aspects.
Speaker 1: So Paul says it's the ministry that brings righteousness, the new covenant, the.
Speaker 1: In Christ we are forgiven and reconciled to God through his death.
Speaker 1: And this is the message of hope that the God of all creation, the judge of the whole world, loves you and has dealt with your sin and your shame and your guilt and has forgiven it, and it is the ministry of the Spirit.
Speaker 1: The promise of the gospel is the presence of the Spirit of God dwelling within us so that people who turn to the Lord are transformed.
Speaker 1: He makes us new.
Speaker 1: The God of the universe will transform your life personally, and so the key to seeing every heart and home transformed is the proclamation of the gospel, so that people can turn to the Lord, who is the spirit of life, and gaze on his glory and be changed.
Speaker 1: And it really works.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the tools used for sharing the gospel around the world is a Jesus film.
Speaker 1: It's quite old now, but it's had a massive impact.
Speaker 1: And so in an African village, when a team showed the film, a woman named Ayadel.
Speaker 1: She cried uncontrollably.
Speaker 1: Through the film, her husband had abandoned her and planned to destroy everything they owned.
Speaker 1: And she says I had plans to divorce him, but hearing about Jesus filled her with hope and she gave her life to Christ and her new life changed the way she viewed her marriage.
Speaker 1: And Ayodel went to try and she wanted to try and reconcile with her husband.
Speaker 1: And she says I just give my problems to him, to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He has given me hope to remain Now.
Speaker 1: Now Ayadel hosts a Bible study in her home.
Speaker 1: Her husband has also returned home and is one of the 28 people attending the weekly Bible study.
Speaker 1: The gospel changes hearts in homes, the glory of God shining in there.
Speaker 1: Iadell turned to the Lord of life and her family and her village were transformed by God's glory.
Speaker 1: Now look, life is messy and hard and painful.
Speaker 1: The journey to glory is not a straight path.
Speaker 1: In fact, jesus said you can enter God's kingdom only through the narrow gate.
Speaker 1: The highway to hell is broad and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.
Speaker 1: But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult and only a few ever find it.
Speaker 1: But when we find that gate, it is glorious.
Speaker 1: I was recently talking to some colleagues, and one of them particularly was grappling with how to walk with people who were coming into the church with serious mental health challenges.
Speaker 1: One of the pastors pointed out that most of us as pastors aren't trained counselors.
Speaker 1: We're just not qualified to try and counsel people in a psychological sense, and if we try to, it actually raises ethical and legal issues.
Speaker 1: So we can talk with people and we can give spiritual advice, but we can't counsel them in that way and as we chatted it struck me.
Speaker 1: You know, it's actually not my job as a pastor to counsel people.
Speaker 1: People come to pastors with all sorts of needs.
Speaker 1: That's not my job.
Speaker 1: There are far more qualified people who can do that.
Speaker 1: I'm just a pastor.
Speaker 1: All I have to offer is Jesus, and Jesus is enough.
Speaker 1: You know it's ironic that so often society wants the church to help with people's problems, deliver social programs.
Speaker 1: We should be doing good, oh, but not the gospel, oh.
Speaker 1: No, we don't want the gospel.
Speaker 1: We want you to get on board with what, effectively, is a dead letter.
Speaker 1: Rules and regulations, safeguards, policies, procedures, ethical practices all be put in place and you do the social stuff, but we don't want the gospel.
Speaker 1: Can't preach that.
Speaker 1: And look policies, procedures, ethical guidelines all of that is actually good.
Speaker 1: Remember the Old Testament?
Speaker 1: Covenant was glorious, but it can't bring life.
Speaker 1: And these rules and regulations are there to keep people safe.
Speaker 1: There's things I have to follow as a pastor.
Speaker 1: There's things we have to do as a church, and it drives me crazy sometimes, but they're there to keep people safe.
Speaker 1: They're there to stop death.
Speaker 1: They can't bring life.
Speaker 1: But here's the reality.
Speaker 1: We are just a church.
Speaker 1: All we have is Jesus.
Speaker 1: We don't have the capacity to offer many social programs or do much.
Speaker 1: All we have is Jesus.
Speaker 1: But when people turn to Jesus and see his glory, there is power.
Speaker 1: And see his glory, there is power.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you, friends, are we turned to the Lord?
Speaker 1: The letter of Hebrews says to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
Speaker 1: Jesus said that if we abide in him, we will abound in much fruit, and it's when he holds our gaze that we see his glory and are transformed.
Speaker 1: You know, I sometimes hear people say I tried Christianity and it didn't work.
Speaker 1: You tried Christianity.
Speaker 1: Did you try, actually, jesus?
Speaker 1: Christianity without Jesus is just another dead letter.
Speaker 1: It's good, but it ain't that great.
Speaker 1: It's when Jesus holds our gaze that we see his glory and that we're transformed.
Speaker 1: So when Moses turned to the Lord, his face shone and the Israelites could see the glory of the Lord reflected in him.
Speaker 1: Can people see the glory of the Lord reflected in him?
Speaker 1: Can people see the glory of the Lord reflected in us and remember?
Speaker 1: This is the paradox Jesus was glorified on a cross and, like the Israelites, many people are going to freak out when they see the glory of the Lord in us.
Speaker 1: We don't want to be like Moses, who the Israelites fled from.
Speaker 1: We want to invite people into the presence of Jesus so they can see his glory not just his glory in our face, but see him and be transformed and then reflect his glory to others as well.
Speaker 1: And that is how hearts and homes and communities are transformed.
Speaker 1: So, friends, let us turn to the Lord and gaze on him in the word, in our worship, in prayer, in our fellowship, together.
Speaker 1: Let us earnestly seek God's glory and be transformed, and as we do so, may God grant that we take his glory into every heart and every home, and may they be transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father.
Speaker 1: We just echo the words of your word.
Speaker 1: Lord, may we turn to Jesus and be transformed.
Speaker 1: And, father, we pray that your kingdom will come on earth as in heaven, your love, your righteousness, your peace, transforming every heart and home through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Amen.