Sermon26-7 2Cor3&4 Guide

2 Corinthians 3 & 4, theme verse 2 Co4 4:16-17

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this second Sunday of new year 2026, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. As we begin new year 2026, last week, we became to know that when God created this world, He had the vision of His kingdom in mind, but, because of human sin, His creation became corrupted, so that by sending His only Son Jesus Christ and His Spirit, God made those who have faith in Jesus not only achieve the forgiveness of sin, justification and eternal life, but also proclaim His kingdom where His righteousness, peace and joy is full, after inaugurating via Christ and His church. And to that vision of the kingdom of God, we became to know that we were called and sent too to fulfill His mission. Yet, this week, we would like to meditate on today’s text to know how glorious that ministry of proclaiming the gospel is and the fact that we will be also transformed day by day as we taking this mission of God together.

1)    As today's text comes from 2 Corinthians, the second epistle to the Corinthians is Paul’s fourth or fifth letter to the Corinthians from Ephesus where he was staying in his third mission trip, after dealing with various problems which arose in the church in Corinth.

Corinth of the first century was a prosperous city due to its commerce, yet it was also a place where the vile greed of the rich and the misery of the poor coexisted. Furthermore, due to the strong influence of Greek philosophy such as Platonism, Stoicism, and Epicureanism and its dualism of spirit and body, physical hedonism and asceticism were prevalent there. And also because of the Roman temples and Greek temples, idolatry was rampant. So, due to these influences, even church members were unable to renounce idolatry and fell into sexual immorality and syncretism, in addition to their spiritual pride by misunderstanding of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In addition, even their spiritual blessings in which they had Paul who provided solid theological knowledge, in addition of the visits of Apollos, a man of eloquence and proficient in the Scriptures, and Cephas, one of the Lord's leading disciples, led to the division into the factions and conflicts.

So after hearing of these problems, Paul wrote few letters, sent Timothy and Titus to exhort them to repent, and even he himself visited them, to lead them in the right direction. And all his efforts finally bore fruit, and he heard from Titus that the Corinthians had punished the leader who had led the opposition against Paul.

Therefore, to encouraged them, urging them to reconcile with God and to forgive and reconcile with one another, he wrote this letter to exhort them to throw away immature behavior and to be mature to take sufferings to proclaim the gospel of glory of God. And also while exhorting them to participate in the collection for the churches in Jerusalem, he tried to defend his apostleship against new itinerant evangelist who came and challenged Paul’s authority, boasting their spiritual gifts, saying that true apostleship comes from the participation in Jesus’ suffering against a new itinerant evangelist, , displaying their spiritual gifts.

In particular, in today’s text of chapters 3 and 4, he said that the gospel of truth is ultimately about making us see the glory of God displayed in the face of Jesus Christ and he was called in this the glorious ministry to proclaim this gospel to glorify God and to be transformed more into His glory while participating in sufferings.

2)    So I hope we could learn few lessons together by meditating on several key points among today’s text.

First, regarding the glory of God, Richard Muller, in his ”Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms," ​​says God's glory indicates the "infinite eminence of His divine essence." And the Bible describes it as the inaccessible light in which God dwells. So this glory of God as the Numinous, elicits the fear of God from humanity and G.K. Beale, in his book "We Become What We Worship," referred to it as the essential glory of God.

3)    However, the problem is that, as Romans 3:23 says, because of sin, we, human beings cannot see this glory of God. Therefore, God displayed His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and then He made those who believe in Him know and recognize His glory and in the end, as Revelation 21 says, we can dwell in the light of His glory in the new heaven and new earth and live forever. However, those who do not believer cannot see His glory in the face of Christ, since the god of this world blinded them.

In other words, by the gospel, we, the believers in Jesus can see the light of God's glory displayed in the face of Jesus Christ and today's text refers to this glory of God reflected in the face of Christ as the "Displayed Glory." That’s why our Lord said in John 14:9, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."

4)    By the way, we believers are not only able to see God's glory, but also to reach God's glory and to be transformed into glorious beings.

I mean, as John 17:22 says, Jesus gave us the glory which God gave Him. And then as 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, through the Holy Spirit, we see and know God's glory revealed in His face, that is, His glorious, good, and holy attributes and then we are increasingly conformed to His image, I mean, we will be transformed into glorious beings more and more.

5)    And then while being gradually transformed into the image of Christ, we proclaim God's glory, I mean, His goodness and holiness all over the earth. And also as verse 16 says, ”though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day," as our outer self gradually decays, while our inner self is being renewed day by day, we glorify God by reflecting Christ's character all over the world, where the outer self signifies "the destiny of human beings as mortal creatures," while the inner self refers to "those who belong to the age to come, those who already possess the spirit of the new age."

And in Biblical terms, this is said to glorify God, in order words, to give glory to God and this ministry is referred to as the ministry of the Spirit of the glorious gospel.

6)    By the way in today's text, there is another passage in which he speaks of other way to be transformed into glorious beings. I mean, in 4:17, it is said that "For our light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs it all."

In order to understand this passage, first we have to know that glory, that is, absolute goodness and holiness, belongs only to God so that in order for us to be transformed into glory, we have to receive it from God. Therefore, 4:17 does not mean that our sufferings bring glory to us, as suffering becomes our merit. Rather, it means that suffering becomes a channel for receiving God's glory.

I mean, as Romans 5:3-5 says, suffering transforms our character as we endure it which makes us focus on the unseen and abandon our outer self as 2 Corinthians 4:17, and rely totally on God as 2 Corinthians 1:9 says so that to us who seek for His grace, God gives His grace and transforms us into glorious beings. In other words, the suffering we experience ultimately makes us realize that we cannot become good and holy on our own and seek for God’s grace humbly. And then, God in His mercy, fills our empty hearts with His goodness and holiness. And by the Holy Spirit, we are gradually transformed into glorious beings. In this perspective, Louis Berkhof expressed this process of being transformed using the brilliant image in his book of “Systematic theology” that “It is like the airing of a house filled with pestiferous odors. As the old air is drawn out, the new rushes in.” I mean, glorification looks like His glory enters into that cleaned and vacant space as our old self is casting out from us.

However, we have to clearly know that this perfection is only achieved when we completely take off this sinful body, I mean, our sinful nature, as we leave this side of the world and in the last day, put on a spiritual and holy resurrected body.

That’s why the Lord said in Matthew 11:29, "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart," and also in Galatians 5:22-23, it is said that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

7)    And also, that’s why Romans 5:1-6, it says that since we are justified by faith and have peace with God through Jesus Christ, we not only rejoice in hope of God's glory, but even rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

And also that’s why Paul also said in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, "But I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with hardships, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong."

And, in addition, Paul said that true apostleship is not only about signs, wonders and miracles, but also how much one suffers and endures for the sake of the gospel, as 2 Corinthians 12:12 says, “Now the marks of an apostle were what I did among you with all patience, in signs, wonders and miracles”.

8)    Therefore, I pray that in this new year, we all may fulfil His mission by the power of God in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and be transformed into the more glory, while being humble and gentle through the weakness, insults, hardships, persecution, and calamities, in our way to follow His way in joy.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that the mission of God to us, I mean, to advance the kingdom of God among our nexts generation is the glorious ministry in new covenant era. So, after reflecting our life and thinking about whether we saw His kingdom and how we can live for the glory of the kingdom of God, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also, we became to know that in this way toward the kingdom of God, even though we can encounter weakness, insults, hardships, persecution, and calamities, we can clothe with His power and also be transformed more glorious through these. So after reviewing our life last year and reminding how taking his yokes makes us grow and be strong, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that (   something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.