2 Corinthians 3 - [Daily Bible Study]

[Music] as it is written in Isaiah the front [Music] welcome to branch together my name is Jared and today we're reading from second Corinthians chapter three before we dive in let's take a moment and pray Lord we ask that your Holy Spirit would be with us today we remember your spirit your spirit that was at work in calling this world to order the same spirit that was at work in the life of your son Jesus the same spirit that was at work and his resurrection from the dead and that same spirit today that is at work in those who follow you I pray that we would submit to that spirit we would understand it we would come to trust it as it is our guide as it convicts us as it calls us to be your light your truth as it calls us to love this those around us in this world that would help each one of us today as we listen I pray that you'd give us perseverance to continue to come to your scriptures to be open to what they have to say we thank you always for your servant Paul in this Corinthians community and that we have these letters as we see the faith being sorted out and figured out and understood and lived out in real life and in real time and we pray that what we learned today would help us do the same thing to figure out how to live well and how to follow you faithfully in this day and age as we go back and look at how it was first formed and shaped in your and your first communities help us be a faithful church as well today in your name we pray amen 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 are we beginning to commend ourselves again or do we need like some letters of recommendation to you or from you you yourselves are our letter written on our hearts known and read by everyone you show that you are Christ's letter delivered by us not written with ink but with the spirit of the Living God not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human such as the confidence we have through Christ before God it is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves but our adequacy is from God he has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life 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 will the Ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious for if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory in fact what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it for if what was set aside was glorious what in doors will be even more glorious since then we have such a hope we act with great boldness we are 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 but their minds were hardened for to this day at the reading of the Old Covenant the same veil remains it is not lifted because it is set aside only in Christ yet still today whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts but whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is removed now the Lord is the spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom we all with unveiled faces are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed the same image from glory to glory that is from the Lord who is the spirit okay today in Chapter three Paula uses another metaphor to explain the Christian community now a bit of background corinth appears to be a very intellectual and learned society that placed a lot of value on intellectual status and on recommendations and things like that so you would come with a letter of recommendation and that appears to be one of the issues with receiving all that maybe other teachers had come to this area with recommendations and Paul doesn't seem to have the same credential so that's the background that we're trying to piece together as these letters go back and forth and we don't have the letters they sent to Paul and there's the in the Corinthian correspondence there appears to be this issue that Paul doesn't have kind of the intellectual or the the Academy's credentials that maybe other people have let's say for an example we can see this today a teacher comes to your town or your church and or back then right or anyway someone comes today and they have these credentials like you've studied under this a genius professor or you know this very famous person or whatever the the social credentials we have today or you take someone seriously because they have a million followers on Instagram or something like that there's we have these credentials in our society that says this person is qualified this person is good this person has this degree and and that's not all bad there's really really good things about that some credentials I think are really good some aren't as important but we're not debating that today but so similar in that society so if someone might come to town and he was a student of let's say Socrates or Plato or some brilliant person there and you'd say oh wow this person knew Socrates let's listen to him you know let's make sure we and they maybe they'd show up with a letter that says this guy's smart signed Socrates you know something like that but Paul tells the church you are a letter from Christ written not with ink but with the spirit of the Living God not on tablets of stone but on human hearts okay now the followers of Jesus are a letter from Jesus so that's that's cool but then Paul shows us how amazing how credentialed that really is first he says this isn't a letter written with ink but by the Spirit of the Living God that's better and bigger so he's kind of showing us like all rights people show up with letters of ink by these famous people or you know other you know esteemed people say this person has dentals and paul saying you're my credential and the person writing that letter they're not writing it with ink but it's written by the Spirit of the Living God and second it isn't written on tablets of stone which he's referring to the law given by God to Moses in the first testimony that in the first Testament that is the ultimate authority so far that is God's letter to his holy people that is the Ten Commandments and Paul saying you are a letter of the New Covenant this fulfills the first letter this is bigger than the previous covenant and it's not like it's not like any of the Corinthians or Paul are equipped for this but God makes them sufficient in the power of the Spirit they are called in the power of the Spirit to be ministers of a new covenant that's a big deal it's a scary deal but it's not just and we think about oh it's a letter that's a cute idea but when Paul breaks it down it says no it's a letter and they're written not by not by ink but with the spirit on human hearts not on tablets of stone which was the big authority but it's something bigger than that now written in the power of the Spirit it's a big deal it's a scary deal what do you think about that do you think about that probably not in your everyday life but that's why we're reading this to push us to think about things like this these metaphors are powerful for me to think that we are meant to be ministers of a new covenant not a written code on stone but words written by the Spirit on the heart that is good stuff good things to think about good things to dig into and we will keep digging in tomorrow as we get into 2nd Corinthians 4 in 2nd Corinthians 5 some of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible just incredible stuff coming up as Paul continues to we even work out his arguments and his points and all that good stuff in this this great letter as always thank you for listening and watch and as always feel free to join the conversation and share your comments and thoughts with us thanks a lot and hope you guys have a great day

Channel: Branch Together

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Keywords: daily devotions, inductive bible study, Daily Video Bible Reading, bible study, protestant, christian, monmouth county nj, church

Id: 7xTh8Wo6G7Q

Length: 9min 14sec (554 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 13 2018