With an Unveiled Face
With An Unveiled Face
1 Corinthians 11:24-25: And when He had given thanks, He took the bread and broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
· A covenant is an agreement between two parties. It’s like a contract, but it’s stronger than a contract because it’s a life and death agreement. The agreement is usually sealed in blood, signifying the strength and importance of the contract.
· The covenant becomes the basis for all further agreements between the two parties.
· The old covenant was the agreement that God made with man, and was sealed with the blood of animals. The new covenant that Jesus brought to us was sealed with His own blood!
· Paul says these are the two covenants that are still at work in life. One is the old, which he says “everything from me and nothing from God.” This is the law covenant. The other is the new, which He says “nothing from me and everything from God.” This is a grace covenant.
· The question of whether it is law or grace is: “what’s your source?”
Ø “Christ in us the hope of glory!” But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
2 Corinthians 3:5-6: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
· Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a student of the law, highly educated and highly trained, but Paul had come to the conclusion that all of that was useless. It was nothing but manure. Paul had learned the hard way when it came to his own abilities.
· Paul had to learn to operate in the new covenant (everything from God and nothing from me) which gives life, by shifting away from the old covenant (everything from me and nothing from God) which Paul tells us brings death.
Ø The Lord told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
· He had learned to depend completely on the Lord. He had learned that within him dwells no good thing, he was bankrupt. He had to learn to be weaker, not stronger. God will not trust this power to those who think they are strong because they will think it came from them.
· This concept can be taught, but only learned through experience.
2 Corinthians 3:7-8: But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
· This glory shining on the face of Moses is a key to this message.
· The old covenant which Paul calls the “ministry of death” was symbolized by the glory shining on Moses’ face when he came down from Mt. Sinai with the commandments on stone.
· There was a certain glory about the Law of Moses. To this day, there is a kind of attractiveness to the law. The world highly regards the law (everything from me and nothing from God), therefore they are still under the law.
· Paul said the law is holy and just and good (Romans 7:7), it is perfect for what it was meant for; man’s flesh—man would understand do good—get good; do bad—get bad. There was simplicity to it. There was a reward for good and punishment for bad;
· Man could glory in his good deeds under the law; get self-respect, be self-reliant …essentially be selfish. But the law condemns sin in the flesh; death.
· Paul tells us that the new covenant is a “ministry of the Spirit” and is much more glorious. The glory of the law was always intended to pass away and be replaced with grace because resurrection life is always intended to replace death.
· Paul contrasts “the shining on Moses’ face” with the “light of the glory of God in Jesus’ face,” this is far more glorious than on Moses.
2 Corinthians 4:6: For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Ø The shine on Moses’ face is a symbol of the old covenant, and the light of Jesus’ face is a symbol of the new covenant.
· The unredeemed world lives looking at the face of Moses, trying his best to please God (do good) in his own strength continually living in fear of God and death.
· But the face of Jesus shows us the light of the love of God which shines in our hearts! Perfect love casts out all fear.
· The Christian can live by either. Therefore, the activity in the life of a Christian is dependent “in the moment” by which face he is looking at: Moses or Jesus!
· Jesus brought us the new covenant; He was dwelling in the new covenant, and shows us the ministry of the Spirit in the new covenant.
John 14:10-11: Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
· He said, “Father who dwells in Me does the works.” Jesus clearly shows that everything He did… was not done out of any power of His own.
· Jesus was our prototype. He demonstrated new covenant living for us while on earth.
· However, fallen man working in the energy of his own flesh can do many good deeds—good in the eyes of himself and others around. But God does not see them as good, they are a waste because the source of the work is wrong.
· There is attractiveness to men in the flesh trying to do good, but it is like the shine on Moses’ face—fading vain glory.
· But the glory of the new covenant—is far greater because it gets its glory from Jesus’ work in them. Thus it is perfectly acceptable to God because it is the activity of the Son, the source of the work is right. This is as it should be.
· Let’s go back to Pauls’ practical application of the two covenants; the shine on the face of Moses or the light in the face of Jesus.
Numbers 6:24-26: “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” ’
· Moses said this after the glory faded away from his own face. He now points the people towards the face of the Lord.
Ø But Bob, how can we know which face we are looking at in any given moment? How can you know if you are in the flesh (producing death) or if you are in the Spirit (producing life)?
Ø The answer is: by what kind of life—or fruit---that is being produced!
· Let’s look at what the Bible means by death; it is the absence of life.
· When a doctor examines a badly injured man, he looks for signs of life not signs of death. If he does not find them then the man is dead. Life produces its own signs and in death they are not present.
· So what is life? Jesus says it is abundant and it is full of joy; or enjoyment of fruit in the Spirit—love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control. Therefore death is the absence of these things.
· Those would include fear, worry, anger, depression, self-pity, etc. These would indicate the presence of death, they are part of our existence while still living.
· Therefore, we can know which face we are looking at by the fruit we are producing.
Matthew 7:16-17: You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
· Many think that the negative qualities of our lives are a result of a bad mood or changing circumstances in our lives.
· But Jesus is telling us, no! These things actually come from something much deeper. They come from the old covenant interacting with our flesh, a bad tree.
· Therefore they are depending on something coming from them… rather than depending on everything coming from God. And the result of that--- is the presence of depression, loneliness, self-pity, disappointment, etc., and is the marks of death.
· This gives us a clue as to which covenant is at work.
· The fruits of the Spirit come from one source, the new covenant of the Spirit of Life.
· There is a sort of glory in the marks of death, and some can find a sort of pleasure in them. Many like to wallow in their self-pity and resist efforts to bring them out of it. Feeling sorry for yourself and pity parties feed the flesh and in a strange way pleasures the flesh.
Ø We can look at these two covenants as a Tree of Life; or a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
2 Corinthians 3:9-10: For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.
Ø Most of us think of righteousness as “doing right,” and there is an aspect of that, but its deeper, because doing right comes from “being right.” Therefore righteousness is coming from God and not from me.
· So one does right because one is right and its pleasing to God!
· Since our righteousness is a gift from God, it means we are fully acceptable to God; therefore we are valued by God. All of our internal struggles are settled, the believer no longer tries to “become” acceptable to God.
· He knows he is pleasing to God so he is free to act to help others who are hurting or feeling condemned because he is free from these things to be completely depending on God.
· On the other hand, how many Christians are depending on themselves for their good works to please God?
· There is no glory in that other than “self-glory.” And, how can we ever know if we’ve done enough, not knowing that they are dead works? Performance based Christianity leads to frantic activity with little being actually accomplished, except exhaustion!
· Many churches base their success by how many activities that they have going on, their programs, bookstores, their swag sales and they glory in their activity with self-approval… yet the source of their activity is the wrong covenant.
2 Corinthians 3:12-13: Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.
· Why did Moses keep the veil on his face?
· It was because he knew the glory was fading away and he was afraid. Afraid of what? The children of Israel would learn that the glory was fading.
· He did what millions have done, he wore a mask because he didn’t want anyone to see what was really going on inside.
· Veils come in many forms today, but essentially they are the same; they represent the image we want to project to others, hiding our real selves.
· They are basically pride and hypocrisy, and we don’t want people to see our fading glory. Often we don’t even want to admit to ourselves what has happened.
· If we wear our veils long enough we will believe we are the kind of people we want others to believe we are. We started pretending and it’s hard to stop.
· These veils can be removed, but we must first be honest about ourselves and with ourselves. It’s hard to be free in the Lord when wearing our veils.
· So how can these veils be removed?
2 Corinthians 3:15-17: But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.
· Here is our first real key in moving from the Old covenant into the new: The Spirit of the Lord! We must turn from our own self sufficiency, and simply turn the other way… turn to Christ
· We must choose to turn from the flesh with its lying promise of success, and by faith put our trust in Jesus in a similar manner to when we had our born again moment.
· It’s the Spirit that manifests Christ to us; His death and His resurrection. In His death the power our old life is broken, and in resurrection His sufficiency is released in us.
2 Corinthians 3:18: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
· When our veils are dropped and we are ceasing to looking to the face of Moses, and we behold with “full vision” the glory of God in the face of Jesus is transforming us, by the simple act of “beholding,” or choosing to stare with intention.
· The Sprit begins to move those parts of us that are not surrendered out of the way.
· It’s glory to glory. It’s all Him, none of us! Won’t you drop your veils, won’t you stop pretending by putting on a strong face?