1. 2 Corinthians “Ministry" Paul’s Defense Paul’s Description
Our Instruction

2. Paul’s Defense of Ministry

3. Paul’s Description of Ministry

4. Paul’s Description of Ministry
When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
2 Corinthians 2:12–13
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5. Paul’s Description of Ministry
But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession.
2 Corinthians 2:14a
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7. Paul’s Description of Ministry
God is using us and the troubles around us to “spread the Knowledge of Christ everywhere". = Ministry

8. Paul’s Description of Ministry
…Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. 15 Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.
2 Corinthians 2:14b–15a
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9. Paul’s Description of Ministry
But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. 16 To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?
2 Corinthians 2:15b–16
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10. Paul addresses some of the personal attacks on him and his Ministry.

11. 1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Corinthians 2:17–3:3
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12. Paul’s Description of Ministry
Full of God’s Grace and Truth

13. Paul’s Description of Ministry-Full of Grace
We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. 5 It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.
2 Corinthians 3:4–5
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14. Paul’s Description of Ministry-Full of TRUTH
6 He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant (truth). This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:6
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15. Paul’s Description of Ministry-Full of TRUTH
9 If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God!
2 Corinthians 3:9
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16. Our Instruction for Ministry
In our Weakness we See God's Power

17. Our Instruction
1 Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up. 2 We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this.
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2 Corinthians 4:1–2

18. Our Instruction: Rely on God’s Power
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
2 Corinthians 4:8–10
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19. We are being used by God to GROW His Church

20. Our Instruction: Rely on God’s Power
7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
2 Corinthians 4:7
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21. We are being used by God to GROW His Church
15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
2 Corinthians 4:15
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22. Our Instruction: Rely on God’s Power
16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
2 Corinthians 4:16–18
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