When I came to the city of Troas to preach the Good News of Christ, the Lord opened a door of opportunity for me. But I had no peace of mind because my dear brother Titus hadn’t yet arrived with a report from you. So I said good-bye and went on to Macedonia to find him. 2 Corinthians 2:12-13

For the next few days we are going to go through some highlights of the most important passage in scripture that no one knows about. Okay, some know about it, but not enough who should, and even if they do, few grasp its centrality to the ministry and how Christ works through us as believers. So if you stick with us for the next four days, you’ll know more about the practical workings that make a ministry successful than most seminary graduates.

And the most shocking part of this lesson is how it begins. It begins with failure. That’s right: successful ministry begins with failure.

But first we should understand what the writer, Paul, was trying to accomplish with this section of his letter to the Corinthian church. He was revealing to everyone the essence of what a real ministry consists of. The people in the church were confused about authentic ministry. There had been false teachers spreading wrong teaching around the congregation, and the end result was to doubt the credibility of Paul and his companions. So Paul found it necessary to lay out clearly to them what authentic ministry looks like. As a result, it becomes a useful rendering of the secrets of their ministry among thee people as apostles, and in a sense, a manual for us today on how to be effective ministers of the gospel.

So for him to begin with a failure, he is setting the stage for the fact that true ministry happens through us and takes into account our human failures and limitations. It happens through us, in spite of us.

That’s why he begins with a revelation of his own anxiety over not finding Titus in Troas which caused him to walk right by a door “the Lord opened.” He was anxious about Titus and anxious about no news from the Corinthian church. Yet in the very next breath, he says, “But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession.” And “uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.” All of that happened in spite of Paul’s anxiety and walking past a door that God opened for him.

Thus the first thing we learn about the new covenant is that it is always going on and we are being effective wherever we go in spite of our human limitations, because it’s Gods ministry in us, through us, and in spite of us.