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Who We Are - Sermon, Sunday, June 29th, 2003
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2 Co 4:13-18 as follows —
"It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
I wonder if anybody ever looked at the apostle Paul and asked, "What is wrong with this guy? Is he crazy or what?" I mean, from the moment of his conversion on till he lost his head in Rome, he faced just about every conceivable hardship and danger. He was imprisoned, flogged, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked. He faced enemies everywhere he went, and so-called friends undermined his work, disappointed him, deserted him. He labored night and day with blood, sweat and tears in this calling, this life he had not chosen for himself. Do you think anybody ever wondered, "What in the world keeps him going?"
Do you suppose anybody ever wonders that about you? "What in the world keeps them going?" Unless you're a casual Christian, you know that being one of "them" is not easy. Just think about the effort and determination that it takes to live a Christ-honoring life in this world, and the frustrations, heartaches and pressures we experience as we seek to do God's will from day to day. Look at the time, the effort, the money — the sacrifices we make as we serve as members of a Christian congregation. It's a valid question to ask: What in the World Keeps Us Going? God's Word here gives us an answer and a refreshing reminder. What keeps us going are the same things that kept Paul going.
There's no way you could describe Paul's life as easy or comfortable or even safe. He described himself as being "hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, given over to death." So, Paul, why do you keep at it? Why not back off a little? Surely there are easier and safer ways to live! His answer? "It is written: ÔI believed, therefore I have spoken.' With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak."
The "spirit of faith" that Paul had was confidence — a confi-dence that moved him to devote his life to Jesus and kept him going no matter how tough the going got. Here's why he kept going: "because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence."
When the going got tough, this is what kept him going: "We know that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead." That's the foundation of the Christian faith, the heartbeat of the gospel. Jesus Christ, God's Son, rose from death on the third day. Deny that truth, and there is no Christian faith any more, just an empty shell. For the apostles, there was no doubt about it; they'd seen the risen Jesus with their own eyes. You bet they could say "we know" — and that great confidence kept them going.
They also knew that this God "will raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence." God's power will on the last day raise our bodies from death, decay and dust so that he can present us to himself as his holy people forever. He has, in fact, already made us presentable. Jesus' resurrection is the proof that he atoned for the sins of the world, that he removed our guilt entirely and paid our debt in full. Our sins are forgiven! We are confident that we are presentable to God now as his saints, and will be forever.
Paul wrote to the Corintians, "All this is for your benefit," and that gives us some insight into his life, too. He endured everything, sacrificed everything, suffered everything — all for the benefit of others. The life he lived was not self-centered but other-centered — a life lived for the glory of God and in love for others. And you know that's not easy, either, so what kept him going? He had every reason to throw in the towel and find a safer way, an easier way, a more comfortable way to live. But that's not what he was after! Living for Jesus was the aim of his life, and his confident faith kept him going. "We believe, therefore we speak."
If you indeed are not a casual Christian, if you take seriously your calling as a disciple of Jesus, if you are not simply dabbling at being a Christian or "playing church," then the same question could be asked of you. "What keeps you going?" You're always swimming upstream, as your Christian values clash head-on with the values of a godless world. You face pressures from within and without as you strive to live a holy life. You're always pulled in different directions as you try to devote yourself to Christ and make time for his kingdom work. You sacrifice and give and work for the good of your church, your fellow believers and the lost.
What in the world keeps you going? A confident faith, like Paul's. You and I also know that Jesus died to save us, and that God raised him from death and that he will raise us also and present us to himself. With that same spirit of faith, we also believe — and therefore speak. We speak, dear friends, not only with our words but with our actions, wiht our attitudes and priorities and lifestyle.
We speak with our church attendance - when we make worship and using Word and Sacrament a priority each week. We speak when our highest goal in every area of life is to joyfully obey God. We speak in loving, personal service rendered to all whose lives touch ours. We speak with the time and energy and talents we put into the Savior's service in our congregation. We speak (most honestly of all?) with our offerings, with giving that is firstftuits and sacrificial and prayed-about and prioritized! We speak with lives that are other-centered, lived for God's glory and the good of others.
That kind of living is not easy nor comfortable, sometimes not even safe. It does bring us added pressures and hardships. But we keep going, don't we? We keep going because of our confident faith that God raised Jesus and will raise us also. And that leads to another powerful motivation we have, the same cheerful hope that Paul had. He was not crazy. You can be sure that he did not enjoy physical or emotional pain and he didn't go looking for ways to suffer. But when it came he kept going because he was looking ahead, beyond the troubles. He stayed focused on where it was all leading and was able to put it all into perspective.
He wrote: "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." Outwardly, physically, we are wasting away. We feel it happening. Those of us of a certain age are not as strong as we used to be, nor as quick mentally. The hearing, the memory, the knees all remind us daily of where we're heading. Each day brings us one step closer to the grave, and every bit of trouble or pain or worry seems to highlight that truth!
But believers see something else happening: "inwardly we are being renewed day by day." Even as the body grows weaker, the spirit, the inner life grows stronger — if, that is, IF we are seriously attending to the needs of our spiritual life. If we are, then renewal is happening, and we will share Paul's insight: "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." When compared with the glory that's waiting for us, our troubles here are light and momentary and, in fact, we know that they serve God's purposes in our lives.
Humanly speaking, of course, those things aren't any fun at all. So why not just avoid whatever troubles we can? Why not just go with the flow and swim downstream with the crowd? Why struggle so to do God's will? Why labor and sacrifice in trying to live that other-centered, that Christ-centered life? Because we see things differently, that's why. Because "we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen." Because we know that "what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
We know, but need to be reminded, that the visible things (some of which we treasure so much!) are temporary. So, what will we lose by living Christian lives? Only temporary conveniences and pleasures and comforts and ease. What might we suffer? Temporary pains, pressures, hardships, heartaches. And so, as Paul said, "we do not lose heart." We keep going in an all-out effort to live God-pleasing lives. Keep going in our devotion to Christ and his kingdom, keep going in our ministry to each other and to the world around us. We keep going in this other-centered life, and what in the world keeps us going? A confident faith — we know that God raised Jesus and will raise us also. And a cheerful hope — we have our eyes glued on the unseen and eternal glory that awaits us. And that, dear friends, is enough to keep anybody going!