STUDIES IN II
CORINTHIANS
BY GLENN PEASE
CONTENTS
1. FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE
Based on II Cor. 1:8-11
2. PAUL'S SELF-DEFENSE
Based on II Cor. 1:12-17
3. OUR JESUS IS YES Based
on II Cor. 1:15-22
4. GODLY CHANGE based on II
Cor. 2:1-11
5. THE WEAPON OF
FORGIVENESS Based on II Cor. 2:5-11
6. THE FACE OF GOD based on
II Cor. 4:1-6
7. SEEING THE INVISIBLE
based on II Cor. 4:8-18
8. THE SECOND BODY BASED ON
II COR. 5:1-10
9. A HEAVENLY HABITATION
BASED ON II COR. 5:1-10
10. THE BRIDGE OF RECONCILIATION
Based on II Cor. 5:27-21
11. THE COST OF CHRISTMAS
Based on II Cor. 8:1-9
12. THE GREATEST GIFT
Based on II Cor. 8:9
13. GLAD GENEROSITY Based
on II Cor. 9
14. MOTIVES FOR GIVING
Based on II Cor. 9
15. HEAVEN CAN BE HARMFUL
TO YOUR HEALTH II Cor. 12:1-10
1.
FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE Based on II Cor. 1:8-11
Paul Aurandt tells the
story of one of the fastest rising young singers back in the early 50's. He was
called the Romantic Voice Of America. Teenage girls would give anything to see
him, but he never appeared anywhere. He was not even seen in photographs. He
was strictly a radio voice. Soon KFRC in San Francisco was flooded with teenage
fan mail begging for signed photos, but none were ever sent. The golden voice
was heard, but the person behind it was never seen.
One day a young girl
went into the studio looking for a glimpse of her idol. When she saw him she
was overwhelmed, and not with awe, but with laughter. The Romantic Voice of
America was 5 ft. 10 and weighed 260 lbs. He was so embarrassed by her laughter
that he went on a 4 month grueling diet. Because of that embarrassment he
became fit enough to be seen in public, and he went on to become popular on
television. By being crushed into despair he was able to rise to the heights of
stardom. This young man is the now well-known Merv Griffin.
His experience reveals
that there is often a link between the lows of life and the highs. The lows, or
the failures, are often the motivating factors in our reaching for the heights
and success. Had he never been crushed down by that negative experience he may
never have been moved to change and climb to new heights. We see this process
going on in the life of Paul as he records for all the world to see the depths
of despair which forced him the heights of hope. Paul has been as low as a
Christian can get, and he has been as high as a Christian can get. He knows the
depth to which a Christian can sink in negative feelings, and he knows the
heights in which they can soar in positive feelings.
Paul opens up and
shares this intimate view of his own emotions, for he knows it will be a comfort
to many, and God knew it would be a comfort to millions all through history.
Christians need to know it is not a sign of lack of faith, or that God has
abandoned you, because you feel sunk in a pit of despair. It has happened to
the best of God's family, and is, therefore, an acceptable state of emotion
event though it is not a state where you want to settle down and live. The
proper response to this low state is to be motivated to climb to a higher level
of faith and hope. We want to look at these two levels of life that Paul
experienced so we can learn also to cope with the depths and climb to the
heights. Let's look first at-
I. THE DEPTHS OF
DESPAIR.
The Greek word Paul
uses here to describe his low point means-to have no outlet whatever. Paul felt
trapped with no way to escape. It was a hopeless situation, and there was
nothing he could do. It looked like death was inevitable, and there was no
other choice but to die. Paul was at a dead end. The enemy was bearing down on
him and there was no exist. The pressure was great that it was beyond his
ability to endure it. Paul was admitting that he had come to the end of his
rope, and he could not longer hang on. This is a terrible place to be, but God
had Paul share this so that Christians might not be superficial in their
judgments of Christians who reach this level of despair.
Many Christians who
have lived sheltered lives, as many of us have, do not know the depths to which
life can push the emotions. We have all felt depressed but despair goes deeper
than depression. It is the feeling of utter hopelessness. It is a very
dangerous state of mind, for this is what leads people to take their own life.
It is the feeling that made Job wish he had never been born. It is the feeling
that made Solomon feel that everything was vanity and totally meaningless. It
is a theme very common in literature.
John Bunyan in
Pilgrim's Progress has a scene where Great-Heart has a major battle with Giant
Despair who had as many lives as a cat. In other words, despair is a hard foe
to get rid of. John Milton in Paradise Lost has Satan cry out in despair,
"Which way shall I fly-infinite wrath and infinite despair? Which way I
fly is hell; myself is hell; and in the lowest deep a lower deep still
threatening to devour me opens wide, to which the hell I suffer seems a
heaven."
The lost world has
picked up on the despair philosophy of Satan, and it has become, in the words
of Francis Schaeffer, the culture of despair. He traces despair as one of the
key ideas in art, poetry, and music in our culture. If you think a lot of
modern art, literature and music is meaningless, then they have succeeded in
communicating, for that is exactly what they are trying to convey-that life is
meaningless and absurd. So when you look at a Picasso painting not knowing if
you are looking at a male, female, or a chair, and you say this is absurd, you
have gotten the point.
Despair leads to all
kinds of absurdity. But despair does explain absurdity. The reality of despair
helps us understand all of the mysteries of evil, and why people engage in
atrocities so vicious and inhuman. Despair means there is no way out, and so
what do you have to lose? Despair causes people to go and shoot fellow workers,
or to kill strangers on the street. Despair causes teenagers by the thousands
to take their own life every year. George Eliot said something long ago that
fits our day as well: "There is no despair so absolute as that which comes
with the first moment of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known
what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered
hope."
Studies show that
despairing teens take their own lives because they think the feelings they have
at the moment are permanent. The broken heart the feel when their boy or girl
friend dumps them is what they think they have to live with the rest of their
lives, and so they cut their life short to end the pain. They do not have the
ability to see beyond despair to a whole new life of joy. Do not take despair
lightly. It is a very dangerous emotion, and it is what makes this a dangerous
world in which to live. But the point of all this is that Christians can
experience it. It is so negative, and the cause of such depths of evil in the
world that many Christians refuse to believe that it is possible to be a
Christian in such a state of despair.
Jeremy Taylor wrote,
"It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is
omnipotent." The problem with making such a radical statement is that it
ignores the Word of God, which is our final authority. If a Christian can or
cannot feel despair, it is not going to be settled by a survey, a vote, or by
scholars doing research. It is settled by the revelation God has given us, and
Paul states it clearly that he and young Timothy despaired even of life. They
felt utterly hopeless with no way of escape.
Why is it important to
accept the fact that a Christian can reach the depths of despair? Because it is
in assuming they can't that has led many Christians to neglect the ministry of
comfort, and let Christians descend into a pit so deep they cannot get out.
Never assume that a Christian cannot descend to the pit of despair. The Word of
God and the record of history makes it clear that they can. I have dozens of
books by Charles Spurgeon. He was the greatest preacher England ever produced,
and many consider him the greatest preacher in history. But he often had a
battle with depression. He once said, "I am the subject of depressions of
spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of
wretchedness as I go to."
I have many of the
books of Dr. John Henry Jowett, another man who has been called the greatest
preacher in the English speaking world. Listen to his testimony: "You seem
to imagine I have no ups and downs, but just a level and lofty stretch of
spiritual attainment with unbroken joy and equanimity. By no means! I am often
perfectly wretched and everything appears most murky." There are hundreds,
if not thousands, of such testimonies from Christian leaders through history.
Some feel these records should be hidden and not exposed to the public. But
this is folly, for Paul opens up his own life for us to see the depths to which
even an Apostle can go. And he does it to give comfort.
Christians who do not
know that Christians can go so low feel rejected by God and man. Those who hide
these records from them for fear of hurting their faith rob them of the comfort
they need to cling to their faith. It is important for us to see Paul is in
deep distress and despair. He is overwhelmed by the troubles of life. It is
important for us to see that Paul prayed for the removal of his thorn in the
flesh, and he did not get the healing. It is important for us to see all of the
negative experiences and emotions of Paul, for they are a source of great
comfort for us when we suffer the same emotions. Hide the negatives from
people, and they feel alone as if they are the only Christian whoever felt like
they feel. This is to be a miserable comforter, and like Job's friends add weights
to the crushing load that is already pushing down the suffering saint.
What does Paul do with
his despair? He shares it with the church. He says in verse 8, "We do not
want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered." And
then he goes on to inform them of the awful pressures they feel that are beyond
their ability to endure. You would think Paul would keep quite about such a
depth of despair. After all, he is an Apostle and an example to all believers.
Should he be exposing his inner soul like this and telling Christians how deep
a pit he is in? Yes he should, for it is the source of great comfort to
millions that he was in that state. But the comfort does not end with the
feeling we are not alone, but in the highest of company if we are in the pit of
despair. There is better news yet, and Paul goes on to deal with-
II. THE HEIGHTS OF
HOPE.
St. Philip of Neri
cried out in the streets of Rome, "I am in despair, I am in despair."
A friend asked how he could say such a thing and he responded, "I despair
of myself, but I trust in God." This is what Pal is saying here. He
despaired of ever being able to save himself, but he did not despair of God's
ability to save him. He says in verse 9, "This happened that we might not
rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead." The value of despair
is that it forces you to give up your pride and self-sufficiency, and realize
that without God you are sunk. The value of being so low is that there is
nowhere else to look but up to God, who alone can give you hope.
Paul comes to the end
of his rope, but he does not come to the end of his hope. He had no resource in
himself, and all he could do was to surrender his life and future to the
providence of God. This is that place in life where we see unique answers to
prayer. If there is no way out for man, and God is the only one who can deliver
them, then there will be a marvelous demonstration of God's providence. For
example, a chaplain in the South Pacific tells of being with American troops
trying to hold a beach. It was a long battle, and their water supply ran out.
They were desperate and they prayed for some relief. They were helpless to meet
their own need. Suddenly, one of the shells the American battleship was laying
down fell short and buried itself in the sand near them. It exploded and left a
deep crater. It began to fill with fresh water from springs below. Their
despair turned to thanksgiving, for what was hopeless for them was clearly
possible for God.
Paul was likewise
delivered from his hopeless situation, and this filled his despairing heart
with the highest of hopes, for he learned you can give up on yourself and your
own ability to escape, but you ought never to give up on God, for He can
deliver you from any pit no matter how deep and seemingly hopeless it is. We
see an example of this in Psa. 107 where God's people were in a stormed tossed
ship. It looked hopeless for them to survive. Starting at verse 26 we read,
"In their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like
drunken men. They were at their wits end. Then they cried out to the Lord in
their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm
to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew
calm, and He guided them to their desired haven."
They were helpless in
a hopeless situation. They were in the depths of despair, and yet they were
also hopeful, for they cried out to God and He rescued them. The believer has
to live sometimes in the paradoxical world of despair and hope at the same
time. Politics makes strange bedfellows we say, but so does faith. Despair and
hope are opposites, but the are often partners. The one aids us to let go of
self, and the other aids us to take hold on God. Numerous were the passages
where the feelings of despair and hope are linked together. They teach the same
double lesson that Paul is teaching to the Corinthians, and that is that they
are to be comforted in their despair, for it happens to the best. Be comforted
because it forces you to look to God and be lifted to the heights of hope.
Edmund Burk said,
"Never despair, but if you do work on in despair." Paul would say
amen, for if you work on by looking up you can reach the heights from that pit.
This is the good news for both the world and the church. It is the greatest
message of comfort in the world, for even the worst sinner in the pit of
despair can look up, and buy the love of Christ be taken out of the kingdom of
darkness into the kingdom of light. That is what salvation is. It is being
taken out of the pit of self-sufficiency and being set on the Rock of Christ's
sufficiency.
Francis Scott Key who
wrote the Star Spangled Banner also wrote this letter to a cousin:
"Nothing but Christianity will give you the victory. Until a man believes
in his heart that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Master...his course through life
will be neither safe nor pleasant. My only regret is that I was so long blinded
by my pleasures, my vices and pursuits, and the examples of others that I was
kept seeing, admiring, and adoring the marvelous light of the Gospel.
There was no one who
can be so blind, or so depressed, or in such a deep pit of despair that the
Christian does not have good news for them. To be at the end of your rope is
the best place to be if you are going to let go of self-salvation, and look to
God for your deliverance in Christ. People in despair are good prospects for
the kingdom of God.
Chuck Colson in his
book Kingdoms In Conflict writes that Winston Churchill died with these words
on his lips, "There is no hope, there is no hope." He looked at a
world of sinful men trying to gain power and control of other people, and he
was in despair. Colson takes a survey of the world and says there is good
reason for despair, for people all over the world are killing each other. He
writes that man has the technology for the greatest era for peace and
prosperity, but man uses his power for evil and destruction. He also despairs
about mans ever being able to produce a world of peace, but he ends his book
with hope, not in man, but in the God of all comfort who has given us a lasting
hope.
He ends his book with
these words: "Like any author, I would like to end this book on a
triumphant note, announcing that ultimate peace and harmony can be achieved
through human efforts. But that utopian illusion is shattered by the splinted
history of the human race. Governments rise; even the most powerful fall. The
battle for people's hearts and minds will continue. Where then is hope? It is
in the fact that the kingdom of God has come to earth-the kingdom announced by
Jesus Christ in that obscure Nazareth synagogue 2000 years ago. It is a kingdom
that comes not in a temporary take over of political structures, but in the
lasting takeover of the human heart by the rule of a holy God."
Our hope is not in
self, not in the government, not in the U.N., not in technology, and not in all
the idols of history, but our hope is in God. Anything that can get us to focus
on this narrow way is a blessing, even if it means the pit of despair that robs
us of all the other hopes. The world is indeed a hopeless case, but that is why
God needed to provide us with a Savior. The world cannot save itself, nor can
any person in the world. Our hope is in God alone, for He specializes in
hopeless cases.
Tony was a good
example. He was a 5 year old who was raised in the streets of Tijuana
surrounded by crime, narcotics, and prostitution. His changes for a good life
were extremely low. Then one day he heard his baby brother screaming, and when
he ran into the house he saw his parents bending over his brothers body with a
bloody club nearby. He turned and ran. His parents reported him to the police
and told them that Tony had murdered his brother, and that is why he ran away.
So 5 year old Tony was thrown in prison for murder. There he stayed until
Carolyn Koons visited the prison. Carolyn was herself a product of great family
abuse. But she found Christ and founded Mexicoli Outreach, which hundreds of
college students into Northern Mexico for short term missionary work.
That is how she
discovered Tony in prison. There had never been any investigation of the
charges against him. He was just presumed guilty and left to spend his life in
prison. She fought a long and expensive battle against bureaucratic red tape,
but she finally won his freedom and brought him to the United States. She
raised him as a single parent and sent him to a Christian college. A kid who
had no chance in a hopeless situation was, by the providence of God, given love
and life and eternal hope. He was taken from the depths of despair to the
heights of hope.
The lesson Paul wants
all Christians to learn is not that there are not hopeless situations. He knows
there are for he had been in such situations. But the point is, it was not
hopeless for God. We have a right to feel hopeless and helpless when all our
powers are fruitless. But we also have a responsibility to then look to God for
whom there are no hopeless situations. The Comforter helps the hopeless look
beyond their despair.
A 26-year-old baseball
player was cut from the Yankees and sent back to the farm club. He decided to
quit baseball and get a job. He and his wife were driving back to their hometown
in Louisiana when he stopped for gas. His wife said, "Honey, it is always
going to bother me to think that you ran away and will never know whether you
could have made it in the big leagues or not." Right there he made a
decision to head back North. He went to the farm club and worked hard. Three
years later he was declared the pitcher of the year. He won the Cy Young Hall
of Fame Award, and led the Yankees to two world championships. Ron Guidry was
his name. He was in a pit of despair about his future, but his wife's
encouragement gave him the hope he needed to try again.
Paul's point is, don't
give up in despair, for failure is a part of life. Just give up trusting in
your own power to solve the problem. Let go of the self-sufficiency and put your
hope in God. Is it 100% guaranteed God will lift you out of the pit? No! Paul
was rescued often, but he was finally killed by Nero. The point is that Paul
could have died much earlier, but God gave him assurance that he would be
spared until his work was done. That is all the hope anyone needs. Like Paul,
we should all be looking to God no matter what our circumstances, and be ever
moving out of despair into hope.
2.
PAUL'S SELF-DEFENSE Based on II Cor. 1:12-17
Jonathan Edwards was
born in 1703, and he became one of the greatest preachers in history. He lived
in a day when pastors went to a church out of seminary and stayed there for the
rest of their lives. His father was the pastor of The Congregational Church in
the little village of East Windsor, Conn. for 64 years. Jonathan entered Yale
at age 13 and graduated at age 17. He studied theology for 2 years and then
became a tutor at Yale. At age 24 he was invited to be the junior pastor at
Northampton, Mass. where his grandfather was the senior pastor. Two years later
his grandfather died and he was the sole pastor of the church.
Edwards developed a
theology that said God can do whatever He wants with people. They are His
creatures and He can do with them as He pleases. He can take them to heaven or
cast them into hell. He has the right and the power to do anything He wills. He
started to preach a series on this theme, and one became very famous, and it
was called Sinners In The Hands Of An angry God. His fearful messages started a
revival that spread until he became one of the most famous and influential
pastors in the nation, and he was still only in his 30's.
When the winds of
change died down, and the emotions of revival cooled, and apathy set in there
was a period from 1744 to 1748 where not a single new person joined the church.
This was a long dry spell, and critics of Edwards stirred up agitation. After
much personal bitterness the church voted in 1750 to dismiss their pastor. He
appealed to the Ecclesiastical Council to review the church's action, but five
of the nine ministers voted to sustain his dismissal. So Edwards found himself
out of a job at 47 years of age with a wife and 10 children to support. Their
financial situation was pathetic.
After a few months the
church found that nobody wanted to come to be their pastor, and so they did an
unbelievable thing: They asked Edwards to help them out. Most pastors would
have refused with indignation, but Edwards agreed to do it. He started
preaching again in the pulpit from which he had been cast out. He was
ministering the Word of God to a people who had rejected him. He did this for a
year before he got a call to another church. He went on to write 4 theological
works that gave him the reputation of being the most original religious thinker
in American history. In 1758 he was asked to become the President of Princeton.
I share this history of one of the great preachers of our land because it is
such a parallel to what we see in the relationship between Paul and the
Corinthian Church.
Paul spent a year and
a half getting this church established. It was hard work, for they were a very
godless people, and Paul needed special encouragement from God to hang in there
and not give up. So Paul plugged away at it and got Silas and Timothy to come
and take over his labor of making tents so he could devote himself full time to
preaching and teaching. You would think that this would be a dream church. The
world's greatest Apostle, who was the most brilliant and devoted man on the
earth was their pastor, but the fact is, it was a nightmare. Paul had more
problems with this church than with all the rest of them put together. These
Christians refused to grow up. They stayed as babes, and the result was they
were not really any different than the pagans around them. Paul, however, never
gave up on this bunch of carnal Christians. He wrote 4 letters to them. We have
2 of them, but he refers in them to 2 others he wrote. So we have the paradox
that the church, which had the most problems, and which gave Paul the most
grief, have the most written to them of all the churches. They were the worst
and they received the best.
They found every petty
fault they could find in Paul to criticize. They chewed him up and spit him
out, and yet Paul keeps coming back for more. Many who study the issue in depth
wonder why Paul did not just write them off as a hopeless cause. As Paul
travels the world he is ever thinking of this church and how he can help them
shape up and stop being so critical. He wants them to grow up for the glory of
God. Most would walk away from a church that treated them like this, but Paul
looks at all their fault finding and decided he will defend himself against
these critics.
This letter is loaded
with Paul's self-defense. Some Christians feel it is not wise to engage in
self-defense, for it can sound very egotistical. This is true, and at times
Paul sounds anything but humble in this letter, but we need to keep in mind
that he is not doing this for his sake, or for his reputation. The truth of
God's Word will suffer and all the church will be hurt if he lets his critics
undermine his authority and his teaching. He is defending himself for the sake
of the church. Self-defense is legitimate when it benefits others.
Believe it or not, one
of the main criticisms of Paul was that you cannot trust the man to keep his
promises. Paul told the Corinthians that he planned to come and see them and
spend a winter with them after he went through Macedonia. But that plan did not
work out, and Paul did not make it to Corinth. The best laid plans of mice and
men, and even Apostles, do not always work out, and this one of Paul's fell
through. This is just the sort of thing critics latch onto. They were saying
that Paul's word was not worth the paper it was written on. He says one thing
and then does another. He says yes, but he means no.
It made no difference
to the critics that Paul ended his promise to come to them with these words in
I Cor. 16:7, "...if the Lord permits." Paul knew that life did not
always go according to his plan, and so he conditioned his promise. But this
did not stop the faultfinders. Have you ever promised somebody something and
then discovered that life took a turn that you were not expecting, and you
could not keep that promise? Parents have this quite often with children. You
don't have to do this very often before you hear the words, "You never do
what you say you will." This is what the childish critics are saying to
Paul. He is like a mother who placates her crying kids by promising them the
moon, but when it comes to carrying out the promise she is too tired, or has
other plans.
Parents often do make
promises to easily, and they do fail to be consistent with keeping their word.
But this is not the case with Paul. He has valid reasons for his behavior, and
much of this letter is his self-defense. It is hard to deal with Paul's defense
in any other way but by a methodical verse by verse examination of his
arguments and statements, and so that is what we will do beginning with verse
12. Paul begins with, "Now this is our boast." The Greek word Paul
uses for boast is a very common word in the Greek world. The only problem is
that it is almost always a bad word used to describe a person who trumpets his
own renown, and is, therefore, not liked.
We feel the same about
a boaster today, and so it does not sound like a good choice of words for a man
trying to defend himself against critics. This is especially so since James
4:16, using this same word, says, "As it is you boast and brag. All such
boasting is evil." So now he has James against him too, and he is calling
him evil for his boasting. Paul's fist words of defense do not seem appropriate
unless he is trying to hang himself, or unless he is a master of paradox. That,
of course, is what Paul was, and by so being he teaches us over and over again
that the same thing can be both evil and good. Boasting is primarily evil, for
it is a sign of pride. But we all know there is also a positive pride, which is
the foundation for our self-esteem, and without it we would not be healthy
individuals.
Paul had a healthy
sense of self-esteem, and he was able to be honest about how he felt about the
gifts God had given him. His pride and boasting were not self-centered, but
God-centered. You will notice that he stresses that his gifts are from God and
according to God's grace. When your boasting exalts God as the source of what
you are proud about it is a virtue. Just because most boasting is a vice of
self-centered pride does not mean we should avoid all boasting. Paul took this
bad word and used it often in a positive way. In so doing he taught Christians
to look for the positive side of the sinful nature of man. What possible good
lurks in the hearts of sinners who behave so proud and boast of their
achievements as if they were self-made and created all their gifts on their
own? That very vice that keeps them self-centered can become a tool for
God-centered service. This negative word became one of Paul's favorite words.
He uses it about 25 times in his letters to the Corinthians, and it is used
only a few times in all the rest of the New Testament. It is a bad thing that
can be good if properly expressed.
Minnie Pearl was
famous for saying, "I'm mighty proud to be here." It was an
expression of joy and a compliment to the audience. No one would ever accuse
her of sinful pride in her spirit. Paul says something very similar when he
says, "I am mighty proud to be God's agent in this world. I am mighty
proud to be a child of God and a useful tool for His kingdom." We sing
something like it when we sing, "I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of
God." Is that pride? Is that boasting? Yes it is, but it's the good kind
that Paul loves to express often. It is that good pride like, "I am proud
to be an American." Paul was proud to be a Christian, and he is going to
boast about being a good Christian by the grace of God.
The first thing Paul
boasts about is his clear conscience. His conscience testifies that he has been
blameless in conduct in the world, and especially in his relationship to them.
It is obvious to all commentators that Paul is being accused by some in the
church of worldly behavior and worldly wisdom. They are questioning his
integrity and sincerity. Almost every evangelist is suspect because there are
so many who manipulate people for their own gain. Paul and all faithful
evangelists have to endure this same criticism because it is so often true.
Once you are accused of bad behavior it is very hard to get rid of the stain
and restore your image. It is not enough to be innocent, for you have to prove
it, and this will never convince all the critics.
Some years ago
governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania sent his black retriever to the
Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia for the inmates to have a mascot.
The prisoners loved the dog, and he became a great favorite. The story got out
that he had condemned the dog to prison for killing a cat. He got letters from
all over the world denouncing his inhuman cruelty. He could not stop the spread
of the story, and so through his whole term of office he kept getting these
nasty letters. It is hard to believe that people in total ignorance of the
facts will go off half-cocked and in righteous indignation blast people as if
they had direct access to the omniscient mind of God.
If you read of the
hoaxes that have stirred up millions to write letters of protest over false
reports you will discover that Christians are the worst offenders. They are
often gullible and easily manipulated by false reports. It is nothing new, for
Paul had to fight it in his day as all kinds of misinformation was being spread
about him, and it was Christians who were doing it and believing it. That is
why we see his self-defense in this letter, for if the falsehoods were allowed
to stand his ministry would suffer.
His first argument is,
"I do not feel guilty for my conduct, for my conscious is clear." His
promise to visit them was made in all sincerity, and he does not feel any guilt
that he could not keep his promise, for that was out of his hands. He does not
control all of life, and so the best he can do is plan and make a sincere
effort to carry out that plan. Some Christians go all to pieces when plans do
not go as they wish. They feel guilt as if they failed. Paul will have none of
this guilt, for he did his best. He moves on to plan B and does not fret and
grieve and feel guilt. Some were trying to make Paul feel guilty by telling
others that if he was really spiritual his plan would have worked out.
It is a case of Job's
friends ride again. They were blaming Paul for the complexity of his life as if
it was his sin that made his life so complex. If he was more spiritual and less
worldly his plans would work out and he could keep his promises. Christians are
notorious for calling other Christians less spiritual because they don't
operate just the same way as they do. In his defense Paul writes that all he
does is characterize by the holiness and sincerity that are from God. In other
words, he operates with a singleness of heart, and he is not double minded as
his critics are saying.
The word sincerity
means, "Judged by the sun." When a person bought a vase they would
hold it up to the sun, for if there was a crack in it the sun would reveal that
flaw. Paul is saying, "I am not a fake putting on a show for my own
benefit. I do not deceive you." Some vase makers would cover over their
flaws with wax so you could not see the crack unless you held it up to the sun.
On a cloudy day they could sell these defective vases, for they looked perfect.
Paul is saying, "I am not trying to hide anything and put one over on you.
I operate openly and above board, and gladly submit to a thorough examination
to test my sincerity."
Because Paul is so
honest with this self-exposure of his conduct, character and motives, we have
in this letter the most intimate look at Paul's inner being and emotions. Paul
tells us his conscience is a witness for his defense, for it says to him that
he has done the right thing. Paul is the New Testament authority when it comes
to the conscience. John uses this word only once, and Peter 3 times, but Paul
uses it 28 times of the 32 uses in the New Testament. For Paul conscience is
the self-awareness that you are right or wrong in your attitudes and actions.
If you are deceiving people and doing what you know is not the will of God, you
will feel guilty. The ancient Greeks saw the conscience as an inner witness
telling you that you are on the right path, or that you are going astray. It is
a God-given inner voice. It can be a very effective guide even in the pagan
world.
This whole business
with the conscience is a major theological issue with Paul. He writes in Rom.
2:14-15, "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature
things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do
not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written
on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now
accusing, now even defending them." Paul is saying that there are pagan people
who are guided by their conscience, and if they listen to this inner voice and
obey it, they are as righteous as those who obey God's written law in His Word.
Where there is no Bible people will be judged according to their conscience.
In Paul's day the
conscience was a major subject. The Pythagoreans stressed the importance of a
good conscience, and self-examination each night. They wrote, "Thou shalt
not take sleep to thy gentle eyes until thou has considered each of the days
acts. Where did I fail? What was a right act? What was left undone? Begin with
the first, go through them, and finally when thou has done wrong rebuke thyself
and when thou has done good rejoice." Socrates left the judgment of his
accusers, who gave false evidence, to their conscience. Seneca the Roman stoic,
who was a contemporary of Paul, wrote, "Every night I examine my life. I
open out my conscience to the gods. For conscience is to every man a sort of
inward god. The famous Roman by the name of Cicero wrote, "There is a law
within, diffused among all men, constant, eternal.... There is one common
master and commander of all, even God who originated this law. If anyone obeys
not this law he plays false to himself and does despite to the nature of
man."
Philo was the Greek Jewish
theologian who was also a contemporary of Paul. He wrote of the conscience,
"It is born with every soul and makes its abode with it, nor is it want to
admit anything that offends. Its priority is ever to hate the evil and love the
good." We could go on and on, but these are sufficient to make clear why
Paul appeals to his conscience in self- defense. It was universally accepted by
pagans, Jews and Christians that the conscience was a key witness to any
persons motives. A clear conscience was one of the best testimonies that could
be presented. Paul is saying, I am proud to declare that my conscience
testifies I have been holy and sincere in all my dealings with the world and
with the church.
Paul is saying that the
charges of him being worldly wise are not true, and they are based on the
critics misunderstanding. He makes it clear in verse 14 that he expects this
letter to clear up this misunderstanding so that they can be proud of him. His
self-defense is not just to make him look better, but to help the Corinthians
so they can be proud of their founder and teacher, and, thereby feel more
secure in their faith. Their self-image is going to be damaged if they think
their founder is a con man. The goal is mutual boasting of each other, and a
sense of positive pride about who they are in Christ.
The critics of Paul
are saying that he is deceptive and that he uses words to cleverly say one
thing, but he really means another. Paul says in verse 13 that what he writes to
them is not mysterious and ambiguous, but it is easy to understand, for he is
being as open an honest as he can be to convey transparent genuineness. His
opponents are reading between the lines, and they are reading in things he is
not saying. Critics who do not like a person are easily detected, as are Paul's
critics. They find fault very easy because they read into his words and acts
that which is not his intent to convey. Never take a critics interpretation of
the meaning of another person's words, for there will be distortion. The only
valid interpretation of a man's words are what he gives. If it sounds like a
man is saying one thing and meaning another, don't ask his critics, ask him. He
alone can give you an authentic interpretation of what he means. Paul's critics
are saying, "We think he means something other than what he says."
Paul responds, "You are wrong. When I say yes I mean yes, and when I say
no I mean no. I say what I mean and I mean what I say."
Warren Wiersbe of Back
To The Bible fame says he can sympathize with Paul, for he has made promises
too and then had plans changed so that he had to cancel meetings where he was
scheduled to be. Christians can be very critical when you foul up their plans.
Paul's critics are calling him wishy-washy. He does not care about us, but only
wants to get our money. We will see a lot of criticism and a lot of
self-defense as we study this letter. The major lesson of this letter is that
Christians are too critical, and they hurt the cause of Christ by being that
way.
I must confess that I
find myself critical of other Christians. We went to a large Presbyterian
Church, and found myself being critical. Their choir was not nearly as good as
ours, and the pastor took 10 minutes giving announcements, and his message had
no central theme. I came away feeling proud that even though we are smaller we
have a better service. Being critical of others makes us feel superior, and
that is why it is popular, and that is why Christians put others down. It is
important for us to be aware that we have this critical spirit so that we can
keep it under control. That is one of the major goals for studying this letter
of Paul.
3.
OUR JESUS IS YES Based on II Cor. 1:15-22
Yes is only a three
letter word, but its utterance can change your life. It happened to the poet
Robert Robinson one Sunday morning in London. People everywhere were hurrying
to church, but he was not. He had left the church, and he had lost the once
passionate faith that made him a zealous witness for Christ. He was now dark
and cold inside, and he was a very lonely man as he walked the streets. He
heard the clip clop, clip clop of a horse drawn cab behind him. He turned and
lifted his hand to hail the driver. But then he saw that the cab was occupied
by a young woman dressed for church. He waved the driver on, but the woman
ordered the carriage to be stopped.
The woman in the
carriage said to him, "Sir, I'd be happy to share this carriage with you.
Are you going to church?" He was about to decline when suddenly he was
overcome by an urge to say yes. He did it. He said yes, and he got into the
carriage. As it rolled forward he told her his name, and she said, "What a
coincidence. I was just reading a verse by a poet with that name of Robert
Robinson. She reached into her purse and pulled out the small book of
inspirational verse. She handed it to him and he nodded and said, "Yes, I
wrote these words years ago." She exclaimed, "Oh, how wonderful!
Imagine! I'm sharing a carriage with the author of these very lines."
She was thrilled with
God's providence in her life, but she had no idea of the profound work God was
doing in his life. He opened his own book to his poem that became a famous
hymn. He read these words:
Come thou fount of
every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing
Thy grace.
Streams of mercy never
ceasing,
Call for songs of
loudest praise.
His eyes filled with
tears as he read the bottom of the page.
Prone to wander, Lord,
I feel it-
Prone to leave the God
I love,
Here's my heart, O
take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts
above.
He was convicted and
then revived by his own poem, and restored to fellowship with God. It was all
because he said yes to an invitation to do something he knew was the will of
God, and that was to go to church. The more we say yes to those things God
wants in our lives, the more we will receive the yes of God's promises. e. e.
cummings wrote,
Yes is a world
And in this world of
Yes live (skillfully
curled)
All worlds.
The world of salvation
begins with our own yes to the Gospel. Yes we say to God, I will receive your
gift of eternal life in Christ. From then on every stage of growth is a stage
we advance to by saying yes to God. Yes I will pray and read your word for
guidance and wisdom. Yes I will give of my time, talent, and treasure to bless
the body of Christ, and yes I will give and I will go to fulfill the Great
Commission. Yes I will witness to my world, and yes I will love my neighbor as
myself. Yes I will love and praise and serve my Savior, and I will follow the
path He reveals for me to follow. The whole Christian life is a life of saying
yes to God who has said yes to us in Jesus.
Paul in our text tells
us that Jesus is never no, but always yes. He is God's yes, and all God's
promises are yes in Christ. This is the greatest text in the Bible for the
support of Christian optimism and biblical positive thinking.
1. Is there life after
death? The answer of God in Christ is yes!
2. Is there hope for
people who have messed their life up beyond human repair?
The answer of God in
Christ is yes!
3. Is there a way out
of the predicament men get into by their mere humanistic
schemes? The answer of
God in Christ is yes!
4. Can sin be
forgiven? The answer of God in Christ is yes!
5. Can the future
still be a success? The answer of God in Christ is yes!
6. Can broken
relationships be restored? The answer of God in Christ is yes!
7. Can impossible
dreams still come true? The answer of God in Christ is yes!
8. Can I overcome the
past? The answer of God in Christ is yes!
You can go on and on
asking such hard questions, and the answer of God in Christ is always yes, yes,
yes. God's answer in Christ is always yes, for Jesus is the yes of God. That is
why the Christian can always celebrate even in fallen world filled with sin,
sickness, and sorrow, for the final word will always be yes. James Angell could
write,
In the midst of
flashing neon darkness,
We dare this day to
celebrate the light.
In the midst of
blaring, shouting silence,
We dare this day to
celebrate the word.
In the midst of
bloated, gorged starvation,
We dare this day to
celebrate the bread.
In the midst of
bottled, bubbling thirst,
We dare this day to
celebrate the water.
In the midst of
smothered, gnawing doubt,
We dare to celebrate
the affirmation.
In the midst of
frantic, laughing death,
We dare this day to
celebrate life.
How can we have the
audacity to be positive and hopeful in such a negative world? It is because our
Jesus is yes. The Christian who is negative, and who says no more often than
yes to life is a captive of the world mentality. We all fall into the no mode
from time to time, but it is to be a fall and not the ditch we choose to walk
in. We are to get back to the highway of yes, for that is where a Christian
should always be walking.
Neil Eskelin wrote a
fascinating book called Yes, Yes Living In A No, No World. He found Christians
in large measure tend to be a drag on the body the of Christ because of their
no, no spirit. They tend to be critical and resistant to a positive way of
doing all things for the glory of God. He learned the power of being a yes, yes
father in relating to a no, no son. His five year boy had the living room full
of toys, and it was time to go to bed. When he asked him to pick them up he
said he was too tired. His immediate response was to force him to clean up the
room, but then he got a better idea. He decided to try a more positive
approach. He took his son into the bedroom and laid down with his knees up, put
his son up on them, and played Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. The boy loved
the sudden fall to the bed and was having a great time. Over an over he asked
to do it again. But after the third fall dad said you first have to go and pick
up the toys. The son ran and finished the task and was quickly back to play some
more.
Dad learned a valuable
lesson. If you can find a way to get a child to say yes I want to, then life is
so much easier than when you are trying to push them with a no spirit. No is an
uphill job, but yes is a downhill slide. No creates friction, but yes creates
freedom. That is why he wrote his book on yes, yes living. He gives a number of
examples of how yes people are the ones who do what no people say can't be
done.
Cyrus Field was
convinced a cable could be laid on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to allow
communication between the U. S. and Europe. He had a special cable laid and
tried it, but it kept failing to work. The headlines read, "Field fails
again." His friends and supporters were disheartened, and investors begin
to pull out not wanting to risk anymore money. The no people were in control of
the masses, but they could not stop Field from saying yes. He knew it could be
done and he organized a new company and made it work. The first message sent on
this cable under the ocean was, "Thank God the cable is laid and is in
perfect order."
The history of
progress is the story of people who can yes, yes when everyone else is saying
no, no. Henry Ward Beecher, the great orator, recalled the day in school when
he was demonstrating a problem in geometry. The teacher stopped him with a
"No, No!" In a tone of total conviction. Beecher sat down in total
confusion because he thought he was doing it right. The next boy went to the
board and was stopped with the same loud "No!" But he went right
ahead and completed the problem. Beecher raised his hand and said he was doing
the exact same problem. The teacher replied, "Why didn't you say yes and
stick to it? It's not good enough to know your lesson. You must know you know
it."
This can be a powerful
lesson that every parent should teach their children. They will confront a no,
no world all of their lives, and if they do not have a yes, yes spirit they
will be in bondage to the no. Humorous Sam Levenson knows what it means to look
for the best. He is a short man, but he doesn't let it bother him. At a dinner
he was surrounded by a group of rather tall businessmen. "Don't you feel
quite small among these big men?" someone asked him. "Yes I do,"
was Levenson's reply. "I feel like a dime among a lot of pennies."
That is a yes, yes way to look at it.
If we as Christians do
not have a yes, yes spirit, we are part of the problem rather than part of the
answer. Jesus is the yes of God, and if Jesus is in us, then we are to be yes people.
This does not mean we are yes men and yes women in the negative sense that this
terminology is used. When so used it means we go along with authority whether
we really agree or not. The New Orleans man eased himself into the chair and
called for a shave. The little barber was of a swarthy complexion that
indicated that he might be of Latin-American blood. As he stropped his razor he
opened the conversation with: "What's your opinion of this Mexican
situation?" "Same as yours." "But how do you know what mine
is?" "Don't matter. You've got the razor."
This is not the kind
of yes people we are to be-saying yes out of fear. The Christian is to be a
positive yes person out of the conviction that Paul had-I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. Jesus is God's yes-he is the resource to
give the energy and motivation to do whatever God wills you to do. The
Christian can do whatever God wills, and so they are to be perpetually striving
to do it with a yes mentality.
Paul says that by the
power of Christ and the Holy Spirit in our hearts we can say amen to the glory
of God. That is, we can say so be it, or yes to all God wills for us. Jesus
never said no to God. He was tempted to say no, but He never did. He was always
saying yes. Through Him Paul says we are to continue to say amen to the glory
of God. Jesus is the everlasting yea and amen. 31 times in Matthew Jesus said
amen; 14 times in Mark, 7 in Luke, 25 in John, for a total of 77 times in the
Gospels. Jesus was single minded and so it was not sometimes yes and sometimes
no. He was always yes. He said yes to God even when that yes took Him to the
cross.
You can say no to
Jesus and reject His love and sacrifice for you, but you can never change His
yes to no. He will not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever,
for He is the everlasting yes. People came to Jesus in great crowds because He
never said no. He had life to give and light, and He had healing and salvation.
He gave freely and did not turn anyone away. His was a yes, yes life in a no,
no world.
President Thomas
Jefferson was riding horseback with some companions, and they came to a swollen
stream. A foot traveler was there by the stream, waiting to ask someone on
horseback to give him a ride across the rushing water. Jefferson responded and
pulled the man up on his horse and took him to the other side. "Tell
me," asked one of the men, "why did you ask the President to help you
across?" The man answered, "I didn't know he was the President. All I
know is that on some faces is written the answer "no," and on some is
written the answer "yes." He had a yes face."
Jesus had just such a
face, and Paul says this yes from the face of Christ is to shine yet in this
world through us. In II Cor. 4:6 we read, "For God who said let light
shine out of darkness made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." God sent His
Son into the world to give light, hope, and salvation. The Gospel is good news,
for it says that no matter what a mess life is, there is an answer, and it is a
good one, and a positive answer in Christ.
Ilion T. Jones says
that Paul is saying here, "That Christ is God's clear-cut, positive answer
to all our human questions, to all our human needs, to all our human hopes and
dreams." He is God's yes, yes, yes, and this makes Christianity a positive
faith. The Old Testament was so much on a no, no, no level. Thou shall not was
the theme. But the New Testament rises to a higher level and says we are to
grow up and stop living on the child's level of no, no. Sink your teeth into
the meat of maturity. Get off the bottle and start saying yes to life. Say yes
to God, not because He will hurt you if you don't, but because you love Him as
He loves you, and you desire to please Him and not the world, the flesh, and
the devil. You don't spend all your energy saying no to sin and folly because
you are to busy saying yes to love, service, and ministry.
Many have suggested
that if David had said yes to his duties as king of Israel, and not been idle
with nothing to do but lust after Bathsheba, he may never have fallen. All we
know for sure is that he had opened the door for Satan to entice him to say no
to God, and that no lead to all the negatives of his life that blotted one of
the greatest careers in history. Every sin in history from the first one in
Eden until now has been very simply a saying no to God. Every virtue, victory,
and act of righteousness in history has been simply a saying yes to God. Jesus
was the only perfect man because He is the only person to never say no, but
always say yes to God. Jesus lived the only completely yes, yes life in a no,
no world.
To be Christ like is
to be one who is always saying yes to God. All of the battles of life can be
seen in this ultimate simplicity of what the poet has God say at creation.
"I will leave man to make the fateful guess: Will leave him torn between
the no and yes." These are the only two choices we have in our relationship
to God. To make it easier to say yes, God gave us Jesus who is the yes to all
His provisions. This becomes the foundation on which we build the yes life.
William Green put it, "Christ is God's ultimate yes to man, and when we
find that God has said yes to us we are able to affirm ourselves and our world
in spite of everything which drives us toward negation."
When we are negative
about life it is because we have taken our eyes off Jesus. The Corinthians were
negative toward Paul, and he is saying they ought not to criticize him for
being inconsistent, for he always says yes to Christ and never no, and so he is
being consistently positive in his decisions. If his plans sound like an no to
them, it is not so, and they need to see his plans as a yes to Christ. He urges
them to stop their negative thinking which in inconsistent with a Christ like
spirit.
If you believe that
God always says yes in Christ, you will not be so critical and complaining
about my change of plans, is what Paul is saying. God who gave His Son for you
has proven His love beyond any doubt. You can count on it that He will do
everything else necessary to keep His promises to you. So he urges them to stop
saying no and start responding to God's yes with a yes, yes spirit. Dag Hammerskjold,
the Secretary General of the U. N. from 1953 to 1961, and a dedicated
Christian, said, "When everything has a meaning, how can you live anything
but a yes."
Billy Graham has been
deeply influenced by yes people. They have been people who had to deal with the
no's of life, but they did not accept the no. They rejected it, and chose the
yes. One he writes about in his book Storm Warning is former President Dwight
Eisenhower. Graham says that he had a strong impact on his thinking, for though
he was a general and fought great battles, he was not in favor of war. War is a
no, and he fought for peace which was a yes approach to life. Graham quotes him
saying in 1953, "Every gun that is made, every war ship launched, every
rocket fired signifies-in a final sense-a theft from those who hunger and are
not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending
money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its
scientists, the hopes of its children....this is not a way of life at all in
true sense. Under the threatening cloud of war, it is humanity hanging on a
cross of iron."
These words motivated
Graham to take an interest in the third world countries, and take a tour of
them to see first hand the poverty and hunger. He learned that it was a moral
obligation for every Christian to get involved in the world suffering and be a
part of the answer. Saying yes to God and yes to life means being Christ like
in relation to a hurting world. In that same book he tells of his meeting with
one of the great yes people.
"One of the
people most identified with Christian compassion in our day is Mother Teresa of
Calcutta. There are thousands of unknown servants
of Christ who quietly
and without fanfare invest their lives in feeding,
clothing, and caring
for the poor. But Mother Teresa has become a kind
of representative of
them all. I remember the first time I met this tiny,
wrinkled, radiant
lady. An American consul in Calcutta offered to drive
me to Mother Teresa's
compound in the heart of that sprawling city,
when I was introduced
to her, she was ministering to a dying person,
holding him in her
arms. I waited while she helped him face death.
When he died, she
prayed quietly, gently lowered him to his bed, and
turned to greet me. We
talked till dusk that day. I was surprised to
learn how much she
knew about me and about our crusades. In her
lilting, broken
English she asked if I would like to hear some of her
experiences with the
hungry and dying."
He listened and was
touched, for in the midst of a terrible no, no world here was a child of God
letting the world hear the yes of God in Christ. E. Stanley Jones, the great
missionary and author of numerous books, called his last book, which was
written when he was 89, was titled The Divine Yes. This text was the basis for
the book, and he wrote, "Jesus took the worse thing that could happen to
Him, namely, the Cross, and turned it into the healing of sin. The Cross was
hate, and Jesus turned it into a revelation of love. Jesus took everything that
spoke against the love of God and, though it, showed the love of God. It is a
Yes, a Yes over the very worst. Yes, about the nature of God. Yes, yes,
yes!"
Jones gives many
illustrations, but let me share one that shows just how close Christians can
get to saying yes to every no of life. "There is a Lee Memorial Home in
Calcutta, India. The Lees had 6 children in school in Darjeeling, a hill
station in India. One night during the monsoon rains the whole mountain side,
upon which their home was built, slipped and buried all 6 children at once!
Instead of the Lee's saying, "Why did that happen to us when we were
serving God in Calcutta?" They said, "Well, since our home has been
broken up we will just set up a larger home for the waif children from the
streets of Calcutta." For over 70 years that home has been filled with an
average of about 500 homeless children a year. The family of 6 now became a
family of thousands. On the monument set up to commemorate the memory of these
children there are these words: "Thanks be unto God who giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
The whole point of
Paul is to get the Corinthian Christians to stop being no people and become yes
people. This is the point of all we do as a church. Worship, Bible study,
fellowship, and service are all designed to help us be like Jesus, and to be
ever saying yes to God. This has practical implications for all human
relationships. We express our love for one another and our neighbor, and even
our foes, by being yes minded rather than no minded.
Judieth Viorst, a
popular writer, has this advice to married couples: "The answer to-do you
love me isn't, I married you didn't I? Or, can't we discuss this after the
ballgame is through? It isn't, well that all depends on what you mean by
"love." Or even, come to bed and I'll prove that I do. The answer
isn't, how can I talk about love when the bacon is burned and the house is an
absolute mess and the children are screaming their heads off and I'm going to
miss the bus? The answer is yes. The answer is yes. The answer is yes."
If we really believe
that Jesus is the yes of God, we should be able to respond to every negative in
life with a positive. We should be able to counteract each no with a yes, and
so be yes, yes people in a no, no world. In the light of this passage I wrote
the following lyrics-
IT'S A WORLD OF CAN'T
AND A WORLD OF DON'T.
PEOPLE RAVE AND RANT
AND THEY THRIVE ON
WON'T.
BUT JESUS IS YES;
HE NEVER IS NO.
HIS GOAL IS TO BLESS;
GOD'S LOVE TO US SHOW.
CHORUS
YES, YES, YES MY JESUS
IS YES,
EVERY PROMISE OF GOD
IN HIM WE POSSESS.
YES, YES, YES MY JESUS
IS YES;
THAT IS WHY ALL OUR
PRAISE, TO HIM WE ADDRESS.
II
IT'S A WORLD OF NO
AND A WORLD OF NOT.
IT'S READY TO BLOW;
IT'S GOING TO POT.
BUT JESUS IS YES;
A POSITIVE NOTE.
IF HIM WE CONFESS,
HE'LL KEEP US AFLOAT.
CHORUS
III
IT'S A WORLD OF WAR
AND A WORLD OF NIGHT.
WHAT'S GOOD, MEN
ABHOR;
THEY RESIST WHAT'S
RIGHT.
BUT JESUS IS YES;
HE OFFERS US LIGHT.
IN THE MIDST OF
STRESS,
HIS BURDEN IS LITE.
CHORUS
IV
IT'S A WORLD OF HATE
AND A WORLD OF CRIME.
THERE IS NO DEBATE,
IT'S NEAR END OF TIME.
BUT JESUS IS YES;
IN TIMES OF GREAT
STRIFE.
HIS GIFT IS NO LESS
THAN ETERNAL LIFE.
CHORUS
V.
IT'S A NO NO WORLD,
AND IT'S FILLED WITH
DOUBT.
MEN ARE TOSSED AND
HURLED,
AND JUST THROWN ABOUT.
BUT JESUS IS YES;
HE'S THE ONLY WAY.
IF FAITH YOU'LL
PROFESS
HE'LL SAVE YOU TODAY.
CHORUS
VI.
IT'S A WORLD OF DARK
WHERE NEGATIVES
THRIVE.
SOME OFTEN REMARK
IT'S HARD TO SURVIVE.
BUT JESUS IS YES;
A RAY OF SUNSHINE;
THE WAY TO SUCCESS
AND A LIFE WITH
DESIGN.
CHORUS
YES, YES, YES, MY
JESUS IS YES;
EVERY PROMISE OF GOD
IN HIM WE POSSESS.
YES, YES, YES, MY
JESUS IS YES;
THAT'S WHY THIS SONG
OF PRAISE
TO OUR SAVIOUR WE
RAISE
NOW AND TO ENDLESS
DAYS,
FOR HE'S GOD'S YES!
YES! YES!
4.
GODLY CHANGE based on II Cor. 2:1-11
Many years ago the U.
S. Army wanted to get off more rounds of cannon fire, and so they hired a
consultant to study the problem. He went into the field and noticed that the
soldiers stepped back from the cannon and waited for about 3 seconds every time
they fired it. When asked why they replied that they were following directions
laid down in the army manual. The consultant read through all the back issues until
he traced the instructions to their origin in the Civil War. Soldiers were then
advised to step back before firing to hold the gun horses head so that they
would not bolt and thus jerk the cannon off target. These were important
instructions at the time, but everything had changed, and horses were no longer
there. These instructions had passed down for years and were followed even
though they had no relevance whatever. The manual was changed to fit the
changed circumstances.
Change is wise when
the old way of doing something can be done better to fulfill the purpose for
which you do it at all. The Christian life is to be a life of constant change
where we are getting better and better at pleasing God by loving Him with all
our hearts, and by loving our neighbor as ourselves. The goal of all we do as a
church is change. Change is the name of the game, and if we do not see change
we are failing. Christ-likeness is only achieved by change. Christian education
does not happen just because information is imparted. There are millions of
non-Christians who can tell you the story of Adam and Eve, Noah, and Jonah.
They can even tell the story of the cross and resurrection. They have the
facts, but they are not changed by them. You do not have a Christian education
until the facts of the Bible change your life, and lead you to a commitment to
Christ as Lord of your life.
Nobody becomes a
Christian without change, and nobody becomes a growing Christian without more
change. Change is the essence of the Christian life, and when a Christian stops
changing, they stop growing. The Christian is only learning if he or she is
changing. A school teacher told one of her students he had to stay after school
and write on the blackboard one hundred times, so he would learn the proper way
of saying it, "I have gone." He laboriously worked his way through
the 100 lines, and then he left this note for the teacher: "I finished and
I have went home." All his efforts were not a learning experience for he
did not change.
Learning means that
you change in your thinking, feeling, or acting. If change does not happen,
learning has not happened. You cannot measure Christian education by how many
years you have gone to Sunday School, or how many books you have read. The only
measure that matters is how much have you changed to become a Christ-centered
person.
D. L. Moody wrote the
entire theology of the Christian life on the fly leaf of his Bible. He put it
in 7 stages of change.
1. Justification-a
change of standing before God.
2. Regeneration- a
change of nature from God.
3. Repentance-a change
of mind about God.
4. Conversion-a change
of life for God.
5. Adoption-a change
of family in God.
6. Sanctification-a
change of service unto God.
7. Glorification-a
change of place with God.
If the goal is to be
like Jesus, and we are not yet there, then it follows that change is what the
Christian life is all about. It begins with change and does not cease until we
become like Him in the resurrection. An evangelist visiting a girls mission
school in the South Sea Islands was greeted by two rows of girls singing,
"What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into
my life." He was deeply touched when one of the staff members leaned over
and whispered, "Everyone of those girls is either the daughter or
granddaughter of a cannibal." Change is the sign of authentic
Christianity.
Someone once very
cleverly put up a sign in the church nursery using one of Paul's sentences to
the Corinthians. It was from I Cor. 15:51 which says, "We will not all
sleep but we will all be changed." Being changed is basic to the nursery
care of babies, and it is basic to the plan of God for His people. The last
thing that happens to us in time is change. The mortal puts on immortality.
Both the living and the dead has this in common: They end time and begin
eternity with change.
We could go and on
with evidence to support the importance of change in the Christian life, but
this should be sufficient to make the point. Now we have to deal with another
reality, and that is the Christian resistance to change. This was a major issue
in the Corinthian church, and it is a major issue in every church, and in every
Christian life. To change or not to change-that is the question. Another one
is, to adapt to change or resist it. That is the issue Paul deals with in
chapter 2.
A major criticism of
Paul by those in Corinth who did not life him was that he changed his mind
about coming to spend a winter with them. They said he is unstable and
undependable, and not to be relied upon. They could not accept Paul's change of
plans as a good thing. They saw it as a defect in his character, and they used
it to undermine his authority. One of Paul's major goals in this letter is to
defend his change of mind. In 1:23 he even calls God to witness that his motive
for changing his mind was to spare them. Paul is saying that there are times
when you should change your mind, and not follow through on your original plan.
If you discover that
your plan will lead to unnecessary pain and not solve a problem, but only add
to it, it is wise to change your plan. This is not being inconsistent or
wishy-washy. It is being flexible and open to adapt to new information. Paul's
critics were being legalists. They were saying that once you commit yourself to
a certain course of action you should stick to it no matter what. They expected
Paul to be like a machine that does what it is programmed to do, even if by
doing so it starts to crush the product and spew the contents out on the floor.
Paul says, "No way! I have considered the consequences of not changing my
plan, and I see it would be a painful thing to come to you at this time and
have to deal with so many hard issues that call for severe judgment. I have
decided to wait so I could come when you have settled some of these issues, and
so be able to have a more pleasant experience for all of us."
Paul is adapting to
change. He understands the importance of timing. You are not wise to deal with
sensitive issues when the timing is such that it guarantees greater pain. Paul
knew things would change and there would be a better time to come back to
Corinth. If he came now, when he said he would, it would lead to a lot of
grief, and Paul is not a saddest. He does not have any interest in pain for
pain's sake. He avoids unnecessary suffering for himself and others, and that
is why he changed his mind and plan.
What we need to see is
the paradox of how change is a key factor in being consistent. The critics of
Paul had the concept that a consistent person is one who does not change. They
were like the woman who stood before the judge and he asked her age. She said
that she was 30, and he said that she had given that same age to the court for
the last 3 years. She responded, "Yes, I'm not one of those who says one
thing today, and another thing tomorrow." She was being consistent but
dishonest. Change was necessary to be honest about her age, and change was
necessary for Paul to be honest and consistent with his love for the
Corinthians.
If a face to face
confrontation is only going to lead to painful conflict, Paul says that he
chooses to change his strategy. Paul had to be confrontational at times, but he
did not enjoy it, and he avoided it if he could. He had no pleasure in being
critical and judgmental toward his spiritual children. He had come to them
before and it led to conflict, and he was not ready to go through that again.
In the light of the evidence he changed his mind, and he stayed away and sent a
letter instead. The Christian principle here is this: In any area of conflict
you seek to work out problems so as to avoid unnecessary pain. This means you
evaluate the situation and be ready to adapt and change to meet this goal.
If you are tired of
waiting for the leak in the sink to get fixed, and you say, "I am going to
confront my husband tonight and insist that he get this job done," and
then you tell your neighbor that this is the night we are going to settle this,
you have made quite a commitment. But let's say that your husband comes home
from work and the first thing he does is tell you that he never got the
promotion he was expecting, but was passed over. Now you have a choice. You can
be true to your commitment to deal with the sink issue like you told your
friend, or you can choose to change your agenda and adapt to the change in your
husbands life, and seek to be a comfort rather than to add to his pain.
The legalist would say
to stick to the original plan whatever the cost. You told your friend that you
would, and she will ask you the next day, and you will look like a wimp if you
back off. But the spirit of grace says that being consistent could lead to
conflict and pain that will hurt your relationship. It is not worth it to be
consistent. You must change your plans and deal with this at a more appropriate
time when the result is more likely to be pleasant rather than painful. Change
for the sake of peace is not being inconsistent at all. It is being consistent
with love. God, who is unchanging in his character and attributes, and so never
inconsistent, will change in his response to men when they change in response
to Him. The only way God can be consistent and unchanging in His love and
honesty is to change.
He told the city of
Nineveh through Jonah that in 40 days the city would be destroyed. But the
people repented and God changed His mind, and He did not destroy them. Was that
being inconsistent? Not at all. God whole plan of salvation is based on His
willingness to forsake His wrath and show mercy to all who call upon Him. He is
ever consistent in this, so that even if someone is only minutes away from
judgment and they turn to Him, He will halt His judgment and reach out the hand
of redemption and spare them. God is unchanging in His mercy, and so He will
change from wrath to mercy anytime man is open to receive it. It is a paradox,
but the only way God can be consistent and unchanging is to be ready to change
at any time when there is a change in man's response to Him.
If God could not
change and respond freely to the changes in men, He would be at the mercy of a
legalism greater in power that His love, and so law rather than love would be
the highest force in the universe. But it is not so, for love is supreme, and
God is free to change in an instant to meet every change in man with mercy.
This is not inconsistency in God, but it is the ultimate in consistency, for it
means God is never looked in but is free always to make the loving choice in
every situation, so that love always reigns.
That is what Paul is
saying about his own change of mind and plan. He is being consistently loving
by adapting to change so as to avoid giving Satan any advantages in the warfare
of the spirit. Lets say you promised your child or grandchild you would take
them to see the movie Jurassic Park, and then you read tha5 some children
develop severe nightmares after seeing this film. You know your child is
sensitive to this sort of thing. Now what do you do? Do you keep your promise,
or do you adapt to the new information you did not have when you made the
promise? Since your original motive was to please your child your choice now
has to be consistent with that motive. They may be hurt by your change of
plans, but if you choose something else that pleases them you are being
consistent with your original purpose. If it will hurt your child to keep your
promise then you have to change your plan, for your goal is to please them and
not to hurt them. Change is consistent with consistency.
The Corinthians were
not only having a hard time accepting the changes of Paul's plan as loving, but
were having a hard time seeing the need to change their attitude toward the man
they had disciplined for his sin. They became his judge and jury and found him
guilty, and they punished him. That was all consistent with the facts and the
need. But they apparently did not realize that if the discipline worked, and
the man repented of his sin, they were to change in response to that change in
him and forgive him and restore him to the fellowship. They apparently thought
the Christian needs to be consistent and go on shunning this sinner. Here is
where we see all the folly of consistency. If they refused to change in
response to the change in the sinner, they were in bondage to legalism. They
were not free to be agents of grace, for to e free like that you have to be
willing to change and from an attitude of judgment go to an attitude of
forgiveness. This is radical change to go from such a severe negative to such a
great positive. It is such a radical change that is seems like inconsistency,
but it is, in face, the only way to be consistent with the love of God.
What we need to see is
that changing is always good if the change is to keep you in conformity with
the spirit of Christ. We often worry about how things appear on the human level
and let that be our guide rather than the higher principle of conformity to the
will of God. Spurgeon reveals a marvelous spirit of willingness to change even
if it means renouncing a cherished opinion if he sees change as essential to
conform to the Word of God. He writes, "I confess that sometimes I come
across a text which does not at the first blush agree with other teachings of
Scripture which I have already received, and his startles me for the moment.
But one thing is settled in my heart, namely that I will follow the Scripture
wherever it leads me and that I will renounce the most cherished opinion rather
than shape a text or alter a syllable of the inspired Book. It is not mine to
make God's word consistent, but to believe that it is so. When a text stands in
the middle of the road I drive no further. The Romans had a god they called
"Terminus," who was the god of landmarks. Holy Scripture is my sacred
landmark, and I hear a voice which threatens me with a curse if I remove it. Sometimes
I way to myself, I did not think to find this truth to e just so; but as it is
so, I must bow. It is rather awkward for my theory, but I must alter my system,
for the Scripture cannot be broken. Let God be true, but every man a
liar."
History is filled with
many Christian leaders who could not do what Spurgeon could do. They feel
obligated to be consistent, and so if they make a mistake in understanding the
Bible they would rather cling to and promote that mistake rather than adapt and
admit they were wrong and change to conform to a new understanding. New light
makes many a preacher have to change the way he preaches on a text. Pride says
stick to your guns and do not admit a mistake or blunder. If you change it will
reveal your imperfections. But love says to change and conform to the new light
for this is godly change and will make you pleasing to Him.
It can be costly to
change, for even Christians will be your critics, just as they were of Paul.
Christians are often legalists and do not like to change but stay locked into
what they feel is comfortable and not be open to new light. Paul is saying that
it is an obligation for Christians to change their minds when they get new
light and new understanding. It is folly to remain unchanged when new light
makes change wise. The point is that a person is not unstable and vacillating
because they change. It could be, as was the case with Paul, that their change
is a sign of their consistency. Paul is pleading with them to listen to the
reasons and motive for his change. If they will do so they will see that his
change is consistent with his love for them.
There is an old joke
that has the judge asking why the defendant broke into the parking meter, and
he responds, "I thought the change would do me good." Paul felt the
change would he made would do both him and the Corinthians good. He knew that a
change on their part to forgive the fallen saint would do the whole church
good. Paul is teaching that we need not fear change, but grasp it as a friend
and learn the value of it. The critics of Paul were anti-change and were
hardened against the value of change. Their inflexibility was not good, but it
was like a noose that was robbing them of the freedom to be forgiving and
loving. It was chocking them and making them so unlike Christ.
Paul wants Christians
to be more like thermostats and not like thermometers. The thermometer just
registers the temperature, but the thermostat changes the temperature to make
it more comfortable. Paul's stress in this letter is that Christians are to be
agents of comfort, and that means that they are to be in the business of
changing the temperature. If they are cold because of sin and folly on the part
of other believers, they are to change the atmosphere and warm it up with
loving acts of kindness and forgiveness. Where sin abounds grace is to much
more abound. This can only happen where Christians recognize with Paul that
Godly change is necessary.
5.
THE WEAPON OF FORGIVENESS Based on II Cor. 2:5-11
Paul Aurandt tells this
story of General Thomas Jackson who was the right arm of General Lee. The
Confederate soldiers were so impressed with his bravery in battle as he stood
out in front that they called him Stonewall Jackson. His first brigade was the
most devastating war machine the South had in the Civil War. The Union Army
dreaded any encounter with his troops.
In May of 1863 he
pulled off a victory near Chancellorville, Virginia that made it into the
textbooks. He divided his troops, and then divided them again, and made a
surprise attack. The Union Army had never seen such a strategy, and they were
defeated. But as Stonewall returned to his own camp his own men hearing him
come through the woods opened fire. He was hit three times and died a few days
later, and this ended the unbeatable war machine of the South.
So often good men die
at the hands of their own troops. Our own recent history as a nation reveals
how often our own soldiers perish because of friendly fire. Warfare is
complicated, and it is hard to avoid mistakes. The same thing is true in
spiritual warfare where the forces of light fighting the forces of darkness
often shoot out the lights of their fellow soldiers. When a soldier of light
comes under attack by the enemy and falls wounded on the battlefield of life
because of being enticed into sin, the rest of the troops often leave them to
be captured by enemy forces. This was not the strategy of General Paul. Every
Christian soldier was precious to Paul, and he established a tradition in
spiritual warfare that has become a tradition for American soldiers. That
tradition is that you pay the cost and suffer great risk to rescue your own.
The wounded soldier
may have been stupid to do what he did. He may have been disobeying orders
even, and deserved to be left bleeding and dying alone for his folly, but the
effort is to be made to rescue him and not leave him to the enemy. So Paul says
to the Corinthians that the Christian man who has been so sinful in your midst,
and who has brought grief to us all by his immoral behavior, is to be rescued
from the clutches of Satan and restored to fellowship. The man he is referring
to is the man who was sleeping with his step-mother, and bringing shame on the
whole church, for even the pagans round about them did not condone such
immorality.
The church listened to
Paul and put this man out of the church, and they shunned him, but now Paul
says to them that the goal is not to get rid of him and let the enemy have him.
The goal of punishment is to get him to repent so that he can be forgiven and
restored to the ranks of the soldiers of light. The bottom line Paul says is
not to let Satan outwit us, but to outwit him, and the key weapon of spiritual
warfare to achieve this goal is the weapon of forgiveness. This is a weapon that
comes from the arsenal of heaven, and from the very heart of God. If God was
not a God of forgiveness there would be no spiritual warfare, for all men would
be captives of Satan with no hope of escape. But God is a God of forgiveness.
Here are just a few texts that focus on this fact:
"Thou are to God
ready to pardon, gracious and merciful. (Neh. 9:17)
Thou hast forgiven the
iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. (Psa. 85:2)
Thou, Lord, art good,
and ready to forgive...(Psa. 86:5)
Who forgiveth all
thine iniquities...(Psa. 103:3)
I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jer. 31:34)
If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)
These do not exhaust
the subject, for the forgiveness of God is inexhaustible. God knows how to use
this weapon perfectly. He is the expert in forgiveness, but for us it is not
automatic. We need a lot of practice before we can wield this weapon well and be
affective in rescuing the fallen from the clutches of the enemy. Dr. Neil T.
Anderson is the leading authority today in dealing with helping Christians and
churches get released from the bondage of sin and ignorance. In his many books
he makes it clear that there is no escape from bondage without forgiveness. The
truth will set you free, and the truth in forgiveness is the key to getting out
of almost every kind of bondage that Satan has in his bag of tricks.
In his 7 Steps To
Freedom In Christ the third is forgiveness, and I want to give you the gist of
his teaching, for he has helped thousands of Christians learn how to use this
weapon to outwit the devil. The thing I find fascinating about his teaching is
that his focus is on the forgiver, and not the forgiven. That is, the value of
forgiveness is in what it does for you, and not just in what it does for the
one you are forgiving. He begins by encouraging Christians to pray this prayer:
"Dear heavenly Father. I thank you for the riches of your kindness,
forbearance and patience, knowing that your kindness has lead me to repentance
(Rom. 2:4). I confess that I have not extended that same patience and kindness
toward others who offended me, but instead I have harbored bitterness and
resentment. I pray that during this time of self-examination you would bring to
mind only those people whom I have not forgiven in order that I might do so
(Matt. 18:35). I ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen."
The point of forgiving
is to get Satan's foot out of the door of your life so that he cannot use the
offenses of the past to spoil your present and future. As long as a person
holds on to a past offense it is still hurting them. If you forgive it you cast
it into the past and eliminate its present impact. The Corinthian church was
still feeling the pain of the punishment of this offender, and he was still
feeling it. Paul feared he could become overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. There
is no point in letting pain dominate your life is Paul's point. There is a
limit to the value of suffering. After it has done its work it is to be
eliminated. It is an abuse to go on punishing when the offender has repented.
It is time then to put the pain of the past behind you, and move on to the
pleasure of love and forgiveness. If you keep focusing on punishment you are in
a spirit of bitterness and revenge, and you will be playing right into the
hands of Satan.
All negatives have
their proper role in the Christian life, but they are only temporary, and they
are to be quickly replaced with positives. Any negative that is prolonged will
aid the enemy in spiritual warfare. If you have any negative attitude that goes
on for a long time, you can count on it that it is a defect in your life, and
you are letting Satan have an advantage over you. But Christians will often
protest: "You don't know how much I was hurt by so and so. I just can't
let it go, for it was terrible." But the fact is, because you can't let it
go you are allowing the hurt to go on and be magnified over and over. They hurt
you a weeks worth of pain, and because of your lack of forgiveness you have
multiplied it into a year, or even decades of pain. The magnifying and
multiplying of pain is not the work of the kingdom of light. It is the work of
the kingdom of darkness. As long as you persist in letting past offences affect
your present, you are, in that area of life, in bondage to the enemy.
Dr. Anderson deals
with the protest of the Christian: "Why should I let them off the hook?
You may ask. That is precisely the problem-you are still hooked to them, still
bound by your past." Then he says something profound. "You don't
forgive someone for their sake; you do it for your sake, so you can be free.
Your need to forgive isn't an issue between you and the offender; its between
you and God." In other words, forgiveness is a weapon by which you outwit
the devil, and eliminate any foothold he may have in your life. It blows to
pieces the sins, the mistakes, the follies of the past, so they cannot control
or obstruct your present and future. Dr. Anderson says in conclusion:
"Freeing yourself from the past is the critical issue."
If you want freedom
from bondage, then learn to wield well this weapon of forgiveness. It is a
Satan smasher, and it destroys the devil's devices. It pulverizes his use of
the past, and it fractures his formations. It shatters his schemes, and it
ruptures his resources. It demolishes his demonic delight in destroying your
peace of mind. The victorious Christian life is a life where forgiveness plays
a major role. If anyone in all of history had reason to hold a grudge and be
filled with resentment it was Jesus. He did nothing but good, and He loved all
people. He brought joy and healing wherever He went, and He proclaimed the good
news of the kingdom of God, and yet He was despised and rejected.
Our human nature would
love to see a Rambo-like ending of this story where Jesus rips His hands from
the cross, grabs the sword of the Roman soldier and begins, like Samson of old,
to slay the enemy. A field of dead and bleeding Pharisees and Saducees seems
more fitting than one dead and bleeding Savior with two dead thieves beside
Him. The only problem with that scene is that Satan would have been the victor.
The kingdom of darkness would have won that day, but Jesus outwitted the devil.
He died with not one note of bitterness and revenge. He cut Satan's influence
out of His life completely with the weapon of forgiveness. He prayed,
"Father forgive them," before He died, and He entered death and
Satan's kingdom ready for hand to hand combat with no bondage whatever which
would have given Satan an advantage.
Jesus died totally
free and victorious by means of the weapon of forgiveness. That is why His
sacrifice was accepted by God for atonement for the sins of the world. By means
of forgiveness Jesus was the only perfect and sinless sacrifice that could be
acceptable. If Satan could have gotten Jesus to hold on to a grudge, and gotten
Him to cling to bitterness and resentment, he could have derailed the whole
plan of salvation. Jesus knew his schemes, as did Paul, and that is why they
won with the weapon of forgiveness, and that is how we will win the battle as
well.
We have something in
common with God. We have the capacity to forgive those who offend us, hurt us,
and defy us. We have the power to forgive sin. Not only can we do it, we are
obligated to do it, for God gave us this ability, and if we do not use it we
will not receive forgiveness from God. In Luke 6:37 Jesus said, "Forgive,
and you will be forgiven." Jesus adds these words after the Lord's Prayer
in
Matt. 6:14-15:
"For if you forgive men when they sin again you, your heavenly Father will
also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will
not forgive your sins." If you are not a forgiver, you are not forgiven.
It is that simple.
Jesus calls us, not
just to be forgiven sinners, but to be forgiving sinners, and if we do not obey
this order of our supreme commander we betray His cause and support the enemy
forces. Not all Christians soldiers are issued all the weapons of spiritual
warfare, and not all have all the gifts, but all Christians are issued the
weapon of forgiveness, and they are expected to use it effectively. That is
what Paul is teaching the Corinthians in this passage. The goal is not
punishment, for that is a means to the end, and the end is forgiveness and
restoration of the sinner to fellowship with the forces of light. This was no
petty sinner he was dealing with. This is a matter of major moral failure, and
yet Paul says the goal is to not let Satan have any victory, but get back to a
place where the past is overcome, and the present is as good as it could have
been if he had never fallen.
This is easier said
than done, but if it was easy it would not be hard to be a Christian soldier.
Anybody could do it, and Christians would have nothing distinctive to offer a
fallen world. There are some notable successes, but there are many failures to
use this weapon of forgiveness well. I was recently shocked to learn that one
of my favorite Christian authors was a fallen saint who had been restored to
the ranks of the soldiers of light. Many of you may know Jamie Buckingham. He
has authored dozens of excellent books.
When he was a young
pastor in South Carolina he yielded to lust and had an affair. It was
devastating to him and his family, and he was dismissed from the church. He
moved to Florida, and because he was a powerful personality he convinced a
large church to call him as their pastor. He had a great honeymoon time there,
but then the rumor followed him of his secret sin. He was soon asked to leave
that church as well. The rumors were packed with half truths and lies that made
a shameful sin even worse. His ministry had come to a pitiful dead end, and he
would have been lost to the kingdom of God.
He saw a contest for
Christian writers one day and decided to submit a story of a missionary friend.
Out of 2000 submissions he was a winner, and this lead to his being offered an
assignment by a major book publisher. A whole new world opened up to him, and
he became one of the most effective Christian authors of the 20th century. He
wrote Where Eagles Soar. In it he describes his fall, rebirth, and restoration
as a soldier of the cross. Here is one of his paragraphs: "Perfection still
eludes me. I am still vulnerable. But most important, I am no longer satisfied
with my imperfection. Nor, thank God, am I intimidated by it. I reached the
point of recognizing that God uses imperfect, immoral, dishonest people. In
fact, that's all there are these days. All the holy men seem to have gone off
and died. There's no one left but us sinners to carry on the ministry."
Had he not been
forgiven for his failure and folly he would have been lost to the kingdom of
God, and his talent may have been used to the kingdom of darkness. This happens
when Christians do not know how to use the weapon of forgiveness. They force
the fallen Christian to forsake the church and find their fellowship in the
world. This means that Satan wins the battle. This happens often as Christian
soldiers shoot their own wounded and abandon them on the battlefield to be
taken captive by the enemy. Paul says not to let this happen even to the worst
of Christian offenders like this man who was so offensive that he had to be put
out of the church.
There was only the one
church in Corinth, and so if you intended to be part of the church you had to
deal with the sin issues in that body. It was a social issue, but today it is
often a personal issue, and Christians need to deal with forgiveness on an
individual level. Today discipline is not effective, for the sinner can just go
off to another church and the church does not deal with forgiveness and
restoration. This means that self forgiveness has become a major factor in
modern Christianity. Many sins never become public, and so they are never dealt
with like the one Paul refers to here. Paul deals a lot with the open sins
known by the body, and so he writes in Eph. 4:32, "Be kind and
compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God
forgave you." He writes in Col. 3:13, "Bear with each other and
forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the
Lord forgave you."
Forgiveness was a major
message of Paul, and he preached it everywhere, for it was at the heart of the
Gospel. But we need to turn to John to see the need for personal and private
forgiveness. In I John 1:9 we read, "If we confess our sins He is faithful
and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The
Jewish Talmud says, "There is no happier person in all of Jerusalem than
the one who has brought a sin offering to God's alter and leaves the temple
feeling forgiven." Unfortunately, the world is filled with Christians who
cannot see the sufficiency of Christ's offering on the cross to atone for all
sin. The result is that they cannot forgive themselves for their failure to be
what they know they ought to be. There is a vast number of Christian soldiers
who are crippled and out of action because they do not know how to use the
weapon of forgiveness to achieve their own healing and restoration. That is why
the world is so full of Christian counselors.
Leslie Weatherhead,
the great English preacher and counselor, dealt with many such Christians. The
walking wounded who cannot be of much service to the cause of Christ because
they are trapped in one of Satan's snares and are unable to forgive themselves.
A young Christian girl had been engaged to a dentist and the dentist died. She
became physically and mentally ill, and could not function as a person let
alone as a soldier of the cross. Wheatherhead suspected sin and in counseling
he learned that she had had sex with the dentist, and now she felt unworthy to
even have another relationship. He led her to see the grace of God and
experience forgiveness. She was set free from her bondage, and she went on to
marry a young man and have a happy marriage. Here was a prisoner of war set
free to live the life of grace.
There are millions of
Christians who go through this bondage to Satan, and they are paralyzed and
ineffective as Christians because they cannot experience forgiveness. Jesus
knew this would be a problem all through history. That is why He instituted the
Lord's Supper. He knew Christians needed to keep coming back to the cross and
to what He did there for them. He knew Christians would fall in the battle of
life, and they would be wounded in the warfare. As we meet again around the
Lord's Table and celebrate His sacrifice for sin, let us recognize that this is
our spiritual warfare medical center. This is where the Great Physician heals
our wounds and mends our brokenness, and where he restores us to a state of
readiness to march again for His cause and glory. Let us confess our sins and
be cleansed, and go forth to help others to conquer as we wield the weapon of
forgiveness.
6.
THE FACE OF GOD based on II Cor. 4:1-6
John Mcgee Jr. wrote
the poem High Flight. It is so meaningful to some pilots, they repeat it as
they sit in their planes soaring though the skies. It goes like this-
Oh, I have slipped the
surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies
on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed,
and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split
clouds-and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed
of-wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit
silence.-Hov'ring there,
I've chased the
shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through
footless halls of air.
Up, up the long,
delirious, burning blue
I've topped the
windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or
even eagle flew.
And, while with
silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed
sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and
touched the face of God.
Flight does link man
with the angels but it does not get man any closer to God. It is only poetic
license to say you can fly so high as to touch the face of God. Man could never
reach that high but the message of Christmas is, God stooped low enough to
literally allow men to touch His face.
On Christmas day God
did embrace
The planet earth with
loving grace,
Making Bethlehem the
birth place
Of Jesus who revealed
God's face.
When Mary pressed the
soft warm cheeks of baby Jesus to her own, she was touching the face of God.
When the shepherds and the wise men came to see Jesus they were seeing the face
of God. Christmas is about the face of God. Before Christmas God was veiled,
and men were not allowed to come into His presence to see His face. Whenever
God did, on rare occasions, let men see His presence, they were terrified of
His glory. But on Christmas God entered human flesh where men could see Him
face to face and not be afraid. Nothing is less fearful than seeing a baby.
Jesus grew from His baby
face childhood to mature manhood, and by degrees He exposed man to His Deity.
Three of the disciples saw the glory of His divine face on the Mt. of
Transfiguration where we read in Matt. 17:2, "there He was transfigured
before them. His face shown like the sun..." This glory was shown only to
a few, for that was not the face Jesus came to show the world. One day all the
redeemed will see their Savior face to face in all it's splendor. But this is
the face He will have in His second coming. His first coming-His Christmas
coming, revealed to us the face of God which is more practical for life in our
fallen world. It was a face of compassion and love; a face of mercy and
understanding. It was the face of a friend.
Christmas is unique in
all of history for it was the day God let men see His face, and begin to know
Him as He really is. Jesus was the light of the world, the light that lit up
the face of God for man to see their Creator. This is what Paul was getting at
in verse 6, "for God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, made His
light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Christ."
How do we know who God
is, and how He feels about us and His lost world? Where do we go to get this
kind of knowledge? Do we go to the Information Super Highway? No, we go to the
face of Christ-the face first seen on the first Christmas morning.
Robert Coles wrote a
fascinating book titled, The Spiritual Life of Children. He is a Harvard Univ.
professor who has written about the inner life of children like no other
author. He has studied children around the world in all different cultures. One
of the things he does is to get children to draw the face of God. Jewish and
Muslim children will not do it, for they are taught not to make pictures of
God. But Christian children all over the world feel free to make pictures of
God. Why? Because for Christians, God has shown His face to the world in Jesus
Christ. All the religions of the world have invisible gods, but Christianity
has a visible God; a God who was seen and touched. That is what the incarnation
was all about. God became visible in flesh so men could see Him face to face.
Professor Coles has
293 pictures of God, and all but 38 are of His face. When Christian children
visualize God they primarily see His face. All around the world, artist in
every land and culture paint the face of Jesus. There are oriental faces, and
Negroid faces, or Italian or German, and dozens of others. All facial features
are found in the face of Jesus. He is the man of a thousand faces yet His is
the face of one-the face of God. ,
A Sunday school
teacher and her second grade class were looking at a painting of Jesus. Little
Billy exclaimed, "Isn't it wonderful! It looks just like Him!" If it's
a face that children fall in love with, that is truly a legitimate face of
Jesus.
I have not seen it but
I have read about an artist that painted a portrait of Jesus, which if you look
at it close, is composed of 48 different faces. There are all kinds of people
of every race, color and age. He was conveying a theological reality. In Christ
the entire human race with all of it's variety becomes one. Jesus was the son
of man, the perfection of all men. Many feel the reason we have no description
of the face of Jesus is so all can portray Him like themselves.
Artists all through
history have conveyed many theological truths by means of the face of Jesus.
Thorwaldsen has his famous sculpture of Christ in the Cathedral of Copenhagen,
Denmark. The beautiful white marble statue of Jesus has His arms outstretched
for all who enter. It draws you down the isle like a magnet. But when you come
near you still can't see the face of Jesus. You have to get down on your knees
and then look up to see His face of love and compassion. No one can see His
face unless they first kneel. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted, said
Jesus. He humbled himself to come and show us God's face, and we need to bow
before Him in humility to see that face.
Leonardo da Vinci
became very angry with another man when he was painting the famous Last Supper.
He was trying to finish the face of Jesus, but he just could not get it right.
Finally he humbled himself to go to the man and seek forgiveness. The man
accepted his apology and Leonardo was then able to complete the face of Jesus.
Jesus said get right with your brother before you come before God, for then you
will see the face of God smiling with pleasure as you offer your gifts.
One of the major goals
of Satan is to keep men from beholding the face of God. In Rev. 12:1-9, we have
one of most amazing accounts of the Christmas story. It is Christmas from the
perspective of spiritual warfare. Satan desperately wanted to keep mankind from
ever seeing the face of God in Jesus Christ. The birth of baby Jesus, the
Prince of Peace, led to the greatest warfare this universe has ever seen.
Satan, called in this text the dragon, had power to sweep a third of the stars
out of the sky. We are talking of power that makes all of man's atom bombs look
like the power of a gnat. He was determined that Christmas would never happen,
and he risked everything to prevent God from showing His face. Listen to this
account of Christmas from a heavenly perspective.
"A great and
wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed
with the sun, with the
moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars
on her head. She was
pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about
to give birth. Then
another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous
red dragon with seven
heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his
heads. His tail swept
a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon
stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might
devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child,
who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched
up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared
for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. And there was
war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon
and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their
place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called
the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the
earth, and his angels with him."
The dragon wanted to
devour the Christ child so that no one, not even Mary, would ever see the face
of God in the flesh. Satan knew if this baby lived the whole relationship of
God and man would be changed for the better. The whole power structure of the
universe would be altered, and so he fought desperately to stop the
Incarnation. The angels not only sang that first Christmas, they fought the
devil and his angels to make sure there was something to sing about for all
mankind. We know of no other event in the history of the universe that was so
important to all the forces in the universe, both good and bad. The destiny of
man was wrapped up in that baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a
manger-for in Him was the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Christ. The entire Christmas story can be seen as revolving around the
face of God revealed in the Christ child. I have said it in poetry-
Christmas is God's
great invasion
Of this earth from
beyond space.
On this marvelous
occasion
He revealed to man His
face.
At the start He was a
stranger
Just a baby out of
place.
Earth's Creator in a
manger
Was not to Him a
disgrace.
Shepherds watching their
flocks by night
Heard the good news of
God's grace.
When the angels had
left their sight
They left too with
hurried pace.
They ran to
Bethlehem's stable
Where the Christ child
they embrace.
Praising God that they
were able
To behold Him face to
face.
Wise men saw His star
in the East
It was rare, not
commonplace.
When heaven celebrates
a feast
They it's meaning long
to trace.
No journey could be on
a par
Nothing could that
sight erase.
They would ever follow
that star
Till they saw Christ's
shining face.
He came here to be one
of us
To stand with us face
to face.
Taking on Him the name
Jesus
Savior of our fallen
race.
To the heavens He's
ascended
He has returned to His
base.
All that's broken will
be mended
And all evil He'll
replace.
When we see the face
of Jesus
We behold the face of
God.
May this amazing truth
seize us
As we through this
season trod.
We look upon the face
of God
When the face of
Christ we see.
Let this Christmas
spirit, you prod
To look and in Him be
free.
Jesus said in John
3:14-15, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of
Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal
life." People in the Old Testament could look at the serpent on the pole,
and they would be healed when bitten by poisonous snakes. Their salvation was
in looking to this symbol. Jesus said He was lifted up on the cross for the
same reason. Men bitten by that old serpent the devil will die in their sin
unless they look to Him on the cross. If they look they will live
Some of the greatest
conversions of history have happened because of this text. Charles Hadden
Spurgeon heard a Methodist preacher preach on looking to Jesus on the cross. He
looked and was forgiven and became one of the most famous preachers in history.
He then pointed thousands of others to look to the face of Jesus and become
children of God.
416 times the face is
mentioned in the Bible. It is an important part of the human anatomy. It is
also an important part of our theology, for it is in the face of Christ that we
come to know God. For centuries the hope of heaven revolved around the beatific
vision-the seeing of God's face. Christians do not stress this today for the
modern Christian is more interested in seeing the streets of gold than seeing
the face of God. In a materialistic world rewards become a priority over the
personal. But the personal is the primary focus of the Bible. When Stephen was
stoned to death for being a Christian, we read in Acts 7:55, "but Stephen,
full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and
Jesus standing at the right hand of God." What he saw was Persons. It is
true John was caught up to heaven and showed us a lot of the things that will
be there, but the first vision he had in Rev.1 was of the glorified Christ. Our
primary hope is not to see things but to see Him. "Face to face I shall
behold Him, Far beyond the starry sky; face to face in all His glory I shall
see Him by and by."
A little Italian boy
once said, "Jesus is the best photograph that God ever took." that is
what the writer of Hebrews says as well for Jesus is "the express
image-the exact likeness of God." In the famous text of Isa. 9:6 we read,
"unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will on
his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." How can this Christ child be called
Everlasting Father? How can the Son of God be called the Father? It is because
the Father and the Son are one and when you see the face of Jesus you see the
face of God. Jesus is God with a face.
The Incarnation means
God can be known as never before in history. The shepherds were not content to
take the angels word for it. They wanted to see the Christ child face to face.
The wise men were not content to see the miraculous star. They did not stop
their pursuit until they saw the child face to face.
When you go to the
hospital to see a new born baby you are not content to see a blanket-wrapped
bundle. You want to see the face-not the back of the head, or the bottom-but
the face. No one is satisfied until they see the face. The face makes the
bundle personal. It is seeing the face that makes you feel you have met the
person. We need to see the face of God in Jesus to feel that we have met God
personally.
God becomes a real
person in Jesus. I saw the cutest cartoon of a father reading to his little boy
a bedtime story of the first Christmas. The little guy with his head on his
pillow with two pictures of his dog on the wall over his bed says to his dad,
"Gold, frankincense, and myrrh? I bet what he really wanted was a
puppy." The baby Jesus was a real person to this boy, and he could feel
the sense of identity with him, which was the whole point of the Incarnation.
Christmas is more than
mistletoe and ho ho ho
And brilliant lights
that reflect in snow,
And the warmth we feel
in the fireplace glow.
Christmas is about the
God we can know
Who descended from
heaven to earth below
To His kind face to
mankind show.
Paul Reese, the great
preacher, tells of reading about the French Revolution. A lawless mob broke
into the king's palace. They were wild for vengeance and loot. They rushed down
a long corridor and busted into a room at the end. Suddenly the looters grew
quiet; the yelling and cursing ceased, and some of them even knelt on the floor
as others removed their hats. What happened to cause such quiet reverence? It
was the face of Jesus on the wall.
Unfortunately the
story did not end there. One of the leaders stepped forward and turned the picture
of Jesus toward the wall. He then shouted to the crowd to continue their
plundering. This is a parable of what the whole world is now doing. They are
either, like the shepherds and wise men, seeking to bow before the face of
Jesus, or, like Satan and Herod, seeking to turn the face of Jesus to the wall.
We all have a choice.
The call of Heb. 12:2 is, "let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and
perfection of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross,
scorning it's shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
The greatest sight you can see this Christmas ,and any other time of the year,
is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7.
SEEING THE INVISIBLE based on II Cor. 4:8-18
A young sportsman just
back from a hunting trip in India was criticizing the efforts of the
missionaries there. He said that in all the months he was there he never saw
any good they were doing. It was all a useless waste of money and effort. A
returned missionary overheard him and asked him a question: "While you
were in India did you see any of those lions and tigers we hear so much
about?" He responded, "Indeed I did. I saw many of them." The
missionary then added, "I spent about 7 years in India but in all that
time I never saw any lions or tigers, but I saw much important work being done
by the missionaries." The point is clear, men see what they are looking
for. There is much even on the level of the visible that men miss because they
have no eye for it. Their interests capture their vision and monopolize it, and
this blinds them to the reality of all that lies beyond the narrow realm of
self-interest.
Lichtze, the Chinese
philosopher, told of a man who went into a shop that sold gold. He grabbed some
and ran. The police easily arrested him and asked him how he could be so
foolish as to try and rob in broad daylight before all of those people. The
thief replied, "When I reached for the gold, I saw only gold, I didn’t see
any people." His greed for gold blinded him to the reality of the visible
world that ordinarily would have prevented such folly.
If men can be blind
even to the visible world, then it is no cause for wonder that they cannot see
the invisible. It would seem by the very definition of the word invisible that
it would be impossible for anyone to see it. But Paul speaks of looking at the
unseen and in Heb. 11:27 we read that Moses endured "…as seeing him who is
invisible." In Rom. 1:20 Paul says the invisible nature of God has been
clearly revealed in the things he has made. Paul is again in the realm of
paradox. How can we see the invisible? It means that we see it by means of the
visible, which we can see, but we see behind the visible to the invisible cause
for it to be. It is being aware of the more than the visible.
The first thing we
need to do is recognize the reality of the invisible. This should not be hard
in a day in which even science is preoccupied with the unseen. Atoms, forces,
waves, and rays innumerable are invisible, but are the tools science works with
every day. Even materialists recognize that the greatest powers man knows of
are invisible. Behind visible phenomena are invisible forces. It is the unseen
magnetic pole that controls the compass needle. Invisible wind forces can cause
planes to crash even though nobody can see them coming. We can see acts of good
and evil, but we cannot see the invisible forces and motives behind them. It is
the ability to grasp the reality of the unseen forces behind history that
enables the Christian to enter into the purpose of God for history.
Man has the capacity
of dual drive in the motor of his mind. He can chug along on the road of life
in low gear and see only the reality of the ruts, mud, detours, and dead ends,
or he can, by the grace of God, shift into high and glide down the superhighway
of the spiritual with all of its fuel stations of faith, motels of meaning, and
visions of eternal values. Those who receive Jesus as Savior can travel along
sky line drive and catch glimpses of the city of God. Now this may sound like
unrealistic mysticism of no practical value. We need bread and butter food for
our souls and not fancy cotton candy visions spun out of a hyper-active
imagination. This would be a valid objection if all of reality was on the level
of the visible, but since the Bible teaches that the majority of reality is on
the level of the invisible, it will be my challenge to show that nothing is
more relevant and practical than the ability to see the invisible.
It is the key to the effective
Christian life to be able to see the invisible. It is the very essence of
worship. Herman Hagedorn wrote,
Lift up the curtain:
For an hour lift up
The veil that hold’s
you prisoners in this world
Of coins and wines and
motor-horns, this world
Of figures and of men
who trust in facts;
This pitiable,
hypocritic world
Where men with
blinkered eyes and hobbled feet
Grope down a narrow
gorge and call it life.
One has not really
begun to live until he begins to look, not at the things which are seen, but at
the things which are not seen, for these alone are the things that last
forever. What is the practical value Paul gained by focusing is eyes on the
invisible? In verse 16 we see that Paul’s awareness of the reality and value of
the unseen made him an optimist in spite of the discouraging circumstances he
faced. We faint not; we do not lose heart, and we never give up says Paul, even
though our bodies are weary and our health is broken. Out outer man is
perishing, but our inner man is being renewed every day. It was his vision of
the invisible that kept him pressing on even unto death in the service of his
Lord.
the eyes of flesh see
the cross it is all negative and awful, but to the eye of faith it was a
glorious act of love that brought more joy into the world than any other act in
history. Jesus saw the end results of the cross and that is why he could endure
it. It was the joy of all eternity that kept him on the cross. The invisible
kept him there where the visible was all seeming evil to be avoided. Seeing the
invisible was the key to our salvation. We all need this vision to endure the
sufferings of this world. Paul’s body was heading down hill and he had many
problems. He knew his physical body was decaying and wasting away, but he saw
beyond the body to the eternal soul that would be with his Lord forever, and
this gave him the energy and the joy to press on.
If we look only on the
level of the visible we can get discouraged by this world of suffering. We need
to look through it to the greater world of the invisible. You do not buy a
telescope to look at, but to look through to what is greater than it is. So
also when we come to the Lord’s table we do not look just at it, but through it
to the invisible behind it. The eye of flesh sees only the broken bread and
juice. But the eye of faith sees the invisible values which are represented by
these elements. It sees the sacrifice they represent and the offer of
forgiveness they represent. It sees them as the gift of God that can give us
assurance of eternal life. They are symbols of what is not visible. It is like
the flag. We cannot hang up a picture of patriotism, for it is an unseen value.
But we can put up a flag that is a visible symbol of that unseen love of
country. So these symbols are visible signs of invisible values that are of
infinite worth. They are trivial amounts of matter, but they represent what
most matters for all of eternity. They enable us to see the invisible love of
God which is beyond all understanding. These elements are not much to see, but
if you see the invisible they represent you are seeing the highest values in
this universe.
Jesus was the master
of seeing the unseen. It was not just on the cross, but in every day life that
he saw what others did not see. He did not just see the measly widow’s mite. He
saw a heart of gold in the widow. He saw a woman being guided by love for the
glory of God. What others were seeing was not worth a mention, for it was what
we would say, "mere chicken feed." Jesus was seeing what was beautiful
while others saw what was pitiful. He was seeing the invisible forces that
motives people all the time. It was his ability to see the invisible that made
him unique among men.
Men who do unusual
things are men who have a vision that others do not see. They see possibilities
that others cannot see. Columbus was highly honored in Spain for his discovery
of the new world. There was much jealousy, and many were saying he had done
nothing they could not have done. He knew their thinking and took an egg from
the dish and challenged them to stand it on end. None could do it, but he took
it and broke off one end and it stood easily. They cried out that they could
have done that. He replied, "Yes, if the thought had struck you. And if
the thought had struck you, you could have discovered the new world, but it was
I who had the vision." Swift said, "Vision is the art of seeing
things invisible."
Sakormoto was an old
Japanese farmer who lived in a small hut on top of a hill behind a little
fishing village on the bay. He was known and loved by all in the village, and
people would often climb the hill to talk with him. One day the water in the
bay suddenly retreated and fish were flopping in the mud. Everybody came
running to pick up the fish in baskets. Up on the hilltop Sakormoto saw what
had happened and he was alarmed. He had seen this happen once before as a child
and knew that an earthquake had caused it, and that soon a tidal wave would
soon return. He had no time to run and warn them and so he set his house on
fire. When the people saw it they all ran up the hill to save his home. When
they got there he was just watching it burn. He told them to never mind, but to
look down on the bay. They all looked and saw a tidal wave come it and destroy
their whole village in a moment. They lost all, but their lives were save by
the old man’s sacrifice. Jesus did the same for us. He saw we would all be
swept into hell by the forces of evil, but he gave us the hill of Calvary to
look to and flee to in order to escape those forces, and instead have the right
to enter the kingdom of God. May God help us to see beyond the visible and gain
the values he wants us to have by seeing the invisible.
8.
THE SECOND BODY BASED ON II COR. 5:1-10
Most of us could tell
true stories of our forgetfulness that allowed us to put a book, a casserole,
or some other object on the top of our car, and then get in and drive off. Some
of these stories will have sadder endings than others, but it is not likely any
of our stories could match that of Paula Horowitz of Amherst, Mass. The object
she absentmindedly placed on the top of her car was a $31,000 violin that was
thirty years older than the United States of America.
The Springfield
Symphony Orchestra had loaned this valuable instrument to her son Jason, who
was the concert master for the local youth symphony. She put it on the top of
her car and drove off, and where the violin landed nobody knows. Police say
witnesses reported seeing and empty violin case by the road, but no violin. The
woman said, "In one minute's carelessness I feel like my life has been
destroyed." She groaned in grief for her loss.
That is rare to bear
such a burden because of the loss of a musical instrument, but all of us at
sometime will have to groan in grief because of the loss of the instrument
called the body. The body is a wonderful thing, but it can also be a pain and a
burden. There are those who teach that Christians should not have bodily pains
and problems, but should always be in a state of ideal health. All of us could
wish this was true, but the facts are, and the Bible makes it abundantly clear,
our bodies are a part of a fallen world, and they lead to groaning.
Paul in verse 2 and 4
says we groan in this present body. The Greek word he uses here twice is stenazo.
This is the primary New Testament word for groaning and sighing because of
life's burdens. Someone said, "the optimist says this is the best of all
possible worlds, and the pessimist believes it. "Paul was one of the
greatest optimist of history, but he never believed this was the best of all
possible worlds. It is a lost and fallen world, and in Rom. 8:22-26 Paul uses
the word groan three times. In verse 22 he writes, "We know that the whole
creation has been groaning as in the pains of child birth...." In verse 23
he writes, "Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of
the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies."
Paul is making it
clear that we live in a fallen world and our bodies are subject to all sorts of
sufferings. The only was to escape is to get out of this body into a new body
which is not subject to all the burdens of a fallen world. Anyone who promises
you a life in this earthly body without burdens is offering you something that
God has never offered. In verse 26 of Romans 8 Paul even says that the Holy
Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. Even God enters
into the burdens of this fallen world.
We see it especially
in the groans of Jesus. It was a messed up world that Jesus came to. That is
why He came. It is the sick who need the doctor, and this is a sick world. But
Jesus also got sick of the folly of man, and he sighed under the burden of it.
In Mark 8, right after Jesus fed the 4,000, one of His greatest miracles, the
Pharisees came to Him and asked Him for a sign from heaven. There blindness was
more than He could tolerate. Jesus knew what frustration was all about, and in
verse 12 it says, "He sighed deeply and said, why does this generation ask
for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given it."
And Jesus left there. Don't let anybody tell you that a good Christian should
never be frustrated with this fallen world. If it was a pain and a burden to
Jesus, it is folly to expect to live without groaning.
We also see a positive
side of His groaning. It is usually a negative response to the negatives of a
fallen world. But it can be a sympathetic sighing. We see this in Mark 7:34. A
man who was deaf and who could hardly talk was brought to Jesus. It was a sad
sight to see a man made in the image of God in so pathetic body. It was not the
work of art He created. It was totally defective and flawed. Jesus was moved
with compassion, and verse 34 says, "He looked up to heaven and with a
deep sigh (this is the same Greek word stenazo) He said to him "be
opened" and the man was healed.
There are whole
sermons preached on this sigh of sympathy, and we could spend the rest of our
message on it, but for now, I am just trying to establish beyond a doubt what
we already know. This is not the best of all possible worlds. It is a fallen
world where much in it is not the will of God. Jesus felt the burden of it with
bodies having lips that could not praise the Creator; with eyes that could not
see the wonders of His creation; with ears that could not hear the good news of
His love. Jesus hated what sin had done to this world and to man, that is why
He came to die, so that sin might not have the final word, and that man might
have the chance to live in a sin free body in a sin free environment.
While Jesus was here
in the flesh He, like Paul, felt the burdens of the body with its weakness,
defects, and handicaps. When Paul groaned about his body he was in good
company, for Jesus did it as well. Those who pretend that this tent can be
patched up permanently and never wear out are trying to create their own
paradise on earth. But it is a foolish paradise. The wise Christian will do his
best to keep his body in shape, but he will not make this flimsy tent the
foundation of his hope. Those who do are facing inevitable disillusionment, for
there are no earthly tents that do not tear and force their tenants to
evacuate.
Christians should aim
for a life of good exercise, good diet, and a healthy life-style, but they
should also recognize that these things are used as a humanist escape from the
reality of aging and death. The Christian has to face up to the reality that
nothing man can do can make this fallen world the paradise that only God can make.
Everything made by man
is doomed. Only the God-made body, and the God-redeemed world can be the focus
of the Christian hope. That is why Paul groaned and longed to be clothed with
the heavenly body God had for him. He could have said with the poet Frederick
Knowles-
This body is my
house-it is not I.
Here in I sojourn
till, in some far sky,
I lease a fairer
dwelling, built to last
Till all the carpentry
of time is past.
This body is my
house-it is not I.
Triumphant in this
faith I live, and die.
The Christian is not
an either-or person: Either a pessimist or an optimist, but a both-and person.
He is both a pessimist and an optimist. When he looks at this fallen world and
these tent-like bodies, he is a pessimist about any man-made scheme to develop
immortality. The hopes of cryonics to freeze people until they find the cure
for the disease that killed them, and then bring them back to life, is the
world's version of the health and wealth gospel that pretends this world can be
the best of all possible worlds. The Christian is skeptical about all attempts
to make this fallen world a paradise. But he is optimist about the God-made
body he will enter as soon as he leaves this tent body of time.
Paul says that when we
are clothed with that heavenly dwelling the mortal will be swallowed up by
life. As soon as we die we begin to live as never before. This tent we dwell in
now is a hindrance to life. We cling to it because it is all we know of life,
but it is only when we leave this body that we really live. The abundant life
is possible on a temporary basis even in this tent, but for permanent and
persistent living of the good life we need the body not built by human hands.
The question is, when
do we get this heavenly body so we can get on with the joy of abundant living
where all groaning is gone? This was the hope of the Old Testament saints: And
environment of joy where sighing will be no more. In Isa. 51:11 we read of this
hope- "The ransom of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing:
Everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away." This has ever been the hope of
God's people. When does this kind of life begin?
If we say, as many
Christians do, at the resurrection when Christ comes again, we are
unconsciously creating a Protestant purgatory. The Christians who hold to this
idea of a disembodied state until the resurrection do not intend to create a
purgatory, but that is what they do. For if Paul groaned longing to be clothed
with the heavenly dwelling, and he still does not have that dwelling, and
neither do any of the dead in Christ, then they are left to groan and sigh, and
wait until the resurrection.
This is a rather grim
picture of the intermediate state, and makes it a major disadvantage to die
before the rapture. Paul's whole point in writing to the Thessalonians is to
make it clear it is not a disadvantage to die before the rapture, for the dead
in Christ will be the first to be raised, and they will come with Christ in His
second coming. But if they have been in a disembodied state for centuries, that
does not sound like the ideal. Patience would need to be the basic virtue for
those who died before the rapture, for they are going to have to wait for who
knows how long to put on their heavenly bodies. Paul and other New Testament
Christians have been waiting for nearly 2,000 years, and this seems to be a
very inefficient plan that makes early Christians suffer a purgatory that the
last Christians do not have to endure. The whole idea of the dead in Christ
having to wait for centuries to enter into the heavenly body is absurd the more
you think about it.
On the other hand, the
more you think about what Paul is saying here, the more logical it becomes that
we enter the God made body as soon as we leave this one. The Biblical evidence
for this is abundant. Consider first of all the major issue of the book of
Hebrews which is that the man made earthly tabernacle was a copy of the
heavenly tabernacle. In other words, we have a parallel here with the man made
tent and the heavenly dwelling. In Heb. 9:11 we read, "When Christ came as
high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the
greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a
part of this creation." This perfect heavenly tabernacle existed before
the earthly one and was a model for it. Heb. 8:2 says that Jesus "serves
in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man."
All that was done on earth
in the temporary tent of the tabernacle was a mere shadow of the real and
eternal event of the offering of the Lamb of God in the sanctuary of heaven.
Heb. 9:24 says, "For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was
only a copy of the true one: he entered heaven itself." The parallel is
that our earthly tent, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, is also just a
copy and mere shadow of the original and God-made body in heaven. The temple on
earth was destroyed, but the temple in heaven is not touched, and Jesus as our
high priest goes on ministering and interceding for us. The God-made temple is
a present reality even if its man-made copy is long gone and non-existent. You
can see the parallel with the present body as a tent, and the heavenly habitation
not made with hands. This intermediate state body is a present reality, and not
something the dead in Christ have to wait for until the resurrection.
The resurrection body
is clearly distinct from this present heavenly body. In I Cor. 15 Paul writes
much about the resurrection body. It is clearly linked to this present body. He
writes in verses 42-44, "The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised
imperishable, it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power, it is sown a natural body it is raised a
spiritual body." The resurrection body is our present tent-like body
glorified and made everything it is not now. It comes out of the grave, but it
began its existence on earth. The body he is writing of in our text has its
beginning in heaven. It is not raised up, but is God-made from scratch.
The body Paul is
writing about here in II Cor. 5 is a heavenly dwelling that has no connection
whatever with out present tent. It is a body we now have ready to enter when we
move out of this tent. Every reference we have of a created being in heaven has
a body. When Moses and Elijah appeared on the Mt. of Transfiguration they had
clearing identified bodies. These are not their final resurrection bodies, but
bodies God made for them for these many centuries of heavenly dwelling. Enoch
was taken into heaven without dying, and it is a logical assumption that his
body was transformed so that he has been in a body all these centuries. If not,
it is certainly no advantage to get to heaven before the resurrection. But Paul
says it is in Phil 1:21:
"For me to live
is Christ and to die is gain." And in verse 23 he writes, "I desire
to depart and be with Christ which is far better." Paul knew he would not
be a naked soul waiting in anxiety for the day of resurrection.
He also had the
promise of Christ which he gave to His disciples, and then to all the children
of God in John 14:1-3: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God,
trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I
would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that
you also may be where I am." This is a very exciting and comforting
passage unless you push the fulfillment off to the day of resurrection, and
fail to see it is the very thing Paul is writing about-the intermediate state.
The room, or mansion
as the King James Version has it, is this very heavenly dwelling Paul is referring
to in II Cor. 5. If you push this off to the second coming, you have made it an
issue that greatly troubles the heart rather than relieves it of trouble as
Jesus intended. If Jesus is not going to have these rooms ready in the Father's
house until the resurrection, then Jesus has lost something radical in His new
body. He created the whole universe in six days, and now He has spent nearly
2,000 years and does not even yet have these rooms ready for His disciples.
That does not sound like the Carpenter we see in the New Testament. He said,
" All power in heaven and on earth is given unto me." Jesus does not
need to labor for centuries to get ready. It is only logical to assume that
these rooms in God's house are ready now for all who entered heaven. To think
there is a lack of housing in heaven, and that anyone has to wait for centuries
is totally inconsistent with the nature and power of Christ.
Jesus knew all of His
disciples would be dead in a matter of a few decades. His promise was not that
someday at the end of history they would be with Him in the Father's house, but
that they would be with Him soon. The thief was there the day Christ died. It
is nonsense to think that the disciples were not there the day they died. If
this is not so the disciples had more need for comfort than they could ever
dream, for they have been homeless for 20 centuries, and are not even yet in
the Father's house, if this only takes place at the resurrection of the body.
The obvious truth is
Jesus had these places ready before any of disciples died, and each of them as
they died did just what Paul expected to do. They left their tent and entered
their home in heaven not made with hands. The alternative is too ridiculous to
think of, for it would mean Jesus has been a prodigal carpenter roaming all
over heaven neglecting this project, and leaving the disciples waiting
somewhere in a homeless state-disembodied, and not yet in the Father's house.
You are free to choose which you think is reality, but I choose to go with Paul
and believe the house in heaven is ready now for all who die in Christ.
Again, let me remind
you, this glorious hope of an immediate heavenly dwelling does not undermine
the significance of the final resurrection body. The first two bodies of man
have their limitations. The one we are in now is very limited, and we
experience so little of the spiritual realm. Paul even says to be at home in
this body is to be away from the Lord. It is a severe limitation to be in this
body of flesh. In the body we get when we die we will experience the glory of
being with Christ and all the joys of heaven, but we will then be limited in
what we can experience of the physical creation. God let Moses and Elijah come
back into time to experience some of physical life again, but this was a rare
exception. None of the New Testament Christians ever got that opportunity. That
is why the final resurrection body is still the hope of all God's people. Man
is not complete until he can enjoy all that God's has made both physical and
spiritual.
The whole point of the
new heaven and the new earth is that in our final resurrection body we will be
able to enjoy a new earth. The saints in the intermediate state have a
foretaste of heaven, but they do not have it all, for they cannot now enjoy the
new earth. That will be a spectacular example of the creative power of God. We
will be able to experience what life would have been like in an eternal Eden
with no sin. The intermediate state is marvelous beyond our comprehension, but
the best is yet to come when that heavenly body and our earthly body are united
in an eternal combination that makes us fit to enjoy the best of both
worlds-heaven and earth. Our first body can enjoy earth, and our second body
can enjoy heaven, but our third and final body will enjoy both forever and
ever. Calvin called the intermediate state body the commencement of the
building to be completed at the resurrection.
Without a body there
is no enjoyment of any kind for man. The idea of being disembodied is not new.
The pagan world had this view of the intermediate state long before the New
Testament. If we go back to Homer in about 1900B.C., we get a picture of just
how comforting the intermediate state is if you believe it is a disembodied
state. Odysseus has three encounters with the dead in Hades while he is yet
alive. The first is with his mother. He described the experience-
"Longing filled
my heart to clasp the shade of my dead mother.
Three times my heart
drove me to make the attempt. Three
times she slipped from
my hands like a shadow or a dream.
Bitter distress grew
even greater in my mind, and I cried out:
My mother, why won't
you stay when I try to embrace you?
Even in Hades surely
we can throw our arms around each other
and weep to our hearts
content. Can it be this is some phantom
sent by the Queen of
the Dead to torment me?
Alas, my child ,
replied my dear mother..... This is what death
is like for all
men.....There is no strength left in flesh and bones,
they have been
destroyed in the blazing funeral pyre, and
ever since life left
the whitened bones, the spirit has fluttered
and flitted
about."
The interesting thing
here is that Homer could conceive of a better way. He could see that having a
body that could be felt, and which could still be a means of contact and
expressing of love would be wonderful, but he had no idea how this could be
once the body was destroyed. He had no revelation as we have about a body ready
and waiting, and one that loved ones could embrace.
If the idea of a disembodied
state is true, then Christians have nothing to offer the world that they did
not already have in paganism. This is one of the most powerful arguments for
the reality of the intermediate body. It makes Christianity unique, and makes
the after life so much more a paradise then what you find in the Old Testament
or in pagan literature.
There are incidental
arguments for the intermediate body that are based on the symbolism of
revelation. The dead in Christ, who are the saints of heaven, where robes of
white. A strange garment for a disembodied soul. I have never seen a
disembodied soul but I suspect it would be hard to keep a robe on without a
body. This is being silly, but on purpose so as to emphasize the necessity for
the intermediate state body. Equally absurd is the picture of the saints
playing on their harps. I've never tried it, but I'm sure it is no snap even
with fingers. Take these and the rest of the body away and you really have a
challenge. For a disembodied spirit, the harmonica seems more appropriate, or
one of the woodwinds. But enough of nonsense. The point is, a body is necessary
to make sense out of the intermediate state.
There are no
disembodied beings in heaven. Even the angels are in bodies. Revelation 7:11
pictures this clearly. "All the angels were standing around the throne and
around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces
before the throne and worshipped God." It you can tell me how an angel can
stand and also fall on his face without having legs and a face, then I will
consider the idea of disembodied angels, but I suspect nobody has any such
explanation. Bodiless beings are just not a part of any picture we have.
Why would any
Christian hold to a disembodied state? It was the result of an over reaction to
the theologians who said the resurrection of the body is not necessary. We get
a body after we die and are with Christ, and so the resurrection at the end of
history is not needed. This led to strong reaction of those who exalted the
resurrection at the last day. They rejected the idea of a body immediately
after death. Christians are always doing this: Taking part of the truth and
rejecting the other part when the solution is to see that both sides are true.
Both the intermediate state body and the resurrection body are valid truths.
The Christian hope is based on the reality of both of these bodies, for there
is no time in the plan of God when His children will be without a body.
9.
A HEAVENLY HABITATION BASED ON II COR. 5:1-10
Carl Sagen is one of
the leading minds in our world in the realm of astronomy. He has played a major
role in the space expeditions to the planets. He is responsible for a record
which was on board the Voyager's one and two. It is now wondering between the
stars, and it will tell any aliens who intercept the space craft about earth. I
was impressed in reading his book Broca's Brain to find him in a very subtle
way giving thanks to God for the kind of universe He has given us. He writes,
"For myself, I like a universe that includes much that is unknown, and at
the same time much that is knowable. A universe in which everything is known
would be static and dull--a universe that is unknowable is no fit place for a
thinking being. The ideal universe for us is very much like the universe we
inhabit. And I would guess that this is not really much of a coincidence."
He is saying, God
gives us plenty, but keeps plenty hidden also, so we have the joy of endless
discovery. This is true also for the unseen realm called the intermediate
state. What happens to us between the death of our body and the resurrection of
our body? This period is called the intermediate state. God has revealed some
fascinating facts about it, but has also concealed so much that it is a mystery
that makes men curious, and sends them searching the Bible for every hint that
opens up some light on the subject.
Here in II Cor. 5 Paul
tells us some very interesting things about the intermediate state. It seems
strange that Paul wrote more about heaven to the earthy and sensual
materialists of Corinth than to anyone else. Paul knew that the only way to get
people to overcome their earthiness was to get them to set their affections on
things above. Heavenly minded people do more to change the earth for the better
than those who affections are only earth centered.
John Wesley proved
this in eighteenth century England. You think we live in a decaying society
now, but the books and plays of that day were so immoral, and language so foul,
they would be considered offensive even in our day of declining morality.
Prostitution was sky high, and the way they had of disposing of the fruit of
their sin was even worse than the abortion scandal of our time. They just gave
birth to their babies and then let them die. 74.5% of the babies in 18th
century England died before the age of five. The rich brought their way out of
every sin and crime, and the poor were hung at a rate of 10 to 15 a day for 160
different offenses. The church did nothing for it too was corrupt.
Then came Wesley, a
man with heaven on his mind. He preached it and taught it, and people began to
change their ways. Justice and morality were restored. Babies started to live
again, and the death rate fell from 74.5 to 31.8%. People's health began to
improve, more flowers were planted, and the whole earthly scene was changed,
because people were challenged to become heavenly minded. The prayer, Thy will
be done as it is in heaven, can only be answered when people know more about
heaven. It is not possible to be so heavenly minded you are no earthly good,
for if you really are heavenly minded you will do earth a lot of good.
It is important that
we know all we can about heaven, for it becomes a key factor in what we do on
earth. This was certainly the case with Paul. Note, first of all--
I. PAUL'S ASSURANCE.
Paul begins this
chapter, "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we
have a building from God, and eternal house in heaven, not built by human
hands." Paul was fully assured that the death of his body was a loss of a
tent and a gain of a building. It is not much of a threat to tell the homeless,
I will destroy your tent, if by so doing you made them eligible to live in a
mansion. No wonder Paul was not afraid to die, for he said it was far better to
die and be with the Lord. Paul knew he had a better body awaiting him.
This body of time is
but our temporary dwelling, and Paul calls it a tent. It is as if this life was
but a nomad journey, but our body, after we die, is a permanent residence,
where we settle down for good. Paul was a great pioneer. He lived in tents
often as he traveled the world, but no man wants to do this forever. Even Paul
longed for the day he could settle down and have a permanent address he could
call home. He knew this was what God had waiting for him when his tent was no
longer fit to house his spirit.
Paul was not putting
his body down by calling it a tent. He was just emphasizing that by comparison
his earthy body was no big deal in light of the body God had made for him in
heaven. The comparison is between a tent and a building. Take your pick, Paul
would say in our day-a night in the campground or a night at the Ramada Inn.
This life is roughing it. The life to come is luxury at its best. Having this
kind of assurance makes it easier to face death, and to except the death of
loved ones. It is better than trading in your tent for a pop up camper, or even
a luxury hard top, or motor home. It is trading in your tent for your own
permanent Holiday Inn. Paul was not frightened by that kind of trade, but
looked forward to it with anticipation.
Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him I
roam,
Yet nightly pitch my
moving tent
A day's march nearer
home.
It is surprising how many
of God's people have lived in literal tents. All of the great people of God for
centuries lived in tents. There are many references to this in the Old
Testament. In Heb. 11:9-10 we read of Abraham, "By faith he made his home
in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents,
as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was
looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is
God."
This life has been,
for most of God's people, a tent life. It has been temporary, and not settled
and secure. They have always looked for their security to the place God has
built for their permanent residence. It has been called the city, the mansion,
the house, the building, the room, or the body. God has built them all for His
people, and designed them to fit the personally and uniqueness of each of His
children. In the light of this assurance, the presence body is seen as
tent-life. John Oxenham wrote-
Fold up the tent! The
sun is in the West
This house was only
lent
For my apprenticement
And God knows best.
Fold up the tent!
It's slack ropes all
undone.
It's pole all broken,
and it's canvas rent,
It's work is done.
Paul made tents, and
slept in them for many a night. He knew it was not the top of the line
dwelling. He did not fear that men would destroy his body, for that would only
propel him into the building God had waiting to house him, and he knew it would
be far better. This robs death of its sting, when you have this kind of
assurance. If I see my house burning down, I will not be devastated if I have
been assured I can immediately move into a mansion prepared for just such an
emergency. Loss of something is not so tragic if the loss is more than
compensated for by what is superior to the loss. If I loss a hundred dollars,
but am given a thousand dollars to compensate, I will not morn the hundred
dollar loss. That is how Paul saw death, and, the thus, he was facing it with
assurance rather than anxiety.
Paul would have loved
the story of the three pigs, for it illustrates his faith. The wolf, like
Satan, can huff and puff and blow our weak house down, but that is not our last
resort. The brick house awaits us, which is beyond his strength. It was this
assurance that enabled Paul to close chapter four of this epistle with these
words of encouragement, "Therefore we do not loss heart. Though outwardly
we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our
light momentary troubles are achieving for us and 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."
Paul was full of assurance, but he was no Pollyanna. He faced the reality of
troubles in his earthly tent, which was wasting away, and this lead us to look
at--
II. PAUL'S ASSUMPTION.
He says, if the
earthly tent we live in is destroyed, and thereby assumes that Christians can
and will die, and their bodies be destroyed. Paul did not assume that all
Christians would escape death and be raptured into heaven without enduring this
negative detour. I have known many Christians who hoped to live till the
rapture, but they did not. It is a legitimate hope, but it also wise to assume
that you will die, and that your body will be destroyed in one way or another.
The Christians who gets too attached to his body will tend to fear death more.
After all, when you live in one place for 40 or 50 years, you tend to become
attached to it and get offended by the very thought of being evicted.
It is healthy to
assume that this old house will one day be unfit for habitation, and therefore,
I must give thought to my second home, which is a heavenly habitation. Not
everybody can afford a second home by the lake, but every Christian has a
second home already, by the river of life, where the winters of this world are
gone forever, and there is everlasting summer. All death can do is make you
move out of your tent into your summer home. Paul's assumption is that the
body, our present tent, can be utterly destroyed, and it has no relevance to
our being in the new place God has built. In other words, we do not have to
worry about the fate of our bodies, as if that had any bearing on our destiny
in heaven.
I have to admit that
cremation of the body has given me strange feelings, and the thought of my
godly aunt being cut up in a lab so a medical student can learn about the body
has given me shivers, but the fact is, this text makes it clear that the
destruction of the body does not in any way affect a believer's entrance into
his heavenly home. The body can be buried and turn to dust, or burned and
turned to dust or blown to dust in an explosion. That does not make any
difference in terms of our eternal destiny. The Greek word that Paul uses here
for the tent being destroyed is used nine other places, and five of them refer
to the destruction of the temple, which was total, with not one stone left upon
another. The temple ceased to exist, and so does our body.
The fate of ones body
does not hinder the destiny of the soul and the new body. The thief on the
cross was promised he'd be in paradise that very day. His body was likely
thrown into the city dump and burned. Christians have been burned, fed to lions
and other creatures, and have had their bodies blown to pieces, and in other
ways destroyed. None of this matters, for the building God has prepared for us
to dwell in does not depend on the tent we dwell in now being whole and
undamaged. If this was the case, Christians would have followed the old
Egyptian practice of mummification of the body to preserve it. Christians are
not anti-body, and they do not encourage disrespect of the tent we now inhabit,
but neither do they feel that its destruction is any detriment to their destiny
in the new body God has waiting for them. The third thing we want to consider
is--
III. PAUL'S
ANNOUNCEMENT.
Paul announces to the
Corinthians the good news that they do not need to fear that death in robbing
them of their body will leave them as naked spirits. We do not enter at death
into some vague disembodied state. Paul announces that we have a building from
God, and eternal house in heaven. At no time is a Christian like the
disembodied demons who look for a body to inhabit, even a herd of pigs if
necessary. A legion will inhabit one human body if they can, for they have no
body of their own. God made man to be a body oriented being, and so even after
the death of their physical body they are immediately endowed with an after
death body. No where is there a picture of a human being who is
disembodied--that is a spirit without a body. It is inhuman to be a spirit
without a body. That is to be a ghost.
In Luke 16 we see even
the rich man in hell with a body. He had eyes to look up and see Abraham, and
he had a tongue he longed to have cooled. The lost as well as the saved have
after death bodies. A human being is not a human being without a body. There
are some theologians who do not like to admit this is so because it seems to
them to detract from the resurrection of the body. If we already have one right
after we die, what is the big deal about the great resurrection at the second
coming of Christ? The big deal is that only then will be complete as Jesus is
complete. Jesus is an eternal man with His human body raised up to be combined
with His God made body. This makes Him the only complete man in the universe
right now. No one else will be complete until the great resurrection of all
God's people.
When Jesus died, His
body was buried, and He took on His eternal spiritual body. When He rose from
the dead His spiritual body entered into His body of flesh and transformed it
into the final body that was both earthly and heavenly. He could eat, talk, and
the nail holes in His hands could be touched. He was physical, and yet He could
go through walls, disappear, and change His appearance so He was not
recognized. He was both physical and spiritual. This is the ultimate body, and
we will only be fully like Jesus when we too are raised up in our earthly
bodies to be combined with our heavenly body.
Meanwhile the saints
in heaven do not float about like a vapor with no body. When Moses and Elijah
appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, they were not spirits only, but
bodies that could be recognized and identified. Every picture we have in the
Bible of a person in the intermediate state has a body. When Christ comes
again, all the dead in Christ will come with Him, and be reunited with their
earthly bodies. Those who are alive will be instantly transfigured so that
their earthly and heavenly bodies become one. Then, and only then, will all the
redeemed be like their Lord.
Paul's point in his
announcement is, do not fear the loss of your tent, for you are not left naked,
but are immediately given a new and greater body as a heavenly habitation. Do
not fear death, for those who have this new body will come with Jesus, and play
an active role in the resurrection. Those alive at the second coming will be
spectators as they are changed in a twinkling of an eye. But those in the intermediate
state will be in on the whole thing, and have a far more exciting adventure.
Many Christians feel it is to be a great honor to be alive at the second
coming, but, the fact is, it is a greater honor to be among those who come with
Christ. Do not feel bad for Christians who have died, for they are the first to
get their complete and eternal body.
This complete body
will be able to, like Jesus in His complete body, travel between heaven and
earth, and manifest its earthly identity so that for all eternity Christians
will be able to link themselves to their earthly identity, and be known by all
who knew them in history. But just as Jesus took on another identity in His
resurrection body, so we will be able to do likewise. This is only speculation,
but it is a logical conclusion that we will be able to look like we want to
look. After all, God and His holy angels are beautiful, and all heaven and
earth will be beautiful. It is a logical assumption that all the redeemed will
also be beautiful as the eternal bride of the Redeemer.
Until that glorious
consummation of the union of the resurrection body and the spiritual body, the
Christian is not waiting naked for history to end, so he can get back into a
body. This would be a worse fate than soul sleep between death and the
resurrection. If you were not conscious, you would not care that you had no
body,but to be conscious and have no body would make the intermediate state a
sort of purgatory where you wait in torment to be clothed.
There are many
Christians who think this is the case, but it makes a mockery out of Christ's
promise to the thief that he would be with Him in paradise that very day. What
a false encouragement if that thief is still waiting to be clothed with a body
to replace his earthly body. Paradise loses its appeal if for 2,000 years that
thief has been there as a naked disembodied spirit, longing like the demons in
legion for a body to possess. Christians who believe there is no body after
death, until the resurrection, have robbed Christians of the very comfort and
encouragement Paul was offering the Corinthians in this announcement.
The whole point of
Paul's teaching is, we are never without a body. We have an earthly body, and
when we move out of it, we have an intermediate body, and at the resurrection
we get an eternal body which is the perfected combination of the other two. The
intermediate body is no mere shack. It is eternal, and is a building God has
made for us. Death will take us from a tent to a temple, from a cottage to a
castle. Paul makes a point of stressing this house in heaven is not made by
human hands. It is not man made, but God made, which means it is a special
creation of God.
We do not know of any
body that is not man made. Made by man is the mark on every body we have ever
seen. This body which is not man made is a mystery to us, and we have to take
it by faith. It sure solves a lot of problems that theologians have about the
resurrection body. People wonder about all sorts of problems with bodies
scattered as ashes, or at sea, eaten by sea creatures, or even buried and being
taken up into the plant world. How is God going to get it all together for a
resurrection. If God can make a body for us that is ideal and glorious, and
permanent, without one molecule of our earthly body, I don't think we have to
worry about God's ability to raise up the physical body.
This passage makes it
clear, we do not have to worry about anything concerning our after death
experience, for our heavenly habitation will be far superior, and so death will
be gain and not loss. These marvelous bodies that boggle the minds of
scientists, as they study their complexity, are mere child's play compared to
what we will dwell in the moment we fold up this tattered tent, and enter our
permanent palace. In a very real sense, nothing of who we are is ever lost, and
it will be a part of our eternal being. We all follow the three fold pattern of
Jesus. His first body was the physical body which began at conception. That is
where we all begin. It is a temporary tabernacle, but part of it will be a part
of us forever, just as the body of Jesus is a part of His eternal being.
The second body of
Jesus is the one He had in His intermediate state, when He left His body of
flesh on the cross, which He entered again on Easter morning in His
resurrection. This is our second body as well. The one we have after we die,
and until we are raised again at the resurrection. The third body of Jesus was
His resurrection body, which was the combination of the heavenly and the
earthly. This is our final body as well. Of these three bodies, the most
mysterious is the middle one--the intermediate state body. Millions of
Christians believe in the reality of this body, but millions of others do not.
They are convinced of all sorts of other ideas about the intermediate state.
For example--
1. Many believe in
soul sleep. The soul does not need a body after death because it goes into a
state of unconsciousness, and has no need for a body until the resurrection.
The Anabaptist held to this view, and some Baptists do to this day. A number of
the cults also follow this view.
2. The most wide
spread idea is that after death the believer is in a disembodied state until
the resurrection. In other words, there are only two bodies of man-the now body
which is temporary, and the resurrection body which is forever. There is no
middle body at all. The problem with this popular view is that it ignores the
enormous amount of evidence that man is never naked, but always clothed with
the body. We will consider this evidence in another message. Let me close this
message by going back to our first point which was Paul's assurance. Paul says
if our earthly tent is destroyed, we have a building from God. Note his present
tense which says, "We have." This building is not something we will
have at the resurrection. It is a building we have now. If not so, Paul is
still waiting to enter what he thought he had, for the resurrection has not yet
happened. He groaned, longing to be clothed with his heavenly dwelling. If this
does not happen until the resurrection, Paul is still groaning after nearly
2,000 years. If this be so, it is a rejection of his whole point in comforting
the Corinthians. We will examine this in another message, for I have a great
deal of evidence to support the conviction that Paul expected to slip out of
his tent, and not be naked for 2,000 years, but enter immediately into his
heavenly habitation.
10.
THE BRIDGE OF RECONCILIATION Based on II Cor. 5:27-21
One of the 7 wonders
of the natural world is the famous Natural Bridge of Virginia. Tons of solid
rock form a bridge over a creek 215 feet below. This massive masterpiece of
God's bridge-building skill has caused many to stand in awe and recognize that,
not only the heavens, but the earth as well, declares the glory of God. Fifty
feet thick, 100 feet wide, and 190 feet long, this bridge of nature was called
by John Marshall, "God's greatest miracle in stone." French engineers
visited the bridge during the Revolutionary War, and they called it the work of
the Creator. One said, "It is the most wonderful thing I have ever seen.
When you see it you seem to hear the angels sing." I've only seen it in
pictures, but a woman who had seen it told me that it made her feel near heaven.
We want to consider in
this message one of God's bridges that can not only make us feel near heaven,
but can actually lead us to heaven. It is a bridge so magnificently marvelous
that it cannot be ranked as one of the 7 wonders of the world, or even of the
universe, for there are not 6 more of anything that can fit into its category.
It is so infinitely superior to all of God's other works that it must stand
alone as the Wonder Of Wonders.
There is a bridge that
spans all space,
Unseen by our eyes.
A bridge that leads
from everywhere
To God's throne in the
skies.
This bridge of
bridges, though unseen, is the very essence of reality for the Christian. It is
symbolized by the cross, and can be called the bridge of reconciliation. Man
spends a great deal to build bridges in order to save time. The Lackawana
Railroad Co. built a 12 million dollar bridge to save 20 minutes between New
York and Buffalo. God's bridge of reconciliation, however, was so costly that
astronomical figures could not measure it. It was an infinite cost, for its
purpose was not just to save time, but to save eternity for those travelling
through this world to the next.
We could never have
guessed what price God would pay to build such a bridge had He not revealed it.
Even then it seems unbelievable, for the cost was the cross of His Son. It
seems a strange way to build a bridge, but it was the only way to build the
bridge of reconciliation. This bridge would enable sinful man to approach God
without fear and trembling, but in faith and trust.
A young actress in
Hollywood approached a pastor and said, "Pastor, I've heard you say again
and again that Jesus died, and that because He died, our sins are forgiven.
What I don't get is what's the connection?" Her confusion is typical of
man's understanding of the Gospel in the modern day. When the modern biblically
illiterate American sees a sign saying "Jesus saves," he may very
well think it is an ad by the banks to get people to open more savings
accounts. Masses of people do not understand even the basic principles of
Christianity. In part it is due to the fact that Christians themselves are not
able to explain clearly what Scripture teaches.
Our aim in this
message is to make the doctrine of reconciliation clear enough for the sinner
to experience, and simple enough for the saint to explain. The whole Gospel is
wrapped up in this word reconciliation. The ability to explain it will be a
great asset in making us useful servants in the ministry of reconciliation. The
word means to unite; to bring back to harmony, and to cause to be friendly
again those who have fallen out. Reconciliation is what happens when a husband
and wife have been fighting, and something causes them to cease the strife, and
become friends again. This is known as kissing and making up. Whatever causes
them to do so is a bridge of reconciliation. It opened the way for them to
approach each other across the chasm they had dug between them. The bridge of
reconciliation unites them again by spanning that chasm, and making it of no
effect in separating them.
Such a bridge is
usually built by one or the other of the parties involved humbling themselves
before the other in either admitting their guilt, or in being willing to
forgive. Often it is even the innocent party in the quarrel who takes the
initiative, and builds the bridge, and asks the guilty one to cross over and
live in peace, rather than pieces. It is often the most innocent who builds the
bridge.
This was the case in
the strife which separated God and man. Sin had gouged out a chasm between God
and man infinitely greater than the Grand Canyon. Sin set God and man at war.
The offender was man, for he was guilty of breaking the bond of unity by his
disobedience. God, however, though the innocent party in the conflict, humbled
Himself, and built a bridge of reconciliation by which man could return to
fellowship with Him.
God could have easily
crushed man, and ended the battle as total victor over his rebel enemies, but
God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He gains no satisfaction in the
victory of sheer power, for He is all powerful, and there is no challenge at
all in gaining a victory which depends on might alone. God's satisfaction
comes, not in destroying enemies, but in reconciling enemies, and making them
friends again. This is a challenge even for omnipotence, and this alone could
express His basic nature of love. Anybody can hate an enemy for life, but only
the Godlike can make a friend out of an enemy. Therefore, Paul says in verse
19, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself."
O wisest love! That
flesh and blood,
Which did in Adam
fail,
Should strive afresh
against the foe,
Should strive and
should prevail.
Christ prevailed on
the cross. He destroyed the works of the devil that hindered man from returning
to God. He built an indestructible bridge of reconciliation by which the world
could return. The chasm which sin had dug between God and man was made of no
effect in separating those who longed, like the Prodigal, to return to the
Father's home and love. What is surprising is that Paul says it was the world
that God was reconciling in Christ. The world is God's enemy. The world
represents all that is opposed to God. It is the realm where Satan's rule has
corrupted all, and made all men enemies of God by nature, and by choice. John
warned Christians to not love the world, neither the things in the world, for
it is still the enemy of God.
How then can Paul say that
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself? We know that God so loved
the world that He gave His Son to die for it. We know He died for the sins of
the whole world. We know He sent His Son into the world, not to condemn it, but
that the world through Him might be saved. We know these things, and yet we
look at the world and wonder if God's love was effective. Did His plan work?
Was the cross really effective in building a bridge of reconciliation, for it
appears that the world is still no friend of God.
We have here another
of the great paradoxes of Scripture. The world is reconciled and yet
unreconciled. It is reconciled in that all that hinders man from returning to
God was nailed to the cross. Christ's atonement for sin was a complete victory.
And e'er His agony was
done,
Before the westering
sun went down,
Crowning that day with
crimson crown,
He knew that He had
won.
It is finished, said
Jesus. The cross was a success, and God in Christ did build a bridge which
reconciled the world to Himself. The fact is, however, that this bridge, like
any other bridge, only has value as it is crossed. An uncrossed bridge is no
better than no bridge at all, and that is why the world is still unreconciled
to God, even though God has reconciled it. It is reconciled in that the bridge
is open and available, and God requires nothing but that the sinner cross it by
receiving Christ as Savior. It is unreconciled in that men have not yet done
so. This is why Paul says the ministry of the church is the ministry of
reconciliation. The primary task of the church is to tell the world that God
has built a bridge by which they can be united with God again as citizens of
His kingdom. They no longer need to be rebels running from His wrath.
In a novel by Maurice
Hewlett a servant of the king says, "There was a Father, my Lord King
Richard, who slew His own Son, that the world might be the better."
"And was the world much better?" Asked the Monarch. "Not very
much, but that was not God's fault, for it had, and still has, the chance of
being better for it." Because of the cross every man is a potential child
of God. As far as God is concerned, every man is welcome to return and be
forgiven, and restored to fellowship. What is amazing is the humility of God in
building the bridge of reconciliation. We have no picture here of a rebel on
his knees before the king pleading for mercy and pardon, but rather, a king
before the rebel pleading for him to receive mercy and pardon. There is nothing
that can compare with the condescension of God in His love for the rebel
sinner.
I have heard men say
in giving an invitation to receive Christ, "I will not plead, for Christ
is a king, and kings do not plead." This is not true at all of our
Sovereign Savior. On the contrary, He is a king who pleads. He built a bridge
of reconciliation for a world of rebels, and has sent ambassadors like Paul
into all the world to plead with men to cross that bridge. God did the
stooping. He paid the cost in getting this good news to the world. Let us never
be guilty of dividing the Father and Son in the plan of salvation. Some who
have conveyed this misconception led a little girl to say, "I don't like
God because He was going to destroy the world, but I like Jesus because He
stopped Him and saved the world." Such a concept is totally false, for it
was God who loved the world, and who gave His Son. It was God who was in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself.
In the National
Gallery in London there is a painting of Christ on the cross against a black
background. Jesus looks alone and abandoned as if the whole universe was
uncaring and indifferent. If one looks intently, however, there emerges from
the blackness the dim outline of another crucified sufferer. It is the Father
sharing Calvary with His Son. The nails that pierced the hands of Jesus pierced
the Father's too. While Jesus atoned for our sin, God the Father built a bridge
that made the chasm of sin of no effect in keeping men from God.
There is a bridge that
spans all space
Unseen by our eyes;
A bridge that leads
from everywhere
To God's throne in the
skies.
That bridge is the
cross of Christ. The way of the cross leads home because it reconciles us with
God the Father. In Rome there is a bridge called the bridge of St. Angelo which
crosses the Tiber. Statues of Peter and Paul stand at the end of it. Crowds
going over it centuries ago caused it to give way, and 172 people perished.
Many have perished in history because of bridges that collapsed, or were
carried away by a flood. The only bridge that can never fail you, but lead to
eternal life is this bridge that God built.
One of the greatest
examples of such self-sacrifice in history occurred in the building of a
bridge. Napoleon's army was at its wits end. They were pressed on all sides by
the Russians who had destroyed all the bridges. The only hope was for some sort
of bridge to be built, and so in spite of the cold icy water men jumped in and
held a makeshift bridge as the troops marched across. When they were called to
leave the water, not a man moved. Clinging to the pillars, they stood silent
and motionless, for they were frozen to death. Even Napoleon shed tears at
their sacrifice. The price had to be paid if the rest of the army was to be
saved. And so also the cross had to be endured if mankind was to be saved and
reconciled to God.
It has been made a
proverb that you don't cross your bridges before you come to them. That is not
bad advice, but another good saying is, do cross the bridge of reconciliation
when you come to it, and trust in Christ as your Savior, for that is your only
hope of being restored to fellowship with God.
11.
THE COST OF CHRISTMAS Based on II Cor. 8:1-9
December in Peru is
just as hot as July. The jungle is steaming and the insects are ferocious. Yet
in that jungle setting more than 300 people from the Wycliff Bible Translators
celebrate Christmas. The twinkling Christmas tree lights are not on a pine or
fur tree, but on a banana or palm tree. It is radically different from our idea
of Christmas, but it is nevertheless a precious time for the families there,
and the children who grow up with this environment. They think ours is not
really a true Christmas experience.
Bernie May is a pilot
for Wycliff in that group, and his 3 boys were really excited as Christmas approached
some years back. He had to fly some medical supplies to an Indian tribe in the
jungle, but he was scheduled to return to his family on Dec. 23rd. He made the
5 hour fight and landed on the river near the Indian village. He would return
the next day, but in the night fog and rain came and he could not fly out. It
rained all day and night, and Christmas Eve was the same. He was so frustrated
he slipped on his poncho and trudged down to the river edge. He crawled out
onto the wing of the plane and sat there feeling desperately sorry for himself.
It was Christmas Eve and there he was stuck in the jungle, and he would not be
with his family on Christmas. That was what he most wanted in the world.
He sloshed his way
back to the hut and laid down in his hammock feeling homesick, and he began to
think. This is what Christmas was for Jesus. He was not home, for his home was
heaven with the Father, and He was on earth far from His heavenly family.
Christmas for Jesus was not going home, but leaving home. So it was also for
Joseph and Mary. They were not home, but were far away from home and their
family. It was a costly Christmas for those who made the first Christmas a
reality. The rain finally stopped so that by Christmas night Bernie was home
with family, but he had learned this lesson-there is a lot of costs involved in
Christmas besides the presents.
Christmas cost him a
lot of misery, for had it been any other day he could have missed it and not
been so lonely, but because it was Christmas the hurt was so much harder to
bear. Had there been no Christmas, however, he would not have been in the
jungle in the first place, for he was there because Christ came into the world
to seek and save the lost. He was a part of that on going effort to fulfill the
plan of Jesus to reach the whole world with the good news that unto you is born
a Savior. Had Jesus never come, He never would have gone. So Christmas cost Him
plenty, and it cost Him a life of compassion for other people. It cost Him a
radical change in His life work, and because He cared it cost Him the loss of
precious time with His family.
The real cost of
Christmas is not just in the multiplied millions of presents that people
purchase. In the United States alone people spend many billions of dollars for
gifts. In the 1800's Christmas presents were for children, and adults gave
simple things to each other like fountain pens and handkerchiefs. After World
War I there was fear that the boom time of the war years would be followed by a
stagnant economy, and so there was an all out push to get people to buy more
expensive gifts. It was implied that the more expensive gift you gave the more
you cared. In the New York Times on Dec. 15, 1919 this ad appeared that began
the upward spiral of the cost of Christmas. It said, "Don't give your
family and friends frivolous gifts that are sure to disappoint. Buy them worthy
gifts that will let them know how much you care." This has led to
Christmas being very costly in a monetary way.
As we focus on the
biblical characters in the cast of the first Christmas drama we discover each
of them had to pay a cost. Joseph and Mary had an enormous cost. It cost them a
great deal of stress and loss of reputation. Joseph had to be devastated by the
news that Mary was with child. Mary would also be hurt by his doubt, and heavy
with frustration in trying to explain the virgin birth. It cost them the
comfort of home to get to Bethlehem, and even more so during their exile in
Egypt. They were not prepared for such a disruption of their lives. The birth
of any baby brings added costs, but Jesus added costs to their lives that were
extra-ordinary. God's greatest gift was freely given, but it was costly for
those who first received it. There are all kinds of hidden costs we do not know
about. The loneliness and frustration of having no room in the Inn, being
forced to deliver a baby in the stable, denial of all civil rights, and being
forced to flee from your homeland.
Mary and Joseph had
the natural joy that a Son was born, but it was far from a season to be jolly,
for they were surrounded by human folly and cruelty. They saved some money by
not having to pay for a room, but the discount for spending the night in the
stable did not make up for the cost in loss of dignity and feelings of being left
out. It was trial and trouble, and it got even worse when Herod set out to kill
the child. The good news is that their experience makes it clear that it is no
sign you are out of God's will when things do not go right, and much goes
wrong, and there is great cost in following His will.
The wise men were
committed to a costly and time-consuming journey to travel to the land the star
led them too. It costs them a great deal of time and money, for they brought expensive
gifts to the King. They also risked their lives, for had Herod discovered in
time that they were going to depart without telling him the location of the
Christ child they would have been killed. It cost them a great deal of research
and thought as well. It cost them labor of mind as well as of body.
The shepherds did not
pay a heavy cost, for they were closest to the Inn where Jesus was born. They
doubtless lost a night's sleep as no one could go to sleep after what they
experienced that night. Their cost was minimal likely, but we have no idea how
many sheep they may have lost by leaving them to go to the manger. It may have
been more costly than we realize. The shepherds were not the only ones to lose
a night's sleep over Christmas. Matt. 2:3 says, "When King Herod heard
this he was disturbed, and all of Jerusalem with him." Herod was a very
insecure man. He was so threatened by the news of a birth of a King that this
greatest news was bad news to him. Christmas cost Herod his peace of mind, and when
he was nervous all the people were nervous, for he would murder anyone when he
felt threatened.
Because Christmas cost
Herod his sense of security it cost a number of innocent families to lose their
newborn babies. Herod ordered all boy babies of Bethlehem two years old and
under to be killed. Imagine if that was your two-year-old son or grandson, and
you can see that Christmas cost these families a price that was way too high.
Scholars estimate on the basis of the population of Bethlehem at that time that
there would be between ten and twenty boy babies who were killed. It is a
relief that it was not hundreds, but for those ten to twenty families it was as
bad as it could be, for Christmas cost them the loss of a son. Someone
suggested that Jesus may have experienced human guilt when He grew up, for He
was alive and all of those other babies were not because of Him. It was Herod
who was the source of the evil, but it was the coming of the baby King, which
provoked this evil against the innocent.
We would all prefer to
focus on the heavenly hosts rather than the hatred of Herod. We would rather
point to the manger, the Magi, and the messages from heaven rather than this
unpleasant picture of the murder of the innocent. But that was part of the cost
of Christmas. Light came into the world, but men loved darkness rather than
light, and the result has been war between the forces of light and darkness.
Herod tried to kill Christmas by killing Christ, and this wicked rejection of
God's gift has continued all through history. Christmas has cost multitudes
their lives down through the centuries. But the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord, and so it is worth the cost. Even if Christmas
costs you your life it is the bargain of a lifetime, for to die in Christ is
gain, for in Christ there is victory over death. Those 10 to 20 boy babies lost
their earthly life for Jesus, but Jesus later died for them that they might
have eternal life.
Christmas is clearly
inadequate without the cross, for the birth of Christ alone was very costly,
and by itself it did not save anyone. On the cross Jesus more than recouped the
loses, and He made all those for whom Christmas was so costly rich forever.
Evil made Christmas costly, but that is why Jesus had to come. Had the world
been wonderful and righteous there would be no need for a Savior. It was just
because the world was so filled with such hellish hatred like that of Herod
that the incarnation was a necessity for man's salvation. Jesus could have
washed His hands of the whole thing and cast the whole world into hell, but
instead He paid the price of coming into the world to take upon Himself the
full blow of evil in order that man might have a way out of hate and darkness
into love and light.
The negative cost of
Christmas, however, has been a reality all through history. Even Christians
have had to pay the price of conflict because of Christmas. The Anglican Church
decorated their churches for Christmas. The Puritans felt this was pagan and
they went all out to rid the church of such pagan influence. They went to such
extremes that they made it illegal to celebrate Christmas, and so we have the
paradox of some Christians being sent to jail for celebrating the birth of
their Savior, and the cost was being imposed by other Christians. The Puritans
were very godly people, but their anti-Christmas stand earned them a negative
reputation they have never been able to live down. It took America a long time
to come out of the anti-Christmas slump. Dec. 25 was just another day until
1856. It was just another workday in Boston as late as 1870, and the Public
schools were open on Christmas.
Historians tell us
that had America been settled only by the Puritans of England we may not have had
much of a Christmas celebration even yet. But many of the Christians who came
to America came from Sweden, Germany, Ireland, Poland, and Italy where there
had never been anti-Christmas movement. The result was that America became a
melting pot where the Christmas customs of all the world came together and this
gave us a Christmas celebration on such a grand scale that even the world of
non-Christians joins in the celebration.
There was a great cost
for Christ to bring Christmas into the world. Paul says in II Cor. 8:9,
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich,
yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become
rich." Jesus left heavens brightest day to enter earth's darkness night.
The cost of Christmas for Christ was bankruptcy. Before Christmas He owned the
cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mine. His riches would make
billionaires look like paupers in comparison. Everything was His, for He made
it all, and without Him was not anything made that had been made. He was equal
with the Father, and so was the wealthiest being in the universe. He could have
given whole worlds to each person, but instead He gave His Person to the whole
world. He gave up equality with the Father and became poor. He went from riches
to rags and from splendorous garments to swaddling clothes. He entered into
poverty. The cost of Christmas to Christ is beyond calculation.
Geoffery Bell, a
missionary to China, in his book When Iron Gates Yield, tells of his experience
one Christmas Eve. He had been a served a meal by his Chinese host, and then
joined him as he went below to the stable to give the horses more hay. It was
not very pleasant as he entered that atmosphere of manure and straw and the
smell of animals. He writes, "I stood suddenly still in that oriental
manger. To think that my Savior was born in a place like this. To think that He
came all the way from heaven to some wretched Eastern stable, and what is more,
to think that He came for me. How men beautify the cross and the crib, as if to
hide the fact that at birth we resigned Him to the stench of beasts, and at
death exposed Him to the shame of rogues. God forgive us.
Love to the uttermost,
love to the uttermost,
Love pass all
measuring His love must be;
From heaven's highest
glory to earth's deepest shame,
This is the love of my
Savior to me.
I returned to warm,
clean room which I enjoyed, bowed to thankfulness and worship."
The cost of Christmas
for Christ was so staggering that to dwell on it will lead you to wonder and
then to worship. Such a sacrifice demands that we bow before Him as our Lord
and King. There is nothing we can give to Christ like worship, for that alone
conveys our partial grasp of the magnitude of the cost of Christmas to Him. It
is costly to be unique and Jesus was the most unique person ever to be born. As
Dr. Hugh Pyle said, "He was the earthly child of a heavenly Father and the
heavenly child of an earthly mother. No wonder He bent the calendar of the
world around that manger cradle."
We are grateful for
the impact of Christ on history, but why pay such a price? It was because this
is what it cost to redeem man and reconcile Him to God. This is the price for
what God wanted. He wanted man saved and it was costly. It was not free to God
to get this goal accomplished. It cost Him a Son, and it cost His Son His
earthly life. It cost Him the cross to be born at Christmas. He was born to
die, and die He did that we might be saved. We are saved freely, for it is a
gift that Jesus bought for us, but the fact is it cost Jesus everything. Grace
is free to receive, but it was costly to give.
The Christmas spirit
is that spirit that gives as Jesus did to meet the needs of others, even when
they do not deserve it or appreciate it. This is costly, and it is far more
easily preached than practiced. It means being Christ like in sharing your
riches of grace with those who are in such poverty that they do not grasp the
value of what you seek to give. The cost of Christmas is giving your best
regardless of how the gift is received. Jesus came to His own and His own
received Him not. He knew they wouldn't before He came, but He still came, for
that is the cost He was willing to pay to give man what He needed, which was a
Savior.
The highest cost of
all is for those who do not receive the free gift of Christ. He became poor
that we might be rich, but if we do not receive Him, we remain poor forever.
There is a cost involved in receiving the free gift, but it is nothing like the
cost of not receiving the gift. This is one of the paradoxes of Christmas. It
costs more not to receive the gift than to receive it. Those who do not receive
Christ as Savior must pay the cost of their own sin, and that means they will
be bankrupt forever, and never be able to get out of the debt of hell.
The day God dropped
the babe of Bethlehem into time was more costly to the world than all the bombs
that have ever been dropped. God's gift of life, love and light has blown away
all excuses, and man is left exposed for what he is, and that is a rebel. The
Christmas message leaves him no alternative but to come and worship, or to go
to war. All are forced to make the costliest decision of their lives. They
either receive the gift of a Savior, or they pay for their own sin forever. You
pay the cost now of surrender, or you pay the cost later of eternal warfare.
Anybody who is cost comparison conscience will see the utter folly of not being
willing to pay the costs involved in surrender and worship of the Savior God
gave the world at Christmas.
Nothing is so costly
as the Christ-less Christmas of those who will not receive God's gift. People
will spend a fortune on lights, but reject the light of the world. They will
pay a fortune for gifts, but reject the free gift of God. They will put time
and money into a tree, but never receive the forgiveness purchased for them on
the tree of Calvary. It is the same old story-no room for Jesus.
Room for pleasure,
room for business,
But for Christ the
crucified
Not a place that He
can enter
In the hearts for
which He died.
May God help us all
not to get so caught up in earthly presence that we miss the presence of God.
His presence is His present to us, and if we miss this we miss His best and pay
to high a cost for Christmas. Let us not be foolish, but make sure we get God's
best by receiving all He gives us in Christ.
Despised-forsaken-must
He longer stand
Outside the door, with
His dear, wounded hand
Still knocking? Nay! O
Christ, the crucified,
Come, and forever in our
hearts abide.
And, for our Christmas
gift, we pray thee, bring
Life's truest
happiness to us, O King!
The love that far
exceeds our highest thought,
The riches which thy
blood for us has bought.
12.
THE GREATEST GIFT Based on II Cor. 8:9
For all know that all
of our gifts for Christmas will not be equal. We may have one or two big gifts,
which are the center of our excitement, but there are also a number of smaller
gifts that wet our appetite for the grand finale when we get to the one that is
the biggest. No child is satisfied until they reach that biggest or best gift.
That is, no child that is mature enough to know the difference between the
trivial and the tremendous. Very little children do not have a system of
values, and so they may be just as excited about the ribbon, the colored paper,
or an empty box as they are about the finest gift. We laugh at them and excuse
them, for we know they do not understand value.
We would feel bad,
however, if an older child got so excited about a 59-cent plastic toy and
ignored the 59-dollar gift we got for them. If they went to their room with
their trivial toy and didn't even care to open their best gift, we would feel
bad, not only because of all we paid for it, and all we did to get it wrapped,
but because they would be missing out on something tremendous that we want them
to have and enjoy. In other words, everybody loses when we choose the trivial
instead of the tremendous.
I read of a wealthy
merchant who decided to do a beautiful thing for a poor friend. He gave him
some gifts and a sealed envelope. The man was so excited about the gifts he got
that he forgot to open the envelope. The wife found it the next day in the pile
of wrapping paper, and she put it in a dresser. It was a year later when they
received word that the wealthy merchant had died. She remembered the envelope
from him and got it out and gave it to her husband. When he opened it he was
shocked at what he found. It was a blank check signed by his friend. He was
free to fill in any amount he desired. He quickly filled in the blanks for
several thousand dollars and rushed to the bank, but to his utter dejection he
learned that the account had been closed, and all his possessions had passed to
his heirs. He could have been rich, but he remained poor because he focused on
the trivial rather than the tremendous gift. This sad story is repeated over
and over again when people ignore God's greatest gift.
James 1:17 says,
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from
the Father of lights.." All gifts are gifts from God, and so we need to be
thankful for all we have received, even the trivial ones. Be thankful even that
little kids can even have so much fun with an empty box, but remember God also
has a best gift. God is like that wealthy merchant. He gives so many things,
but with the many he gives us the one that can make us rich. II Cor. 8:9 says,
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich,
yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might
becomes rich." God wants all of us to be rich, but the only way this can
happen is for us to focus on the tremendous gift, and not the trivial gifts.
The entire Bible has its focus on this greatest of gifts. In the Old Testament
we see-
I. THE PROMISE OF THE
GREATEST GIFT.
In Isa. 9:6 we read,
"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." This was the hope
of the Old Testament from the beginning to the end, that God would send the
Messiah to win for man the battles he could never win on his own. Those are the
battles to defeat sin, Satan and death. This was the gift the people of God
always longed for. This gift alone could make them rich as children of God.
This gift alone would set them free and enable them to walk in the light and be
reconciled to God. This promise of God's greatest gift was the foundation of
Old Testament faith. When we come to the New Testament we see-
II. THE PRESENTATION
OF THE GREATEST GIFT.
God had been giving
good things to man all through history, but Christmas becomes the greatest day
in history for giving, for on that day God presented to the world His greatest
gift. The angels announced it was good news to all people, for that day God
presented to the world His very best. He cared enough to give the very best,
and that is why He gave His Son to be our Savior. This is what it means to be
rich, for one who is truly rich is one who has salvation purchased, and Jesus
purchased it for all who will trust in Him. All who do not have a Savior are
terribly poor, for they are so far in debt they can never get out. They owe God
a perfect life of obedience, or they own Him a sacrifice that would pay for all
their sin.
We know that all the
blood of all the animals in the world could not take away one sin, and so those
without a Savior are in debt forever, for there is no way they can ever pay
their way out of debt. The poorest people in the world are people without a
Savior. The richest people in the world are those who are free of debt. They do
not owe anything because all has been paid for them. Jesus came to make us
rich, and those who open their heart to Him become rich forever. "The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord." Millions of lesser gifts will not make you rich, but having
God's greatest gift makes you rich for all time and eternity. This means we
must add a third point.
III. THE PARTICIPATION
IN THE GREATEST GIFT.
A gift needs two
people. It needs a giver and a receiver. God promised the greatest gift in the
Old Testament, and He presented the greatest gift in the New Testament, but the
Christmas story is not complete until we make this historical event a personal
event by participating in the giving and receiving. John says, "To as many
as received Him to them He gives the right to become children of God."
That is what it means to be rich, for a child of God has forgiveness of sin,
salvation, and the hope of eternal riches beyond our comprehension. That is why
Paul says in II Cor. 9:15, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift." In other words, when we receive Jesus as our Savior, we have God's
greatest gift, and it is so big, wonderful and tremendous that there are no
words that can adequately describe it. It is so tremendous that this one gift
makes us rich forever. Let us make sure we do not get so excited about all the
trivial gifts and neglect the tremendous gift. Let us be always thanking God
for the greatest gift.
13.
GLAD GENEROSITY Based on II Cor. 9
When organized baseball
was in its infancy a man by the name of Farrar was first baseman for the
Philadelphia Phillies. He was a fine player, and he had a little girl who was
his best rooter. She sat in the grandstand clapping and cheering every time he
made a good play. She would shout "atta boy daddy, you show em." The
team came to love this faithful fan, and had much fun joking about this most
loyal rooter. There came a period when the father went into t slump and was not
playing well at all. The manager approached him and asked if anything was
wrong. He explained his anxiety about his daughter. She had a good voice, and
he wanted to give her the chance to take voice lessons, but he could not afford
it.
This was in a day when
professional ball players did not make much. The manager talked to the rest of
the team. They wanted to help, but they could not afford it either. Then one of
them got an idea. After every game there is plenty of tin foil scattered all
over. He suggested that they collect it and sell it. I remember doing this as a
young boy by pealing off the foil from cigarette packages and gum wrappers.
That is what the Phillies did after every game until the end of the season.
They had a large collection by then. The girl was able to take her voice
lessons, and eventually went on to join the Metropolitan Opera Company in New
York City. It was the highest honor in the musical world, and Geraldine Farrar
became the idol of opera goers for many years.
It all began with a
ball team collecting tin foil. It is a story of sacrificial collecting which
bore much fruit.
That is what our text
is all about. Chapter 8 and 9 of II Cor. is the only place in all the Bible
where there is an extended discussion of the principles of Christian charity,
or the collecting of money to invest in other people's needs. Even this is only
part of the material in the New Testament dealing with Paul's noble plan to
unite all of the Gentile churches in the ministry of meeting the needs of the
poor Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Paul, as the Apostle to the Gentiles,
wanted to prove to the Jewish Christians, who were skeptical about Gentile
Christians, that the grace of God had truly changed them. How was he going to
do this? It was by means of a collection from all the Gentile churches to put
the Jewish believers back on their feet.
Paul knew the power of
wealth to serve a great spiritual purpose. When the believers in Jerusalem
would see gifts, which Gentiles had given to help Jews, they would know then, beyond
a doubt, that the light of grace had penetrated the darkness of Gentile hearts
by their fruits they would be known. We cannot imagine what a radical project
this was. After centuries of prejudice and hate between Jews and Gentiles this
collection idea as an expression of love, and as the symbol of unity in Christ,
was without precedent. It is an historical monument to the power of Christ in
breaking down walls that separate people. It is a testimony also to the value
of money in fulfilling the purposes of God. Money rightly given is the biblical
way of getting rich. We see here that it can also be a means of enriching the
whole church. It is my purpose in the message to examine the principles for
giving that Paul lays down here so we can be assured that we know what kind of
giving it is that lays up treasure in heaven. The value of Paul's teaching is
that it is not abstract and separate from life, but it grows right out of an
actual historical situation. He explains the method, the manner, the measure and
the motive of giving. We want to look at the first two. First-
I. THE METHOD OF
GIVING.
Paul knows that
nothing is done well that is done haphazardly. There must be a plan, and the
goal of the plan must be reached by a systematic method. Paul, therefore,
insists on systematic giving. He states this clearly in I Cor. 16:1-2 where he
writes, "Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the
Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should
set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when
I come no collections will have to be made."
Paul is not into the
special appeal type giving in which a need is explained with great eloquence
and deep emotion, and then people respond to it on the impulse of the moment.
Paul does not want to be an emotional pickpocket ringing money from them by an
emotional appeal. He wants them to give systematically so that all will be
ready when he comes. In our text Paul is somewhat concerned that they have not been
systematic, and so he is sending some men on ahead of him to see that the
collection is completed. So there will be no embarrassment.
Paul had boasted to
the church in Macedonia about how the Corinthians responded to his plea for a
great collection for the poor believers in Jerusalem. The Macedonians were
inspired by this example to give also. The Macedonians went all the way and
systematically reached their goal. The Corinthians, however, have let things
slide, and they have not reached their goal. Paul is writing to urge them to
get it done before he comes. It will be embarrassing for everyone if the
Macedonians find that Paul's boasting of the Corinthians was without
foundation. Paul is putting the pressure on them to be systematic, for this is
the only method worthy of the believer.
If people give on the
basis of impulse and emotion then they are not giving from an internal desire,
but they are depending upon external circumstances, and there is nothing
Christian about that. Anyone can be moved to give by an appeal to emotion. This
is the method widely used by showing starving babies and poverty conditions.
People do respond and millions of dollars are collected for worthy causes, and
this is good. The point is, it is not a method of giving that is uniquely
Christian. Pagans, humanists and atheists give on this same basis. Christian
giving must be done with the sense that one is in a partnership with God. It is
a business like arrangement where you have made a commitment to invest so much
in God's work. You make this investment systematically, and you keep records to
make sure you are doing so.
If Christians do not
develop this method of systematic giving they are liable to become victims of
all kinds of self-deception. Many Christians, for example are dream givers, and
they feel very generous even if they do give little to the cause of Christ. In
their minds they have visions of all they would do for God if they had great
wealth. New churches are erected by their bountiful generosity, and everyone is
helped by their fanciful distribution. Such dream givers are serious, and they
expect God to count them generous on the basis of their dream. Such dreams do
not build churches, feed the hungry, send out missionaries, or in any way help
extend the kingdom of God.
Other Christians
expect to be asked for money. They like to be begged, and so in order to appeal
to these givers churches develop elaborate systems of begging in which people
are asked to make pledges. Others demand that money be wrung from them by the
moving of the Spirit, and so men are trained for the special task of learning
how to move these people to open their pocket book. The result is that the
church spends half its time and money trying to get Christians to give, and
this is a poor stewardship of time and money. The way to eliminate all of this
is for Christians to follow the biblical method of systematic giving. A right
method does not solve all problems, but it is the basis on which to build to
solve all problems. If you are not a systematic giver, you are a problem to
yourself and to the kingdom of God. Become a part of the answer by starting to
follow the systematic method of giving. Next we consider-
II. THE MANNER OF
GIVING.
Paul is the great
defender of liberty and freedom, and he does not change his tune when it comes
to giving. He stresses that the manner of Christian giving is to be voluntary.
Giving that is compelled in any way is not truly giving. We do not give the
government taxes, for they are taken from us under penalty of law. We do not
give money to the phone, light and water company. They are bills we must pay,
and they are no sign of generosity. Generosity can only be expressed through
voluntary giving. As Paul says in verse 7, every man must give as he purposes
in his heart. A man must be free to make up his own mind as to what he should
give. Paul does not want any giving that is done grudgingly or of necessity,
for that manner of giving spoils the gift.
It is for this reason
that tithing is not a law of Christian giving. I have tithed since I was a
teenager, and I highly recommend it to all who have never tried it. It is a
pattern of giving that leads to great satisfaction, but it is not a law. As
soon as you make it a law you are on opposite ground from Paul and other New
Testament authors. Voluntary giving is a New Testament principle. You can give
less or more than a tithe, but the important thing is that you resolve it in
your own mind. In verse 6 Paul makes it clear that the less you give the less
you reap, and the more you give the greater your harvest. He does not lay down
a law concerning a percentage, for if he did he would destroy the whole
principle of being free to decide in their own minds what to invest. He makes
it clear that the more they give the better, but he does not lead them into
legalism. Failure to abide by Paul's principle of freedom in giving has been a
curse on the church.
In the early church
there was little problem with Christian giving. People responded and the poor
were cared for and needs were met. There is no mention of the law of tithing.
Then as the zeal of Christians began to cool, and as Christianity became the
establishment, giving became a problem. Christians no longer responded to the
grace of God freely, and so there began a movement back to law to compel
Christians to give. It is a story repeated over and over again in history.
Grace or law must guide men, and where grace departs law moves in. As the
church became larger and more centrally organized around the Bishop of Rome,
who became the pope, not only did the need become greater, but the greed became
greater. Just as government becomes a vast bureaucracy demanding more and more
taxes to survive, so the church became such as well, and it began bleeding the
people for all it could get.
I had always thought
tithing grew out of the zeal of the evangelical spirit, but in reality it grew
out of a church that was loosing this the spirit, and it had to revert back to
law to survive. We cannot begin to cover the history of how tithing was enforced.
The church began psychological warfare first, and it promoted tithing through
the priests in the confessional. The priest would read a document that made
Able a tither and Cain the non-tither, and so the first murder was committed by
a non-tither. Pressure and deception of every kind were used, and even forged
documents proving tithes were paid to the Apostles. Legalism has to have teeth
in it to really work, and so in 585 A.D. the council of Mascon made tithing the
law of the church by this statement: "Wherefore we do appoint and decree,
that the ancient custom be revived among the faithful and that all the people
bring in their tithes to those who attend the divine offices of the church. If
anyone shall be contumacious to these our most wholesome order, let them be
forever separated from the communion of the church."
This is a long way
from Paul's idea of every man as he purposes in his heart. Not of necessity
said Paul, but the church said of necessity you tithe or be excommunicated. In
other words, if you wanted to get to heaven you had to tithe. Salvation was by
law and works. There was much abuse and corruption brought into the church
because of the love of money. It was this corruption that was the primary cause
of the Reformation. Luther's primary objection to the church was its whole
economic program, which robbed from the poor to give to the rich. The tithe law
was only one part of the corrupt system. None of the reformers wanted to
identify with the money grabbing abuses, and so they opposed tithing. Luther
opposed it and so there is opposition to it in the Lutheran church to this day.
Lenski, the most famous Lutheran commentator, writes, "All legalism in
giving or in securing gifts is Romanistic....tithing is Jewish. Applying a
little Christian varnish changes nothing."
The Anabaptists spoke
out strongly against all tithes. John Wesley also opposed it as a Jewish law
and not a Christian principle. Strangest of all is the fact that the Jews
themselves opposed tithing. The church of the middle ages forced Jews to pay
tithes to them. You can see why they opposed it, but to this day there is no
Jewish congregation that uses the tithing method of fund raising.
We haven't scratched
the surface of either the negative or the positive of tithing. The point of
this brief history is to demonstrate the value of Paul's principle of freedom
and danger of departing from it. When giving is made legalistic you depart from
the New Testament principle. The Reformation was a movement back to the New
Testament where grace reigned and not law. The spirit of the Reformation was a
spirit of freedom where the stress was on the individuals right to choose
freely to respond to God. Only in this kind of atmosphere can one give in the
manner that Paul urges, which is voluntarily and cheerfully. Glad generosity is
a flower that blooms only in the soil of personal freedom. Giving by law may
lead to the same amount of money being collected, or even more, but the flower
is artificial and not pleasing to God. God loves a flower that grows, and not
one that is manufactured. He loves a cheerful giver, and that is one who knows
he is investing in a great cause, and so gives with the same joy and excitement
as one who buys stock that he knows is going to go up much higher. Such an investment
will be made cheerfully. The Greek word for cheerfully is hilaros, from which
we get our English word hilarious.
This is the only kind
of giving that pleases God. Hilarious giving is giving that is a joy. It is a
systematic, voluntary and cheerful giving. Glad generosity is to be our goal,
and it is not hard to contain if we look at the generosity of God to us in the
giving of His Son, and in the promise to be even more generous for all
eternity. I conclude with these words of Wordsworth,
Whatever, Lord, we
give to Thee,
Repaid a thousand fold
will be;
Then gladly will we
give to Thee,
Who givest all.
14.
MOTIVES FOR GIVING Based on II Cor. 9
All of us would
certainly agree that it was a good thing that Columbus was given the money he
needed to sail to the discovery of America. What we do not realize, however, is
the evil method by which the money was gotten. In 1492 Tomas de Torquemada, the
chief architect of the Spanish Inquisition, expelled half a million Jews from
Spain and Portugal. He then plundered their property. It was this confiscated
Jewish wealth that Ferdinand and Isabella used to finance Columbus. The Jews
actually financed the discovery of America, but it was by force and against
their will. They were also robbed by the Christians to pay for the Crusades. It
is no wonder that the Jews do not respond to the Gospel, for history reveals
that those who preach the Gospel were their greatest enemies.
The folly of the
church in raising money by robbing the Jews was multiplied when greed led them
to rob other Christians as well. The ignoring of Paul's principle of each man
giving as he purposes in his heart led to great evil and violence within the
church. Compulsory tithing led to some good being done, but that good can never
justify the depriving of men of their freedom to respond to God as they chose.
We saw in our previous message that all of the reformers opposed the tithing
law of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the system of compulsory tithing
continued in the Church of England. The Baptists and Quakers fought it, and
they had to pay the price for opposing the establishment. Many were imprisoned,
and some were even martyred for preaching that compulsory tithing was contrary
to the will of God. One extreme case on record was of Ann and Robert Henderson
who were imprisoned for 11 months for failure to pay one penny.
It is hard for us to
imagine the violence, which the church introduced into society by its method of
collecting money. Laymen resented the dictatorial power of the church, and they
expressed it through violence. Dairymaids took their tithe of milk to the
church and poured it on the floor in front of the alter. The tithe sheaves of
farmers were badly bound so they would fall to pieces and rot in the rain.
Collectors were beaten and crops were trampled down to prevent their being
taken. One Hampshire farmer notified the pastor that he was about to pull
turnips so he should come and get his tithe. When the men, carts and horses
arrived he pulled up ten turnips, gave one to the men, and said he would let
the parson know when he planned to draw some more. He was not a practical
joker, but was expressing contempt for the church law, which was also the state
law. The result of this contempt and opposition was the push for stronger and
stricter laws to punish the non-tither. The clergy always won for they had the
law on their side. Lay people came to despise the clergy and the law, for they
worked together to oppress the people.
Tithe wars were declared
in England, and the people decided they would rather die than obey the tithe
law. Barricades were erected and trenches were dug, and no collector was safe.
They even developed battle songs to whip up their fighting spirit against the
church. One of them went like this:
We've cheated the
parson; we'll cheat him again,
For why should a
blockhead have one in ten
For prating so long
like a book-learned sot,
Till putting an
dumpling burn to pot?
Another sung to the
famous hymn tune Old Hundred also voiced this bitter protest:
God save us from these
raiding priests,
Who seize our crops
and steal our beasts,
Who pray, "Give
us our daily bread,"
And take it from our
mouths instead.
Conscientious
clergyman, of course, left the church rather than be a part of forcing people
by law to support the church. The police had to enforce the law, and so they
broke into homes to take away enough furniture to pay the tithe. They hated it,
but it was their duty to enforce the law, and they became the objects of much
hatred. Remember, it was the Baptist and the Quakers who were leading the
opposition of the establishment. They were minority groups, and they suffered
terribly, but their cause was just, and they eventually won and the law was
changed.
The battle had to be
fought again by Baptist in America. That is another story, but it had the same
ending. They won again against all compulsory methods of church support. One of
the reasons you do not get a bill in the mail for church support, which would
be payable under penalty of law, is because the Baptists fought for the liberty
of every person to give heed to Paul's principle of giving, which was, as he
purposes in his heart. Voluntary giving is the only acceptable program for
those who honor the New Testament.
If everyone is left in
complete freedom, however, they may choose to give very little or nothing. This
is true, and that is where motivation comes in. Paul says each man must make up
his own mind, but then he gives the mind some food for thought. He seeks to
motivate the Corinthians to give liberally. By studying this passage by the
point of view of motives that Paul appeals to we come to understand what the
reasons are for being glad to invest liberally. We may choose in our freedom to
give even more than what the law required. These motives can compel us to do
what we would resent doing if compelled by law. Not all of Paul's motives for
giving are on the level of the sublime. He begins on the natural level and
works up. Paul is realistic, and he recognizes that Christians are motivated by
many of the same things that motivate the natural man. There is a number of
different values that Paul appeals to. We will deal with them in three
categories.
I. THE MOTIVE OF
REASONABLENESS.
If something is a
reasonable obligation and recognize it to be an obvious duty, then we are
motivated to do it. Paul says that Christian giving is on the level of obvious
duty. He begins this chapter by writing, "There is no need for me to write
to you about this service to the saints." He is saying it is unnecessary
to remind you of what you already know is an obvious obligation. But Paul does
write about it, and he stresses this obvious duty. This is like starting a
sentence with "needless to say," but they you go on and say it anyway.
Why say what is needless to say, and why write about what it is really
unnecessary to write about? We have here a case of the paradox of the necessity
of non-essential. Nothing is more necessary than to remind people of what is
most reasonable and obvious.
No one, for example,
is so dense that they need to be told it is dangerous to go to sleep while
driving. It is such a reasonable and obvious fact that no capable of driving
can be unaware of it. And yet, this superfluous advice is constantly being printed
on the turnpike. The signs everywhere say, "Stay awake and stay
alive." It is necessary to keep reminding people of what is so obvious
that it should be unnecessary. We tend to neglect and ignore that which is most
obvious.
Giving to the church
is such an obvious obligation that it should be completely unnecessary to have
to remind anyone. Everyone knows that the church has to have money to operate
and meet its obligations to missionaries as well as to its local ministry. It
should be unnecessary to say anything about what is such an obvious obligation,
and yet it is necessary to keep reminding people that they need to fulfill this
obvious obligation. Next we look at-
II. THE MOTIVE OF
REPUTATION.
We are motivated to do
many things on the basis of what other people will think of us. We care about
our image in the eyes of others, and so we can easily moved by appeals dealing
with our reputation. Reputation is a matter of competition. We want to be equal
or superior to others because of the competitive nature we possess. Paul
boasted to the Macedonians about the Corinthians, and now he boasts to the
Corinthians about the Macedonians. He is using the positive responses of both
to challenge each other to compete. Paul says in verse 2 that the Macedonians
were stirred up by his boasting of the Corinthians. We see Paul exploiting the
competitive spirit of man for the glory of God. Churches do this all the time.
Churches compete in sports events against each other on the physical level, but
they also compete for spiritual fruit and success. That is the purpose for
contests between churches. This is one of the reasons behind the publishing of
annual reports on the growth and giving of all churches. It may not be the
highest motive for giving, but it happens to be a fact of life that God made
man with this competitive spirit, and it is a valid motivation, which Paul
appeals to.
Every Christian should
be as proud of his local church as he is of the school he loves, or the ball
team he loves. People are interested in how their team is doing. They follow
them, keep up on information, and support them financially. They want to be
identified with a winner, and so they do their best to encourage excellence. It
should be the same with the church. We should be deeply concerned about our
reputation. We should be embarrassed to let our giving get behind so that our
missionaries do not get their needed support. We should be challenged by
smaller churches, which give sacrificially because they are proud of their
church and eager to get a reputation as a mission minded church.
Paul is saying to the
Corinthians that their reputation is at stake if they do not live up to the
commitment they made. He is saying, look at what others have done, for you can
do it too, and you can be a challenge to them in this gain of giving, contest
in contributing, and race in responding with riches in the stadium of
stewardship. It may not be the highest motivation for giving, but it is valid.
We give to everything else out of the motive of reputation, and so why not to
the church and the cause of Christ? The third motive that Paul stresses is the
strongest. Our reason demands that we give liberally, and our reputation
requires it as well, but Christians have been known to be unreasonable and
unconcerned about the reputation. The third motive, however, appeals to
everyone, for it is-
III. THE MOTIVE OF
REWARD.
This appeal to man's
desire to get rich and to receive great reward runs all through the Bible. Paul
is just spelling out a principle that Jesus clearly taught, and that is that
all we give now will be repaid with great interest. Everything we give out of
love for Christ is an investment in eternity. It is actually to our advantage
if we give to good causes that bring no return in this life. Jesus put it as
plain as possible in Luke 14:12-14. He said, "When you give a dinner or a
banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsman or rich
neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you
give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be
blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection
of the just."
Jesus says generosity
toward the poor will be rewarded in eternity. This means that everything we give
for the needs of others is like putting money in the bank of heaven. Paul in
verse 6 says giving follows the natural law of sowing. What works for the
farmer works for the giver. If you so sparingly, you reap sparingly. If you sow
bountifully, you reap bountifully. Every man at the judgment will reap what he
has sown. This is the law of God for both the natural and the spiritual world.
It is a powerful motivating factor, for it appeals to self-interest, and it
makes generosity fun and exciting. We read of this law of life in Prov. 11:24,
"One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another with holds what
he should give, and only suffers want." It pays to give for both time and
eternity. This is no theory, for it is a law of life.
Professor Douglas Steer
of Harvard College tells of a potato grower in Northern Michigan who planted
only the peelings of the potato for seed, and he fed the inside to his
livestock. When moisture was abundant he got an average crop, but when a dry
season came after planting, only those who planted the whole potato got a
harvest. Christian giving is like sowing. Every Christian is a farmer in the
spiritual realm, and they are either sowing sparingly or bountifully. The
Christian who gives little because he cannot afford it does not realize he is
like a foolish farmer who does not sow his field because he cannot spare the
seed. Only as he sows the seed can he reap a harvest. If he hoards the seed, he
will go broke. This is a law of life in the natural and spiritual realm. Calvin
said, "Whenever fleshly reason calls us back from doing good through fear
of loss we should immediately oppose it with this shield; but the Lord declares
that we are sowing."
Many are the
testimonies that sowing in abundance pays off in time as well as in eternity.
Paul goes on to tell the Corinthians that as they give God will provide them
with resources to go on giving to every good work. When God sees that we will
be free flowing channels through which riches are going to be invested in great
causes, he blesses us with greater riches. Dozens of rich Christians claim that
they began their climb to heights of wealth by tithing. We dare not become
superstitious about this as if tithing was a form of economic magic. The fact
is, there are more rich people who never tithe than those who do, and there are
masses of tithers who never become very wealthy. The point is, the person who
gives abundantly because he is motivated by the love of Christ, and wants in on
the eternal rewards Christ promises, is always adequately provided for.
Christians who tithe give more, but they almost always have more as well. The
discipline of tithing teaches them to be systematic and wise in their use of
money, and so they can do more with 90% than others who keep it all.
One of the greatest
present rewards is the reward of the joy of generosity. It is a paradox, but
the fact is, generous people are the most blest. Prov. 11:25 says a generous
man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. Helen
Steiner Rice wrote,
The more you give, the
more you get
The more you laugh,
the less you fret-
The more you do
unselfishly,
The more you live
abundantly.
The more of everything
you share,
The more you'll always
have to spare.
The more you love, the
more you'll find
That life is good and
friends are kind.
For only what we give
away,
Enriches us from day
to day.
Jesus said, "Give
and it will be given to you." We are to give, not because we have to, but
because it is good for others and good for ourselves. We are to give
systematically because it is the best method. We are to give voluntarily
because it is the best manner, and we are to give gladly because it is the best
motivation for pleasing God, blessing others and enriching our own lives.
I use the tithe as a
standard measure of generosity, but in reality it is too much for some and far
too little for others. Each must be persuaded in his own mind what represents a
generous part of his income to be invested in the kingdom of God. No one can
set this standard for you. We are to make up our own mind motivated by reason,
reputation and reward. If we take these motives seriously, it will lead to the
highest form of giving, which is thanksgiving, or giving which grows out of an
expression of gratitude to God for all He has given to us in Christ.
15.
HEAVEN CAN BE HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH II Cor. 12:1-10
For 40 years Rev.
William Tennent served as pastor of the historic Presbyterian Church at
Freehold, New Jersey. As a young man this pastor experienced a remarkable trance.
He was in bad health, and one day while talking with his brother he fainted
away and appeared to have died. The doctor pronounced him dead and the funeral
service was arranged. Friends assembled for it, and then to the amazement of
everyone young Tennent spoiled everything by opening his eyes. The funeral was
canceled, and for weeks he lingered near death, but finally recovered. It took
a long time, but one day his memory was restored, and he told of what he had
experienced.
He said he was in
another world being escorted along by a heavenly being. They approached a new
environment dazzling with glory and resounding with the most beautiful music.
There were innumerable happy beings there, and he longed to stay with them, but
he was told he must return to earth. This came as such a shock that it was too
much for him, and it took him a long time to recover and face life on earth
again. Such a story would be worthless if it had not come from a man of God
with such a solid reputation. If some crackpot or fanatic told such a story,
who would take it seriously? But this man of strong repute cannot be dismissed,
for his experience is similar to that of the Apostle Paul.
Paul did not see, but
he heard, and he too was left with a physical problem after the experience.
Going to heaven before you actually die can be harmful to your health. It is
not the trip there, but the return trip that does the damage. If you stay, you
never know suffering again, but to return to earth is a chock to the human
system. If man could actually organize tours to the heavenly Holy City, as he
does to the earthly Holy Land, he would have to advertise that this trip may be
harmful to your health.
Paul's experience of
being caught up to heaven must have been a marvelous one, but he does not tell
us a single thing about what he saw or heard, except that it was so out of this
world that he was not allowed to tell of it. All his emphasis is on what the
trip cost him in terms of his health. Paul had to pay a heavy price for his
peak at heaven's glory. Examining his testimony might convince us that it is
better to wait until we die and enter heaven permanently rather than to long
for a special preview while we are yet in the flesh.
Someone once asked G.
Campbell Morgan if he thought people still had such experiences, and he
responded, "Undoubtedly. I am certain that experiences like that have been
granted under certain conditions to certain persons, and always with a certain
definite purpose." He went to say that a real and authentic vision would
be a very personal experience and one not likely to be shared by the person
experiencing it.
Had there not been a
special need for revealing it we never would have known that the Apostle Paul
had such an experience. He had been laboring for Christ all over the world, and
he had spent much time with the Corinthians, and yet never once did he mention
his trip to heaven, but now he feels a need to share it. It happened 14 years
ago he says in verse 2. For 14 years Paul had concealed this unique experience,
for it was private, and he was fearful of boasting about it. the experience led
him to have to suffer with the thorn in the flesh. Any boasting in pride about
it to exalt himself could only lead to greater problems, and so he was very
cautious. Heaven had already been harmful to his health, and he was not anxious
to make it fatal.
The Corinthians,
however, were having so many problems, and there was so much pride among them
because of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that Paul felt it was necessary to
share his experience with them. He was so careful to avoid boasting that he
refers to his experience as if it was another man who had it. He was hoping
that his humility about such a blessing would give the Corinthians a pattern to
follow to guide them away from pride and boasting over their lesser spiritual
experiences. The paradox we see here is that Paul is bringing forth his hidden
basis for boasting in order to build up his own authority, but to do it in such
a way that they will see the folly of boasting.
Some of them are
strutting all over the place boasting of their ability to speak in tongues.
Paul seeks to take the wind out of their sales by revealing his supreme
spiritual blessing, which was his trip to heaven. This is far superior to
anything God has done for them, but Paul does not boast of it. He goes on to
explain how it humbled him and caused him to glory in his weakness. What Paul
clearly implies in this passage is not only that heaven can be harmful to your
health, but that any heavenly experience can be harmful. If any gift from
heaven leads you to pride and a show of arrogance over your brother's in
Christ, you are allowing a good thing to be used for evil. The only way for God
to offset this folly is to use an evil thing for good. That is what God did for
Paul. He used the messenger of Satan to keep Paul humble lest he become proud
due to his heavenly vision.
Man can use everything
that is good and heavenly in low and negative ways, and that is why heaven can
be harmful to your health. As long as we are in the flesh and subject to the
temptation to pervert heavenly gifts to earth centered goals, God has to hole
back the flesh by means of some thorn in the flesh. The greater your spiritual
gifts the greater your danger. Some in Corinth apparently became so proud about
their spirituality that God had to bring about their death and remove them from
this life. They could not handle heaven on earth, and so God took them to
heaven where they would receive a nature capable of handling it. Only this
desperate need made Paul reveal his own unique experience, and how it humbled
him.
Opinions vary as to
just when this vision took place. The two times most commonly held are at the
time of his conversion when he was blinded, of the time when he was stoned at
Lystra and left for dead. No one is very dogmatic about it, for it is very
uncertain, and really doesn't matter. Paul didn't know whether he was taken up
in his body or in spirit only. It could have been either way, and if he didn't
know, there is no point in speculating about it.
The third heaven where
Paul was caught up to is the heaven of the presence of God. The clouds of
heaven represent the lowest and first heaven. The stars of heaven are in the
second heaven, and our Father in heaven is in the third heaven. In verse 4 Paul
calls it Paradise, and so the two are equated. When Jesus promised the thief he
would be with Him in Paradise He could have said, "This day you shall be
with me in the third heaven." Heaven has the idea of glory and the
presence of God as its main image. Paradise carries the idea of the place of
pleasure and delight. We can only wish Paul would have said a few things about
it, but in verse 4 he says he heard things that cannot be retold. We want to
ask why that is, but there is no answer.
It is possible that
man cannot tell what he experiences of heaven because there is no human
vocabulary to describe it, and also because any attempt would only vulgarize
it. There are some experiences even in this life that are too personal and
precious to describe. Paul could no more share what God revealed to him in
heaven than a man can share with others what has been revealed to him on his
honeymoon. Paul didn't want to share the experience in the first place, and now
that he does, he makes it clear that any request for details will be offensive.
He can share no more than what he has.
Paul did not hesitate
to share his marvelous and miraculous conversion experience. He told of that
every chance he got, and three times it is recorded in Acts. He gladly shared
the details of this, for all the glory of it was Christ's. Personal testimony
is powerful for good when the glory goes to Christ. Being caught up in heaven,
however, is a spectacular experience, which would have a tendency to lead to
self-exaltation. Paul knew this and that is why in verse 5 he says that he will
boast for the man caught up, but not for himself, even though he was the one
caught up.
This is Paul's clever
way of saving that this was an experience worthy of boasting, but I refuse to
exalt myself. It was the Lord's doing and no credit goes to me. I will boast of
the butterfly, but not of the caterpillar is about what Paul is saying. They
are the same, but in two different stages, and so the one caught up and Paul
are the same man, but also in two different stages. Paul is the caterpillar-the
un-glorified Apostle in the flesh. The one caught up was a glorified version of
his future self. He has not yet reached that stage, even though God gave him a
preview, so he does not boast as if he has attained that state.
Try explaining a
marvelous thing that has happened to you without seeming to boast and you will
see why Paul is so complex in his description of this experience. He already had
one thorn in the flesh to keep him humble. He is not anxious to add another by
boasting. But in verse 6 he admits that his experience is so worthy of boasting
that he would not be a fool to do so, for he would only be speaking the truth.
He refrains, however, because he wants no one to think of him on the basis of
anything other than what they see or hear from him. Paul was a very wise and
realistic man. He did not want to get a reputation as the man who went to
heaven. He didn't want to be put on display like some unique character in a
sideshow. People would look up and say, "I don't' see that he is any
different than anyone else." They would only be disappointed because they
would expect to see someone divine, or at least super superior.
Men who do make great
claims for them selves usually end up as a laughing stock because they cannot
escape the flesh and their fallible human mind. If they claim to be divine and
infallible, they become a joke because they are so obviously human and fallible
like the rest of us. Paul didn't let himself get suckered into anything like
that. If he would have boasted of being in heaven, and of having heard the
wisdom of God directly, he would then have to exalt himself to a level of
infallibility. He clearly took no such position. He even told the Corinthians
that some of his opinions on the questions they put to him were his own and not
divinely inspired.
Paul wanted to be
judged on his actions and his preaching, and not on the basis of his trip to
heaven. But what a trip it was, and what revelations he received! They were so
great he says in verse 7 that God had to do something to keep his head from
swelling. It is possible to be too happy about heaven, and to be so elated, and
so God had to allow Satan to afflict Paul in some way to keep him humble. Paul
calls this messenger of Satan a thorn in the flesh. The Greek word for thorn
can also mean stake. Many commentators point this out in order to make clear
that whatever Paul's problem was, it was not a mere minor irritation like
hangnails or chapped lips. It was a serious problem that plagued Paul and kept
him in a state of constant remembrance. There have been many guesses as to what
Paul's thorn was.
Calvin thought it was
strong temptation to give up his duties as an Apostle, and the pangs of
conscience he suffered when he was tempted. Luther felt it was the constant
persecution he had to endure from those who opposed him and tried to undo his
work. The Catholic view is that it was temptations of the flesh. Some are
convinced it was his physical appearance, and they suggest that he had some
disfigurement. Other popular guesses are epilepsy, migraine headaches, eye
trouble, insomnia and malaria. No one can say for sure what his problem was,
but whatever it was, he got it because of his trip to heaven. He didn't like it
and prayed to get rid of it, but God would not pull out the thorn. His heavenly
vision made it a necessity for his own good.
Heaven can be harmful
to your health. Any blessing of God can bring with it some handicap or problem
because human nature has a tendency to pride that is so strong that if the
blessings of life are not balanced off with some kind of burden they can
actually lead to evil rather than to good. Jacob wrestled with God and got a blessing,
but he also got a limp. Uzziah was the king of Judah, and he was greatly
blessed of God and became famous for his skills and inventions. It went to his
head, however, and in II Chron. 26:16 we read, "But when he was strong he
grew proud, to his destruction. For he was false to the Lord his God, and
entered the temple of his Lord to burn incense on the alter of incense."
He was so blessed of God that he got proud and took the law of God into his own
hands. If a godly king could do this, and if the great Apostle Paul was in
danger of doing it, who are we to think we could handle heavenly vision and not
end up worse off for it because of pride?
In our study of heaven
we need to recognize the blessing of our ignorance. If God showed us more and
even gave us a preview as He did Paul, we would need a serious problem to keep
us from self-exaltation. Therefore, let us be thankful there is much we do not
know, and be content to wait until we can see it all without it being harmful
to our health.