Sermon for Flinders Park May 2018
So let me give a bit of a clue about what my series is about and why I chose to do this rather than something else. This church is getting older. The reality is that eventually people will stop growing older and simply die. For Christians this should not be a negative thing as such. Although death is not part of God’s original plan for humanity, it is part of the world as we experience it. It is also something under the control of God and something that Jesus has redeemed. For this reason I want to take several weeks or months exploring the issues that I think are important to growing older and the inevitability of death. The first thing I am going to explore is the glory that awaits us.
A few years ago I went to the funeral of someone I had never met. He was a pastor and the father of a Tabor student. I go to more and more funerals as the years go by, but this funeral was different. I came out of it thinking about future glory. This man is now with Jesus and sees him face to face, and after his funeral I longed to also be there with Jesus. It is the future glory that I want to speak about today because when we fix our eyes on the glory which is to come, we begin to see death not so much as a negative thing but a gateway to entering into the glorious presence of Jesus.
In the middle of Second Corinthians Paul has this to say: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:16-18 NIV).
Outwardly we are all wasting away. It is almost inevitable that as people get older our bodies begin to fail us. For some this happens earlier than for others. But eventually every person’s body fails. But Paul tells the church “we do not lose heart”. Why not? If we measure life by what see in the present then may well lose heart. Life is full of trouble. Elizabeth, like my mum, has trouble with her back. Richard has had his hip replaced again. Graham has cancer. No doubt every person here will testify to physical pain and some kind of sickness. But this world is not all there is. The end of this life is not the end.
Paul’s perspective is this. “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” Or according to the ESV, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Paul is making a bit of a play on words here. Paul wrote in Greek, but thought like a Hebrew. The Hebrew word for glory means weighty. So the expression “weight of glory” is a play on words, as is his use of “light” to contrast with the “weight of glory”. Troubles are light and momentary. Glory is eternal and weighty.
We should not imagine that Paul is speaking of trivial things when he calls the afflictions of this life “light”. In the same letter he writes about his own experiences of “light and momentary troubles.” In the first chapter he writes, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:8-9 NIV). His troubles were unendurable and he despaired of life itself and yet he saw this as “light and momentary”.
Again at the end of the letter Paul writes about his experiences as an apostle, comparing himself to those he calls false apostles. This gives us a picture of some of the things he went through in the name of Jesus. “Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?” (2 Cor. 11:23-29 NIV).
Possibly the troubles you are going through are not this bad, but that is not the point. Trouble is still trouble to the one who is going through it. Pain is still pain even if someone else goes through something worse. Everyone here has a fair share of difficulties in this life. Some have greater problems at this point in life than others. The point is not that troubles don’t exist or that someone else has more trouble than you or I. Paul is not trying to get us to compare troubles with one another or to compete to see who has it worst. Instead he is trying to get us to focus on the weight of glory which is to come because no matter what difficulties are present now they cannot compare to the glory which we are destined for.
So then let us focus now on the glory which awaits the servants of Christ. As Paul says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” There are many things which might be said about the glory which is to come. I think that I will focus on a few things and probably consider other things in future sermons.
The first thing which needs to be said is that glory is not a “thing” that can be experienced apart from Jesus Christ. It is first of all his glory. Jesus said this himself. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne” (Matt. 25:31 NIV). In fact Jesus reflects the glory of the Father. Heb 1:3 tells us, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory” (Heb. 1:3 NIV). We come to experience this glory through the gospel. “He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess 2:14). The difference between the true glory for which we are destined (1 Cor 2:7 etc.) and the false glory that this present world offers is that true glory is found only in Christ. The glory that we will experience as believers is something which Jesus alone can give. Glory has no existence of its own apart from Christ.
Secondly it is the glory of sonship that humans we always destined for. The Gospel of John proclaims, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14 NIV). Jesus has glory because he is the Son of the Father. His glory is the glory of sonship. What does that mean? Jesus has a special and unique relationship with God the Father. “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (Jn. 1:18 NIV). And in Matt 11:27 Jesus said, “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matt. 11:27 NIV).
Jesus’ glory is his relationship with the Father and he shares that with us even now (Gal 4:4-6). But in the eternal glory to which we are looking forward, there is nothing to hinder that relationship. There will be no sin to cloud the picture, no doubt to get in the way, no devil to deceive you about what God thinks of you. Jesus looked forward to returning to that glory, the glory of communion with the Father that he always had before the world began (John 17:5). We too look forward to the completion and fulfilment of that relationship with God. When we experience the weight of glory, there will be complete, uninterrupted communion with God.
The weight of glory also involves a new experience of the love of God. Jesus prayed, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (Jn. 17:24 NIV). Of course the Father loves us now. But, to use the analogy of human fathers and children, there is a difference between the relationship of a father to a child and a father to a grown man or woman. Fathers must discipline children and our Father in heaven must discipline us. Hebrews 12:7 tells us to “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?” But when we reach the state of glory that Paul is pointing us towards, there will be no more hardship, no more discipline. There will only be a gloriously positive experience of the love of God. We will only feel his pleasure towards us. We will live in that glorious love forever.
Perhaps the most wonderful thing which we look forward to in glory is seeing Jesus face to face. We are unable to see him now “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12 NIV). There is nothing more glorious than being able to walk every day with our Saviour and speak with him face to face. We will know him fully and nothing will hinder our communion with him. It is difficult to even imagine what this will be like but there is no doubt that it will be utterly glorious and is absolutely worth waiting for. The suffering of this life pales in comparison to walking and talking with Jesus face to face.
There is more. The creation itself will share in the glory to come. It will be liberated from “its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21 NIV). There will be nothing in creation which is corrupted or dangerous. No natural disasters, no wild animals, no venomous snakes. Isaiah foresaw this when he wrote, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them” (Isa. 11:6 NIV). There will be nothing in creation which can make anyone sick. There will be nothing but unadulterated beauty in the created world.
In glory there will be no more sin. The things which we each struggle with now and the sins that plague us will be fully overcome. No more will you need to take every thought captive because every aspect of your being will be completely set on the glory of God. There will be no more temptation because the devil and the demons will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:14-15). Not only will your own sin be a thing of the past, but other people in glory will be unable to sin. So there will be no more people who mock Christians for having faith in God. There will be no more political correctness gone mad. There will be no more evil disguised as good. There will only be “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).
Finally, we will be surrounded by the holiness of God and our response will be to forever worship before him. Psalm 29:2 exhorts us, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendour of his holiness.” And Psalm 93:5 says, “Your statutes, LORD, stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days.” We worship God now for his holiness. But in glory nothing we will see that holiness with our own eyes and join with the angels, who cry day and night, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty” (Rev 4:8) We will bask in that holiness forever. Worship will be on our lips every moment of every day. The unsurpassed glory and wonder of the presence of the holy God we serve will draw from us eternal praise.
What awaits us in glory is so incredible that no words are adequate to describe it. This is why the writer of Revelation had to use so many symbols and metaphors when he wrote about the glory to come. I think the best way to finish this message is to read the words of Revelation 21. Let’s do this together.