BLESSED CONTRASTS

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 13, 2020 under 2020 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; December 13, 2020 from various passages

Theme: We will keep our zeal for the gospel—even in hard times—if we keep our focus on three contrasting realities.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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This morning, in our study of 2 Corinthians, we come to a much-loved passage of Scripture. It’s been a precious word of encouragement to God’s people throughout the centuries. It’s certainly been one to me. And it’s one that we all especially need to hear from during the times in which we’re now living.

In 2 Corinthians 4, the apostle Paul had been writing to his brothers and sisters about the glories and privileges of proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Jesus. The gospel is a wonderful thing to proclaim in this world. It’s the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. But proclaiming it is also a very hard work. It was a work that cost the apostle Paul and his co-laborers quite a bit. He himself said that it felt like he was carrying a precious treasure around in a fragile earthen vessel. He suffered persecution for preaching it; and it eventually cost him his life. But he didn’t let the high cost stop him from proclaiming it; because his own human frailness in preaching it also ended up displaying the glory and power of the very same Jesus Christ that it proclaimed.

And then, in verses 16-18, Paul writes these words:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Life on this earth is hard enough as it is. The work of living that life for Jesus Christ in this dark and fallen world can, in many ways, make life harder. And sharing the glorious gospel of Jesus in this hostile world can make it even harder still. But because of the eternal realities that Jesus has secured for us, it’s all wonderfully worth it. And Paul assures us that we won’t lose heart in our walk with Jesus Christ in this world—and that we’ll keep our zeal for proclaiming Him to others, just as he himself did—if we keep our eyes focused on the right things.

What are those ‘right things’? Paul tells us in this morning’s passage.

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Now; a party of what has made these such challenging times is—of course—the Covid crisis and the long period of isolation and lock-down that we’re all experiencing. But there’s much more than that alone. The pandemic is only a recent challenge that has gotten thrown on top of a large pile of other social and political upheavals and changes that we’ve been experiencing over the past five to six years. And with it all, there’s been a growing cultural hostility toward religious faith in general and the evangelical faith in particular. These things have worn us all down quite a bit. It has taken a lot of wind out of the sails for a lot of us; and has brought many folks down in despair. It would be very easy for us, as followers of Jesus, to lose our enthusiasm and motivation for the hard work of being ‘salt and light’ in this world.

But at the same time, there’s not been a period in our lifetimes when the gospel of Jesus has been more needed. We must not let ourselves get distracted from our job of proclaiming it.

We’re all looking, for example, for a cure for the Covid virus. That’s what’s big in the news right now. We’re all hoping for our leaders to provide an effective vaccine and an effective program for making it available. And I’m sure that like me, you’re praying for that to be successful—and soon. But dealing with the virus and ending the pandemic—as very important as that is—will not reduce the numbers of deaths that occur. No matter what happens, the exact same number of people will all eventually die. The death rate in this world will still remain what it has always been—100%. Far greater than the concern for a life-saving vaccine is the question of what happens after the eventual and unavoidable reality of death. And as Jesus’ followers, we bear the only message that proclaims the victory over death, and that will save the soul and get people to heaven. Should we let other important things, then, distract us from the most important task of proclaiming that message?

Or think about the political situation. We’re all still very uncertain how things will settle out with respect to the election. There are still lots of questions; and there are going to be conflicts about them for a long time to come. And even then, no matter how things all get sorted out, we’re going to have to be doing it all over again in another four years. But no matter who is in the position of leadership over our nation—as important a concern as that is—they will never be able to enact a policy or issue executive orders that can change the condition of the human heart. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can change a person from the inside out, and make them into good and godly people. And it’s not politicians and governments and political parties that bear the message of the gospel to the world. It’s us—the church! Should we allow ourselves to become distracted by these other things from doing our extremely important job?

Or think about the tremendous social changes that are going on—and that have been going on for the past few years—and on several fronts at once. Both sides of this growing social and philosophical divide are accusing one another of great evil and wrong-doing. In the effort to bring about their unique concepts of justice, members of both sides are doing great acts of absolute injustice to one another—and are only making the enmity between them more fierce and the hatred more intense. We’ve even seen it tear families apart. But no matter which side ends up winning the current culture war, neither side will ever be able to solve the real problem—the real cause of the social unrest we experience—that is, the problem of sin. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ offers the promise of genuine forgiveness and relational healing and true redemption. Only the gospel is able to make deep-seated reconciliation between people possible. Only the gospel can transform us so that we truly love our neighbor. None of the leaders and voices of these great social movements offer the healing message of the gospel. Only we—as Jesus’ followers—offer that life-transforming message. Should we allow these other concerns—as important as they may seem to us at the time—to distract us from proclaiming the one message that truly and permanently solves our ills?

Or just think of your own personal experience of things right now. Many of us are worn to a frazzle, and are deeply anxious about the future. Will we be safe? Will we have jobs? Will our family and friends be alright? Will the next year be harder than this one was? All of these are temporal concerns—but they are real concerns! And they distract us. They overwhelm us. They make living the Christian life feel like a constant uphill climb. It would be easy to lose our motivation and enthusiasm for the gospel in these times—just in terms of the things we’re personally facing in them.

But look again at the first few words of our passage. Paul said, “Therefore we do not lose heart.” What was the thing that he didn’t lose heart about? If we go back to what he wrote before, we find that Paul said;

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God (vv. 7-15).

“Therefore”, he affirmed, “we do not lose heart.” So then; what was his secret? How was it that—in the midst of the tremendous pressures he felt—he didn’t lose his zeal for Christ and his enthusiasm for the message of the gospel? And how can we—in the midst of our own difficult times—do the same?

In our passage this morning, Paul shows us the secret. It was because he didn’t just look at the temporal trials that he was suffering—real as they were; but he held them up in contrast to eternal things that were just as real. He kept his focus on three very blessed and wonderful contrasts. And that’s the secret for us too. As this passage shows us, we will keep our zeal for the gospel—even in these hard times—if we keep our focus on these three contrasts.

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The first of these is found in verse 16. It is …

1. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN OUTWARD DECLINE AND INWARD RENEWAL.

Paul wrote; “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”

Now; by the ‘outward man’, Paul was speaking of his physical frame—his body. But he meant more than just his body alone. He meant all of the trials and struggles that he felt in that body as he sought to live for Jesus—the ways that he felt ‘hard pressed on every side’, ‘crushed’ or ‘persecuted’, or ‘struck down’. It would include his times of disappointment and frustration and sorrow. It would even include his experience of physical suffering, and illness, and injury, and weariness, and aging, and the slow decline toward physical death.

When I was a relatively young Christian, there was an old Scottish preacher that I used to take out to lunch every now and then. He was in his early 90s at the time; and he would often come and speak at our church. I loved to sit with him privately and listen to his pastor stories. He had a great influence on me. And when we sat and talked, he’d sometimes pat himself on the chest and say to me, “You know, laddie; this old body of mine is wearing out. It hurts me when I wake up. I get mad at it a lot. It’s perishing. But remember; this old body is not the real ‘me’. It’s just the ‘old case’ that I get carried around in. The real me is on the inside; and I’ve been made new in Jesus. I’ll never wear out. And one day, my ol’ case will get made over too.”

And that’s what Paul meant by the inward man. Do you know something amazing, dear brothers and sisters in Christ? We sometimes look forward to eternal life; but what we don’t always understand is that we’re actually living that eternal life right now. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, we’re told that if any of us are in Christ, we are ‘new creations’. The old things have already passed away, and all things have already become new. If you’ve been waiting around for eternal life, you can quit waiting. If Jesus has saved you, you’ve already got it and are already living it. When you get to glory, it won’t be a different ‘eternal life’ that you’ll be living. It’ll be the very same one that you’re living right now in the inward man—but then, you’ll be living it perfectly, and in the presence of Jesus.

You and I are living that eternal life right now—obviously not in the outward man, but very much so in the inward man. And the stuff of this world that impacts us as ‘earthen vessels’ is only really impacting the outward man. None of it really touches the inward man.

But there’s more to it than even that. Do you notice that Paul says that even though the outward man is presently, ongoingly, continually “perishing”—at the very same time—the inward man is being presently, ongoingly, continually “renewed day by day”. And this is the contrast that the apostle Paul is urging us to keep in our focus. Yes—it’s true that we are suffering decline and decay in our outward person. We feel it more and more every day. The pressures of this world make us feel it; and even our own natural decline makes us feel it. We need to admit that. It’s a reality. But we need to hold that temporal reality up to the eternal reality of the fact that—at the very same time—our inward person, where we’re living an eternal life, is being made increasingly renewed in Christ every single day.

Keep that contrast ever before you—the contrast between our ongoing outward decline and our ongoing inward renewal and growth—and you’ll keep your zeal for the gospel of Jesus in these difficult times.

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You’ll also avoid losing heart if you keep another contrast in focus; and that’s …

2. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN PRESENT AFFLICTIONS AND FUTURE GLORY.

In verse 17, Paul wrote; “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory …”

Now; you might read those words and think to yourself, “Well; that’s really a pretty insensitive thing to say, Paul. You may want to call my afflictions ‘light’; but you clearly wouldn’t understand what they’re like. They certainly don’t feel light to me at all. Maybe you felt that your afflictions were light; but mine are quite grievous and sorrowful and heavy!” And it may be that they are. I would never want to minimize the pain that some of us have experienced in life. Long-term chronic illness. The illness or loss of a loved one. The abandonment of family and friends. Devastating financial losses. These are real. They are heavy afflictions. They hurt. And I don’t believe Paul would be minimizing the pain by calling them “light”.

But let’s also remember that this man Paul—who called our afflictions “light” and “momentary”—had a few afflictions of his own. He listed them for us in 2 Corinthians 11;

… in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? (2 Corinthians 11:23b-29).

I ask you, dear fellow believer; how many times have you been beaten with rods for your faith in Jesus? How many times have you been stoned and left for dead? How many times have you received forty stripes minus one? How many times have you been shipwrecked, or left adrift for a night and a day out on the sea? How many churches are you deeply concerned for at once? When Paul was called out to be an apostle and a preacher, the Lord said, “I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:18). Clearly, Paul knew a thing or two about affliction. He knew far more about it than we do, in fact. And yet, even still, he called it “light affliction, which is but for a moment”.

He wasn’t minimizing the things we suffer. He was realistic about them. But he held them up in contrast to the greater and more eternal glory that these things are producing for us. Look at the point-for-point comparison he made. On the one hand, he spoke of our afflictions. That’s what they are. They are painful. But he contrasted them to the far more exceeding ‘glory’ that is worked out for us by them. On the one hand, he called those afflictions “momentary”. They’re only around for a time; even though, during that time, they almost seem unending to us. But they’re not endless. No matter how long they seem, they can really only—at their worst—endure for a few years. But he compared those temporary afflictions to the glory that is truly “eternal”—lasting ten-thousand times ten-thousand millennia; and even then without end. On the one hand, he called our afflictions “light”. They seem very heavy to us at the time. We feel bent over by the weight of them in these frail bodies of ours. But he contrasted them with the eternal glory that is “weighty” by comparison.

Here, Paul compared present affliction with future glory. But in another passage, he said that the comparison wasn’t even worth making. In Romans 8:18, Paul put it this way;

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).

The present things we suffer aren’t even worthy of being thought about in relation to the glory we will soon be experiencing in the presence of Jesus—just ‘nothing’ in comparison. At that time, every tear will be wiped away, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. The former things will have passed away—and we will not feel their burden ever again.

So; we should go ahead and reflect on the reality of our present times of suffering. But we need to reflect on all the truth! We need to make sure we hold those present afflictions up in contrast to the even greater eternal reality of the glory that is yet to be ours in Christ.

If we do this—if we view the contrast in that way—then present times of suffering won’t cause us to lose our zeal for the gospel of Jesus.

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Now; I just read a portion of Romans 8 to you. It spoke of how the present times of suffering are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to follow. But let me read the rest of what Paul said. He wrote;

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:19-23).

That’s our hope—our confident and sure expectation in Christ. We trust in it and look forward to it with the eyes of faith; but we don’t yet see it in our present times of trials. Paul went on in Romans 8 to say;

For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance (vv. 24-25).

And that speaks to one more contrast that we need to keep in focus; and that is …

3. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THINGS TEMPORARY AND THINGS ETERNAL.

In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul went on to say that that the momentary light affliction produces for us an eternal weight of glory, “while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

The word that the apostle Paul used for “look” in the original language means something far more than just casually laying our eyes on a thing. It means to look at it deliberately and intensely—just like we would squint and look intensely at a faraway star through a telescope. We might translate it this way; that we do not focus our sights on the things that are currently seen, but on the things which are not seen. As he wrote in Colossians 3:1-4;

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:1-4).

It’s not that we don’t pay any attention at all to the things which are seen. They are present realities; and we must give attention to them. But they’re not where our main focus is to be kept. We see them alright; but we need to understand them only as temporary in nature. But the things that are not seen by our eyes right now—but that are only seen by the eyes of faith in the promises of God—are eternal. When we keep that contrast in mind—and keep our intense focus on the eternal things—that will help us to keep our temporal trials in proper perspective.

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Now; how do we put these contrasts into practice in our experience? I suggest that we do so by thinking about them and responding in prayer. When our outward man suffers, let’s pray, “Father, thank You that though my outward man suffers, my inward being is renewed daily in Your Son Jesus” When we experience affliction, let’s pray, “Father, these afflictions hurt. But I thank You that as painful as they are, they are only temporary and light in comparison to the exceedingly great eternal weight of glory that You they are producing for me.” When we look at the things of this world that bring us down, let’s pray, “Father, these things are real; but by Your grace, I will keep my focus on the unseen realities that are eternal and that are mine in Christ.”

May God help us then, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to keep our focus on these contrasting realities. As we do, we will have the greatest and truest view of reality.

That’s what Paul did. And that’s why he was able say, “Therefore we do not lose heart.”

EA