Your best days as a Christian should always be before you (2 Cor. 4:13-18)

 

Your best days as a Christian should always be before you (2 Cor. 4:13-18)

Imagine the deacons come and suggest that we turn the spare land at the side of this building into a graveyard, what would you think?  What if Sam located a building in Castletroy for Crossway, and requested some land for burial plots next to it? 

Not many of us want the church to have responsibility for looking after a cemetery, but the tradition of graveyards next to church buildings does have some positives.

To start with it gives people a sense of perspective.  Imagine you are walking into this building every Sunday morning and passing the piece of ground in which you will soon be buried.  It would be a reminder that you are only in this life for a short time and that you are here for a purpose!

Or what about the fact that as we gather for worship we would see reminders of those who have worshipped with us in the past.  There is gravestone of Hazel Oakley, if she were still alive she would be with us this morning!  People have traditionally talked about the church triumphant and the church militant.  The church triumphant are those who have finished the battle and have been called home.  The church militant are those people who are still alive and still in the battle.  A graveyard is a reminder of those who went before us in the battle.  Are you still battling in the power of the Spirit or have you laid down your arms in defeat?

We are studying 2 Corinthians 4.  The chapter began with a call not to lose heart.  We are not to lose heart because in God’s mercy he has called us to be ministers.  We have a great purpose in life.  Now he tells us again not to lose heart because ‘though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day’ (16).

We speak because we are grateful (12-14)

For many of us the thing we find hardest to do as a Christian is to open our mouth and speak about Jesus.  Keep praying that God gives you opportunities to tell people what God has done for you.  Paul quotes Psalm 116, where David declared, ‘I believed so I spoke.’  David had been delivered from danger and knows he has something to talk about.  Read this book and you will see that we were all blind, hard-hearted and perishing.  Yet the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of the darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ (6).

Not only has Jesus rescued us from the hell our rebellious hearts deserve, we now live as beloved children of our heavenly Father and we have a wonderful future to look forward to.   When Christ returns He will raise our dead bodies and we will be perfect in His presence for ever and ever (14). 

Gratitude speaks.  I don’t need much encouragement to talk about the Munster rugby team.  But what have they really done for me?  I am sure that there have been times where they have said, ‘let’s do this one for our supporters’.  But they don’t know me!  Indeed, when I said ‘hello’ to one of the team he blanked me.  Yet the Son of God loves me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).  Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down His life for His friends (John 15:13).  God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). 

I remember watching a friend trying to hold back tears as he read the following paragraph for Scottish Theologian, Sinclair Ferguson:

'When we think of Christ dying on the cross we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to Himself.  We should almost think that God loved us more than He loves His son.  We cannot measure His love by any other standard. He is saying to us, “I love you this much.”  The cross is the heart of the gospel; it makes the gospel good news. Christ died for us; He has stood in our place before God’s judgement seat; He has borne our sins. God has done something on the cross which we could never do for ourselves.  But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross.  He persuades us that He loves us.'

When you struggle to speak about Jesus start by reminding yourself of His infinite love poured out for us at the crucifixion.  Then pray for opportunities.  Then explain to people that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

We speak to see God glorified (15)

We speak because we are grateful and we speak because we want the world to see how great God is.  ‘All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God’ (15).  We want to see other people overflowing with gratitude to God.  We want other people to see and reflect the beauty that we have experienced in Christ.  It should break our hearts that so many people treat Jesus as if He is irrelevant. 

Notice that Paul shares the gospel with them ‘for your benefit.’  We share the good news for the benefit of other people.  It is the most precious gift that we can offer anyone.  Have we really loved our family, friends and neighbors if we have not warned them about the hell our rebellious hearts deserve and the heaven that is given to all who turn to Jesus?  ‘Lord, give us courage, clarity and tact?’  Remember that we don’t shove this message down people’s throats but we seek to be always prepared, to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have, and to do this with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).

We speak knowing that we are being renewed and we will be rewarded (16-17)   

Many years ago, I wrote a letter to a friend of mine who I felt was stuck.  This friend would go on about the glory days when he was involved in outreach and his faith was alive.  But he seemed defeated now.  I told him that his best days as a Christian could be ahead of him.  We do not lose heart because though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (17).  We should always be growing as a Christian!  We should constantly be looking at the face of Jesus and becoming more like Him.  Our healthiest day in this life as a follower of Christ life should be the last day we are consciously alive.

Look at Paul’s sense of perspective.  He had spent years suffering for his faith.  He had endured prison, shipwreck, being alone, being robbed, being sleepless, being cold, being beaten and stoned, and being let down and deserted.  Yet he talks about these afflictions as light and momentary.  In comparison with the eternity that we will spend with Jesus, any trouble we endure for our faith is small and they are achieving for us an eternal glory that will far outweigh them all (17). 

I sent a text to my friend Peter in Australia.  He is a lecturer in a theological college.  I asked him about these verses and if it would be fair to say that we do not lose heart when we face opposition for the name of Jesus because we know that God sees and in his amazing grace will give an eternal reward that far outweighs any pain we have experienced, and that these rewards   somehow related to how we will reflect him and enjoy him in eternity.  Peter replied, ‘Yes.  That would be right.’

We speak about Jesus knowing that as we speak God is at work within us transforming us and that he will not let even the most feeble effort to honor him go unrewarded.

What if we were to see the real value of things?  What if we did build a graveyard, and every day you walked past that little plot of ground where you will soon be buried, how would that change your sense of perspective?  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 (18).

Conclusion—switch the price tags

So, I finish with a challenge: try to switch the price tags!

When I was in school as a boarder, in second year, we were allowed go to Crazy Prices in Dundrum on a Saturday.  What the guys used to do was switch the price tags on items.  They would take a more expensive item and put the price tag for a cheaper item on it.  It was the days before barcodes, so you could get away with the sort of thing.  I can’t confirm or deny if I ever did it!  I really don’t remember, but I know something of the wickedness of my heart.

Our world will tell you that what people think of you really matters and what God thinks of you of you isn’t that important.  But what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal.  Switch the price tags.  You will not spend all of eternity boasting about how popular you were but you will forever enjoy the applause of Christ.

In Hebrews 11 we read of a man called Moses, who grew up in the Pharaoh of Egypt’s household, yet, ‘when he grew up, refused to be known as son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin because he regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he looked forward to his reward’ (25-26).

Your parents might have pushed you hard to get qualifications and prizes, and certainly Christians do want to make a positive contribution to society, but no one is going to ask about your grades in heaven.  It might feel like death to stop striving to succeed, but Christ might have a different view of what success looks like.  Even those who are not Christians know that no one on their deathbed wishes they had spent more time in the office.

So, stir up gratitude in your heart so that you want to speak about Jesus, speak about Jesus hoping that others will see how great he is, and remember that speaking about him changes you and will result in eternal reward.